Sweeping Zen

Regarding the Sweeping Zen website:

Hello All, as a frequent contributor both of blogs and money to Sweeping Zen, I am deeply concerned that the site will be taken down without notice. I urge you each to download your contribution as soon as possible. I have asked Adam if he would allow me and two friends to take over the site. He has declined that offer, including an offer to purchase it. As a result I will, with my colleagues, establish a new website of the same type. If you have an interest in contributing your articles, please contact me at daihoroshi@gmail.com thank you

Freedom

With Respect To All,

Today was a day at the house, my new refuge, where I cleaned up the back yard, moved some furniture around creating a spot to sit under my large tree, and fixed a few things like the drippy faucet in the kitchen.

So, I began streaming “Dead Poet’s Society,” an old favorite of mine, took a break for some dark chocolate and coffee to sit under that tree. While there, Suki hoped up on the bench beside me and sat down. It occurred to me just then how marvelous the “Dead Poet’s Society” film actually was: it celebrates true freedom. The best and most important kind…freedom of thought.

We seem to have denied ourselves that freedom no matter how much we protest we haven’t. Most of us are decidedly not free. We follow. We conform. And we suffer from our own paralysis as our freedom to be free atrophies. We are afraid to be free, afraid to be truly different, and as a result the road less travelled is barely worn.

Zen is an antidote to that failure. In Zen our practice is to cut through our deluded minds, minds that require conformity to feel safe or to belong. The sword of the bodhisattva Manjushri is compelled to swing deep and strong, cutting away the garbage we believe is thought, but in reality is nothing more than talking points at best and bumper sticker slogans at worst.

What have we done to ourselves? Mindless, thoughtless, beings who simply “watch” the news, the dramas, and the comedies while all around us snoring drowns out the sounds of life on our planet. We have only ourselves to blame as each of us has the capacity to set out on life’s journey with enthusiasm, perhaps painting or drawing, perhaps writing, perhaps taking acting classes or literature classes or any other form of personal education that allows us to see differently.

I recall sitting at a cafe counter one time long ago in Miami reading T. S. Eliot I think, when the waitress asked me what I was reading. When I told her she asked if I were a student. When I said no, she seemed shocked and actually asked me why I was reading the book. What’s that about?

And so, dear friends, I ask you, what’s your passion? What’s your path? How can you break out of the bonds of lemming hood and truly walk in your own freedom?

Yours,

Daiho

On Robes

With respect,
How great the robe of liberation, a formless field of merit...
A recent thread on Facebook began to discuss the wearing of robes at public protests and demonstrations. Many readers opposed the practice essentially saying robes were for the Zendo. I have a different view.
When s priest, as well as lay people, take the precepts it should mean something. They are taking refuge in the Three Treasures, they are vowing to manifest the Three Pure Precepts and vowing to honor the Ten Grave Precepts. I wonder what it is they think those Three Treasures and Three Pure Precepts are all about. They are not just words. They are meant to help us shift our identity from the individual to the universal. The Four Great Vows are invitations to do the same.
I think robes and the questions around them reflect our ambivalence regarding our public priesthood and sense of being clergy here in America.
Being a priest for me is a non-dualistic. It is a full time occupation and until recently I wore robes often and nearly always at public events. It was my way of honoring and perhaps manifesting, the Buddha Way and maintaining the tradition. I am now quasi-retired but, I still put on the Buddha Robe when at public events. It’s an important means, in my opinion, of stating what Zen Buddhism is all about: bringing about abundant good for all beings. It also says, “Here I Am.”
Such a message is lost if the wearing of our robes only occurs in the Zendo. How can we make people be aware of our presence in a community if we only

practice in the shadows or in the proverbial closet. If we are granted the right to wear a robe and are a priest why hide it? Maybe others will be inspired by our presence and see that at least one faith tradition is not afraid to be seen supporting or opposing an important issue.

The Natural Practice

The Natural Practice

It is nearly midnight on a Sunday night. The sky is filled with dark clouds and there are a few raindrops falling to earth. I know this because I often practice zazen, as I just did, outside in the open air. 

Such practice reminds me of the Buddha and his followers, practicing and living as they did, outside exposed to the elements. Rain, snow, heat, wind, no matter: they practiced their lives without anything but a bowl and a robe.

There is something wonderful about that practice.  We sit with the earth and sky as they are and we learn “as they are” is enough. Simple, straightforward practice with the world as it is.

Such practice allows us to experience the distractions of a fly landing on one’s face, searching for something and scampering along over nose and eye brows.  We don’t disturb the fly.  We simply witness it. Through such experiences we learn something: we don’t have to move.  We can just sit.

To just sit is to stop.  Stopping is something we rarely do. Our mind is always in motion.  Always demanding something of us, yet through our practice those demands are just like the breeze across our face or that fly squatting down to rest on the tip of our nose. Something to experience.  Something to let go. 

May we each find it in ourselves to retreat outside, paying attention without engaging. 

The reward is the practice itself.

Pro-Life?

An Pro-Life Rant:

Pay attention so-called "Pro-Lifers." Your wish is likely to come true. And all your toxic rants regarding abortion will be retired. Yet, most of you like to talk about the consequences of people's actions, so let's just do that, OK?

What do you suppose the consequences will be when millions of unwanted or accidental pregnancies are forced to come to term? The mother forced against her will to deliver a baby she does not want, nor likely in many cases, cannot deal with? Adoption? Foster Care? Really good choices right? The cost of those unwanted children, both to the children themselves, the families, and the state and federal governments will be lifelong and very, very high, both financially and psychologically. Forcing someone to do with their body what they don't want to do is atrocious.

Maybe, as a partial solution we ought force men to have vasectomies, right? Or force men to stay in unloving relationships to care for a child they never asked for nor want? After-all, its not just about te mothers, you know? But I don't hear you jumping up and down about that. Poor guy.

And then we have desperation and the coat hanger solution. Oh, but wait, we can now charge the woman with variations of murder. Court costs, psychological trauma, prison and probation costs, right, that's such a f*cking GOOD idea. So, a woman climbs into a tub with water and a coat hanger. Good grief, where has your sense of decency and compassion gone? Oh, right, to the fetus (NOT UNBORN CHILD, that's an oxymoron). 

There are a few "pro-lifers" who get a lukewarm pass from me, those who are consistent and truly value life, all life, including being against the death penalty, war, and other forms of killing human beings who are actually born. But for the vast majority, no pass. You call yourselves pro-life but go to war and kill. You call yourselves pro-life and support the death penalty. You call yourselves pro-life but elect a man who has single-handedly set in motion the dismantling of the EPA with potentially life threatening events like allowing corporations to dump their waste in our nation's water supplies. 

Frankly you both make me sick and morally disgusted. Let's hope your daughters don't find themselves in such a situation. But wait! Those among you, especially well-off Republicans, can afford to fly your girls to Canada, can't you? Hypocrites.

What are we afraid of?

With palms together,

Lately I've had some dialogue with my friend Randy Harris, who leads our local "Great Conversation" on the topic of free speech v. hate speech. It seems to me it all boils down to the question, "do you feel safe?" In fact, many universities are now touting they are "safe" zones and, as a result, disallow speech that is "offensive" or "hurtful." 

Frankly, I think this is a grave mistake, especially in an institution of higher learning. It is a dangerous path to take as it disallows alternative views so that we do not get to hear what our adversaries may be thinking or doing. Moreover, I believe it is an assault on the First Amendment. And for what? To protect our feelings? Are our feelings so important that we take away a speaker's right to speak?

No. They are not. Our feelings are subjective, they are ours; deal with them.

Because they are subjective, the litmus test to remove a speaker, professor, or student, must also be. As we all know (I hope) all of us respond differently to perceptions. and all of us perceive differently. Since this is so, there simply cannot be an objective test regards so-called "hate speech." 

When we do respond to speech that is hurtful or offensive, it ought not be related to our feelings being hurt, but rather to any threat that might be contained within it. Being vulnerable is a part of adult life. Adults don't cry to their mothers that their feelings were hurt. They make themselves stronger though directly dealing with the situation.

The Dharma

With palms together,
Good Evening All,

The Dharma is incomparably profound and minutely subtle. It is rarely encountered in hundreds of millions of kalpas. We can now see it and hold it. May we understand the Tathagata's true meaning.

Lofty words signifying nothing.  The dharma is reality and reality is empty, which is to say, it is constantly changing, but more, it is perceived differently by each and every one of us. So what's so profound?  What's so subtle? Have we rarely encountered it?

I believe we each encounter the dharma on a moment to moment basis. The universe lays itself before us in each breath.  Do we breathe? It spreads itself out as we walk, do we walk?   It is as open as the sky, do we see it?

Some of us answer yes, some no.  Most of us are far too busy (we believe) to encounter it at any time, let alone when asked to.   Yet, there it is, the dharma.  What we don't do is see it and hold it, nor do we attempt to grasp its true meaning.

The Tathagata, meaning "one who thus came" is just another word for Buddha.  What is his true meaning?  I mean the meaning of the life that he lived and the teachings he brought into the world through his body, mind, and speech?  Funny, in my view his teachings aren't "the dharma," but rather a reflection of it.  Just as mindfulness practice is not mindfulness. When I see reality directly, that is dharma, when I later speak of it or write about it, that is not dharma, but my recollection of it.

True dharma, then, is only that which we directly experience.  It is why zen teachers ask students not to read so much.

May we each put down our books and sit quietly inside or outside.  May we each breathe in the universe and exhale ourselves.  May our minds and bodies fall away.  May we experience.

Be well

Practice, Part Two

Practice, Part Two

From a Zen point of view there is only practice. Everything is practice. Every breath, every taste, touch, sound, and thought is practice when properly understood.

What does "properly understood" mean? That's the great question, the question answered only in our practice itself. We sit down. We shut up. We listen with all of our senses. As we do so, its as if we are on an escalator. As we rise, we drop away parts of our mind and body, we drop away the escalator. We drop away up and down, right or left. "We" drop away.

What is left is the gate itself: proper understanding or what is sometimes referred to as "Right Understanding." The full integration of body, heart, mind, and environment. We might call this oneness itself.

In this place of proper understanding our eyes are open, as is our heart and mind. It becomes possible for the other elements of the Eightfold Path to manifest. Without proper understanding we are adrift in a boat without an oar or rudder. When we step outside of our practice we view the world in parts, there is you and me, inside and outside, up and down.

Yet, as a continuing result of our practice we begin to appreciate the world around us much more deeply and certainly more directly.

Practice, Part One

Part One

With palms together,

Good Evening Everyone,

Tonight I sip a glass of wine, cheap red wine, and consider my life. I believe it is a function of being an elder, to sit idly by witnessing the stars, the sun and moon, the clouds and the breeze, and (for me) most of all, the night. My pet words are "morning light." I have used them to inspire not a few poems, an unfinished novel, and the hope that arrises with the dawn.

The practice of Zen is the practice of life itself. To sit still, if only for a few moments in the middle of a breath, and any chaos, thoughts or feelings that swirl around you and you respond like a duck floating on water, that is Zen. We too often think Zen is other worldly. It is not. It is as down home as Mom's Apple Pie or Judge Judy setting the entitled straight.

I have practiced most of my entire life. Sitting formally, chanting, lighting incense, bowing, shaving my head, (all well and good) but not so much Zen. Yet, at the same time, it is exactly Zen.

And the teachers of Zen? Most of the senior teachers I know are, indeed, senior. They either write or don't write, converse or don't converse. They are neither themselves nor their teacher. As a result, they are truly nobody. Perhaps a footnote to some, an angel to others and possibly an antagonist to most. It is one of our roles, after-all, to bring discomfort to the complacent; to jar our minds to the point where we lose our minds, all the while, bring us to life free once again in an all too structured and sleepy village.

End Part One

Empty

Good Afternoon All,

My study group is tackling the most central sutra of Zen Buddhism, The Great Heart of Wisdom Sutra. The sutra is the core teaching of Zen. Its about "no" and suggests how we understand "no" may set us free. Free, but from what? Well, now, that's an interesting question. In a way, free from the constraints of mind. In another way, free from our history, our beliefs, and ultimately, free from ourselves.

The sutra alleges that pretty much everything is "empty." Even the quest for enlightenment is "empty." Now, this "emptiness" is quite something. It does not mean "empty" as in my cup is empty of tea. This emptiness is about the relative or "conditioned" nature of existence. All things, everything, exists because the conditions for their existence are present. When these "conditions no longer exist, the thing falls away and returns to the source. Because something has no "permanence" that very thing is "empty." What does any of this mean to us in our everyday lives?

Be careful about what you lean on.

Gassho

Matsuoka-roshi Chanting Hannya Shin Gyo

Here is a link to a YouTube file of Matsuoka-roshi chanting the Hannya Shin Gyo

Being

Good Morning All,

Back in the 60's ands 70's, "Becoming" was a popular notion.  It felt as if we all were given the opportunity to be re-born into a state of freedom.  This freedom was intoxicating.  It was delicious. We felt free to explore our personal identity, meaning, and ultimate purpose.  We explored our sexuality, our politics, our drugs, our religion and its spirituality.  We explored music, dance, and art. It was a scary era in a sense, as we had no idea what the consequences of an unbridled freedom may mean.

I discovered Zen in this mix, being introduced to it through martial arts and "The Way of Zen" by Alan Watts.  Through karate i learned of Bodhidharma and the Shaolin temple.  I learned about "mind like water."  What truly fascinated me, though, was sitting zazen under a willow tree and in public parks.  I often sat in the gardens of "Vizcaya" in Coconut Grove.  It was a beautiful time, a time filled with hope and anxiety.

I read about a philosophical conflict between "being" and "becoming." Like freedom and determination, I thought there ought to be no reason the two might not be two sides of the same coin, much like samsara and nirvana. What I have come to over the years is this:  becoming is like wishful thinking, a delusion; being is all there is.

It appears we are becoming only because we remember prior states.  But in truth, each moment is complete as it is. While life may appear to be a string of frames that when looked at together form a movie, We ought not forget each frame is the entire universe within it. The memory of frames make us believe there was a yesterday and, hence, a tomorrow.  So many of us are stuck in one or the other, so much so, that we diminish the value of this precise frame, the frame of now.

Instead, might we look more deeply into this present moment frame, this frame of being.  May we each in this moment the freedom of our true nature.

Gassho

Kill the Children...

With respect to all,

Killing or torturing children is, apparently, a popular pass time in the United States. It is not new, having a very long history in factories, sweatshops, and homes. The first case of child abuse was prosecuted using cruelty to animals as a legal basis because there were no laws protecting children in the US at the time. Today we have children kept in chains, forced starvation, and, of course, used as targets for deranged people with guns.

So we argue that we should ban guns. Seems simple. Yet misses the most important issue: why do people want to harm children in the first place? The history, breadth and depth of child abuse and neglect, should teach us that any weapon will do. It feels right to ban the weapon. It feels as though we are "doing something" about killing innocents. But violence is not about the weapon, its about violence. And we in the United States, are obsessed with violence. We don't go to a movie unless there is an incredible amount of gratuitous violence, we support corporal punishment, and we give up parenting because its too hard (or because to parent means we are not our child's friend).

We Americans often miss the mark as we too often want simple, direct, and sexy answers. War is sexy, lets not negotiate or mediate, lets "bomb them back into the stone age." We use bumper sticker logic, "Spare the rod, spoil the child," Someone shoots someone take away their gun. Right, problem solved. Not even close.

Unless and until we are willing to look at root causes, consider less sexy, but more appropriate and effective measures, we will suffer the consequences. How hard is that? Very.

Yours, Daiho Hilbert