A Blackened Nose

With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,

There was once a nun who carried a gold leafed Buddha everywhee she wandered. She would light her incense offering each day, but did not wish to share it, so she created a devise which kept the incense from moving about, instead it was funneled in the the Buddha's nose. Over time, the gold leafed Buddha became particularly ugly with a blackened nose.


When we practice our lives, we are practicing for all beings, not for Buddhas and ourselves. Our practice should be for the benefit of others. To practice othewise is not the Buddha Way.

So, when we eat, we eat for all beings, recognizing the many lives that went into the food before us, the sharing of so many hands in creating it and bringing it to us. When we drink, we drink with all beings, refreshing ourselves, and thereby all others. When we work, we work for the benefit of all beings, and when we sleep, we sleep with all beings restoring our bodies, rebuilding muscle, resting our minds, and soothing our hearts.

When we live this way, there is no self. Just living this way. Attempting to keep life for ourselves blackens our nose.

Be well.

Another Day

With palms together,
Good Evening Sangha,

Rev. Gozen, my disciple and abbot of the Zen Center of Las Cruces, gave a wonderful talk this evening. He spoke of the moment before the word. We are so caught in words and ideas that we fail to really see. When we see with words and ideas, we aren't seeing reality. I sat in silence there with him in the Zendo feeling a number of things. I was listening intently and the Dharma was alive and present in the room with us. The tea was excellent. Ryan did a good job as both Ino and server of the tea. I made some mental notes to assist him in the future.

A small Zen Center is an intimate place. We sit in rows facing the great white wall, the scent of sandalwood incense slips to and fro, and the soft flicker of the candle is just enough light to feel warmed by its presence. Our bell is large and sits on a wonderful cushion. I remember finding it in a shop in San Francisco one day while attending a retreat with the Dalai Lama. On that journey I also found our Buddha statue and incense holder.

It is quite a task to establish a new Zen Center. Many small details. But the hearts beat and the many hands come together; soon we are there, sitting silently in rows supporting each other as we practice our Way.

So, this morning began with a lot of energy. My wife was to read her poetry at a local writer's group. I went with her. Her work, whimsical word portraits of our grandchildren, was warmly received. Lunch with friends at a restaurant where I happened to met a couple I married some time ago. Things between them are going well. I am happy for them. I drove Judy home, then went grocery shopping. After putting away the groceries, I rode my bike to the weekly peace vigil where I pulled my sign out of my backpack and stood for an hour in the afternoon sun. There were so many horns honking in support! Then the long ride home. A nice salad for dinner and a shower. Time to go to the Zen Center for Zazen.

Tonight I am here with you. Writing and offering some small voice. Tomorrow morning a walk in the desert, a meeting with the rabbi, a speedwork session and a weight workout. Life is good.

Be well.

Bodhidharma's Wake-Up Sermon

From the First Patriarch, Bodhidharma, in his Wake-Up Sermon (translated by Red Pine) Bodhidharma, founder of Zen, was born in the year 440. He came to China late in the fifth century of the common era.


"Whoever knows that the mind is a fiction and devoid of anything real knows that his own mind neither exists nor doesn't exist. Mortals keep creating the mind, claiming that it exists. And arhats keep negating the mind, claiming it doesn't exist. But bodhisattvas and buddhas neither create nor negate the mind. This is what is meant by the mind that neither exists nor doesn't exist. The mind that neither exists nor doesn't exist is called the Middle Way." (p. 53)

This is a profoundly deep teaching. It at once delineates between an awakened person and a non awakened person, but goes beyond that to suggest that an awakened person must go past awakening to become a bodhisattva and a buddha. By a "mortal" Bodhidharma is referring to a ordinary person living in an ordinary life, unaware of his original nature. This is a sleeping person, a person on auto-pilot, going through the motions of living, but completely not present.

An awakened person, an arhat, is one who has attained awakening. This person's eyes are opened to the true nature of things. Self is extinguished, impermanence understood, and emptiness attained. Yet, this is not enough. Buddha was fully awakened, but he got up from his cushion and entered the world. He taught. He healed. He sat with every sort of person from pauper to king. He made a diffeence in the world through his work.

When we realize that subject and object have relational existance, that one is and is not at the same time, and that we are able to live within the vast and eternal processes of life, then we are both buddhas and bodhisattvas. Buddhas because we have realized and attained this highest teaching, bodhisattvas because we set our "selves" aside to be inservice to the entire universe throughout time.

One who attains this understanding recognizes there is no past, present or future; no you, no me, no subject, no object; yet lives at the same moment within time, subject and object, and does so without thought as hindrance.

Be well.

Zazen

With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,

When practicing Zazen we should be present with ourselves and our environment, experiencing without thinking, feelings, tasting, smelling or touching. As we sit, our mind speaks to us, sometimes through thought, sometimes through sensation.We feel an itch, or something crawling, or a twitch, a stitch. We think. We see our thoughts. We might smell something, hear something, taste something. What is it?

This question arises and if we are not very careful, we are exploring it. Big mistake. Our Zazen is not to explore the interior and exterior of our minds and bodies. Our Zazen is to simply practice serene reflection: presence without attsachment/.

Shikantaza is the practice of wholeheartedly hitting the mark while seated. What is the mark? What is this present moment, exactly, before a thought or perception arises? That is the mark.

Be well.

A Seasonal Message

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

We have an opportunity today to be reminded of the blessings of the yearly cycle. This is spring, Easter, Passover, Hannamatsuri, a time of hope and re-generation. Many cultures come out of an agrarian background. Life cycles were closely connected to our planet's seasonal cycles. In this modern era, we seem to have lost that connection on many levels, As a result ofthis dis-connect, some of the real meanings of the season are lostto us. To compensate we fall back on belief. Belief is a wonderful thing, in some ways, a hindrance in others.

When living in belief, we live in the world of the mind. Hopeful, we are looking for tomorrow, not living in the experience of this moment. This is why, in some sense, Zen sees hope as a problem. Hope takes us away from the work at hand, though it also can inspire us and motivate us to move into the future.

As in all things, a balance is very important.

For those who are Christian on the list, Happy Easter! For those Jewish, Happy Pesach, for those who are singularly Buddhist, a joyous Hannamatsuri.

May we all be happy and present.

Be well.

Being One

With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,

We have been exploring reality from the point of view that both objective and subjective experience are one. One makes the other, the other makes the one. In fact, they are the same reality experienced in different ways, from different perspectives: very functional. We must be able to see subject and object at certain times, use thought to plan, etc. But we must also not lose sight of the fact that this is an artificial device created through the way our brain works in order to enhance our survival. Reality itself, is not two, but one.

When we approach our life, our practice, in this way, we begin to see that everything is sacred, nothing is profane. Indeed, such categories are local devices, rather than universal truth. As we light a stick of incense, all beings are lighting a stick of incense. As we bow, all beings are bowing. As we bring ourselves to the other shore, all beings are brought to the other shore. You and God share the same space, the same reality. When you touch, God touches. When you see, God sees. When you eat, God eats. Being one with God changes everything.

This is nothing more than the simple truth.

So difficult, however, to realize, so powerful the discriminating brain.

Whether we each believe in God is irrelevant. Call God the universe, it doesn't really matter. What matters is your willingness to open yourself to its vastness.

Be well.

Re: [Zen Living] Evaluation of Soto

With palms together,
God Morning Sangha,

Guy has written an excellent post below. He asks similar questions Master Dogen asked many centuries ago.

Let me try to walk through this as a morning message.

We are indeed, enlightened and perfect as we are. Why practice? Dogen asked this very question. Because we possess Buddha nature does not mean we arer in touch with it. Because we can run or walk or talk, does not mean we can do it without practice. We inherently possess, but we must manifest.

The Sixth Patriarch uses a similar metaphor in his Platform Sutra. A rival for the robe suggests the mind is like a mirror and that practice must be used to clear the dust from its surface. Hui-Neng argues back:

Bodhi originally has no tree,
The mirror also has no stand.
Buddha nature is always clean and pure;
Where is there room for dust?

(Yoplansky translation, p. 132)

The questions raised in this post are essential. The go to the heart of the matter. What is "reality?" Why do we even concern ourselves with it? What is "enlightenment?" What is "Samsara?" What is "dust, the mirror?" If A is A, why B?

These questions are not an evaluation of Soto. They are the questions that take us to the cushion. They are the questions that provide a 'platform' for our existence and thus, our practice.

Apparent contradiction and paradox in Zen should always be understood as existing within a certain point of reference: relative truth. Resolution of the paradox exists in Absoulte truth. Practice teaches us both the difference and the means of being simultaneously in both. Samsara/Nirvana: heads/tails, one coin.

There are many practice gates. Zazen is the first and last, but this is Zazen properly understood. What is this "properly understood?" That is your practice.

If we sit with a corse in a cemetary, as once was done, we do not stink, we discover stink and the sweet smell of a rose are essentially the same. Our valuations are something we add. If we sit with a corpse and witness decomposition, we see life. We see process. We see ourselves as something not dependent on form.

Such activities as sitting with corpses, sitting with ourselves, eating in mindful silence, tea ceremonies, koans, the smack of the kyasaku on our shoulders are simply means, but here's the thing. They are also ends. Reality is 'perfect' as it can be no other way than it is. Our thoughts about it, how we discern it, our relative comfort and discomfrt within it, these are imperfection.

I hope this short answer helps.
Be well.


ventouxboy <ventouxboy@yahoo.com> wrote:

Good day all sangha, I've been exploring the Soto line of Zen for
the past year and have started to come to conclusions that may draw
me away from it. So let me see if my understanding is correct. It
seems to me that Soto's view is that if there is something wrong
with reality, what is wrong is not reality. We are already perfectly
awakened, there is nothing to achieve. And I fully agree with this,
to a point. The point is this. Isn't the act of "just sitting",
although not trying to achieve anything, doing exactly that? It's
clearing the mirror of our minds. If we were perfectly awake, we
wouldn't clear anything from our minds when we meditate.
So there is something wrong, we live in Samsara. Our view is not
perfect, although buddha said it is possible to achieve. In one of
Sodaiho's post the other day he made reference to Dogen's statement
that we are all living on leftovers. Sidhartha found the way, we
just follow what he did. So i consider this the source to fall back
on even though the cannons were not written in buddha's time. Brings
me to two conclusions. First, suffering exist, and Buddha advocated
alleviating suffering. Seems to acknowledge that something might
just be wrong. Second ,buddha taught in ways other than just
meditation. After recently being admonished by a Soto priest for
saying to face one's fears; he came back and reinforced my point by
saying that Buddha sent his monks to sleep with corpses. Hard to say
what Buddha was trying to say here: maybe it was confronting the
fear of death, maybe he was telling his monks they smell bad. But it
points to teaching off the mat. So maybe there is more than "just
sitting".
Anyway, this is my conflict with Soto. Anybody able to resolve
this? In gassho, Guy.