Notes

With palms together, Good Morning Everyone, Yesterday I offered my second teaching on meditation at the Mesilla Valley Hospice. We discussed chanting meditations and the practice of Tonglen, a Tibetan practice that helps us to create compassion and equanimity in our lives and the lives of others. The teaching was well attended and the participants were excellent students. Offering tools to others is a wonderful practice. Moses Maimonides taught that the highest form of giving was to assist others toward taking care of themselves. And many Zen teachers offer a teaching in very short order, then shuts up. A good teacher offers and then recedes. I am not such a good teacher, I suspect, as I tend to talk WAY too much. I will work on this. Divergent thinkers are like that. We tend to begin on "X" and before we are done, not only have we gotten to "Z", but we've touched on "A" to "W", as well. This can be delightful from an artistic or spiritual POV, but has the ability to drive others crazy. And, of course, it doesn't help with clock watchers, either :) ! OK, time to shut up...or as Rev. Brad Warner, that strange renegade monk suggests in his book by the same title, "Sit Down and Shut Up!" Be well. On a personal note: This morning I drove My Little Honey to the airport to catch a flight to Cleveland. Her Aunt Pearl is 96 and her kidneys are failing. She is in hospice.

The Great Way

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

In Zen we sometimes talk of non-discrimination. This is a tough one to describe. Its as challenging as the fact that we say there is no birth or death. The two are related.

A few lines from the Third Patriarch:

The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinions for or against anything. To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind. When the deep meaning of things are not understood the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail. (to read the read of this piece, go to http://clearmindzen.org and click on Hsin Hsin Ming.)

What is the nature of this clarity which occurs in the absence of discrimination? What does the Patriarch mean when he says "When the deep meaning of things" and "the essential peace"?

How can we live without this or that?

Care must be taken. We are asked to see that love and hate are mental constructs. When we live in these constructs we live in relative mind. When we set one against the other, we live in a mind that suffers..

When everything is one, there is no two. There is no subject, no object, no verb. Life is thusness.

These points are being made from a POV that is all-inclusive. They are points made standing upright in Big Mind. This is the Bodhisattva Way. How can we love or hate when there is no-thing and everything is one?

Zazen helps us develop our ability and willingness to reside in Big Mind. It occurs as we sit upright on the cushion and think not thinking. It is a divergent, Teflon-like mind that is at home in every moment.

Embrace yourself; embrace the universe. Likewise, embrace the universe; embrace yourself. In such a place there is no room for self and universe. There is just the embrace.

Be well.

Refuge

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

Namu Kie Butsu

Namu Kie Ho

Namu Kie So.

These are the three refuges. Zen Buddhists take refuge in these. An interesting notion, actually, and not at all what is commonly thought to be the case if we look deeply at the refuges themselves.

Butsu means Buddha. On the superficial level this might mean we take refuge in the model of the man who became a Buddha, or the model of the Enlightened One himself. Yet, Buddha just means awake. In the deepest sense we are taking refuge in the state of being awake, present, mindful, and so on. So, refuge does not mean setting ourselves apart from something, but being completely in it.

Ho means Dharma. Dharma is sometimes thought of as "teaching". So this refuge is about going to the teaching of the Buddha to live. Hmmm. Buddha taught only to be awake. Still deeper, dharma means reality. So we are taking refuge in the real world, the non-dualistic world of the present moment. We might call this "thusness".

So means Sangha, the community. On a superficial level, this would be a community of monks or other like-minded people. Yet, when we are one, who is two? All are one, so we take refuge in the entire world of beings. We both take care of others and are nurtured by others. On a closer level, our community supports our practice and our practice supports our community. Zen, contrary to popular belief, should not be practiced alone. It is not about the self, but rather the Self, not about the mind, but about the Mind.

Community is important to help us along the way, teachers are important to help us to not go in directions that are unhelpful. Buddha taught a very practical practice. If it leads us to complete unexcelled awakening, it is useful, if not, avoid it.

When we open our eyes we see that there is only one community, that is the community of beings on this planet. It may be filled with color and a cacophony of sound; it may come in slow bake, half bake, or fast bake varieties; it may have right wing outliers and left wing outliers on that bell curve: but all are us and the entire curve is one.

When we take refuge, we take refuge in this truth. This is the real meaning of the truth will set you free.

Be well.

Learning Life's Lessons

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,

Despite my respiratory woes, I am awake this morning at 4:30 AM, made the coffee and tea, took some medicine, and am now enjoying some juice. Thank you to each of you for your thoughts and condolences regarding my mother's passing. She had been dying for sometime and only her will had kept her from letting go.

Sometimes such a will is a good thing; others, not so good. I believe when we are hanging on out of fear it is one thing, out of appreciation for the moment's breath, quite another.

Zen practice conditions us to examine such things. We experience the gamut of human emotion and thought as we sit facing the wall. We come to know in intimate detail our motives. Eventually digging out our true self and experiencing its True Nature. At this point we attain no fear.

We are released to appreciation of everything, even our illnesses and life disasters. I know as I am sick I have said to My Little Honey in no uncertain terms, "I hate this being sick!" Or speak to her with considerably less than a compassionate voice. Still, I know these things and move quickly to apologize or recover my balance. Without Zen, there would be none of that.

Last night between coughing spasms, I stayed with my breath, noting where along its path, the cough began. I adjusted my breath, then, and coughed less, becoming able to sleep.

I am told by my doctors that this will just have to run its course. There is an epidemic of this sort of thing in the Las Cruces area. Friends have told me not to allow visitors for awhile as my immune system in compromised. This means a serious cut in my weekly activities and lots of time to just sit still or lay down.

Perhaps this is a good thing, as my schedule was getting rather full.

So, life is like this. It has a way of bringing us home. Stopping us if we don't stop ourselves. May we each get there without the necessity of illness.

Be well.

Who We Are

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

"To study the Way is to study the self, to study the self is to let the self fall away, to let the self fall away is to be enlightened by the myriad things." or so says Master Dogen of the 13th century..

Many "myriad" commentators have had their say about what this all means. I like to look at the lat line. When we have no self we are in a position to learn. What does this mean?

Learning requires a setting aside of what we think we know. It requires the ability and skill to listen deeply. We have lost this art in our society. As we have lost the ability to hold civil discourse.

Agendas rule. Self is so very important. We seek books, classes, and news that confirms our view rather than challenge our view.

As we practice Zen, we learn this truth. We see it in operation in our mind. We have the opportunity in the practice, to cut through the strings of delusion, anger, and greed, setting us free. In this free light, in this awakened light, we see that nothing is forever, nothing lasts more than a millisecond. W are fresh every moment.

An agenda is not a life. A sale does not a person make. Nor does his clothes.

In truth, there is no singular person. We are one, together with the Infinite. The blade of grass our master, the pebble in our shoe, our teacher.

Let us learn.

Be well.

Peculiar

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Zen is so peculiar.
Its like the sword brandished by Manjushri
cutting through delusion,
but also like Kannon who embraces us as we fall.

To practice Zen is to practice without meaning.

There is the Buddha, kill him!

There is the Buddha, embrace him!

When is Zen not peculiar? When we live directly, authentically, and don't call it Zen.
When we see a rose and really see the rose itself.
When we meet a person and see that person for himself, as he is.

But also, when the alarm rings we get up.
When its time to eat, we eat.
When we have a problem to address, we address it.

Each moment an invitation to open.
Each moment an opportunity to undress.
As the kabbalists say, 'rung upon rung!'

Going nowhere we are not already.

Be well.

We Are Not Alone

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

We sat last night, a small group, in a very large sanctuary, bringing light into the world. I say this because we don't sit zazen for ourselves, but for all beings. As we open our eyes we see for all beings, as we take a step, we step for all beings, as we bow to our cushions, we bow for all beings. The entire universe sat in that small sanctuary last night.

Attaining this mind means some very important things. As we are one, we are all. Every action is a reflection of this oneness. To think, "I alone am responsible" is always incorrect. There is never a moment when we are alone and solely responsible. Our fathers and mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, generations of generations are with us here and now in our genes, our breath, our very touch. So too our friends and enemies, our coaches and critics: generations of generations, here, now, in this breath. How can we ever be alone?

To take a step is auspicious. Therefore, be mindfull where and how you place your foot.

Be well.