The Way, Part Two

The Buddha Precepts, Part Two
Not Killing, I vow to respect and be kind to all forms of life.
The foundation of all precepts is our realization of non-duality. To kill others is to kill ourselves. Yet in that same absolute sense, there can be no “killing,”” as there is no “birth” or “death.” This is a koan.

We avoid taking life if at all possible. Life is precious. Each life has a right to itself and is part of the whole. We avoid killing an ant, invite the ant to be our teacher, and ask the ant to leave our home. Sometimes this is not possible and to protect and nurture our lives or the lives of others, we must take the life of that which is the threat, but only as a last possible resort and only if there are no other options. Our trouble today is that we do not think of other options and killing is presented in ways that are sterile and palatable: we reason ourselves into duality.

Shooting ourselves in our foot, we would not have trouble explaining that it hurts as we each understand pain as we are harmed. Likewise, to kill is to shoot ourselves in the foot, as the thought of killing arises out of the poison of a deluded mind.

Our reality is interconnection and interdependence. Matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed: everything literally, is one. Therefore, we should not think of killing, putting ourselves in the shadows of delusion. Yet, we must eat, and our very breathing, in effect, kills. But only in effect. The issue is our intention and the thoughts arising from it.

To eat, then, is not to kill. To breathe is not to kill. These are processes that when done mindfully, act as dharma gates. When we eat, we sustain ourselves, when we clean, “killing” billions of bacteria, we are cleaning and through this, supporting life. When mindful, we are in the flow of the process, in non-duality.

Choice takes on the most significance when it is considered. Choosing the buddha way is choosing life as it actually is, directly, and without separation. No killing.

Be well.

The Way, Part One

The Buddha Precepts, Part One

With Palms Together,
Good Morning Everyone,


The Buddha precepts are a way of life. This “Way” is to practice from our nature to our nature. It is exactly our nature and nothing more. The precepts, then, are not rules or commandments: they are our actual being. As such they exist outside of time and space.

We say if we meet the Buddha along the way we are to kill him and do so without hesitation. Few accomplish this as it takes deep practice and complete integration of body, speech, and mind. We seem to need our buddhas to be objects of the mind, cowards that we are. Buddhas of his sort are not buddhas. Buddhas are not ideas, concepts, thoughts, feelings, models, or gods. Buddhas of that sort come in many shapes and sizes and reside in our world under many names. Break these.

Actual Buddhas, though, are rarely seen and even more rarely understood. Actual buddha is not a thought buddha or a sound buddha or a taste or touch buddha. Actual buddha is not a Buddha. Awake is the real deal: it is an open heart/mind.

When we open our eyes, facing the wall, walking along the way, eating, or even laying down, we are seeing with an open heart. Seeing with an open heart means realizing heart and mind are one, on the one hand, and all hearts and all minds are one, on the other hand. From this realization arise the precepts of being.

The first is the vow not to kill. In our Order we phrase this way: Not Killing, I vow to respect and be kind to all forms of life.

Coming Home Announcement

Coming Home: A Day for Survivors of War and Violence
Violence is a nasty business and has a way of turning lives upside down, shattering our understanding of ourselves, and making home life difficult. Returning combat veterans, and other survivors of violence, often suffer from symptoms of traumatic stress. These symptoms are normal responses to abnormal circumstances. They are uncomfortable and can be crazy-making.
Coming Home is a one-day experience for survivors suffering from the effects of violence, including post-traumatic stress, and will offer specific skills toward healing and recovery. Opportunities to learn practice skills based in the mindfulness practice of Zen will be offered and will include: Meditation, Deep Listening, Writing, Mindful Speech, Mindful Eating, and Movement Practices. Movement practices will include Yoga and T’ai Chi Chih.
Coming Home Practice is a project offered under the leadership of Zen monk, Rev. Dr. Harvey Daiho Hilbert-roshi, founder of the Order of Clear Mind Zen and a disabled Combat Veteran. Daiho-roshi has worked with trauma survivors as a psychotherapist for nearly thirty years, was a consultant to the Veteran’s Administration, the Vietnam Veterans of America, and has written and published extensively on healing from the moral anguish of combat. Other facilitators include: Rev. Dalene Fulller Rogers, M. Div, is a Board Certified Expert on Traumatic Stress. Ms. Susie Citrin, RN is a Certified Yoga Instructor. Rose Alvarez-Diosdado is an Accredited Instructor of T’ai Chi Chih. Reba Montero is Senior Dharma Teacher at Clear Mind Zen Temple and is a Teacher at the Unitarian Universalist Church. Rev. Ken Hogaku McGuire-roshi is Daiho’s root teacher.
Come Home on June 19th at 9:00 AM at the Unitarian Universalist Church. There is a minimal fee of $10.00 for food catered by during this workshop, but no charge for the workshop itself. Donations will gratefully be welcomed, however. For additional information, reservation and registration, call Rev. Daiho at Clear Mind Zen, 575-680-6680 or email at sodaiho@hotmail.com. For information about Clear Mind Zen, visit clearmindzen.org


Coming Home: a Day for Survivors of War and Violence
Agenda
08:30 AM Open Registration
09:00 AM Welcome
09:15 What is Wrong With Me? Absolutely Nothing! Keys to understanding trauma and our response to it. (Rev. Daiho-roshi)
10:00 Meditation Practice / Walking Meditation Practice (Rev. Daiho-roshi)
11:00 Deep Listening Practice (How to listen to heal / Mindful Speech Practice (How to speak to heal) (Rev. Dalene Fuller Rogers)
12:00 Eating Meditation: How do we nurture ourselves? (Reba Zen Shin Montero)
01:00 Seated Meditation Practice / Walking Meditation Practice (Rev. Daiho-roshi)
02:00 Writing Practice (Rev. Dalene Fuller Rogers)
03:00 Movement Practice (Yoga, Susie Citrin, RN; Ta’i Chi Chih Rose Alvarez-Diosdado)
04:00 Mindful Speech Practice (Questions, Comments, Dialogue) (Rev. Hogaku-roshi)
05:00 Close

Self and Zen, Last Section

Here a buddha, there a buddha, everywhere a buddha buddha.
Self and Zen
Part Five
Master Dogen points out that everything is a sutra: the sky, the birds, the bees, you, me, everything. Everything is our teacher, everything the potential to act as a wake-up call. But, of course we know all this from our practice, right? And, the Wisdom Heart Sutra teaches all dharmas are empty and that there is no attainment. Being, non-being are the same. Real and unreal, true and false, gentle or aggressive, not two, but one. The real question is what is necessary to bring into being.

As we often teach, “just take the next step” or “do what is there before you to do,” we also teach, “we are born in every moment.” Each moment is a new you, subject only to your choice in that moment.

To be fresh is not easy however! The Memory Me self wants to maintain itself. It has a stake in itself. Moreover, buddha nature does not exist. Just like Memory Me, it is a concept, empty, and no more useful than holding onto a piece of paper with the truth scribbled onto it thinking, one day, boy, one day! Buddha nature is an action.

I invite you to burn this piece of paper and all others like it. I invite you to practice being present now. Practice to just breathe in and then, just breathe out. Where there is greed in your heart, offer generosity. Where there is hatred in your heart, offer love. Where there is ignorance in your heart, offer wisdom. This is a moment to moment transformative process.
All it needs is your deliberate attention.

Be well.

Self and Zen, Part Four

With palms together,

Good Afternoon All,



Me, Me, Me…You know Its All About Me!

Self and Zen, Part Four



As we grow, contact with other beings informs us of their traces. Social organizations, schools, families, friendship, and the like, touch us and leave traces we, in turn, organize. Some of these traces we bury, cover over, or put on that proverbial back burner, etc. Our Memory Me “self,” as an aggregate, organizes itself as an executive system, judicial system, and playground and develops a mission over time to aggrandize. This mission often comes into conflict with those other memory traces such as compassion, generosity, and patience.



Our practice is to face ourselves, which becomes a giant deconstructing activity. In doing so, these aggregates of memory begin to expose themselves for what they are. Ideas make themselves known as ideas, concepts as concepts, and what was hidden opens sometimes like a flower, sometimes like a flash of lightening with thunder, and sometimes like a deep pit.



At such a point, our understanding of ourselves presents challenges. For one, as we notice the things we are, we recoil. There often is a dissonance.



“I am not greedy.” “I am not prejudiced.” “I am not a fake.” “Oh, I hate what I have become.” “If I am nothing but a collection of self aware memories of past moments, then what is this I AM now?” “What, no now either?”



It is at this point, I sense, we either pull away from our practice or take that backward step more deeply and embrace it as the core reality of our lives. Fear is a powerful thing, however and self-awareness can be very stubborn and stingy. Our need to hold on to our self-absorbed flights of fancy is a precise practice point.



Just as we breathe in and breathe out, opening and closing and opening, so too we can let go of the “our” that is the grip on Memory Me. Fffffft!



And so, what is buddha nature and is it just as real as Memory Me?



Tomorrow.

Time for Eternity

Time for Eternity



When Kannon

sprang a leak (oh shit),

All hell broke loose

And mountins

Sat down and refused to walk. (Them sleepy son's a bitches...)



The dam was damned

and people

Everywhere

Closed their eyes

only to feel their toes

in the mud.



Good grief,

what is that popping sound?



7-up and cherry ice cream, so wa ka!

Memory Me, Part Three of Self and Zen

With palms together,

Memory Me

Part Three of Self and Zen

My “self, then, is but a memory. This memory has awareness of itself and seeks to retain itself. The I AM seeking behavior of my body is purely a function of my brain. No brain, no self, no I AM. The most important point here is that the true nature of “self” is memory. Memory is never present moment. Memory is always a reflection.



Brain and memory work together, are one, but give the illusion of separateness. Memory is trace brain activity: footsteps in the sand. Memory is self, “I” is memory’s awareness of itself. This “awareness” gives labels to what it perceives through brain as parts. In the first and last, however, no actual “parts”” exist as parts from a whole.



Memory Me, that is, my “self” develops over time and through interactions of our sense organs. This development actually affects the physical structure of our brain. Brain and memory, recall, are one, not two. Interactive processes give rise, then, to shape. Use our brain one way, one shape develops. Use our brain in another way, another shape develops. These shapes are living, dynamic processes that have requirements for continued existence and growth.



These requirements take on a life of their own. Freud may have called them impulses. They are our “I Want” or “I Need” aspects of consciousness. Through interaction with parents, family, friends, teachers, and all other beings, we learn our requirements ar need boundaries and limits. Sometimes our needs and wants exceed the group’s expectations or norms. We are given messages that indicate we have run a red light. Our memories of these messages serve as monitors attempting to curtail our impulses. What we eventually come to call “ego” then acts as a director of operations. All three, “”I Want,” “I Shouldn’t” and “Director” are self-aware manifestations of Memory Me.



All are traces of sensory data stored in a brain that changes according to the needs of those traces. We, then, exist both because of and for the sake of these traces.



Zen practice burns away the gloss of those traces, exposes them for the transitory chimera they are, but does not deny their existence as they are. Memory Me is real and not real at once.



Memory Me has needs and like most organizations forgets its function and becomes quite self-serving. This will be the topic for tomorrow.