Living Zen

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

My goodness, a late start on writing. Each morning I sit down to write. It is part of my practice. Usually this practice occurs after zazen, after my walk, and before breakfast. But today is different. Its a new day. I am stepping out of my box. When we do something a little different, news views appear before us. Writing in daylight, with the day well begun, offers a somewhat different platform.

This morning I went to the lab and had blood drawn in anticipation of my annual physical next week. While sitting in the waiting room I read a piece out of my Dharma Grandfather's book, "The Kyosaku". He was talking about Zazen as practice realization. This is such an important point. And, as some have said, we in the West do not talk about enlightenment enough.

Matsuoka Roshi was teaching from Master Dogen's Genjo Koan. He was linking practice realization to every moment Zen, or what he liked to call Mokusho Zen, Living Zen. I teach this as thusness: It is the Zen of this finger on this key at this moment with appreciation and complete awareness of both the key and finger and the finger and key's impermanence. We sit upright, body as buddha, we place our mind, mind as buddha: things come, things go, only buddha. We get off our cushion, body is buddha, we take a step, step as buddha. We sip our coffee, coffee is buddha; grandchild cries, we cry. We care, the universe is cared for; the universe cares, we are cared for. No duality exists, yet there it is.

Our mind arises from an organic combination of chemicals and electrical impulses. We should not confuse our mind with reality. Yet, our mind creates a reality so billions and billions of realities exist, all framed up by little cells with electrical charges flowing, interconnecting, interdependent. No organic compound, conditioned just right: no mind. No awareness.

In our practice, we ask that we approach the cushion with great faith, faith in the ancestors, in the buddha way. Our faith is in our practice. We sit. Five minutes zazen; five minutes buddha. But make no mistake, have faith, one day five minutes buddha, eternal buddha.

With palms together,
A bow to each of you.