Being Awake

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

The morning air is a little chilly. I did my evening practice period with my home zendo window open and as I entered the room this morning, it was pretty nippy in there. I have a penchant for fresh air, I think, and this gets me into trouble at times. I almost always would rather have a window open than closed and really dislike air conditioning systems as they require closed windows.

There is something exhilarating about crisp morning air. I recall at the Mountain Refuge stepping out onto the deck at night feeling the crisp, cold air or in the early morning facing an early mist in the meadow below. These were special moments that grounded me in space and time.

Zazen is like that. The practice of seated meditation can be thoroughly grounding, not just emotionally or psychologically, but literally in space and time. This is because when we practice zazen, the moment is completely alive, vibrant and very, very real. When done properly, we sit erect, upright, with complete attention to the present moment as it is: air cold, air hot; breeze, no breeze; sounds, no sounds, just as it is.

Air conditioning, closed windows, enclosed spaces, these are the same as putting a headset on during zazen and taking a magical mystery tour. Pleasant, but not zazen. Artificial environments need to be as unobtrusive as possible. Open space, free flowing air, the sounds and sights of our environment, even if its a city environment link us to our actual reality.

We say, 'who wants to smell bus fumes, or hear car horns, or ambulance sirens.' I say, 'I do.' If this is my environment I need to confront it. Live in it. Appreciate it. Know what needs to change. If our world is to get better we should not escape from it and live as if it is otherwise.

One of the reasons I support Zoos is that we humans are far too easily able to forget we share this globe with myriad other creatures. I support fresh produce because we are too easily able to forget where our food comes from. I support walking and running because we too easily forget how dependent we are on machine transportation and how far away from being in-touch with our actual bodies we are.

Today, consider walking someplace rather than driving; consider opening windows rather than closing them; consider making something from scratch rather than taking something from a package. Smell life, taste life. Wake up.

Be well.

Kindness Practice

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

It is a beautiful morning here in southern New Mexico. I am always appreciative of the sun's light and our deep blue skies. On the way home from Memphis Tuesday I noticed I was beginning to feel under the weather, yesterday a full blown cold emerged and today I feel a bit cloudy with the symptomatic treatments of aspirin and benadryl. I'm also taking Zicam and drinking plenty of water. In spite of this I did go to meditation last night at the Temple, though I passed on the Peace Vigil. I am a believer in maintaining a set of habits, a daily regimen, if you will, and allow limited excuses in my own life.

I'm reading a new book out by Jeffrey Hopkins, former translator for the Dalai Lama, entitled, "A Truthful Heart: Buddhist practices for connecting with others" and in it he says one one year or so of the Dalai Lama's teaching tour, the Dalai Lama's message was a simple and clear one, "Everyone wants happiness and doesn't want suffering." At first a very simple statement, almost a platitude, yet, when we think about it, there is much in these words to give us pause regarding our own behavior.

On one level he is saying we are all the same, everyone wants happiness, no one wants to suffer. Yet, in order to be happy and not suffer, we typically seem to expect others to be in service to our happiness and not support our suffering.

I know I want My Little Honey to pay attention to me, my moods, my abilities or lack of abilities, expecting her to make my life easier by not making me suffer. What does this do for her happiness, her lack of suffering?

If I truly behaved according to the principle, "Everyone wants happiness, no one wants suffering" I would see her as I see myself and treat her in ways that reduce her suffering. So, you see, it depends on your starting point. If we begin with the practice of reducing suffering and increasing happiness for others as the method of reducing our own suffering and increasing our own happiness, everyone is happy. But if we begin with "how can someone else make me happy and reduce my suffering" we are focusing our attention on ourselves, our feelings become the barometer of social happiness.

The Dalai Lama made a brilliant statement to Dr. Hopkins one day, he said, "Society is kindness". By this he meant to actually equate kindness with the possibility and actuality of society. While teaching sociology I often made a similar statement that we should treat all people as kin, that is, with familial kindness. When we do this, everyone is our brother and sister, everyone springs from the same place, breathes the same air, wants the very same basic things: happiness and freedom from suffering.

As we practice our Zen, the clarity of such things becomes real. When we practice to let open the hand of thought, nothing attaches and we can be present, really present for others. As we are present for others, we are deeply present for ourselves.

We are One.

Be well.

Conditions

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

We are in a chilly, overcast Memphis. I forgot just how cold damp air can feel. So, now I'm reminded and it can go away anytime!

This morning's mail brought up a few things for me. It seems we all like to learn and one of the ways we learn is by reading. Some of us read to gain a certain feeling, create an internal environment such as the warm, fuzzy sort of thing we get from reading Thich Nhat Hanh.

Some of us read to get something hopeful, something positive in our lives. For the same reason we might watch Oprah on television.

Yet, I wonder about this. Such reading and watching is not practice. Its like getting some mind candy. Such reading and watching is like wrapping oneself in a warm blanket. It feels good, but we don't get an accurate sense of the actual temperature of our world..

Zen is not like that. While Buddha taught us to plant the seeds of compassion, of kindness, and so on, he also was a realist who taught us a way to see clearly. Wrapping oneself with external supports actually works against this. Instead of seeing things as they are, we see through eyes warmed up by soft, warm fuzzy words. Our compassion must be real. Our kindness must be an expression of our true self.

When I read, I notice the feelings the author's words are creating in my body. I sense the mental construction being built. Sometimes these structures are very seductive, so wonderful and such that I hate to put them down. We want to be like the author! So, while these are all teaching, like my words to you, they can be dangerous to a clear mind.. Buddha asked us to test his words. This means a reality check, a taking off of the blanket, a closing of the book, and a stepping out into the real word as it is.

How do we know what our true self, in this true world, actually is if we load it up with the words, thoughts, and feelings of others? We practice.

Here in Memphis it is damp and cold. I know this because I experience my environment, yes? No! I am cold and damp because my mind compares what I am currently experiencing to a memory of my environmental experience in New Mexico. Cold and warm are relative terms and thus have no independent meaning apart from the meaning we make.

So, cold and warm are dependent conditions. Clear Mind Zen asks us to live in the condition of no-condition. What is the condition of no-condition? The condition of the present moment.

Be well.

Your Actual Life

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Zen is the practice of living your actual life as it actually is. Many of us live our life as if we think it should be something else, better: more money, more love, more peace. But this is not the Zen way.

In an effort to live the Zen way, though, we think we should know what this "Way" is, so we pick up a book and read, learning about what others say the Zen way is. We think we are inadequate to know the Zen way, that just sitting is somehow not enough. But this is not true.

Sitting Zen is the Way. Sitting Zen will open your heart and mind to your actual life. It will teach you to be in your actual life fully and completely as it is.

Books point us, guided our mind, or offer suggestions about our practice, but it is our practice that is our teacher and we must never forget that.

Zen is awareness; it is presence of mind. Seated Zen disciplines us to be present and have awareness of mind at all times. It teaches us all we really need to know about how to live.

How do we treat a door when closing or opening it? How do we treat food as we prepare and eat it? How do we treat our partner in conflict? Presence of mind, Zen, will be your best teacher.

Some say the best way to "solve" a koan is to enter the koan. So too, the best way to treat a door, food, or your partner, is to become your door, food, or partner. That is to say, we must enter them as they are, not as we wish them or think them to be. In this way we offer them the greatest respect.

Now practice.

Be well.

Authenticity and Purity

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

We returned from the Refuge yesterday afternoon after a wonderful two days of retreat. During this time I studied Master Dogen's Eihei Shingi, a collection of standards for the monastery (which includes Tenzo Kyokun, his Instructions for the Cook), as well as a rather large book on the history of the Jews. I noticed both groups sought methods for creating purity, by which it seems they meant somewhat different things in different points in time and context.

In both cases, however, practitioners were asked to separate themselves from others, either through monastic life in one case, or in creating "special" markers for the tribe in the other case. In Zen, people shave their heads and retreat in sesshin, Jews circumcise and enjoy shabbot, interesting.

In both cases, the drive to separate is a drive to come closer to the Infinite at the same time via that separation. In both cases people lack the words to sufficiently convey the experience of intimacy with the Absolute, yet still manage. A bush that burns without consumption, a mouth with a molten iron that cannot be spit out.

In Dogen's monastery, we are taught not to do anything that will call attention to ourselves, separate us from the group of monks. Community is key and is a paramount virtue. In the Jewish tribes, the question of how to govern, have group cohesion, and remain loyal to the Absolute was in constant tension.

Today we practice, in both cases, as independent, liberal, and nearly secular, practitioners. Authority for our practices actually rests with ourselves. We get in touch with our own authenticity through our practice with only the guidance of larger bodies, not their rules.

It remains to be seen whether this will be a way that will survive. Human beings are funny that way. Like breathing, we have in-breath and out-breath cycles, some free and easy, some not.

Proximate rule following in the form of following tradition seems to yield a sense of being "more Jewish" or "more Zen-like" than not following closely the liturgies and standards of practice. Yet, is this really so? No. Feelings of authenticity are not authenticity, they are just what we call the feelings we have.

If I eat meat as a Zen Buddhist or eat bacon as a Jew I am not less Zen or less Jewish. Just so, if I don't eat meat or bacon, I am not more Zen or more Jewish. It only means what it means to me. We human beings are meaning makers, it is we who invest our lives with meaning. Zen or Jewish tradition only offers us the tools. It is our integration and practice that creates the authenticity and the meaning of our lives as Zen practitioners or Jewish practitioners or Christian practitioners for that matter.

Be well.

A Middle Way

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

The noise of the dishwasher is loud, but rhythmic, and I notice my mind follows its cycle with no effort at all. As this synchronicity happens, I easily let go of the sound since nothing clashes. Harmony.

The Buddha taught the Middle Way, a way that when followed, produces harmony with all things, all aspects of our life. Yet, sometimes discord is necessary. Sometimes we must eschew harmony in order to right a wrong. Wherefore?

Because we are or seek to be in harmony with the universe does not mean that others are as well. Tibetan monks are in harmony, they follow the Middle Way, practice with great diligence, and because this is so, are deeply offended by the oppressive tactics of their Chinese invaders.

The Japanese monks during the years preceding and during World War II were in harmony, but were so culturally fixated on order as the highest good that they failed to address the oppressive and militaristic nationalism of their own country.

In one case, order imposed is seen as a disturbance of the Way, in another, order imposed is the way.

The lesson here is that harmony must come from within and has little to do with a social order. Oppression is oppression regardless of what it is in service to. When we are serene reflection, we are like water: we become a flood, meeting oppression and surround it with our harmony. We prevent it from standing alone. We erode it with compassion and deep listening. We do not just let it be, fading away into monasteries or practice centers.

In the world today, as in any day, some wish to oppress and exploit others, sometimes even with the highest motives, but we must be alert to this and understand that the method corrupts the motive and only evil remains. We vow not to do evil, we vow to do good, and we vow to bring about good for all beings, We cannot accomplish these vows without action.

Social action must however be done with a harmonious mind, a clear mind. As the noise of the dishwasher rises, my mind meets it and finds its cadence. Noise becomes melody. And as war rages, invasions happen, exploitation and starvation, rape and violence continue, we rise to meet them with our own harmony. We witness for another way, a peaceful, embracing, and loving way. Saying no does not require a bat, but it does require a compassionate heart.

Be well.

Clear Mind Zen

Good Morning Everyone,

Taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha is called Kie Sanbo and it is the first ceremonial step in becoming a Zen practitioner in the Clear Mind Sangha. We are asked to say, "Namu kie Butsu; Namu kie Ho; Namu kie So". Why?

Why, if in the Clear Mind Sangha we are open and accepting of all religious faiths and traditions, do we ask people to take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha?

The answer is somewhat tricky and to some extent relies on the realization of the three terms used. Buddha is not the person Gautama who historically became a Buddha, but the realized Buddha as both a model and an actuality.

When I go to Buddha for refuge it means I take refuge in awakening itself and see the Buddha as a model of that awakened personage. We could just as easily say the same of the Patriarchs, Moses, prophets or Jesus. Each awakened person is a model, a potentiality for our own awakening.

Similarly, the Dharma is reality, things-as-it-is, Suzuki-roshi used to say. Every faith tradition has its dharma, but dharma is not dependent on faith tradition. Things-as-it-is is, regardless of our spin on it. The practice of Clear Mind is to see without perceptual filters or the biases of labels and concepts. What is reality before we call it reality, this is Dharma.

Lastly, Sangha is both the community of practitioners and the universality of life. It is truly impossible to separate those who practice with us from those who do not as all life practices living in the Dharma. Its just that some are not fully awake to the fact.

Some of us interdependent beings sleepwalk. Yes, its true. We can see them on any given day, driving along with tombstones in their eyes, knee jerk reacting to whatever is in front of them. Yet, if the universe is One, then they are just as much a part of it as we are.

Part of our practice is re-visioning religion so as to open each to things-as-it-is. To have each begin to see clearly before dogma sets in, or to crack that cosmic egg and let the light contained therein, out.

Anyone willing to see clearly by taking on the practices of Zen is welcome to join Clear Mind Sangha.

Be well.