Defining the Spiritual Situation

With palms together,

Good Afternoon Sangha,

 

I beg your indulgence here.  I am working out some thoughts.

 

This morning I went out for the first time in three days.  My Little Honey dropped me off at the Bountiful Bakery where I ate a fruit cup and sipped coffee while the rabbi and I discussed meditation with the group.  We then got into a discussion about the Gospel of Judas, God, Jesus and the whole enchilada. Within this discussion the notion of our images of God became noticable.

 

Images of God are so interesting to me, as they seem reflections of a person's spiritual presence and growth. If we are interested in people these images become very informative, revealing much of what is underneath the public surface. Those needing punitive images, mean old granddads, in the sky are on one side, those without need for an image at all on the other.  Most everyone is somewhere sandwiched in between and the sandwich is, per chance, getting tighter.

 

Images of God can become in-service to political and societal needs. Fear creates one sort of need, love another, acceptance still another, forgiveness yet another..  Depending on our definition of the spiritual situation, God and the image we create for him changes.  It is important to see this. As it reveals much about who we are and more importantly still, who we are becoming.

 

In times of turmoil and uncertainty, human beings want or need a degree of comfort.  We have a felt need for control and God becomes the agent we apply to. In times of oppression, God becomes a hero who frees us from our slavery. In times of plenty, we are free to reach for self-actualization and God becomes a partner in the manifestation of this effort.

 

In today's world, there is a growing conflict between vastly different needs for, and understandings of,  God.  On the one hand, the sweep of change, rapid information flow, explosive growth of knowledge, fuels tremendous fear on the part of those either disenfranchised by that change or those who are a part of a group being dragged along by the force of such a change.  On the other hand, there are those who are leading the change.  These are the modernists, the scientists, developers, capitalists, and the highly skilled and trained information specialists.

 

A question arises in the midst, is there a God unaffected by our needs? Do we matter to God? Is God on the one hand "Wholly Other" or are we infinately "One with Him"?

Is God an anthropomorphic reflection or a stand alone deity?  What is the spiritual situation?

 

When contemplating a circle, one first notices its completeness.  Something is "inside", something, "outside."   Human beings use images to describe thoughts and feelings, attempting to put into a form an abstraction. Infinite is often understood as a vast unbroken circle. The universe a large bubble. We use nouns to name, verbs as action words. Names, by defintion limit the picture. The Hebrew name for God is not a noun, but a verb phrase, I am that I am, I will be that which I will be. And so on. As with God we soon we ask what is outside of infinity?

 

Miamonides could only define God by negation, as any attempt to positively assert what God was limited God: a paradoxical statement.

 

Could it be that God is both subject and object, inside and outside, dependent and independent of human beings? Do we create God and are we at the same time created by God?

 

Systems theory offers us a way of approaching this question.  Systems theory simply allows us to see infinately, one system in relation to another in relation to another.  Some larger, some smaller, but all interconnected and dependent on all others. There is no "largest" system. No "smallest" system. No outside of infinite. Perspective forms definition and definition forms perspective. We are limited only by our willingness and ability to detail and expand the eco-system.

 

From a Zen Buddhist perspective, God is or is not, may be or may not be. Like all things, we are because other things are, we are not because other things are not. Causation has no beginning or no end.  Such things as beginnings and ends are human inventions created by a limited ability of our mind to grasp infinitude..  In this sense, Zen is neutral on the matter of God.  It is this very neutrality that makes it possible for a Zen practitioner to become clear on God, so to speak. And perhaps is one reason why so many people come to Zen or other forms of Buddhism as a practice starting point.

 

When you sit down and consider God, your consideration paints a picture of your needs. Your need-set interacts with others, sometimes in concordance sometimes in conflict.  Regardless of how, the need-set points to an image of God which is then linked to a particular role for both the practitioner and the congregant, as well as the religious institution itself.

 

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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The Present Moment

With palms together,
Godd Morning Sangha,

Typically I sit half lotus with left ankle on right thigh. My body has accommodated this stable position and I settle into it easily. Such habits are not good and we should arouse outrselves from them. This morning I sat reversing this half lotus and felt my body not settle. This tension assists me in staying in the moment and not falling asleep in the habit of body and mind.

I have talked at some length about birth and death. Coming and going, as it were, the processes of the life cycle of the universe. These are but imaginings. The past, as does the future, do not exist except in the mind's eye. They are chimera and take us away from what is real, this very moment.

Process is a delusion. We only understand it when we take our mind's eye and leap out of the immediate moment as if to say we can thus see a panorama of time. Each moment contains all others, past and future. All birth and death are here right now. Yet how false this is. As each birth and death, each thought coming and going, are fiction.

We live only in the moment and are asleep all other times. This moment presents itself the universe as it is and only can be. A hand goes out, we offer a dollar. A child cries, we offer our breast. We are hungry, we eat, when we are sleepy, we sleep. We do what we do as it is to be done.

In this a community of the moment arises. A faith-based community that assumes we each are present and doing what needs to be done. We call this community sangha. It becomes our ground. Just as the Buddha offers us a way, and the Dharma, a teaching on reality, the Sangha provides the foundation.

Be well.

The Three Pure Precepts

With palms together,
Good Afternoon Sangha,

This afternoon I would like to talk to you about the Three Pure Precepts. These are the first precpets after the Three Refuges in the list of Sixteen Bodhisattva Vows. The Three Pure Precepts are as follows: Cease doing evil; Do good; Do good for all beings.

To cease doing evil is really simple. One just stops doing bad stuff. What bad stuff, you ask? Anything that harms another being. Within this precept are all the others. Ahimsa, that old Hindu concept of non-harming is at the source. If we at least do not harm, we are doing well.

Second, a positive precept, do good. What good? Anything that will be good to do. Good and bad do not exist independently of our behavior, We must bring good into the world, just as we cease bringing bad into the world. All it takes is a willingnerss to be present and do what is necessary.

Third, bring about good for all beings, now this one is a challenge. Its a call to social action, like the Jewish concept of T'zadikah or Christian charity. We are not isolated beings, living on islands apart from each other. We are on a planet where the whole eco-system is interdependent on us. We should care for all beings, nurture all beings, be well in a world of pain and suffering and bring a relief to as much suffering as we can. This is a challenge for most of us as we tend to live as if we are in bubbles. As we all know, however, bubbles are quite delicate and are esily popped. None of us can afford social isolation any more.

One need not be a Zen Buddhist to do these things. One simply needs to be willing to care.

Be well.

God

With palms together,

Good Morning Sangha,

 

Do not trust your point of view, it is as shaky as you are. Our points of view are all relative to our senses and the clarity with which they perceive. Even with the clearest perception, the result is a few chemical reactions in our brains which create a picture for us to see. A point of view is just that.  It is not the thing itself.

 

What is the thing itself?  In Zen Buddhism we call it suchness. That which is before perception. It has no name, desires no name. It is vast emptiness manifest.  Emptiness refers to lack of substance, lack of permanence. Some might "name" this "God." 

 

Names are odd, really.  They tend to be nouns in the English language. As such they can be very misleading. We often think because we name something, we either understand it or control it.  This is one of the psychological truths of biblical times. God tells Adam to go out and name all of the animals, suggesting that he will then have dominion over them.  Today, in many forms of psychotherapy, naming a problem is a tool employed to enable the patient to feel some control in their lives over against a problem.  Yet, these are devices only.  Tools of the trade, really. And they have limited value.

 

At some point in our spiritual development, such devices not only lose their value but become actual hindrances to our growth.  To understand God as a noun is to miss His true existence entirely.  To understand God as a verb also misses the mark. So if not a noun and not a verb, then what?  God and Vast Emptiness are beyond our ability to name them.

 

Here's the thing: there is no place where God is not. When we attain this then we see clearly. There is no thing that God is not. There is no voice that is not God. Not one place where God is not.  

 

In Zen Buddhism, we practice to realize such things, regardless of whether or not we are theists. The reality of God is not important.  In whatever His form, He is, or is not. Like the universe itself, we can take His existence for granted or not, it changes nothing except in ourselves. Call it universe, call it God, but appreciate it fully.

 

To understand ourselves as human beings misses the mark completely, as well. We too are works in progress. Not nouns, not verbs. In both cases we are left in boxes with tight lids on top.

 

The point of Zazen is to blow the lid off. Blow the lid off until we realize there is no box, nor a lid to blow, nor a blowing itself. There is just this.

 

It is *this* that is *suchness*.

 

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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Reality

With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,

From Cheng Li's Tales of Kwan Yin
Adapted by a friend from a translation by John Blofield

Transcendence

Now I have done with Su-tras

and pious practices.

Day and night I recite the Bo-dhi-sat-tva’s sacred name,

rejoicing in the beauty of it’s sound.

NOT for me it’s recitation in multiples of One-hundred and Eight,

as though it were a duty.

Does the runner count his breaths, the poet his words,

or the stream it’s ripples?

You sentient beings who seek deliverance,

why do you NOT let go?

When sad,

Let go of the cause of sadness.

When wrathful,

Let go of the occasion of wrath.

When covetous or lustful,

Let go of the object of desire.

From moment to moment,

be free from grasping

at the illusion of a permanent

or separate “self.”

Where there is

NO separate “self” to grasp,

there can be NO permanent sorrow,

NO graspable desire;

NO causally-separate “me” to weep,

NO compositionally-separate “me” to lust,

NO circumstantially-separate “being” to die

and NO perceptually-separate “being” to be reborn.

The winds of circumstance

blow across the infinite expanse

of NON-graspable emptiness.

Whom can they harm?

____________________________

This is the essence of the source of compassion. In the Heart Sutra we chant "No hindrance in the mind, therefore no fear." Once we are able to see through to the other side, be the other side, having never left; that is, realize this side and that side (birh and death, heaven and hell, samsara and nirvana, God and Me) are the same, two sides of the same coin, then there is no hindrance, nothing to fear, no self to be harmed. Nothing left but the vast processes of the universe and our vast compassion within them.

We establish our reality through our perceptions and these perceptions flow through our senses. While "objective reality" exists without our presence, it depends upon our perceptions of it for its definition in human terms. So, no human contact, no defintion. Some may say, themn, no existence. In this we must ask what is existence? Whast does it mean to be real? Does the tree falling in the forest make a sound? What is tree? Forest? Falling" Sound? Are these all not human concepts? No human, no human conceptualization, then?

Zazen.

Be well.

A Blackened Nose

With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,

There was once a nun who carried a gold leafed Buddha everywhee she wandered. She would light her incense offering each day, but did not wish to share it, so she created a devise which kept the incense from moving about, instead it was funneled in the the Buddha's nose. Over time, the gold leafed Buddha became particularly ugly with a blackened nose.


When we practice our lives, we are practicing for all beings, not for Buddhas and ourselves. Our practice should be for the benefit of others. To practice othewise is not the Buddha Way.

So, when we eat, we eat for all beings, recognizing the many lives that went into the food before us, the sharing of so many hands in creating it and bringing it to us. When we drink, we drink with all beings, refreshing ourselves, and thereby all others. When we work, we work for the benefit of all beings, and when we sleep, we sleep with all beings restoring our bodies, rebuilding muscle, resting our minds, and soothing our hearts.

When we live this way, there is no self. Just living this way. Attempting to keep life for ourselves blackens our nose.

Be well.

Another Day

With palms together,
Good Evening Sangha,

Rev. Gozen, my disciple and abbot of the Zen Center of Las Cruces, gave a wonderful talk this evening. He spoke of the moment before the word. We are so caught in words and ideas that we fail to really see. When we see with words and ideas, we aren't seeing reality. I sat in silence there with him in the Zendo feeling a number of things. I was listening intently and the Dharma was alive and present in the room with us. The tea was excellent. Ryan did a good job as both Ino and server of the tea. I made some mental notes to assist him in the future.

A small Zen Center is an intimate place. We sit in rows facing the great white wall, the scent of sandalwood incense slips to and fro, and the soft flicker of the candle is just enough light to feel warmed by its presence. Our bell is large and sits on a wonderful cushion. I remember finding it in a shop in San Francisco one day while attending a retreat with the Dalai Lama. On that journey I also found our Buddha statue and incense holder.

It is quite a task to establish a new Zen Center. Many small details. But the hearts beat and the many hands come together; soon we are there, sitting silently in rows supporting each other as we practice our Way.

So, this morning began with a lot of energy. My wife was to read her poetry at a local writer's group. I went with her. Her work, whimsical word portraits of our grandchildren, was warmly received. Lunch with friends at a restaurant where I happened to met a couple I married some time ago. Things between them are going well. I am happy for them. I drove Judy home, then went grocery shopping. After putting away the groceries, I rode my bike to the weekly peace vigil where I pulled my sign out of my backpack and stood for an hour in the afternoon sun. There were so many horns honking in support! Then the long ride home. A nice salad for dinner and a shower. Time to go to the Zen Center for Zazen.

Tonight I am here with you. Writing and offering some small voice. Tomorrow morning a walk in the desert, a meeting with the rabbi, a speedwork session and a weight workout. Life is good.

Be well.