With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

This morning was beautiful with an early morning moonset and a glorious sunrise. Unfortunately, the moonset became obscured by clouds, but the clouds' presence in the sky made for an awesome view of the sun rising over the mountains here in Las Cruces.

Life seems to work that way. Look one way, clouds obscure; look another, clouds become a dreamscape. Same clouds, different view. Here's the Zen: appreciate the clouds regardless of the view.

Be well.

Morning Again

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

This morning I woke at my regular time, 4:30, and witnessed the moon set. I cannot help but think of Master Dogen and his apparent fascination with the moon. I share this fascination. Serene reflection illumination. It kind of fits with my obsession with morning light. Its all transition, fluid, penetrating.

Ever since Vietnam when I forced myself to stay awake through the night after being shot in the head, I have had this fascination. I have sought that light, that light would signal my safety, my life. The light of early morning is soft, tender, and reaches out as a slow surf spreads across the sand. Cold to warm, dark to light, and in an instant aware: no dark, no light, no cold, no warm. Just this serenity.

And so sunrise has a particular meaning for me.

Wake up!

Arahat

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Some of us just need to be somewhere. We are not satisfied with where we are. Biting an apple is just not the same unless we bite that apple as an "Awakened" one, yet the moment we do, we clearly are asleep. Practice realization is not good enough. Zen is not good enough. Some of us have to pronounce our enlightenment. As Daniel Ingram and his derivative, Kenneth Folk, says, "I'm an Arahat". Perhaps.

If you are a student of Zen, a member of the Zen tradition, you let these thoughts drop away. Master Seung Sahn says, "put it down!"

Just bite the damned apple and move on.

Our practice, that is to say, Soto Zen practice, is a practice of engagement. This engagement is outlined in our precepts and bodhisattva vows. Enlightenment is not a goal, it is a way of being that requires practice and moment-to-moment renunciation of self-interest. Seeking enlightenment is not the same as having 'the thought of enlightenment" as Dogan suggests in his Shoshogi:

"[18] To arouse the thought of enlightenment is to vow to save all beings before saving ourselves. Whether lay person or monk, whether a deva or a human, whether suffering or at ease, we should quickly form the intent of first saving others before saving ourselves."

Master Dogen points out clearly that our actions are toward the benefit of others, other's enlightenment, not our own. So this way of being, the buddha way, is a practice of enacting this vow.

Let us practice together, and let the need to be enlightened go.

Be well.

No...Yes...Maybe

With palms together,
Good Afternoon Everyone,


According to some, I was almost eaten by a camel yesterday at White Sands National Monument. Such reports are greatly exaggerated. In fact, the camel and I had an understanding. I rubbed his nose, he looked at me. We all want and need attention. Some of us when we've had enough, snort a bit, just to get the message out there. So too, camel. I think I like the camel's way. A clear, unequivocal snort. "Snush!!!" (I'm done, go away!) This is sort of like the kyosaku's smack.

The human way is to often be unclear and messy in our communications. Words like, "maybe", "if, "perhaps", "I'll try", used in the context of a plan between people yuk up the works. They allow for too much internal spin. Wiggle room. Its a fudge factor. So that when things don't go according to plan, or something better comes up, we can always say, "Well, I did say 'maybe'..." In so doing, we think this gets us off the hook and the other person should understand, and perhaps they should, but we are, after all, human, so we have clear limitations in that direction.

My practice is becoming, "Say yes when yes is meant; say no when no is meant; avoid maybe altogether."

This is, of course, not so easy to do. Lots of intervening variables...or so we think, but commitment is commitment, it is not a discipline of "maybe". The practice of learning to say "No" or "Yes" clearly and with definition is an excellent practice.

I'm working on it.

May we each be a blessing in the universe.

Zzzzz

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

The day has dawned in a wonderful way as it does each and every morning. How could it not? The sun rises with such power seemingly chasing darkness away, and things that were awake go to sleep as things asleep, wake. Being awake is not the same. Knowing there is sleep. Knowing there is awake. These are dualistic notions.

Being awake comes before it.

As U2 chants, its the "street with no name."

I wish to stop this incessant naming of things. Pointless deviancy, it is. To live without names, live without assumptions, live here, now, that's the thing!

But then, along comes a bee. ZZZZzzzzzzzzz. What is the sound of one bee stinging?

Awake!

Be well.

Morning

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Soft as a whisper, the morning opens itself in my mind. "All of my past and harmful karma, born from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow." This morning I vow with all beings, to see the world clearly as it is, to end violence, and bring compassion to all beings.

We sit zazen in the morning and consider no thing. Thoughts and feelings come and go; the sun rises; the dog curls up; the cat wanders. We do what is next to do.

Yesterday at Ft. Bliss, I heard many angry young men. They were not angry, as much as deeply hurt. They are suffering because things were not supposed to be the way they experienced them. Conditions arose within which killing and injury happened. Conditions condition. So they walk with they eyes alert, respond as if they are in a combat zone, and suffer. When the war is over and home isn't home anymore, what do we do?

In Zen we leave home. In life, to be wise, we leave home. This means we drop our bags, those collections of history, assumptions, and the like, which are familiar to us, but which also either distort our vision or hinder our expression of our true selves. We practice to live in a clear mind.

May we each see the sun this morning as it is, not as it was yesterday, or that it might be tomorrow,

Be well.

The Great Matter

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

This morning I have the privilege of addressing active duty soldiers who are combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan in a military hospital which is devoted to their care. I am being asked to address them as a fellow recipient of the Purple Heart and as a Zen Teacher. I am being asked to talk to them about being awake, Zen, and the path of meditation. It is an awesome and humbling task.

From the Shushogi we learn that the most important task for all Buddhists is the clarification of life and death. The Shushogi says:

"...if the buddha is within birth and death, there is no birth and death. Simply understand that birth and death are in themselves nirvana; there is no birth and death to be hated nor nirvana to be desired. Then, for the first time, we will be freed from birth and death. To master this problem is of supreme importance."

Soldiers encounter such opportunities potentially in every moment. Are they prepared? Are any of us truly prepared?

Zen practice offers us an opportunity to prepare to address the Great Matter. As we practice we look deeply into ourselves and the nature of things. We develop a sense of presence. We develop a sense of interconnectedness. Finally we develop a view that allows a crack in the whole way we see the universe and thins body we call a self.

If we can begin to see buddha in all of life, in all of its processes, then what?

I am reminded of a comment I made to another practitioner once who was approaching Buddhism from a dualistic view. She was saying that God, the Father, was the universe and when we became one with the Father, we were one with everything. OK.

When we are one with the Father or the Universe, then what is the father? What is the Universe? We ask, 'show me a piece of paper with only one side!' I say, when we enter the paper and are one, what is paper?

So, to begin, sit still, face a wall, and study what comes up.

Be well.