With palms together,
Good Morning All,
Yesterday afternoon there were several police cars and emergency vehicles practically blocking the place. People were milling around talking and watching and waiting.
A five year old boy was found dead at the bottom of our complexes hot tub. There were lots of people swimmming in the pool adjacent to it. Attempts by several residents failed to recuscitate him and he was pronounced dead 45 minutes later at the hospital just a couple of minutes away.
The morning newspaper reports that there is a criminal investigation in progress.
My sense is that this investigation will focus on parental neglect as the mother was heard asking if anyone had seen her child and she was at the pool with him. We must, it seems, have someone to blame when such things happen.
My heart goes out to this family. Not only have they suffered the loss of a child, but now will suffer an investigation, public opinion, and possible criminal prosecution.
On one hand, this was a senseless and preventable death. Hot tubs are dangerous as the shift blood pressure and people can suffer injury in them as a result. Young children should not be allowed to "play" in them, and certainly not without close and immediate supervision.
On the other hand, holding a parent responsible for not watching a child every moment, or an apartment complex responsible for not having fences and signs and all manner of safeguards, is also a dangerous matter. Both create situations where someone must be held responsible always. Our legal system is flooded with such actions, both civil and criminal.
Left out of the equation often is the indivdual within situation, as well as a good and balanced sense of what the limitations are for us all in protecting each other from ourselves. Children are by their very nature curious and playful. They do not understand risk and have limited capacities for evaluating dangers. Many adults suffer the same or similar limitations. We do things without reading the labels, climb ladders with tons of stuff attached to out bodies, act as if we were flying squirrels and die, then our families sue. There should have been a warning about carrying two six packs, a hammer, a box of nails, a four 2x4s up an unopened step ladder braced against the wall of a house.
As faith based people, inclined toward a moral and spiritual path in life, we must focus our compassion on all concerned. Blame can be, but is not always, compassionate, although action to prevent further harm is. Shoulds and oughts are fine for the sake of discovering ways to prevent another injury, but do no real good in terms of correcting what has already happened. Judgement will not help us here. Good sense and an open heart will.
Our belief is, as insane as it is, that we should somehow be able to prevent every mis-step imaginable and if we don't then somehow we are remiss to the point of criminal culpability. When bad things happen to good people, and we are all good people, we must embrace each other with loving kindness and work hard at letting the judgements go.
Be well.
Monday, May 1, 2006
Sunday, April 30, 2006
The One and the Many
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
As we each sit down on our cushions this morning, each of us drops away, the universe seems to enter, and all drops join the sea. The sea is constant, the drops are momentary. The sea is momentary, the drops are constant.
What this means is simple. Everything is both one and many, this one and many is nothing other than words in the theatre of our mind however.
No one, not even the most solitary mountain hermit priest can be separate from anything. No one, not even in the most dense crowd is with others.
We are in each moment and are not in any other.
What does all this cryptic crap mean?
Sit Zazen and discover the truth for yourself.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
As we each sit down on our cushions this morning, each of us drops away, the universe seems to enter, and all drops join the sea. The sea is constant, the drops are momentary. The sea is momentary, the drops are constant.
What this means is simple. Everything is both one and many, this one and many is nothing other than words in the theatre of our mind however.
No one, not even the most solitary mountain hermit priest can be separate from anything. No one, not even in the most dense crowd is with others.
We are in each moment and are not in any other.
What does all this cryptic crap mean?
Sit Zazen and discover the truth for yourself.
Be well.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Remembrance
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
Some say we should never forget the bad things that happen. They inform us of what humanity is actually capable of, giving us a true sense of our power and a large look at our morality. Some say the past should be a testimony, victims of atrocity should be given a voice. That voice should echo through time.
I am not so sure.
While remembrance serves the above functions, I truly wonder to what end? I know that it has not been particularly useful or helpful for me to retain traumatic memories of combat. Images of killing and death that seem eternally there in technocolor, are easily tripped and like a trip-flare the explode in graphic sensory stereo. Like I really need this in a crowd at Disney World.
We bow our heads and pray. We recite blessings, or mantras, and become synchronous with all history. We sit on meditation cushions or pews in a church or Temple and commune with the Infinite, remembering what is possible, actually what is, just now in this moment. And do what?
Remembrance Days are sort of like Departments of War. Self-fulfilling agencies of tears. I would rather we spend our money and brains on waging peace, finding non-violent alternatives to killing so no other generations need Remembrance Days.
We spend so much effort on such yesterday, so little on today. Its as if our lives are only meaningful when we wrap them in the past. Yet that is like being stuck in the mud. Some of us these days seem to enjoy their old mud, but not me. I want new mud, or more precisely, no mud at all.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
Some say we should never forget the bad things that happen. They inform us of what humanity is actually capable of, giving us a true sense of our power and a large look at our morality. Some say the past should be a testimony, victims of atrocity should be given a voice. That voice should echo through time.
I am not so sure.
While remembrance serves the above functions, I truly wonder to what end? I know that it has not been particularly useful or helpful for me to retain traumatic memories of combat. Images of killing and death that seem eternally there in technocolor, are easily tripped and like a trip-flare the explode in graphic sensory stereo. Like I really need this in a crowd at Disney World.
We bow our heads and pray. We recite blessings, or mantras, and become synchronous with all history. We sit on meditation cushions or pews in a church or Temple and commune with the Infinite, remembering what is possible, actually what is, just now in this moment. And do what?
Remembrance Days are sort of like Departments of War. Self-fulfilling agencies of tears. I would rather we spend our money and brains on waging peace, finding non-violent alternatives to killing so no other generations need Remembrance Days.
We spend so much effort on such yesterday, so little on today. Its as if our lives are only meaningful when we wrap them in the past. Yet that is like being stuck in the mud. Some of us these days seem to enjoy their old mud, but not me. I want new mud, or more precisely, no mud at all.
Be well.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Home Leaving
With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,
Home Leaving or Shukke in the Japanese, is about many things but should mostly be understood in its pychological and emotional sense. When we leave home we are literaly leaving behind what we are comfortable with. All of our beliefs, our understandings, our connections near and dear, are left at our doorstep as we walk out into the desert. This preperatory act has been the same through millenia for those who are wishing to discover the deepest truths of existence. The Hebrews left Egypt, Moses left the Hebrews, Jesus went out in the desert for 40 days and nights, Buddha left his palace and wondered in the forests...when you think about it, every hero comtemporary or historical, spiritual or materialist, leaves what they know in order to receive that which they do not know.
There is a relatively new Zen story about this. An American comes to Japan and seeks the teaching of a Zen Master. The Master pours tea. As the cup overflows, the would be student shouts at the Master telling him that the cup is overflowing. The Master replies that the student must be empty to receive the teaching.
So home leaving is about this.
Zazen is home leaving in the present moment. Zazen asks us to sit down quietly and be in the moment, not in yesterday's moment, not in the appearance of being in the moment, not in tomorrow's moment, but this very moment as it is, purely and directly. We cannot do this if we are carrying around our assumptions, our beliefs, and our values for security, or as a blanket or light against the darkness and cold.
To be in the presence of the infinite one must drop away the known and take a cavernous step into the unknown.
Be well.
Good Morning Sangha,
Home Leaving or Shukke in the Japanese, is about many things but should mostly be understood in its pychological and emotional sense. When we leave home we are literaly leaving behind what we are comfortable with. All of our beliefs, our understandings, our connections near and dear, are left at our doorstep as we walk out into the desert. This preperatory act has been the same through millenia for those who are wishing to discover the deepest truths of existence. The Hebrews left Egypt, Moses left the Hebrews, Jesus went out in the desert for 40 days and nights, Buddha left his palace and wondered in the forests...when you think about it, every hero comtemporary or historical, spiritual or materialist, leaves what they know in order to receive that which they do not know.
There is a relatively new Zen story about this. An American comes to Japan and seeks the teaching of a Zen Master. The Master pours tea. As the cup overflows, the would be student shouts at the Master telling him that the cup is overflowing. The Master replies that the student must be empty to receive the teaching.
So home leaving is about this.
Zazen is home leaving in the present moment. Zazen asks us to sit down quietly and be in the moment, not in yesterday's moment, not in the appearance of being in the moment, not in tomorrow's moment, but this very moment as it is, purely and directly. We cannot do this if we are carrying around our assumptions, our beliefs, and our values for security, or as a blanket or light against the darkness and cold.
To be in the presence of the infinite one must drop away the known and take a cavernous step into the unknown.
Be well.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Transformation, eh?
With palms together,
Good Afternoon All,
Sitting in the Zendo this morning, I lit a stick of incense and sat with it. Some say the incense turns into ash through combustion. Maybe so. But when sitting, there is just sitting. I read this morning that meditation could be "transformational." No doubt, just as burning turns incense "into" ash. But sitting is just sitting.
Incense is incense, burning is burning, ash is ash. Transformation is a mistake. It presumes too much and takes away from the real pupose of meditation which is precisely nothing. So, then, why practice the art of doing nothing? So that we can learn to be present with what is. Perhaps that is, in itself,transformative. Only practice will tell us.
Be well.
Good Afternoon All,
Sitting in the Zendo this morning, I lit a stick of incense and sat with it. Some say the incense turns into ash through combustion. Maybe so. But when sitting, there is just sitting. I read this morning that meditation could be "transformational." No doubt, just as burning turns incense "into" ash. But sitting is just sitting.
Incense is incense, burning is burning, ash is ash. Transformation is a mistake. It presumes too much and takes away from the real pupose of meditation which is precisely nothing. So, then, why practice the art of doing nothing? So that we can learn to be present with what is. Perhaps that is, in itself,transformative. Only practice will tell us.
Be well.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
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/
Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
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.
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.
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