Canework

Written Thursday morning:




With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



It is wonderfully cool this morning in the desert southwest. I woke at 4:30 to a clear starlit sky and sat outside to practice both Zazen and canework. Of late I have, once again, taken an interest in the Martial Arts, but this time with my slowly worsening physical disabilities, I decided to select a cane for practice. I had spent a good ten years involved in a Korean form of karate called Moo Duk Kwan, eventually teaching in a small house-based dojo in South Carolina. I gave up karate in 1975 when my son was born, feeling the practice led to a sort of low-grade paranoia

Recently I was told by my doctors that I should not run or walk for exercise. As I kickstart my exercise regimen this leaves a vacuum on the aerobic side. I suppose I will take up biking at this point, and have prepared my bike to that end. It occurred to me that Martial Arts with Cane might be another alternative. When I was a long distance runner I had t-shirts made that said, “Stillness in Motion” on the back with our Order’s logo on front. Studying videos of cane katas, I am learning this phrase equally applies.

I guess the lesson for me is that regardless of our place in this life, regardless of our physical limitations, there are always alternatives and every choice can become a Zen practice, which is to say, a practice that involves dropping away ego identity.

Sunday morning Zazen will be led by Rev. Shukke Shin. Please consider joining her.



Gassho

Apologies

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



My apologies to those who attended this recent Zazenkai for my lack of presence both in body and mind. I had an unexpected physician’s appointment that morning and had just come off of a very late night doing an Honor Flight escort. I want to apologize as well to those students who sought dokusan only to be confronted by a sleepy teacher!



Self awareness is an essential part of a student’s life and, as a teacher, I continue to be a student. We teachers are also students and sometimes forget that we are fallible human beings with our own issues that need desperately to be addressed. There are those of us who are so full of ourselves that we cannot hear our students as they are. There are those of us who seem to think we no longer need to practice self awareness, convinced we know the Dharma. To the extent this is so, is the extent to which we are far away from the Dharma and, concomitantly, both ourselves and our students.



I cannot speak for other teachers in Zen or even in my own lineage, but as for me, my practice is a 24/7 process of failure. Weekends like this past one are great teachers. I am humbled by them and desire very much to learn from them. My hope is that other teachers, as well as students, are equally committed to self examination.



Please practice with this.



Gassho

kajo

With palms together,


Good Morning All,



“In general, in the house of the Buddhist patriarchs, drinking tea and eating meals are everyday life itself. This behavior of drinking tea and eating meals has long been transmitted and is realized in the present. Thus, the Buddhist patriarchs’ vivid activity of drinking tea and eating meals has come to us.” Master Dogen Zenji, Fascicle 64, Shobogenzo, as translated by Nishijima-roshi.

In our practice we may draw a distinction between the Dharma on the one hand and talking about the Dharma on the other hand. The Dharma is everyday life, not what we say about everyday life. The Dharma is not the sutras; the sutras reflect the Dharma. If we want to know watermelon we must eat watermelon. Thus, to know the Dharma we must just eat when eating and drink tea when drinking tea. As Okumura-roshi suggests of firewood and ash in his commentary on the Genjokoan; each has its own Dharma reality,

When we eat or drink in this way we are buddhas eating and drinking in this way. When we eat or drink in this way, we are the ancestors eating and drinking in this way. We and they are one, inseparably. This is not a philosophical discussion and understanding is not the same as realization. Yet, what I’ve just said is just words: at best symbolic reflections of the reality of my understanding and at worst, distractions and self-deception.

Moreover, it is always tempting to be drawn into philosophic discussions about the Buddha Way. These are not so easy to avoid. They are fun and are often intellectually stimulating, but they are not “it.” They are like a mental game. Our practice, however, is no game. Our practice is to cut through the words and ideas such discussions might give rise to and, instead, absorb one’s vital, living self in actually living activity itself. The Zen of everyday life, then, is just this: eating, drinking, sitting, standing, or walking, nothing more and nothing less. Each lives in its own moment.

Do not receive the twirling flower, grow your own. Let this be our practice as we let the rest fall away.

Be well.

PS, Our Study Group will meet at 6:30 in the Zendo tonight. I hope to see you there!

PC, Not

With palms together,


Good Morning All,



Yesterday on the way home from the hospital I saw a truck with a few bumper stickers. One read, “Secure our borders!” I can’t now recall the others. Anyway, I wondered at the time, what the driver wanted to secure our borders against. I suspect it was those pesky illegal immigrants who work in our fields, bringing us the food we enjoy or the cotton we love to wear, or maybe, it was about drug trafficking, terrorists, and other possible threats. Somehow I doubt it. I was wondering to myself if trucks along the Canadian border sport similar bumper stickers. Again, I doubt it as I really don’t believe we see Canadians as a threat, they are more like the dominant cultures, but it’s possible.



So, just what does “secure our borders” mean? I think if I were to ask the driver he would tell me some stories about how illegal’s are draining our resources or that they are taking jobs away from Americans. In the end, though, I think it really comes down to one simple fact, we are afraid. We are afraid that someone or some group will take something away from us. It’s funny that when we operate out of fear the virtues of love, generosity and wisdom are the first to go, being replaced by greed, hatred and the delusion that some groups of human beings are just plain different from other groups of human beings.



For all the teachings of Christianity’s Christ, the Torah and Talmud of the Jews, over the centuries, we still fall into the traps of a fear induced life. The irony is, often those most afraid, who are the most vocal regarding securing borders and such, are those who refer to themselves as religious people.



We cannot be “saved” or “free” if we are still trapped in fear. To be saved or to be freed from the prison of our ego-self, we must be willing to let that ego-self fall away. We must allow ourselves to be vulnerable, generous, and fearless in the process. Rather than secure our borders I would hope we were secure enough in ourselves to open our borders, even get rid of borders altogether as all they do is separate us from one another and poison us in the process. Our world is one, whether we like it or not. The truck I noticed was made of parts created all over the world. The food the driver eats is often imported. The gasoline he consumes may have come from the Middle East. His clothes were likely made in China and his sneakers in Vietnam. We are one world and the sooner we get on the same page with each other the better.



Lastly, I wonder about the term “illegal.” How can a being be illegal? If we say he or she is one who violated our border crossing laws, ok, but that is what has created the “problem.” If there were no immigration laws and people could freely move about the world, what would that be like? I suggest it would be wonderfully liberating. Perhaps we might come to actually love one another, instead of protecting ourselves from one another: a phenomenon that seems to me to breed distrust and hate.



I think I should leave this note with a question. What are the true values of walls? Our answrs provide wonderful and meaningful insights as to what are our greatest fears.



Be well,



PS. We will host Zazen this Sunday at 10:00 AM.

Trungpa

With palms together,


Good Morning All,

Awake late into the night I watched “Crazy Wisdom, the Life and Times of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.” This is a documentary about that rascal within Tibetan Buddhism who founded Naropa University and rocked the Buddhist world with his behavior, behavior which some say was a teaching in its own right and others might say was a living, on-going, violation of the precepts we live by. Perhaps appropriately so, I followed the film by reciting the robe verse and sitting on my cushion in our residence’ Zendo. Wednesday I will drive over to Palomas, Mexico to be fitted for a new set of sorely needed dentures, and on Thursday Kathryn Shukke Shin will undergo Gall Bladder surgery. As if this were not enough, I found out yesterday that a noise which recently developed in my motorcycle’s engine may mean major surgery on the bike. So, yes, was awake late into the night.



Life can be a challenging, if not a disturbing teacher at times. Trungpa Rinpoche was an extraordinary teacher in my opinion. He was the sort of teacher whose very life itself was the teaching. Referred to sometimes as “the Bad Boy of Buddhism” Trungpa did what some early Zen in America pioneers did, made the teachings available and accessible to Americans. He lived out of the box upsetting the status quo and eschewing expectations of his students. In other words he was himself, an authentic self, who manifested through his teaching and behavior challenges to his students and the Buddhist community at large. While I don’t think his behavior was good for him and those around him in some ways, I do think if we had more teachers like him, perhaps we would be less arrogant with our convictions, convinced as we often are, that our way is the best way.



We will spend the next two or three weeks studying chapter 6 of our text, “Living by Vow.” This chapter is devoted to the central teaching of Zen Buddhism, the Great Heart of Wisdom Sutra. I can think of nothing, outside of practice itself that is more important to us than the Heart Sutra. Studying this sutra is a Dharma Gate. Please consider joining us this evening at 6:30 as we begin this study. As for Sunday, I will wait until Thursday afternoon to make a decision whether we will meet for Zazen or not. If everything goes well, we will likely meet, but I will let you know for sure by Friday morning.



By the way, today is the birthday of one of our most dedicated priests, Rev. Dai Shugyo. I will not reveal his age, but it is quite golden.



Be well

I Talk TOO Much!

With palms together,


Good Morning All,



We are preparing for Kathryn’s gall bladder surgery this coming Thursday. We are hopeful that it can be done the relatively “easy” way, but are concerned she will need the large incision variety due to some old scaring tissue. We would like things to go smoothly and perfectly. But, we never know how things will unfold. As a result of this, I will not be available for a few days after her operation, especially this coming Sunday for services at the Zendo. Rev. Dai Shugyo will be offering our precept renewal service unless you hear otherwise. We will keep you posted.



Just like in medicine, in Zen it is a truth that there are no perfect answers, nothing to measure ourselves or our practice against. We might think that stories of enlightenment, “successful” practices, and other highly subjective measures are standards, but the only true standard is within each of us as we go through our day and encounter each moment. I would like to believe I am a good Zen teacher, but I know I talk WAY TOO MUCH, even as I ask for student input, am diligent about seeking their understanding, I am listening far too often to myself in the process. This is not good practice for anyone, let alone a Zen teacher. I was reminded of this during my Dharma talks this past week in sesshin. I can get pretty long-winded it would seem. Awareness, though, is only half the battle in this effort. Becoming aware, sitting on your hands (as my old Chess teacher used to demand of me) is an excellent beginning, but then, we must shut up and listen. There is a great teaching in this.



What is this teaching? Well, if Master Dogen was correct, and I believe he was, when we let our body/mind fall away, myriad teachers appear. If we do not allow ourselves to get over ourselves we never really learn and this is a true shame as it is a waste of our lives and a disservice to those around us who have wonderful things to teach us.



Be well

Sesshin Concludes

With palms together,


Good Afternoon All,



This morning we concluded O-higan sesshin (intensive meditation retreat) with the traditional ceremony for feeding the Hungry Ghosts, segaki. This was one of my late teacher’s favorite ceremonies. When he performed it he used sweet cakes wrapped in white paper as offerings. This year I decided to use the more traditional rice and water. I think it was one of his favorites for two reasons, which may actually be one: the literal feeding of the hungry ghosts. He loved the cakes!



We each have a hungry ghost within us, just as we have the buddha-nature within us. Hungry Ghosts are those aspects of ourselves with insatiable desires but narrow throats: we can never get enough of that which we desire and so we suffer.



In our ceremony each participant wrote down the names of those who died this year or of those we knew were suffering. We also wrote down the things we’ve down which created suffering for others and/or ourselves. Each of us then approached the altar and placed the folded paper in a bowl. We then had an opportunity to offer rice and water to our hungry ghosts thus nourishing them. We finished by offering incense. All of this went on while we chanted the Kannon Sutra. After each of us approached the altar and the chanting was concluded, we went outside and burned our papers while chanting the Great Heart of Wisdom Dharani. It is quite a moving ceremony.



Our newest Ino trainee, Dianna, performed her tasks with a great deal of grace and concentration. She was the only sangha member who completed the entire sesshin with me. We had long hours of sitting alone together in the Zendo. It was a delight to have her presence there. I also want to thank Dharma Teacher Reba Zen Shin Montero for her participation and service as our tea master, and in one case, our Doshi.



Our next sesshin will occur at Rohatsu, the celebration of the Buddha’s enlightenment, which will begin on December 4th. In the meantime we have Zazenkai ( a day of meditation) scheduled October 5 and November 2. You might want to put these in your calendar. Lastly, don’t forget we have Study Group in the Zendo each Tuesday evening at 6:30 PM and an online Study Group on Fridays using Google “Hangout.”



Be well.