Good Morning Everyone,
We should have faith in our practice. As we sit in serene reflection meditation or manifest the precepts through mindful living, we trust that the fruit of these practices is actually in the practices themselves. Each time we recite a mantra, a sutra, or a prayer, we affirm our faith in our practice on the one hand, but actually manifest it, on the other hand. This is ' instant Zen.'
People new to Zen sometimes have the understanding that they came to Zen for their health, to reduce stress, or to learn to manage their lives better. These may be accomplished through our practices, we think, eventually, but it takes a skillful and open eye to see that they take place immediately. It requires faith on the one hand and a great deal of diligence on the other hand. Yet if we relax into the practice, let go of the worry, and forget the search itself, we see that it is right there before us.
When I place my palms together, bow, and then look directly at the person in front of me, I am revealing both my faith and my knowledge that each person holds Buddha's heart. The person may not behave in a way we typically understand as being Buddhist, but any behavior is one or another side of the dharma. .
I encourage each of you to take up the practice of Zen, whether you are a Buddhist, a Catholic, a Baptist, a Muslim, or a Wiccan, it really doesn't matter: each path is an aspect of the Infinite.
_________
Tripper is nestled in on my side as I sit writing. He is a cockapoo, one of those terribly cute "designer" breeds being created of late. He looks for all the world like a small "Benji" and behaves in the most loving and energetic way I've ever, in my sixty years, seen a dog behave. This morning after Talmud Torah, after Brunch at the Clubhouse, after sitting streetZen at the Environmental Center, Tripper goes to the beauty shop to get beautified. He really, really needs it.
____________
May you each be a blessing in the universe.
Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi
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Organ Mountain Zen
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Friday, February 1, 2008
Making Life
Good Morning Everyone,
It is cold enough outside that our heater clicked on this morning sending warmth throughout the condo. I have mixed feelings about this as heat costs and money is in short supply. Our refuge in the mountains was a bit simpler though more difficult. We chopped wood for the stove, built a fire and in an hour or two the house began to warm. The differences, aside from the obvious, were in the deliberate nature of life. Living wasn't automatic.
If we wanted clean dishes, we washed them by hand with water collected from our roof and pumped up to a tank on the hill behind the refuge so gravity would send it back into the house. If we wanted to cook, we made a fire and waited for the cookstove to get hot enough to cook. When we needed something from the store, it was a day trip. Nothing happened on its own. We were intimately involved with living.
Here in the city, we live much more in our heads as our bodies do very little and are, comparatively, far less involved. For myself, I miss the deliberate and intimate life the refuge afforded me. It was harder, to be sure, and I don't really believe I should go back to it full time, but I still yearn for that connection with life itself.
To make such a connection we must make it. Jews have a way of phrasing things that says this. We "make Shabbos" we "make a blessing" and so on. Or, as my grandfather used to say, he was going to "make water" when he went to the bathroom.
What these mean is that we create our connection through our activity by being conscious of the activity as we do it. We are partners with the Absolute in our own creation. Life is never singular.
If you want a spiritual life you must make your life spiritual and to do this you must become intimate and deliberate in its making.
Be well.
Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi
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Thursday, January 31, 2008
StreetZen Ordination
Good Morning Everyone,
The winds blew fiercely across the construction site of the new Federal Building in downtown Las Cruces, spraying us with sand as we sat for our peace vigil on Church Street. At the very beginning of the sit, Rev. Bussho sat in front of me and I offered her the vows of a Zen priest in our Order. I had to do the ceremony from memory and without incense or candle. She repeated them flawlessly. We recited the Wisdom Heart sutra, the verse of repentance, and I dabbed her head with water using a pine bough she had picked for the purpose. We then recited the Three Refuges, the Three Pure Precepts, and the Ten Grave Precepts. With a crack of the kyosaku on her shoulders, it was done. I offered Rev. Bussho my kyosaku, given to me by my teacher, and presented her with a rakusu in the new emerald green color of our order. Rev. Bussho is the first priest ordained in our new Order of Clear Mind Zen.
Afterwards we sat in zazen holding small signs for peace and Earth Witness. Then along came Abbey, the teen granddaughter of one of our vigil participants. She was excited to see a woman Zen priest sitting there and asked a number of questions. It was good to see them talk, yet the wind was relentless. After an hour we left and had some pie and tea in celebration at the Village Inn.
A good day.
Be well.
.
Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
The Real Zen
Good Morning Everyone,
So, we sit down on a cushion, face a wall, place our palms together, bow, take up the cosmic mudra and practice presence. We breathe in, we breathe out. We let our self fall away. As we and the Infinite realize our oneness. Then a bell rings, we bow, rise and perhaps recite a sutra or some vows and move on through our day. So?
Unless we carry those vows, the essential nature of the sutra, the essential connection with the Infinite gained on that cushion into the world, our sitting is meaningless. When you read these words what is your experience?
When your partner is crabby or your boss a jerk or traffic deeply, tightly congested, what is your experience?
This is your real practice. The cushion is essential, but still only prep work.
Do the prep, then walk the walk.
Be well.
Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi
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Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Ordination
Good Morning Everyone,
Rev. Bonnie Bussho Hobbs will undergo Shukke Tokudo, becoming a full priest in the Order of Clear Mind Zen during streetZen Wednesday, January 30 at 4:00 PM near the corner of Church and Griggs next to the Federal Building. All who wish to attend and honor Rev. Bussho, please come.
Be well.
Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi
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Monday, January 28, 2008
Facing the Sun
Good Morning Everyone,
Your Original Face is faceless.
Like a boundless mirror,
There it is in everything you
See, taste, feel, smell, hear, and think.
Know it.
This is the meaning of form.
This is the meaning of formlessness.
Practicing the forms
Allows formlessness to be realized.
Not practicing the forms
Makes them prison walls.
Freedom resides
Within the boundaries of form.
To be truly free,
Take up a daily practice
And do it religiously.
As we practice
Our daily practice,
Our heart-mind opens
As if it were a morning glory
Facing the sun.
Let us grow.
Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi
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Sunday, January 27, 2008
Change
Good Morning Everyone,
In life it is always a good idea to be open to your actual experience. We tend to live in our thoughts so much that we are really not as open as we could be. The result is a constant strain to keep things from changing. An impossible task, of course, as life itself is constant change. But if we live in our thoughts, the real, actual world does not have an opportunity to present itself as it is. This is very sad because if we keep things from changing, against the natural order of things, then we live in death itself.
As I write to you this morning, for example, I sit with Pete-kitty on my right and Tripper, the cockapoo, on my left. Both are sleeping, but in close proximity to me in the middle. The coffee is ready. I have to go to my cushion shortly. And in just two sentences I am not sitting here with you. Did you notice?
This is important because we live in relationship either to others or to our physical world. When we cut ourselves off from the living nature of our relationships we die.
Life is like that, so our vigilance toward living awake must be constant and real. We should check ourselves with nearly every breath. It is in every breath that we create ourselves.
On a personal note: The last couple of days have been a bit of a challenge. My Little Honey is not well. She has a chest cold and nagging cough that has resulted in a very irritated throat. I hope she wakes this morning feeling a little better today. We have had to cancel things and she cannot teach religious school this morning at the Temple. Neither of us get sick very often, but when we do, geeez, its a lulu. Son Jason came through his heart procedure nicely and my mother has returned home from the rehab center. Also, it seems one of two expecting nieces delivered her baby yesterday!
Life is change, indeed.
Be well.
Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi
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