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Brian Wilcox. 'yellow daffodil'
A disciple asked the Sage, "Would you demonstrate for us the highest form of meditation?" Others present nodded that they agreed with this wish. The Sage said, "Okay." The Sage continued sitting upright, not speaking; in fact, he did not appear to be doing anything. After several minutes, the questioner said, "I thought you were going to demonstrate the highest form of meditation?" The Sage said, "Where were you - I did?"
∞
The Sage's demonstration finds a parallel in the life of Licchavi Vimalakirti, who may have been a contemporary of the Buddha.
Sometimes silence seems more eloquent.
Then the crown prince Manjushri said to the Licchavi Vimalakirti, "We have all given our own teachings, noble sir. Now, may you elucidate the teaching of the entrance into the principle of nonduality!" Thereupon, the Licchavi Vimalakirti kept his silence, saying nothing at all.
He refuses to reduce wisdom to concepts. Exiled into the world of knowledge and language, wisdom is stammering, clumsy.
*Charles Genoud. Beyond Tranquility.
∞
Shoichi (1200s) was a one-eyed Japanese Zen teacher in Tofuku temple, in Kyoto; he sparkled with enlightenment. Day and night, the temple stood in silence, and Shoichi even abolished the reciting of sutras, or scriptures. His followers had nothing to do but meditate in silence. When Shoichi died, an aged neighbor heard bells ringing and recitation of sutras. She knew Shoichi had passed on.
we avoid - even flee - silence
why?
in silence
we unbecome
being a somebody
the sense-of-self is
"I'm somebody"
in silence
we become what we are
nobody, no one, nothing
we unbecome
attachment to effort
we try to do something
in silence
to be somebody
this perpetuates
our relative self-sense
in meditation
we may even
see ourself
to be a good meditator
to be a spiritual person
or worse, enlightened
being somebody, anybody
doing something, anything
bolsters our false sense of self
the highest form of meditation
is no meditation
when a bird is quietly resting on a limb
is the bird trying to be something
by doing something?
the bird
can be
your teacher
just-being
in silence
when relaxed into
leads to
release of
being a somebody doing something
yet the key here is
not trying not to be
somebody doing something
the effort to be nobody
to do nothing
is somebody doing something
when even the thought
of being somebody doing something
is only a thought
this means
you simply can't be
anyone
what arises when relaxing with silence?
being be-ing
Pure Presence
hence silence
is not an absence
is a fullness
settling into this
what appears?
joy
not pleasure
joy
one is not merely relaxing
one is not zoned out
one is not visualizing something
one is in union with
wakeful openness
to the spirit-of-life
this wakefulness
being open to oneself
is the same as to the spirit-of-life
silence then
denudes us of what has
led to all our suffering -
our sense of being a separate-autonomous-self
in silence
the veil departs
we are neither
this nor that
we gradually desire silence
finding it our
natural habitat
from
which we act
from the heart
and the more we enter silence
the more we are denuded
of a felt-need
to be someone
we see
the someone we thought we were
was that - a thought
how odd
we were trying to be
a thought
so the late Zen Master, Kodo Sawaki, said:
Each of us is born naked but
We find consolation in words,
when everyone is simply naked
returning to this nakedness
we return to innocence
silence becomes our consolation
now we flow with Life, being Life
∞
©️ Brian Wilcox, 2020
*Brian can be contacted at briankwilcox@gmx.com; his book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, is available through major online booksellers, including Amazon and Books-A-Million, or via the publisher, AuthorHouse.
*Each of us is born naked... From Kosho Uchiyama Roshi. Zen Teaching of Homeless Kodo.
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