A Heartbeat Away

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



My partner is beside me and she is pretending not to be interested in what I am writing. I know better. It has been a joyous reunion. She looks much healthier and is so much more alive. We have a very special, if not outside the pale, relationship. We have not seen each other for two months time.



In Zen, the universe is one. There is no outside, no inside; just this that is there in front of us. Unlike Stephen Hawking, it does not care whom or what (if anything at all) created it: it simply is. In thusness we turn and face ourselves. How are we doing? Is our life of benefit to others? How are we treating one another? Can we die in this moment without hesitation?



Labels and boxes are the stuff of duality: they are fingers pointing to delusion. I say, drop them and be free.



Travel at the speed of thought,

And find yourself

Looking at yourself:

There is no tomorrow

No yesterday.

No now.

There is just what we make

In our next breath.



So, we touch each other over a time and distance which does not exist, and in the flash of a thought we will bring love into the world.



Be well.

Open Heart

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



We bow to buddha. I find this practice to be a pathway to right understanding. When I place my palms together, I am reminded of several things simultaneously: the fact that my left hand does not work and I have to work at it to get it to align with the fingers of my right hand; the fact that I am but a human being no better or worse than any other; and the fact that I need to let go of my ideas about everything. When I a bow, my heart relaxes and who it is that stands in front of me is allowed to enter as they are.



Bowing in this way, the Buddha way, is a gate for releasing the self and opening the heart/mind. When stepping through this gate a synchronicity of body, heart/mind, and environment forms: it is within this alignment that I consider Right Understanding to be possible.



If we are not in proper alignment, if our heart/mind is not synchronous with our environment, for example, distortions arise, as we are not seeing what is immediately in front of us, rather we are taking a side trip through our assumptions and see with the resultant skew. We do not see a cup for itself, but rather a cup, with all of our assumptions about a cup clouding our mind’s eye. From Right Understanding, then, clarity of mind arises and all of the other aspects of the Path can be walked freely.



For me placing my palms together slowly, and with mindful attention, then bowing creates an opportunity for selfless clarity, the clarity that comes with a seamless view.



May we each create conditions for our heart to open.

Donations Plus

Good Morning Everyone,








This is the time of month when I must don my robe and pick up my bowl to ask for donations to our Clear Mind Zen Temple. We are open for service from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM Monday through Friday and from 9:00 AM to noon of Sunday. That is a lot of candles. :)







Dana (Generosity) is a key to letting go of self: it is an opportunity to practice.







Please either mail your donation to the Temple directly at the address below or go to our website and use our convenient Paypal button.







A bow to each of you.







Order of Clear Mind Zen



642 South Alameda Blvd.



Las Cruces, NM 88005







btw, here is our T'ai Chi Chih Instructor's schedule. It is a wonderfulpractice, please consider joining us.







T’AI CHI CHIH: JOY THRU MOVEMENT Classes 2010











T’ai Chi Chih: Joy Thru Movement Schedule







When: Every Tuesday (T’ai Chi Chih Tuesday)



Where: Mountain View Medical Plaza



4311 E. Lohman Ave. in the 4th floor



Women’s Resource Room



Time: 9:00 – 10:00 AM Beginner’s Class



10:15 – 11:15 AM Intermediate Class



Cost: None



For more information on T’ai Chi Chih: call Rose at 575.526.3016



www.t’aichichih.org



*****************************************************************



T’ai Chi Chih: Joy Thru Movement



When: Every Wednesday



Where: Clear Mind Zen Temple 642 S Alameda Blvd. Suite E



Dates: Classes begin on September 8, 2010



Time: 5:00 - 6:00 PM



Cost: We gratefully appreciate a donation of $5.00.



Note: For more information on T’ai Chi Chih: www.t’aichichih.org,







*****************************************************************



T:ai Chih Chih: Joy Thru Movement



Individual and small groups (between 4 and 5 students)



When: Wednesday



Where: Rose’s home



Dates: Sept. 30 - Oct. 27.



Time: 10:0 0 - 11:30 AM



Cost: $75.00



To register call Rose at 575.526.3016







*******************************************************************



Review classes are held once a month on the last Thursday of the month at the same time and the same place..



Time: 10:00 – 11:30 AM



Place: Rose’s home



Cost: $10.00 - Advanced registration



$15.00 - At the door



For more information on T’ai Chi Chih classes call Rose – 575.526.3016







For more information on T’ai Chi Chih: www.t’aichichih.org



















Rev. Harvey Daiho Hilbert



Order of Clear Mind Zen



Telephone: 575-680-6680

Suki

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



There are two things I need to say this morning. First, we will be holding Sesshin this weekend beginning Friday at 7:00 PM and concluding Sunday afternoon at Clear Mind Zen Temple. We will do something different this sesshin. We will begin sesshin at the Center for Spiritual Living at the downtown mall where we will study the masterful film, “Zen.” We will then begin zazen at 6:00 AM on Saturday and continue through Sunday. Please let me know if you will attend.



Second, my puppy, Suki, managed to get her mouth around a full bottle of Mirapex in the middle of the night and eat it. The bottle was on the dining room table and somehow she managed to get up to it. She vomited profusely, which is what woke me. Between cleaning up and watching her, I called poison control and stayed on the line over an hour to no avail. Websites suggested immediate medical care for an overdose of this drug. I called the Emergency Vet Clinic only to find there was little they could do. There is no antidote and she had already cleared her stomach. This morning she is alert, but still not herself. She has drunk water, but continues sporadic vomiting. I brought her, with her crate, to the Temple this morning. We will sit together.



Needless to say, I am both tired and worried. As in all things, however, this will pass, Suki will survive, or she will not survive. We do what is there to do and let the rest go.



Be well

Awake?

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,

Last night was wonderful. We had five of us in the Zendo for zazen. It was good to see zafus meeting butts. Someone asked a very basic question. Usually, these are the kind I like. The practitioner asked, “What does it mean to be “awake”? Well, I do not like this basic question. It’s rather like asking “What is Zen?”



Questions like this are really impossible to answer. As son as we say anything it is wrong. I think of lightning striking within a few yards of me: my response to that event is what I mean by being awake. Or my response to the sudden, jarring out of sleep, or the sudden dropping of a plate to the floor. All senses open and exactly present: no mind involved. To say anything about the interior world of that experience is to take us further away from the experience itself.



Then mind rushes in to fill the vacuum. Our eyes close once more, but not all the way. We cannot maintain a startled, mind-not-involved, state for very long, but we can maintain a sense of openness and wonder. We can maintain an open heart. We can be present and upright. We can practice what Uchiyama refers to as “opening the hand of thought.”



Be well

Bearing Witness

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,





Since this morning is a Zen in the Park day, I would like to address a reader’s question regarding our use of the phrase, “bear witness” as, for her, it has a strong “missionary” connotation.



First, let me say that often words and phrases, while initially having one meaning, can be co-opted by a group and be made to have a wholly different meaning. Sin is such a word, having one initial meaning used by Jews, only to be framed quite differently by a later group, the Christians.



Bearing witness is to offer evidence for, testify to, prove or show something. According to an on-line dictionary, it can also mean to attest, certify, manifest, or demonstrate something. In the Order of Clear Mind Zen, and I believe this is consonant with Roshi Glassman’s use as well, we use it to mean “manifest” and “demonstrate.” While sitting in a park or in some other public space, we are manifesting serene reflection and peace through our practice. We are also demonstrating the practice so that others might see how it is done.



We have a “mission” but are not “missionary” in the same sense as some Christian sects use the word. Our mission is to manifest the Three Pure Precepts through our practice, but we do not aim to attract adherents. We would like others to see that it is possible to be non-violent; it is possible to float like a duck, yet engage the world around us for the sake of an awakened existence,



Whenever we hear someone blaming a victim, we might call attention to that fact, provide a balance or counterpoint, additional information, etc. so that victims are fairly treated and perpetrators helped. If I say, for instance, that all Muslims are terrorists in their heart of hearts, you might bear witness to the fact that such a statement is prejudicial, incorrect, and even inflammatory. When I sat at the Federal Building with a small sign that simply read PEACE, I did so with my severely scared and dented skull in full view, bearing witness as to my price to pay for war.



I do not believe we who take the Bodhisattva vows can simply be Zen Center Buddhists. We have an obligation to engage the world round us, to practice what Jews call tikkun olam, repair the world, and one way to do this is through bearing witness.



Be well.

Tug-o-War

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



Morning came early today thanks to warring between pups. Tripper and Suki were playing tug-o-war with a rope toy when it turned ugly. Nobody was bloodied, but the growls were serious. “OUTSIDE!” I said in my most stern voice. That was 3:15. Since then the poor rope toy has been shredded. I am sipping coffee, having just enjoyed two pieces of toasted whole wheat bread with honey.



This morning at 9:00 AM, we will invite the bell to ring and we will sit with our own wrestling dogs. Zazen is sometimes like that, thoughts and feelings playing out a tug-o-war in the theater of our mind. Some of these conflicts are very difficult to “let go of” as they have a tendency to play out over and over. The trick is to get ahead of the wave. Practice teaches us to pay attention to nuance, from there, to the gentle rising of a ripple heading to full-blown wave.



Pay attention: Notice, let go; notice, let go. If the wave becomes overwhelming, surrender. Paradoxically, the wave resolves. In other words, give permission for something arguing to be, and it will lose its power. We are on the cushion to bear witness, not to change. Yet, in the act of bearing witness, everything changes.



Be well.