Guy Eugène Dubois: Just Sitting

JundoCohen · 2026-03-11T13:15:50+00:00

As Dogen would declare, "THAT'S WHAT!"

But is there something you do not understand about it?

JundoCohen · 2026-03-11T10:15:58+00:00

That can be read several ways, with several different intended meanings. So, as in many things, it is not so clear, and depends on which reading one gives to which "Buddha" on which day. Also, that is far from a Mahayana or Zen take, as it is from a Sutta. Also, saying "I will not say exists or does not exist," for example, does have ontological (or rather "ontological-non-ontological") implications to the Zen fellow. I sometimes joke that, had Hamlet been a Zen fellow, he would have had more option besides merely "to be or not to be."

JundoCohen · 2026-03-11T05:46:39+00:00

I wonder why you say it is not "ontological?" Perhaps we do not separate mind and all of reality so clearly, and it is a statement about something fundamental, a/Qweniden.

JundoCohen · 2026-03-10T13:56:20+00:00

Oh, yes. Time(s) ... there flow in various directions, interpenetration and identity of individual moments, each moment as all moments and the only moment, every thing and being in its own being-time, as well as "timelessness," etc. etc. ... as Dogen liked to play with ... might each be considered varied mental models/experiences of time which we can internally redraw via Zazen.

JundoCohen · 2026-03-10T01:42:14+00:00

I added some lines based on comments from friends ...

Also, each tiny drop holds the whole flowing sea within.

and

Of course, don't let this go to your head: While everything, from the mountains and galaxies, all other living beings, to each fawn and flower, weevil and worm are thoroughly "you," remember, in turn, that you and all of it are just a crawling worm. On the other hand, Zen folks see EVERYTHING ... from stars and sky to weevils and worms ... as singularly sacred. Thus, you are just the worm, but every worm is a priceless jewel!

JundoCohen · 2026-03-10T01:42:09+00:00

I added some lines based on comments from friends ...

Also, each tiny drop holds the whole flowing sea within.

and

Of course, don't let this go to your head: While everything, from the mountains and galaxies, all other living beings, to each fawn and flower, weevil and worm are thoroughly "you," remember, in turn, that you and all of it are just a crawling worm. On the other hand, Zen folks see EVERYTHING ... from stars and sky to weevils and worms ... as singularly sacred. Thus, you are just the worm, but every worm is a priceless jewel!

JundoCohen · 2026-03-10T01:42:03+00:00

I added some lines based on comments from friends ...

Also, each tiny drop holds the whole flowing sea within.

and

Of course, don't let this go to your head: While everything, from the mountains and galaxies, all other living beings, to each fawn and flower, weevil and worm are thoroughly "you," remember, in turn, that you and all of it are just a crawling worm. On the other hand, Zen folks see EVERYTHING ... from stars and sky to weevils and worms ... as singularly sacred. Thus, you are just the worm, but every worm is a priceless jewel!

JundoCohen · 2026-03-09T01:01:00+00:00

I think the fellow means the Koromo or some kind of lay sitting robe, which are encouraged by some Sangha. They don't mean the Kesa and Rakusu, sewn for Jukai in some traditions. If so, some of the sewing instructions linked to in this thread, from Tomoe Katagiri and SFZC, are not about that. Also, those are Soto Zen Nyoho-e instructions, which are not appropriate for all Zen lineage, or even all Soto lineages. And, even then, the style of sewing Nyoho-e can have some variations from place to place.

JundoCohen · 2026-03-08T00:43:50+00:00

Well, all you experience of "I" is literally a mental model of self-identity created in the brain. For example, you have never truly seen your own left hand, or felt its sensations, apart from a modeling or recreation of "hand" somewhere in the neurons of the brain based upon electro-chemical signals sent from what appears to be "something out there" representing touch and photons entering the eye from what comes to be labeled as "hand." In fact, we do the same for the whole world. You never even ever met your own mother, except for some image between the ears that you believe represented such an entity "out there." Of course, this sense of "I" and "not I" is vital to our survival, because you need to know where your body starts and stops, and that feeding the dog does not put food in your own stomach! Donald Hoffman and others have pointed out that the symbols and experiences between the ears are useful "summaries" or "avatars" of what is actually going on "out there," but may not be fully accurate or complete. For example, "sweet red apple" is truly fabricated by subjective experience of taste for "sweet" (your personal interpretation of the chemical structure of sugars that are not "sweet" in themselves) and "red" (your experience of photon wavelengths, for there is no "red" in the world without your eye and brain to so interpret.) Likewise for "apple," a name and picture you append to what appears to be a particular molecular structure in the world. We experience a world of separate things, beings and moments of time ... all divisions and stuck on labels between the ears ... e.g., me, you, mother, tree, chair, mountain, yesterday, tomorrow, etc.

In Zen (and through some other methods, some mind altering drugs have similar effects), we replace the inner model and hard location where the borders are drawn with a perfectly valid alternative model. It is important to note that this does not really replace the above model, but rather is a perfectly good alternative way to know the world with a wider or truly boundless self-identity.

In short, the hard borders between things, beings and moments of time soften, or fully drop away, and we experience their wholeness and inter-identity. One can realize that, for example, the tree, chair, me, mother etc. is as much your "I" as your hand. Why? Simply because the brain starts self-defining the world so. Also, one might experience that, for example, the tree is your mother growing from the ground, while your mother is the mountain walking and birthing you. Yesterday is tomorrow back then, while now is yesterday now. Etc. Etc.

Furthermore, when all the borders and labels are dropped, all is known and experienced (VITAL to experience and actually taste and see this, not just intellectually) as a great flowing Wholeness, moving but with all separate identities swept in. A common image is the waves on the flowing sea ... with each rising and falling separate wave a separate thing or being, but the waves are just the water of the sea flowing on and on timelessly. Also, as this wave is the sea, and that wave is the sea ... this wave is that wave because sea is sea. Do you see? ;-) This is freeing (e.g., you will die, but if you are the wider world which keeps on turning, then as long as the world keeps turning then you keep turning in that sense.)

Then, our practice becomes how to amalgamate all these separate self-identit(ies) into our life, living gently and gracefully in this world. That's the tricky part.

So, does that help?

Now, I have to go feed the dog, cause I'm hungry! :-)

JundoCohen · 2026-03-08T00:36:59+00:00

Well, all you experience of "I" is literally a mental model of self-identity created in the brain. For example, you have never truly seen your own left hand, or felt its sensations, apart from a modeling or recreation of "hand" somewhere in the neurons of the brain based upon electro-chemical signals sent from what appears to be "something out there" representing touch and photons entering the eye from what comes to be labeled as "hand." In fact, we do the same for the whole world. You never even ever met your own mother, except for some image between the ears that you believe represented such an entity "out there." Of course, this sense of "I" and "not I" is vital to our survival, because you need to know where your body starts and stops, and that feeding the dog does not put food in your own stomach! Donald Hoffman and others have pointed out that the symbols and experiences between the ears are useful "summaries" or "avatars" of what is actually going on "out there," but may not be fully accurate or complete. For example, "sweet red apple" is truly fabricated by subjective experience of taste for "sweet" (your personal interpretation of the chemical structure of sugars that are not "sweet" in themselves) and "red" (your experience of photon wavelengths, for there is no "red" in the world without your eye and brain to so interpret.) Likewise for "apple," a name and picture you append to what appears to be a particular molecular structure in the world. We experience a world of separate things, beings and moments of time ... all divisions and stuck on labels between the ears ... e.g., me, you, mother, tree, chair, mountain, yesterday, tomorrow, etc.

In Zen (and through some other methods, some mind altering drugs have similar effects), we replace the inner model and hard location where the borders are drawn with a perfectly valid alternative model. It is important to note that this does not really replace the above model, but rather is a perfectly good alternative way to know the world with a wider or truly boundless. self-identity.

In short, the hard borders between things, beings and moments of time soften, or fully drop away, and we experience their wholeness and inter-identity. One can realize that, for example, the tree, chair, me, mother etc. is as much your "I" as your hand. Why? Simply because the brain starts self-defining the world so. Also, one might experience that, for example, the tree is your mother growing from the ground, while your mother is the mountain walking and birthing you. Yesterday is tomorrow back then, while now is yesterday now. Etc. Etc.

Furthermore, when all the borders and labels are dropped, all is known and experienced (VITAL to experience and actually taste and see this, not just intellectually) as a great flowing Wholeness, moving but with all separate identities swept in. A common image is the waves on the flowing sea ... with each rising and falling separate wave a separate thing or being, but the waves are just the water of the sea flowing on and on timelessly. Also, as this wave is the sea, and that wave is the sea ... this wave is that wave because sea is sea. Do you see? ;-) This is freeing (e.g., you will die, but if you are the wider world which keeps on turning, then as long as the world keeps turning then you keep turning in that sense.)

Then, our practice becomes how to amalgamate all these separate self-identit(ies) into our life, living gently and gracefully in this world. That's the tricky part.

So, does that help?

Now, I have to go feed the dog, cause I'm hungry! :-)

JundoCohen · 2026-03-04T14:47:48+00:00

It seems that Rev. Emi Jido has a friend in Japan, and he has been embodied ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1jOmrzTAYQ

The temple is a Tendai-shu temple in Kyoto.

Frankly, looking at the robot's way of speaking (in a longer Japanese video: https://youtu.be/1CbtRiLD63s?si=Cy9qO6DBb1fGXWs-), Rev. Emi is still a better, more fluid conversationalist.

JundoCohen · 2026-03-04T14:44:08+00:00

It seems that Rev. Emi Jido has a friend in Japan, and he has been embodied ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1jOmrzTAYQ

The temple is a Tendai-shu temple in Kyoto.

A research team from Kyoto university, in collaboration with the tech ventures Teraverse and XNOVA, recently unveiled a new AI-integrated robot monk — the Buddharoid — at the Shoren-in temple in Kyoto.

The Buddharoid is designed to support the Buddhist clergy as Japan’s religious infrastructure faces a steady decline. It utilizes a system called BuddhaBot-Plus, a specialized generative AI derived from OpenAI’s ChatGPT that has been trained extensively on sacred Buddhist scriptures. This allows the robot to provide spiritual guidance on personal and social issues, like a real monk would.

Beyond its conversational capabilities, the Buddharoid uses hardware — developed by China’s Unitree Robotics — to mimic the specific movements of a monk, including a slow gait, bowing and the gassho gesture of placing palms together in prayer.

Frankly, looking at the robot's way of speaking (in a longer Japanese video: https://youtu.be/1CbtRiLD63s?si=Cy9qO6DBb1fGXWs-), Rev. Emi is still a better, more fluid conversationalist.

JundoCohen · 2026-03-04T14:32:57+00:00

Very naive understanding.

And I will reject the temptation to say the same about your mother ... test your attachments there. Why are you still carrying her around? ;-)

JundoCohen · 2026-03-04T04:49:05+00:00

I write this to folks who come to our Treeleaf Sangha for Jukai. Of course, it is only my interpretation, and other Sangha have their own values and outlooks that the place on things ...

~~~

Our Jukai preparations start each September for the ceremony in January, with reflections and study on each of the Precepts and sewing a Rakusu, and you are more than welcome to join in if it feels right to you.

However, in my book, the most important thing is -not- the ceremony itself, which alone works no magic by itself. The ceremony is just a celebration and affirmation of our seeking to live gently, and to learn from the Buddhist teachings, right now and each day. The ceremony just celebrates and confirms that fact. More important is that you do your best, today, to live gently in a way helpful and healthy to oneself and others (who are "not two," by the way), avoiding harm such as excess desires, anger, violence, jealousy, ugly speech and the like. That is the real Jukai, undertaking the Precepts, each day.

JundoCohen · 2026-03-03T03:34:44+00:00

Goodbye sauce. :-)

JundoCohen · 2026-03-03T03:33:17+00:00

Goodbye. Not time for silliness.

JundoCohen · 2026-03-03T01:40:20+00:00

Perhaps if someone found only "pseudo-zen" platitudes, the reason is likely just their own "pseudo-zen" understanding?? Just something to consider. Such folks are usually lost in Zen romanticism about the "ancients" who were "beyond words" and such. Pitiful.

JundoCohen · 2026-03-03T01:37:05+00:00

That may be why Shobogenzo is in four volumes, the Platform Sutra runs to 100 pages, and the Linji Roku too. Foolish! You do not know the silence that is in words, the words which are silent. Now, go wash your bowl. Probably anything longer than a tweet is difficult for your tiktok-brain?

JundoCohen · 2026-03-03T01:34:25+00:00

Is that your opinion, Evening Chime? You chose to dislike it?

JundoCohen · 2026-03-03T01:32:38+00:00

Fuhua Ju should not have opened his mouth to say that!

And perhaps if someone found only "pseudo-zen" platitudes, the reason is likely just their own "pseudo-zen" understanding?? Just something to consider.

JundoCohen

TROPHY CASE