A Day

With palms together,

Good Afternoon Sangha,

 

This morning I went out the door early. A full sun, a cool breeze, and an appointment at the dermatologist's office.  The doc and I are buds, we went to the same graduate school. Anyway, I ran down to his office and entered.  It was a three mile run and by the time I got there, it was a tad warm.  I arrived 15 minutes early, as I had planned so that I could have a little time to cool off and wash up in the restroom. As I began washing off with cold water, the nurse told me he was ready to see me, so sweat and all, I walked into the exam room. 

 

He enters right away, we chat for a minute comparing babies (his) grandbabies (mine).  He asks why I'm so sweaty.  I tell him I jogged to his office.  He said I was crazy.  I agreed. He did, however, support my craziness.

 

He numbs the skin on my neck, cuts a chunk out and gave me a couple of scripts. I go back in two weeks.

 

Well.  Added up, I was in and out in 15 minutes.  Way early. My Little Honey was supposed to pick me up at the docs an hour later.  So. I ran more.  I asked the clerical staff to let Judy know I was at the Barnes & Nobles bookstore and off I went.  Another mile.

 

At B & N I browsed through the poetry, religion, philosophy, and running sections for anything new or that piqued my interest.  I asked about a new book out by the guy who saved all those souls in Ruwanda.  Not in. I heard him on CNN or NPR or somewhere.

 

Little Honey arrives and we have lunch at the Bountiful Bakery. After a vegan sandwich, we then went to get the taxes done.  Glad that is out of the way.

 

We are now at home, the temperature on my car thermometer said it was 95 degrees.

 

Life comes and goes like that.  Both Pepper and Tripper were happy to see us, but quickly went back to sleep on their respective spots on the floor.

 

Tonight we will go to the local Temple's Seder, drink a few glasses of wine, eat some matza, and enjoy.

 

For those Jewish Buddhists among us, Happy Pesach!  For those Christian Buddhists, Happy Easter!

 

Total miles run: 4.0  

 

Be well.

Harvey So Daiho Hilbert

 

May All Beings Be Free From Suffering
On the web at http://www.daihoji.org/
and http://daihoji.blogspot.com/

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Self and the Relativity of Truth

With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,

On my Yahoo 360 blogsite, there is a place called a "Blast." It enables the blogger to make a quick little statement, ask a question, etc. Every morning I create a new "Blast" statement and change the color theme of the blog. I feel this keeps things fresh and present.

This morning's blast thought was about individuality. When we allow our indentification with "self" to fall away, then all sorts of things are made possible. Dogen suggests that everything becomes our Teacher. This is so because we have no self acting as a hindrance. It goes deeper than that, however.

When we cease indentifying with this "self" and this "body" then death and life themselves cease to carry weight. We can become aware of the great stream of living and dying, like the ocean's tide, eternally flowing.

More, with no individual self, everything can be more clearly understood in its relation to everything else: a great web or net containing both point and interconnection.

To say we cease identifying with self does not mean self does not exist. It means self is understood in its proper relation to the universe. In this sense we begin to identify with the great vastness, understanding the relativity of all things.

It is in this understanding that we begin to see truth as both relative and absolute simultaneously.

Be well.

Is everyone eating leftovers?

Master Dogen writes: The ordinary states, the outer ordinary states --- bamboo in the mountains, cypresses in the yard. Partial sage,ultimate sage --- spring flowers, autumn moon.
When you have attained the realm of Zen, there is no Zen; when you clarfy the realm of desire, there is no desire.
There is no one in the whole world who understands Buddhism --- everyone is eating leftovers.
To say it is like something would miss it --- it is not in the company of myriad things. What stages are there? What do you want with the beyond?

Eihei Koroku (translated by Cleary)


Our practice of the Buddha Way is our practice of the Buddha way. Yours is not mine. Each of us must enter the gate ourself. My words to you are like shit. They mean little to nothing, mere tracks of one who has gone before.

When we experience the wind in our face, the shock of a sound, or the smell of a corpse or flower, we are experiencing ourselves. As I paint a picture, it is just a painting of a picture. Quite different from your actual experience.

I urge you to practice the Buddha Way for yourself. What does this mean? Nothing really. Just stop and sit still. Create an opprtunity for you to experience the universe as it is, rather than as you think it is.

Be well.

Doing and Not Doing

With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,

Is there time in your day for yourself? A moment where you can stop and be still, opening yourself to everything by not doing?

If we do not create such time and opportunity, we waste away. Living well requires both motion and stillness, doing and non-doing. If we tend to a plant too much it will die. If we tend to it too little, it will also die. We are the same.

How much of each is sufficient? In human terms, what is tending and non-tending?

Very excellent questions. Questions these are for your practice of living your life.

The most important thing is to both answer them, then practice!

Life is short, you have a precious opportunity, get going!

Be well.

Life or Fiction, Which is Your Preference!

With palms together,
Good Afternoon All,

In the world of the everyday, we are prone to easily lose our grip. We think constantly, telling ourselves all sorts of things, creating worlds upon worlds of thoughts and feelings about the ideas we create. At some point we need to clearly understand that this world we create is not real, but rather, a fiction. It is a mental construction and truly means nothing. In fact it can become a hindrance to our life.

When we are living in the fictional world of our thoughts, ideas, and feelings, we are not experiencing our true, actual lives. When we live in a "belief system" that system organizes, colors, and frames our experience. This is not actual experience, this is filtered and distorted thought-as-experience.

How can we truly appreciate our life when we are so busy thinking about it?

When practicing Zazen we are experiencing our self. There is no other self. Just this self, just this moment. All moments past are seen as thoughts in motion. All moments future are thoughts in motion. Zazen clarifies. When we are on the cushion, present in the here and now, witnessing our actual self as it is, then we are Buddha.

Do we need to give up our goals? Do we need to stop thinking?

No! Of course not. What this means is that we practice to see clearly what is what. That is, what is in relation to what? Thoughts are thoughts, that is all. Goals are thoughts made into objectives with a plan to attain them, but they remain mental constructs. We suffer in direct relation to how closely we hold them and how we use them. If we hold them close, are highly invested in them, use them as some sort of litmus test for ourselves to assess our value, then we are giving them far too much power and are, in effect, using them to eclipse our actual, real life in the here and now. We do not need to supplant our actual life with thoughts and beliefs, living in hopes and dreams. We can live in this life, with this self, as it is, and appreciate it for the blessing that it is. We do this when we make sure we are our lives and not our mental constructs. Another way of saying this is to live deliberately with open eyes.

Be well.

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Be well.

Sesshin

With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,

We begin our Hannamatsuri Sesshin this evening at the Refuge in the mountains. We gather ourselves to sit in meditation in order to both relieve suffering and prepare ourselves to relieve suffering. In this period we recall the birth of the Buddha, honoring this man with sweet tea and flowers. We will sit for the next few days, eat in mindful silence, work in mindful silence, and practice deeply together the six paramitas of generosity, morality, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom.

Our Zen Center practices extended periods of Zazen monthly as a day of mindfullness (Zazenkai) and quarterly as weekend Sesshin. During these periods we practice as monastics with a long sitting schedule, periods of samu (work meditation) and study periods. The time is spent in mindful silence with a minimum of verbal interaction. The purpose is to deliberately slow down both mind and body, cast our senses inward, and develop and deepen our personal awareness to the extent that, paradoxically, this "self" drops away.

As this happens, our true, compassionate nature is given an opportunity to bloom. During this time, my hope is that each of you will practice in some way with us, that you may each be part of the eternal garden of life.

I will, of course, be offline during this time.

Be well.