Novayana Society

For Eastern and Western Studies

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Dharma LinksCecilie Kwiat Itinerary

 In 1969 in Daitoku Temple in Kyoto Japan Cecilie Kwiat studied Zen with Kabouri San, pictured  above. Below is one of his teachings.

Text Box: There is nothing wrong with the world. What is wrong is in the way you look at it. It is your own imagination that misleads you. Without imagination there is no world. Your conviction that you are conscious of a world is the world. The world you perceive is made of consciousness; what you call matter is consciousness itself. You are the space in which it moves, the time in which it lasts, the love that gives it life. Cut off imagination and attachment and what remains? See it as it is - not through the screen of desire and fear. Everything moves according to its' nature- where is the need of a policeman? Every action creates a reaction which balances and neutralizes the action. Everything happens, but there is a continuous cancelling out and in the end it is as if nothing happened. The reality is indefinable and indescribable. The objective universe has structure, is orderly and beautiful. But structure, pattern, plan imply constraint and compulsion. The world is absolutely free; everything in it is self- determined. Order comes spontaneously and immediately because of its timelessness. The point of now - it gives momentary being, a fleeting sense of reality. In full awareness contact is established. It needs effortless, unselfconscious attention. There is nothing wrong with our world- it is our thinking ourselves separate from it that creates disorder. No distinction between body and universe. Each is the cause of the other; each is the other, in truth. The notion -1 see, I feel, I think, I do - must disappear from the field of consciousness; what remains when the false is no more, is real. Without love and will inspired by love, nothing can be done. Merely talking about Reality without doing anything about it is self-defeating. There must be love in the relation between the person who says "I am" and the observer of that "I am". The observer considers himself apart from the observed. It is only when the observer accepts the person as a projection or manifestation of himself, and so to say, takes the self into the Self, that the duality of "I" and "this" goes in the identity of the outer and inner - the supreme Reality manifests itself. This union of the seer and the seen happens when the seer becomes conscious of himself as the seer; he is not merely interested in the seen, which he is anyway, but also interested in being interested. Giving attention to attention, aware of being aware. Affectionate awareness is the crucial factor that brings Reality into focus. Awareness comes from the Supreme and pervades the inner self; the so-called outer self is only that part of one's being of which one is not aware. The body defines the outer self, consciousness the inner. You see me smoking. Find out for yourself how did you come to see me smoking, and you will easily realize that it is your "I-am-the-body" state of mind that is responsible for this "I-see-you-smoking" idea. Go beyond your concepts and ideas - in the silence of desire and thought, the truth is found. Earnestness is the golden key.