Morning Zen

 

Morning Zen is like morning light. While it is dark outside, I feel the light within. In the black robe, It is time for me to greet the dawn.  Reciting the Verse of Repentance, The Three Refuges, and the Wisdom Heart Sutra, I set myself upright and set my intention for the day as I begin to practice zazen.  Master Dogen says when we study the Buddha Way, we study ourselves and in that study mind and body fall away. When this happens, he say, we are enlightened by the myriad things. And so it goes; day buy day, hour by hour, minute by minute, moment by moment.

Be well, be free

Daiho

Peace

 

Awake on the right side of the grass this morning. It’s always refreshing to see the sun and hear the birds. The air is cool today. The morning espresso was more than usually welcome. I cancelled our morning Zen Service this morning in deference to the Christian holiday of Easter.  Easter, like Passover, is a holiday of hope, a hope for peace, and yet here we are still warring with one another both figuratively and actually. Will we ever learn to stop using violence and hate speech to address our differences and conflicts? Given the history of humanity, I somehow doubt it. This saddens me greatly.

War and threats of war rarely, if ever, are useful. Instead, they widen differences, create fear and rationales for further conflict. It seems to me, those who consider themselves to be followers of Jesus ought to beat their swords into plows, sowing seeds of understanding, love, and peace.  After nearly eighty years of life and witness to war and threats of war, I should be far more pessimistic than I am. Instead, I am hopeful, hopeful that the Christ, the Buddha, will rise in the hearts of our civilizations and open the skies to let the sunshine of peace shine in. 

May we each find our way,

Daiho

Discipline

 

Once again at 4:00 AM, I woke up this morning and sat zazen outside with the moon and stars. I am so very grateful for this opportunity each morning as I have no idea how many such mornings I have left in my life. Then at 6:00 AM, I sat a morning Zen service with a small group of Zensters.  These are moments that offer an opportunity to set my intention for the day to come, explore my place in this vast universe, and remind me indeed of the universe’s vastness. There is nothing like sitting out in the open under the stars.

                I remember early mornings back in the late sixties when I sat under a willow tree in my backyard in Miami Florida. I sat with mosquitoes and “no see ‘ums” trying to maintain my posture and stillness. And then years later sitting in my meadow in the mountains of southern New Mexico and on the streets of Las Cruces… it took quite an effort on my part, believe me. But there I sat and I think that discipline has served me well over the decades of practice.  

                I’m not sure what “served me well” actually means I just know that I can sit nearly anywhere at anytime and remain in stillness. Maybe that’s enough. Try it, you might like it!

Daiho