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Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi
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Enter the Storm

Good Morning Everyone,

 

For one who is one with the storm, there is no storm. Separating ourselves from the storm, resisting it, makes the storm strong.  If we practice relaxing into the storm, peace. We oppose it, become an oak tree, unbending, rigid, we will be uprooted. Not resisting the storm we are like a palm tree in a hurricane, bending and yielding to the wind, we become the wind itself: storm and we are one, no problem. 

 

Do storms cause damage?  Of course.  Should we not prepare for them?  Of course.  But our attitude and willingness to be present determines both the extent of the damage and most importantly, our experience of the storm itself.

 

Zen teaches us to be free and easy in the marketplace.  Open and accepting of difference, we become adaptive, we struggle less, we are interested in the world around us for itself as opposed to its use-value.

 

There is an old Daoist concept of going to the low places. By this is meant relaxing into the world around us, like water does, forming still pools at the lowest places of any environment, not resisting gravity, but going with it.  We yield to the rocks, wash around the trees and leaves, and flow to create pools in shady coves.

 

When we live life like this we live in serene reflection meditation.

 

Be soft, be yielding, be peace, be well.. 

 

 

 

 

 

Rev. Dr. So Daiho Hilbert-roshi 

Clear Mind Zen

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Faith

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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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 

Clear Mind Zen

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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 

Clear Mind Zen

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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 

Clear Mind Zen

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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 

Clear Mind Zen

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