30. Getting and Staying In The Groove

The Great Way of the buddha-ancestors consists, in every case, of getting and staying in the Supreme Groove, which continues in an unbroken cycle, so that kick-starting the mind, training, awakening, and nirvana have not the slightest interval between them: it is a continuing cycle of keeping it in the groove. Thus, it is beyond our own straining, and we are not pulled and pushed into it by anybody else: it is grooving that has never been tainted. The good vibrations of this grooving let me be and let everybody else be. The fundamental point is this: when I keep it in the groove, the whole earth and the whole sky through the ten directions are totally covered by those good vibrations. Nobody else knows it, and I do not know it myself, but it is so. Thus, thanks to the buddhas and ancestors keeping it in the groove, our own grooving is realized and we keep right on to the end of the Great Road; and, thanks to us keeping it in the groove, the grooving of the buddhas is realized and the buddhas keep right on to the end of the Great Road. The good vibrations produced from this virtuous circle exist as result of our keeping it in the groove. As a result of this, every buddha and every ancestor lives the buddha-life, negates the buddha-non, beats the buddha-heart, and realizes the reality of buddha, unceasingly. Thanks to us keeping it in the groove, the sun, moon, and stars exist. Thanks to us keeping it in the groove, planet Earth and space exist. Thanks to us keeping it in the groove, object and subject, and body and mind, exist. Thanks to us keeping it in the groove, the four elements and five aggregates exist. Keeping it in the groove is not what people in the world love, but it might be the real refuge of all human beings. The buddhas of the past, present, and future, through keeping it in the groove, really are the buddhas of the past, present, and future. The good vibrations produced by them keeping it in the groove are, at times, not hidden from us -- which is why we kick-start the mind and undergo training. Those good vibrations are, at times, not apparent to us -- which is why we fail to find out about them or wake up to them. We should learn that even when they are not apparent to us, they are not hidden from us -- because they are not tainted by covering up and showing off, or by carrying on and fading out. When we do not understand, in the hiddenness of now, what kind of things are present, having arisen from the grounds of grooving, in the grooving that realizes ourselves, the basis of this non-understanding is this: understanding of grooving, as some new and special state, is never it at all. Rising from the ground is being in the groove: we should work out in detail and learn in practice that this is because being in the groove is not dependent on grounded arising. What realizes being in the groove as now described, really being in the groove, is just our own keeping it in the groove here and now. That the now of being in the groove is the original possession and the original abode of the self, is not it. That the now of being in the groove comes to and leaves the self, that it gets into us and deserts us, is not it. "Now" does not express something that exists prior to being in the groove: the realization of being in the groove is called "now." This being so, one day of being in the groove is the seed of the buddhas, and is being in the groove of the buddhas. Not to get in and stay in this groove in which the buddhas are realized and kept in the groove, is to despise the buddhas, is to fail to serve offerings to the buddhas, is to despise being in the groove, is to fail to live the same life and die the same death as the buddhas, and is to fail to study the same study and go on the same trip as them. The opening now of flowers, the falling now of leaves, is just the realization of being in the groove. There is no polishing of mirrors, nor any breaking of mirrors, that is other than being in the groove. If, for this reason, we decide to set aside getting in the groove; or if we intend to go directly for the groove, on the basis that we can get in the groove even when setting aside the effort to get in the groove, with designs on concealing the wrong mind that wishes to avoid getting in the groove; though this might look like the will to get in the groove, it is to be the wretched son who threw away treasure in the homeland of his true father, and then went wandering off in foreign lands. Even though, during our wandering, the winds and waters have not caused us to lose body and life, we ought not to throw away the treasure of our true father -- to misconstrue the real asset of our true father, which is Sitting. Thus, being in the groove is the Truth of Sitting, into which boredom does not come, even for an instant.




-- to be continued