Walking Meditation

Good Morning Everyone,

 

This morning I want to talk about Kinhin.  Kinhin is walking meditation.  It is essentially stillness in motion. There is a formal and informal version of this practice.  Formal Kinhin is practiced in the Zendo between sitting periods.  Informal kinhin is practiced anywhere at anytime.

 

Formal Kinhin should be done in the following way.  Standing at your cushion, facing the wall, place your hands in gassho (prayer-like hand gesture), with elbows extended and forearms horizontal to the floor. Then bow from the waist.  Turn to your right.  Close your left hand into a fist with thumb surrounded by your fingers.  Place your right hand on top as if to cover it like a shield. With elbows extended, forearms should remain horizontal to the floor.  Step off with your right foot.  Each step should be like a half step and very slow.  Kinhin is practiced slowly and mindfully.  Breathing in, we step, breathing out, we step.  Our attention should be on our presence as we walk. 

 

Typically Kinhin is practiced by walking around the interior of the Zendo following the practice leader.  This can be a set amount of time or a set number of rotations.  In any case, remain present and awake.

 

Informal Kinhin can be practiced anywhere and it is a real favorite of mine. Step slowly, but deliberately, with hands easy and relaxed either at one's side or in an informal clasped hand gesture, left cradled in right.  If you are wearing your rakusu (short robe), your hands should be under it.  Walk with your mind on your walking.  Notice your feet touch the earth, rise and fall as you walk.  Notice the sounds in the air, the smells, the sights of the earth before you. 

 

If you are in a store, say grocery shopping, move slowly with your cart.  Feel the products you examine, Notice how you place them in your cart.  Smile to others, but remain focused on being present.  We practice being free and easy in the marketplace this way.

 

Sometimes I practice kinhin while running, by placing my complete attention on my feet and breath.  Noticing my body as it moves, feeling the wind as it passes over my skin, and so forth.  I often listen to my brace as it squeaks when I walk or run.  Try to avoid patterns, stay in the exact moment.  Patterns make for sleepy Zen.

 

Practice Kinhin today and let me know about your experience.

 

Be well.

 

Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi 

http://www.clearmindzen.org 

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Three Generations

Good Morning Everone,

 

Yesterday afternoon at the  Peace Vigil I sat in serene reflection meditation on the sidewalk in front of the old federal building. The sun was still up and we practice facing west so the sun warms our skin against the cooling late afternoon desert air.  Sometime during the second period, Abbey and her friend (I cannot recall her name) sat down next to me to practice a few minutes. Abbey is a high school student whose mother and grandmother stand with me during the peace vigil on Wednesdays.  She is a tall young lady, with long blond hair, and a keen interest in the world.

 

Over the last few weeks Abby has sat with me on a few occasions on the street.  She has also written to me a couple of times with questions.  Her questions suggest she has had a meditation practice for quite some time, but that her practice has been undisciplined.  Anyway, Abbey and her friend sat in silence, hands in the cosmic mudra, and brought peace into the world with me.  It was a very good experience to sit with such young people. 

 

I chanted the Four Great Vows as they prepared to leave as a family.  Three generations of women committed to making a difference.  I was honored to be in their presence.

 

Beings are numberless, I vow to free them.

Delusions are inexhaustable, I vow to end them

Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them.

The Buddha Way is unsurpassable, I vow to realize it.

 

 

Be well.

 

Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi 

http://www.clearmindzen.org 

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Awake

Good Morning Everyone,

 

When we sit down to practice zazen, we should sit down with a certain aim.  This aim is to be open and present without attempting to have this thought or that; this state of consciousness or that; or this feeling or that.  Zazen is the pure act of just sitting to be just sitting. 

 

We practice zazen in order to be awake.  Most of the time we are not awake, rather, we are thinking about something other than what we are doing.  as I type just now, I am thinking I need to get off the computer to get to the grocery store before my Breakfast Club meeting at 9:00.  This is not being awake. 

 

We often confuse having our eyes open for being awake. Drivers are "awake" but often appear to have tombstones in their eyes, mesmerized by the monotony of traffic.  Parents are often "awake" as they attend to their children with their minds a couple of dozen miles away.

 

This is no way to live.

 

Today practice for one hour to just be awake.  Tat is just attending to what you are in fact doing and nothing else. Watch your mind as it tries to slip away, gently bring it back.

 

I'd like to hear about your experience.

 

Be well.

 

 

 

 

  

 

Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi 

http://www.clearmindzen.org 

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A Cold Wind

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our car is repaired and we got it back last night just before Zen Judaism and just after streetZen.  I am personally relieved. Being without a vehicle for nearly two weeks was a considerable stressor for this retired couple.

 

streetZen was a challenge yesterday afternoon. The day was windy and as the sun went down so did the temperatures.  The result was that we sat in a very cold sustained wind in the 30 mph range. I wrapped myself in my serape, but it was billowing during the first sitting period.  During the second period I wrapped it around my head and tucked the front under my knees so as to hold it down.

 

Rev. Zento sat with me.  It was good to have him there.

 

As I sat there I remembered one night in 1964 when I stood guard duty in the dead of winter in Germany. It was so cold the tears from my eyes froze on my face. Of course I was 17 at the time and thought I was God's gift to soldering, but those thoughts were little comfort against the cold.  Still, they got me through that night.

 

Sitting last night in the cold desert wind I thought of the Buddha sitting himself alone in the forests of India. Nothing but a robe or two layered on his body. Yet, he sat in serene reflection. Goodness, I have much practice ahead of me, I can tell you that!

 

As those thoughts arose last night, I would let them go and place my attention back on my breath.  I resorted to counting, which helped my concentration in the wind, and left me in the end, partners with the elements.

 

May we walk together in peace and harmony.

 

Be well.

 

 

 

Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi 

http://www.clearmindzen.org 

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On the Street

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Lately, I am sleeping later than usual.  This is a good thing as I seem to require less nap time in the afternoon as a result. While naps are wonderful, an hour or two is a bit over the top. So, I turned off my alarm a week or two ago and let my body do its own thing.  It appears that it wakes me up about an hour later each morning than my alarm would. Time to reset my alarm to accord with my body.

 

Zazenkai on Saturday went well.  Rev. Zento, Rev. Kajo, and I sat at the beginning, although we got a late start my car is still not repaired). Rev. Kajo wasn't able to continue as she had much discomfort (she is undergoing physical therapy for this just now). So, it was Zento and myself the remainder of the day.  We sat for seven periods and left after chanting the Heart Sutra and the Shigu Seigan Mon (4 Great Vows). We had no one visit with us and no one took a handout. So we were left to practice pure Zen.

 

Each and every time I sit outside on the street like that I am reminded of the Buddha doing the same. Buddha and his followers have practiced in this manner for more than two and a half millenia now. It requires nothing special but a cushion and a willingness to be present out in the open.  It is this 'out in the open' that provides the difference. There is no cover, no temple walls, no sacred references or symbols other than the vast sky, trees, birds. passersby, or the breeze as it pushes leaves across the sidewalk. There is just the universe as it is with the practitioner awake in it.

 

Last night as I sat in my Zendo staring at the wall, my experience was fundamentally different.  Zendo practice is far more intimate. There is no place to look, but at yourself. Street Zen enables us to see that the Universe and the Self are really not separate, whereas, in Zendo practice, the universe stops at the wall unless we use our imagination. But being present is not imaginary, so we are left with serene reflection of a most intimate sort. 

 

Neither are above the other, but I suggest both are complimentary.   We can live our lives under the impression that Zazen is all we need. Wrapped in the cocoon of Zendo intimacy it is easy to insulate ourselves from Buddhahood which is being one with the universe and not just ourselves.

 

I would ask that each of you who practice to take your practice outside at least once a week.  I would enjoy reading about your experience.

 

May you each be a blessing in the universe.

 

     

 

Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi 

http://www.clearmindzen.org 

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A Day of Practicing the Kalama Sutra

Good Morning Everyone,

 

My car still is not repaired.  The parts supplier apparently got my order confused with another and neglected to actually order the strut itself for my car. So now I have the mount but not the strut.  Goodness. The SAAB parts department promised to have the part overnight-ed to El Paso and the mechanic promised to retrieve it from there today. Once again I am hopeful.

 

Meanwhile, today we practice Zazenkai, a day long intensive meditation period from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM on the street in front of the Southwest Environmental Center at the downtown mall. Zazenkai should be practiced in mindful silence with our attention always awake and aware. 

 

In a very real way, Zen is our lives.  When we appreciate Zen as nothing more than the practice of being awake to the moment we are in, we can see the truth of this. Much of the time of our daily life we seem to reside in fancy and delusion.  The fancy is our thinking world, a world not at all real or connected to our actual world. The delusion is that we believe one is the same as the other.   So, we spend our day thinking or dreaming about some imagined self in relation to some imagined set of events we wish to embrace or avoid, yet do not do either because we are so busy creating a mental construct of reality that we do not experience the actual reality.

 

This is one of the underlying teachings of the Kalama Sutra. The Buddha was approached by some villagers once and asked how to know what path to follow when there are so many claiming to be the true path.

 

Claims of truth, like the power of theory to explain or predict, are only as good as our skill at experiencing them. Truth is relative to the perceiver, theory is a construct of two or more concepts. So all of truth and reality is in the realm of conditioned existence. Our only reliable crap detector is our own actual experience and that should always be suspect.  The Buddha asks us to become spiritual scientists investigating our own lives. He asks us not to rely on beliefs or teachers or claims.  Rather, to rely on our own powers of investigation.

 

Does this mean we should not have teachers?  Traditions? Theories?  Not at all, its just that we should not rely on them. Instead, we use them as they as guides.  

 

This is a challenge to us because it requires us to actually do the practice. Zen is not about thinking about the practice.  Zen is actually living life. Today we are so quick to accept teachers and teachings, political actors, talking points of view, wars on everything; so obsessed with appearances rather than substance, that we live in a self made bubble, a fiction we call reality.  Are we really authentic practitioners of life?  And what do we practice? 

 

We can only answer this question with our actual lives.  The Buddha added near the conclusion of his sutra that we should develop four "dwellings" if you will. These are the practice is living in peace; the practice of living in compassion; the practice of living in joy; and the practice of living in equanimity.

 

Be well.

 

Reference: The Kalama Sutra from the Anguttara Nikaya

 

   "Rely not on the teacher/person, but on the teaching. Rely not on
the words of the teaching, but on the spirit of the words. Rely not on
theory, but on experience. Do not believe in anything simply because
you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions because they have been
handed down for many generations. Do not believe anything because it
is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything because it
is written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely
on the authority of your teachers and elders. But after observation
and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is
conducive to the good and the benefit of one and all, then accept it
and live up to it." 

Here is a link to the entire Sutra:

 

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/kalama1.htm

 

Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi 

http://www.clearmindzen.org 

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Teachers

Good Morning Everyone,

Sometimes life seems to be like a knot on a rope that lashes us from time to time. My knot has three twists this morning. My mother fell off her bed and fractured her pelvis; my son in Florida was just diagnosed with super ventricular tachycardia and has to have a heart catheterization procedure; my car parts seem lost in transport somewhere. On top of this no renter yet for the vacant condo and two mortgages are a serious challenge to our fixed income.

"No worries", as my other son, the chef says, though not about this specific set of knots.

Here's the thing. My mother is in a hospital with a rehab center nearby; my son has great care and this procedure will likely cure the tachycardia that has plagued him under the guise of panic attacks for years, and my parts will eventually arrive. I set up a contract with a property manager yesterday afternoon to make sure the condo is rented, and we are safe where we are, able at least to pay our bills.

My Little Honey is considering a flight to Florida to be with Jason. This will help her deal with her anxieties. I will take care of the condos, maintain my practice, and continue to work on my writing.

Life offers us a variety of challenges. It is our job to untie the knots and release the tensions. Taking in the pain of others, offering our own peace and love is a difficult practice. First, it is an assault on our sense of self, second, those being offered may not appreciate the offer, and third, we ourselves may require a respite in order to heal our own wounds.

I suggest that we understand all of this as practice. We may not get it right. It isn't a formula and there will be glitches along the way. We should live for the glitches, however, as they are our true teachers.

Yesterday I tried to offer My Little Honey some words of comfort. I asked her to try to see the good stuff that was happening. I noticed I was on edge with her. I have trouble being in her presence when she suffers. My comfort was not acceptable. Judy is an action person. And sometimes nothing can really be done. So we talked about it all. We made some tentative plans and the day slipped into night.

My lessons: I must practice my ability to be present when someone I love is emotionally distraught. I must accept that my ability to care and affect the situation has natural limits. And I must maintain a positive attitude through the process and not give way to automatic thoughts and the consequent feelings.

These are my teachers.

Be well..



Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi
http://www.clearmindzen.org/

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