With palms together,
Good Morning All,
The sun is just now peaking out over the building next door to my Zendo window. I feel its heat on my face. There is something so reassuring about the sun rising in the morning. I have written about this before. For me it signals that I can relax. I've made it through the night.
For many of us, going to sleep does not mean we will for certain wake up again. Coming to sleep with this attitude is only possible when we are at peace with this moment. We must be willing to say and believe completely, this is enough. I have such an understanding, but it was not always so. Striving and desiring, craving for another day to make my mark, to do something wonderful, or to avaid a mistake, fix a problem, these were feelings that got in the way of rest.
With life, however, our true sphere of influence is revealed. It begins and ends in our own skin. Our true task is to master that sphere. With this realization, the wonder of a simple breath takes on incredible significance. The beauty of sitting at a desk or walking down a corridor or listening to a talk or building something or unpacking something becomes the beginning and the end: it is, in itself, fully and completely sufficient.
I am learning to feel what is there. The plastic keys of this computer, its casing as I rest my fingers and palms between words and thoughts, are each complete moments in them selves worthy of both recognition and respect. To do this well means recognizing the slippery slope of mental travel and letting the slope be by itself.
Be well.
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
The Morning News
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
When the morning news contains stories about discovering severed heads in fruit baskets for a second time one must begin to wonder about the civilization which produces such things. War teaches us many things, one very important lesson is that we are none exempt from the world. Each of us has the capacity to do great harm to others when the conditions are right arise. Allegations of war crimes, torture, the severe blurring of the lines between the "good guys" and the "bad guys" should teach us that such lines are never real they are always subject to being shifted. Good and bad are but points of view and are conditioned by perspective.
My fear is that we will become more and more numb to the awfulness of these behaviors. It is easy to adapt, we do it all the time. Lowering our expectations, we don't work as hard for a better grade or a higher standard of living or a safer neighborhood, and by extension, a safer world.
One side justifies their behavior by pointing out what the other side has done or threatens to do. The end of course, as Gandhi pointed out, is the whole world will be blind. Fingers, meanwhile, point everywhere.
We must resist this murderous mentality, as well as a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness enveloping our world. Each of us has the capacity to be a buddha, to stop creating evil, to create good, and to create conditions for good to arise for all.
What's your next step? What would create conditions for good to emerge? Your answer is your future.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
When the morning news contains stories about discovering severed heads in fruit baskets for a second time one must begin to wonder about the civilization which produces such things. War teaches us many things, one very important lesson is that we are none exempt from the world. Each of us has the capacity to do great harm to others when the conditions are right arise. Allegations of war crimes, torture, the severe blurring of the lines between the "good guys" and the "bad guys" should teach us that such lines are never real they are always subject to being shifted. Good and bad are but points of view and are conditioned by perspective.
My fear is that we will become more and more numb to the awfulness of these behaviors. It is easy to adapt, we do it all the time. Lowering our expectations, we don't work as hard for a better grade or a higher standard of living or a safer neighborhood, and by extension, a safer world.
One side justifies their behavior by pointing out what the other side has done or threatens to do. The end of course, as Gandhi pointed out, is the whole world will be blind. Fingers, meanwhile, point everywhere.
We must resist this murderous mentality, as well as a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness enveloping our world. Each of us has the capacity to be a buddha, to stop creating evil, to create good, and to create conditions for good to arise for all.
What's your next step? What would create conditions for good to emerge? Your answer is your future.
Be well.
Monday, June 5, 2006
Facing a Day, Facing Yourself
With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,
Monday morning. Its a beautiful day. Many of us approach Monday as if we were climbing a mountain with sacks of rocks on our backs. Working at jobs that seem to work against us, our sense of accomplishment and personal worth challenged, we feel disheartened and even disconnected.
Others go to work with a sense of hope and joy, embracing their work, making it a part of them and their experience in the world. They have a sense of personal power and control, a sort of personal authority that enables real authenticity to develop.
What are the differences between these people?
Is it the work itself? Their peers? Their employers or supervisors? Is it something in the water?
So many variables. Yet, one major variable comes to mind: Right Understanding. Right Understanding is a sort of synchronicity, an orientation of compass, map, and traveler. Once oriented, it is possible to make sense of where we are, what direction to go, what degree of effort it will take, how much of what needs to be said, and so forth. People living without Right Understanding are like travelers at war with their compasses and maps.
As in each of the Eightfold Noble Paths, "Right" refers to "true, perfect, same." Understood as we are using the word here, then, we orient our selves with our compass and our map, making them "true." True here means many things, but mostly it means "the same." That is to say, when we become one with our activity, like an arrow flying true to its mark, where arrow and mark are, in truth one, then we are living within Right Understanding.
Who are you? What is your compass? What is your map? How are you not one?
Be well.
Good Morning Sangha,
Monday morning. Its a beautiful day. Many of us approach Monday as if we were climbing a mountain with sacks of rocks on our backs. Working at jobs that seem to work against us, our sense of accomplishment and personal worth challenged, we feel disheartened and even disconnected.
Others go to work with a sense of hope and joy, embracing their work, making it a part of them and their experience in the world. They have a sense of personal power and control, a sort of personal authority that enables real authenticity to develop.
What are the differences between these people?
Is it the work itself? Their peers? Their employers or supervisors? Is it something in the water?
So many variables. Yet, one major variable comes to mind: Right Understanding. Right Understanding is a sort of synchronicity, an orientation of compass, map, and traveler. Once oriented, it is possible to make sense of where we are, what direction to go, what degree of effort it will take, how much of what needs to be said, and so forth. People living without Right Understanding are like travelers at war with their compasses and maps.
As in each of the Eightfold Noble Paths, "Right" refers to "true, perfect, same." Understood as we are using the word here, then, we orient our selves with our compass and our map, making them "true." True here means many things, but mostly it means "the same." That is to say, when we become one with our activity, like an arrow flying true to its mark, where arrow and mark are, in truth one, then we are living within Right Understanding.
Who are you? What is your compass? What is your map? How are you not one?
Be well.
Sunday, June 4, 2006
Where's Buddha?
With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,
Yesterday I was re-reading a tiny little book bu Senzaki. He was a Japanese monk who came to America before there was much in the way of Zen here. He was a wanderer, not affiliated with a home temple, and despised what he called "Cathedral Zen." Cathedral Zen is the Zen of large Temples, rich patrons, and lavish pomp and circumstance. There is a tendency to move in this direction among American Zen Centers.
Americans like their Churches, Synagogues and Mosques to be large and ostentatious. We have the idea that if it is large and rich it must be doing something right and everyone wants to hang on to a winner. Yet even when full these places are empty. Something essential is missing.
True Zen begins as a temple of one and works its way out. True Zen is free. It is the color of the grass, the feel of the sand, the taste of a cold cucumber on a hot summer day. It has nothing to do with robes and bells, priests and laymen. We put on a robe, shave our head, sit Zazen because we are buddhas, not to become like buddhas.
Today be the buddha you are in everything you do. How is that possible? Be yourself.
Be well.
Good Morning Sangha,
Yesterday I was re-reading a tiny little book bu Senzaki. He was a Japanese monk who came to America before there was much in the way of Zen here. He was a wanderer, not affiliated with a home temple, and despised what he called "Cathedral Zen." Cathedral Zen is the Zen of large Temples, rich patrons, and lavish pomp and circumstance. There is a tendency to move in this direction among American Zen Centers.
Americans like their Churches, Synagogues and Mosques to be large and ostentatious. We have the idea that if it is large and rich it must be doing something right and everyone wants to hang on to a winner. Yet even when full these places are empty. Something essential is missing.
True Zen begins as a temple of one and works its way out. True Zen is free. It is the color of the grass, the feel of the sand, the taste of a cold cucumber on a hot summer day. It has nothing to do with robes and bells, priests and laymen. We put on a robe, shave our head, sit Zazen because we are buddhas, not to become like buddhas.
Today be the buddha you are in everything you do. How is that possible? Be yourself.
Be well.
Friday, June 2, 2006
What Do You See?
With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,
Today I will drive up to the Refuge. I look forward to this drive, as well as to getting there. The drive across the desert from the city is really beautiful. The desert can be very subtle. The colors are so muted and because the sky is so large and unimpeded, a very different scale of relative size is present. People coming here for the first time often just see vast expanses of brown. I know I did. But then, as time goes by and our senses acclimate to the place, we begin to really "see" the desert for the first time.
Such is life. We often see in gross terms and only later see the details and nuances that enrich our lives. It is our practice to make the distance between the gross and the subtle non-existent.
Be well.
Thursday, June 1, 2006
Bearing Witness
With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,
Bearing witness is a challenging practice. Many do not wish to see witnesses, few wish to be reminded of things past. Witnesses become our consciences and how many of us truly appreciate that voice in our ear? We assign motives to the witnesses, we can even grow to despise them. We confuse the witness with the event itself and akin to the messinger, want to kill the witness.
To bear witness under these conditions becomes a strength building practice and an important practice in itself.
Yesterday at the weekly Peace Vigil, I sat quietly on my cushion on the sidewalk. The sun was very hot and my robes offered protection from the burning rays, but also allowed the air under them to heat. Zen priest sauna.
I listened as the birds chatter in the trees of the courthouse courtyard. I listened to someone tell the story that earlier in the war, counter-protesters were across the street. One person set up a sign a few blocks away that read, "Terrorists Ahead, Fire at Will!"
The witness, in the end, must simply be present. Rather like being with a very sick person or someone who is dying. We are just present and that presence is, in itself, healing.
In this presence, however, our inclination is to want to 'do something' as if our mere presence as a witness is not enough. Resist this temptation. Listen to your mind as you are sitting as witness. Watch the mental flow, the feelings arise and fall, give them nothing.
When we witness this way we are most effective. We are just peace. We are just compassion. Nothing else.
Be well.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
For those who could not access the newspaper article, here it is, without photo.
Holiday honors sacrifice of Las Cruces residents, veterans
BY STEVE RAMIREZ FOR THE DAILY NEWS
May 30, 2006, 04:30 pm
Harvey So Daiho Hilbert-roshi, a Zen Buddhist priest, sat quietly behind the crowd and meditated Monday at the Las Cruces Veterans Memorial Park.
Hilbert-roshi prayed for peace, but was also at the park to support his fellow veterans. He is a Vietnam veteran who, like many war veterans, has his own inner demons to wrestle with.
Monday was 40 years to the day that Hilbert-roshi was shot in the head when North Vietnamese troops overran the town of Pleiku, in the central highland region. Hilbert-roshi was then serving with U.S. Army's 25th Infantry.
"I lost most the people in my company that day," said Hilbert-roshi, a scar across his head a permanent reminder of the attack. "I'm one of the few people who can say I've reached up, been actually able to touch my brain."
Pleiku was strategically important during the Vietnam War because of the presence of U.S. military air bases. The town is at the junction of several highways, including a northern road to Kontum and a highway west to Harvey So Daiho Hilbert-roshi, of the Zen Center of Las Cruces, practices zazen, sitting meditation, at the Memorial Day services held at the Veterans Memorial Park. (Sun-News photo by Shari Vialpando) Cambodia. Hilbert-roshi suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and he said past Memorial Days have been hard.
"For me, Memorial Day has evolved," he said. "For many years it was one of great pain and suffering. But I would rather look at remembering it now where we must find a way to live peacefully. We must live in all this violence."
Hilbert-roshi said he didn't go to Veterans Memorial Park to create a disturbance or to protest Memorial Day.
"I have no agenda," he said. "I came out here to show my support for my honored friends."
Hilbert-roshi is one of three Zen Buddhist priests at the Zen Center of Las Cruces. He intends to continue attending public ceremonies for veterans as long as he has enough advance notice.
Hundreds of Las Cruces residents attended three Memorial Day ceremonies conducted at the Rio Grande, Hillcrest Memorial Gardens cemetery, and Veterans Memorial Park. From one ceremony to the next, the emphasis was the respect veterans have earned.
"The price for freedom is not free," Mayor Bill Mattiace said at the Veterans Park ceremony. "Our founding fathers prioritized our freedoms -- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, as precious as life is, your liberty and mine was purchased with the blood of patriots. And as we have learned, war is the business of youth and early middle age."
Larry Candelaria, commander of American Legion Post 10 in Las Cruces and State Vice Commander of the American Legion, said Memorial Day is much more than a day off from work, or backyard barbecues.
"Do some non-veterans really recognize the importance of the day honoring their fellow Americans killed in war," Candelaria said in comments he made at Veterans Park. "Judging from what Memorial Day has become -- simply another day off from work -- the answer it seems is sadly no.' Perhaps a reminder is due, then. And it is the duty of each and every veteran and their families to relay the message.
"Sacrifice is meaningless without remembrance. America's collective consciousness demands that all citizens recall and be aware of the deaths of their fellow countrymen during wartime."
Yvonne Lewis a member of the Mississippi National Guard who is originally from Las Cruces, took time Monday to show her love and respect for a highly-decorated U.S. Marine, her father, Juan G. Evaro, who served in the Korean War.
"Services like this are wonderful," Lewis said after she placed a wreath into the Rio Grande in memory of her father. "My dad was a good man. He was one of the most patriotic men I've ever met. My father just loved the military, and taught us to appreciate the military. He would've loved this."
Lewis was among 12 people, mostly women, who placed wreaths into the river during ceremonies there that were sponsored by District III of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Since Memorial Day 1983, riverside services have been conducted on the west bank of the Rio Grande every year.
At Hillcrest, Clara Hoffer and her daughter Peggy Hoffer visited the grave of their husband and father, Army veteran Arthur Hoffer, who died Nov. 13, 2005. Hoffer's grave was among the approximate 400 graves at Hillcrest that were decorated with small American flags.
"I'm leaving (today) to go back to South Dakota for a month, where I'm originally from," Clara Hoffer said as tears began to well in eyes. "This will be the first trip I'll be making without him."
Hoffer said she "had to" visit the side-by-side graves of her husband and daughter, Jacqueline Rae (Hoffer) Smith, who died May 4, 2004. "I was thinking on the way here how they always played spoons. They were always fighting over the last spoon. It made me wonder, are they fighting over that last spoon in heaven."
Arthur Hoffer served in World War II burying Holocaust victims. Peggy Hoffer said her father rarely told his children about his war experiences.
"There were photo albums he hid from us," Peggy Hoffer said. "Whenever we asked him about it all he would say was those pictures tell you everything.'"
Clara Hoffer still has vivid memories of her four brothers serving in World War II.
"My job every Sunday was to write to all four of them," Hoffer said. "I still remember my mother walking the floor all night, praying, praying. She remembered the couple who lived nearby. They had five sons in the Navy and lost them all."
Steve Ramirez can be reached at sramirez@lcsun-news.com
Holiday honors sacrifice of Las Cruces residents, veterans
BY STEVE RAMIREZ FOR THE DAILY NEWS
May 30, 2006, 04:30 pm
Harvey So Daiho Hilbert-roshi, a Zen Buddhist priest, sat quietly behind the crowd and meditated Monday at the Las Cruces Veterans Memorial Park.
Hilbert-roshi prayed for peace, but was also at the park to support his fellow veterans. He is a Vietnam veteran who, like many war veterans, has his own inner demons to wrestle with.
Monday was 40 years to the day that Hilbert-roshi was shot in the head when North Vietnamese troops overran the town of Pleiku, in the central highland region. Hilbert-roshi was then serving with U.S. Army's 25th Infantry.
"I lost most the people in my company that day," said Hilbert-roshi, a scar across his head a permanent reminder of the attack. "I'm one of the few people who can say I've reached up, been actually able to touch my brain."
Pleiku was strategically important during the Vietnam War because of the presence of U.S. military air bases. The town is at the junction of several highways, including a northern road to Kontum and a highway west to Harvey So Daiho Hilbert-roshi, of the Zen Center of Las Cruces, practices zazen, sitting meditation, at the Memorial Day services held at the Veterans Memorial Park. (Sun-News photo by Shari Vialpando) Cambodia. Hilbert-roshi suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and he said past Memorial Days have been hard.
"For me, Memorial Day has evolved," he said. "For many years it was one of great pain and suffering. But I would rather look at remembering it now where we must find a way to live peacefully. We must live in all this violence."
Hilbert-roshi said he didn't go to Veterans Memorial Park to create a disturbance or to protest Memorial Day.
"I have no agenda," he said. "I came out here to show my support for my honored friends."
Hilbert-roshi is one of three Zen Buddhist priests at the Zen Center of Las Cruces. He intends to continue attending public ceremonies for veterans as long as he has enough advance notice.
Hundreds of Las Cruces residents attended three Memorial Day ceremonies conducted at the Rio Grande, Hillcrest Memorial Gardens cemetery, and Veterans Memorial Park. From one ceremony to the next, the emphasis was the respect veterans have earned.
"The price for freedom is not free," Mayor Bill Mattiace said at the Veterans Park ceremony. "Our founding fathers prioritized our freedoms -- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, as precious as life is, your liberty and mine was purchased with the blood of patriots. And as we have learned, war is the business of youth and early middle age."
Larry Candelaria, commander of American Legion Post 10 in Las Cruces and State Vice Commander of the American Legion, said Memorial Day is much more than a day off from work, or backyard barbecues.
"Do some non-veterans really recognize the importance of the day honoring their fellow Americans killed in war," Candelaria said in comments he made at Veterans Park. "Judging from what Memorial Day has become -- simply another day off from work -- the answer it seems is sadly no.' Perhaps a reminder is due, then. And it is the duty of each and every veteran and their families to relay the message.
"Sacrifice is meaningless without remembrance. America's collective consciousness demands that all citizens recall and be aware of the deaths of their fellow countrymen during wartime."
Yvonne Lewis a member of the Mississippi National Guard who is originally from Las Cruces, took time Monday to show her love and respect for a highly-decorated U.S. Marine, her father, Juan G. Evaro, who served in the Korean War.
"Services like this are wonderful," Lewis said after she placed a wreath into the Rio Grande in memory of her father. "My dad was a good man. He was one of the most patriotic men I've ever met. My father just loved the military, and taught us to appreciate the military. He would've loved this."
Lewis was among 12 people, mostly women, who placed wreaths into the river during ceremonies there that were sponsored by District III of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Since Memorial Day 1983, riverside services have been conducted on the west bank of the Rio Grande every year.
At Hillcrest, Clara Hoffer and her daughter Peggy Hoffer visited the grave of their husband and father, Army veteran Arthur Hoffer, who died Nov. 13, 2005. Hoffer's grave was among the approximate 400 graves at Hillcrest that were decorated with small American flags.
"I'm leaving (today) to go back to South Dakota for a month, where I'm originally from," Clara Hoffer said as tears began to well in eyes. "This will be the first trip I'll be making without him."
Hoffer said she "had to" visit the side-by-side graves of her husband and daughter, Jacqueline Rae (Hoffer) Smith, who died May 4, 2004. "I was thinking on the way here how they always played spoons. They were always fighting over the last spoon. It made me wonder, are they fighting over that last spoon in heaven."
Arthur Hoffer served in World War II burying Holocaust victims. Peggy Hoffer said her father rarely told his children about his war experiences.
"There were photo albums he hid from us," Peggy Hoffer said. "Whenever we asked him about it all he would say was those pictures tell you everything.'"
Clara Hoffer still has vivid memories of her four brothers serving in World War II.
"My job every Sunday was to write to all four of them," Hoffer said. "I still remember my mother walking the floor all night, praying, praying. She remembered the couple who lived nearby. They had five sons in the Navy and lost them all."
Steve Ramirez can be reached at sramirez@lcsun-news.com
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