3. THE FOUR CORNERS

As an example, let me give you the first instance of folly here. You have ingested the idea of Confucius that there are four corners and now you either expect to learn what they are or at least be given a clue how to at least expose them to view.

That is a mental error. There are no four corners.

Does a Sparrow's nest have four corners? Do you see how your conditioned cognitive mind jumped in and set a pattern for your thoughts?

If you deny that then you have already lost the first corner.

Let us look at that Sparrow's nest. It is round. Where have the corners gone? They are there, but since "round" and "rectangular" are just word concepts, both round and rectangular dissapear for the Sparrow.

How can one then lift a corner? Good question, is it not?

From such questions koans arise.

One thing we learn is that nest-building is done almost year-round. Do you build your Dharma nest all year round? No! You are too busy?

The Sparrow does not work. The Sparrow does not try to build relations with an ego. The Sparrow does not worry about his aspect or future.

So now your mind can begin to work on that, leading you astray.

Have then you learned nothing? The Sparrow is no different than the Lilies of the Fields. 

Luke 12:27: "Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these."

Glorious like the Lily, the male Sparrow has a gray crown, whitish check, and black throat. The bill and breast are black in summer and in winter the bill is yellow and the breast is gray.The female has a brown crown and a plain breast with a broad buff line over the eye.

The Sparrow too, does not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

And this we can declare for every living creature except one.

I repeat, the Sparrow does not work. The Sparrow does not try to build relations with an ego. The Sparrow does not worry about his aspect or future.

It does what nature itself dictates, not what the individual Identity or the collective society Identity demands. Natural Dharma loans us all that we need from birth to death. It does not, like Mara, demand its pound of flesh.

From what has been said lift now one of the other corners.

THE SPARROW'S NEST

The Sparrow's nest is made of coarse material on the outside, such as straw, twigs, paper, leaves, grasses, and any other available material. The inside is lined with feathers or fine grasses.

Of what is your nest made up? Probably a bank loan. That was the first stone and the first burden. So it is not really your nest at all, is it?

So what in hell's name does the Dharma expect you to do? Build your own? The Dharma has no expectations.

The Sparrow lines its nest. I suppose that you line your nest.

 With what?

With feathers and fine grass? There goes your mind again.

Do you fill your nest with Dharma?

Lift up a corner.

But a Sparrow's nest is round.

Have you learned anything at all? Will you apply it?

Not easy, certainly, for you are not a Sparrow in a Sparrow world.

But, then again, even in Samsara there is no such thing as a Sparrow, for science says that it is really a Weaver finch.

But both are just names. The Dharma of both is the same.

The Human Creature is just a name.

Your Dharma is the same as that of a Sparrow.

Lift up a corner.

I have been advising you here to lift up a corner after hearing part of this lesson which has been presented.

What are these corners? Well, the first is that provided by the lesson in words... Just words. There is a certain logic to what is presented, but it is far, in and of itself, from what you are required to understand.

Let us go to the opposite corner from that presented.

What can be found there?

The answer is experiences. Experiences that are directly related to what has been presented. But until you can manage to make a great step forward these experiences will be simply cognitive and without great value as far as true understanding is concerned. You will have to lift one of the other two corners first, and perhaps both.

That leaves the two other corners which are available.

Lifting one of these two corners means that you must look beyond the words to what is true but has been left unsaid. When you lift the other then you must grasp what cannot be said.

No one can baby-feed you. If you don't lift any corner then you are stuck with the teachings colored with yout own logical thought.

The corners are not lifted easily, Buddha said as much. However all human creatures can do so if they work with diligence, determination, calmness, patience and perseverance.