Ah, I see, thanks for the clarification. Indeed that last paragraph in your first comment was a bit tricky because I had to re-read it twice to decipher the meaning.

But now that you’ve shed some more light on it, I understand it better now. Thanks Wade! It’s true - numbers really don’t matter despite what the rest of the world says about that. Very intereting point! Thank you for your fast reply in clearing this up.

Best wishes with your writing project. May the best article win!

What I was trying to use that paragraph to say, and it is a very tricky paragraph, is that the number’s don’t matter, it’s what’s contained inside each number that’s important. And inside each number is multitudes of myriads, boundless. Hope that clears things up a little. Hope you also enjoyed the text.

Peace,

Wade
http://themiddleway.net

Well, first of all, you’re welcome (about me participating in the “Spread the Love” writing project). I enjoyed writing this post and submitting it to your contest. I see that it’s generating a lot of entries/link love for you guys and that’s great!

Okay Wade, with regards to being at 80 to 90 percent realization, are you saying that if we are at this state of mind, we do not need to be thinking actual numbers but unlimited abundance? I had to re-read your paragraph above a couple of times to “get it.” Could you rephrase it in laymen’s terms? Thanks my friend!

As Albert’s already said far earlier up in the comments, I’ll say it again from Dogen’s Fascicle on Kannon. This to me speaks on the lack of meaning on total numbers, but what’s inside them. Thanks also for your entry in the GWP.

“Even if, for example, we would need the power of a hundred thousand
myriads to summon up the whole Universe in ten directions, [to try] may be better than
not taking it up at all. [A person such as Ungan], then, who can summon up [the whole
Universe] with the power of one, must be beyond ordinary power. The meaning of the
present eighty or ninety percent of realization is like this. Nevertheless, [people]
understand, when they hear the Buddhist Patriarch’s words, “Your expression of the truth
is just eighty or ninety percent of realization,” that expressions of the truth can be one
hundred percent of realization, and so an expression of the truth which does not reach
that level is called “eighty or ninety percent of realization.” If the Buddha-Dharma were
like that, it could never have reached the present day. We must learn through experience
that the said “eighty or ninety percent of realization” is like saying “hundreds of
thousands” or like saying “limitless abundance.” [Dogo] has said, already, “eighty or
ninety percent of realization,” and we have seen that he means we must not be restricted
to eights and nines. Stories of the Buddhist patriarchs are studied like this. When Ungan
says, “I am just like this. How about you, brother?” he speaks about “being just like this”
because he wants to make Dogo himself speak words that Dogo has called expression of
eighty or ninety percent of realization.”

Peace,

Wade
http://themiddleway.net