With palms together,
Good Morning All,
As a student, the second patriarch asks Bodhidharma to pacify his mind. An odd sort of question to ask of a teacher, don't you think? Well, maybe not. Today Zen Teachers and Therapists are both asked the same question, framed differently: how can I be happy? or I need something, I mean I really need something and it's out of my reach. help me reach it!
Old Bodhidharma asked this student to search for his mind and bring it to him, he would then pacify it.
So off the student goes, searching for this mind to be pacified.
The search is a turbulent one. Where is this mind that is sooo demanding? Today, students and clients do the same. Good teachers and good therapists ask their supplicants to search out that which is driving them crazy. And of course, they come back with the same line our second patriarch did, "I cannot find it."
There, says Bodhidharma, I have pacified it.
To understand this story we must see the source of distress. Distress is not "out there" somewhere to be found. Distress is a personal thing originating in the very mechanics of our bodies. We seek what we imagine and like the ends of rainbows, imaginings are ever illusive. The moment we see the fundamental truth of this is the moment we are free of it.
A good teacher, like a good therapist, gives the student what the student needs, but not necessarily as the student first perceives it.
Be well.
Organ Mountain Zen
Friday, June 9, 2006
Thursday, June 8, 2006
10 Hints for Improving Yourself
Hints for improving yourself:
1. If you must watch television, watch something you don't fully understand or don't particular know anything about.
2. Read books.
3. Read books you don't undertand and try to understand them.
4. Refuse to watch the Fox Network in any of its manifestations.
5. The moment you believe you know something, learn it in a different way.
6. Do some form of exercise daily.
7. Avoid red meat in particular and other meats, if possible.
8. Eat more fruit and vegetables.
9. Sit still at least thirty minutes a day and witness yourself in the universe.
10. Open your heart up to others as often as possible, but with dignity and respect for privacy and appropriate decorum.
Practice these daily for a month and see what happens.
1. If you must watch television, watch something you don't fully understand or don't particular know anything about.
2. Read books.
3. Read books you don't undertand and try to understand them.
4. Refuse to watch the Fox Network in any of its manifestations.
5. The moment you believe you know something, learn it in a different way.
6. Do some form of exercise daily.
7. Avoid red meat in particular and other meats, if possible.
8. Eat more fruit and vegetables.
9. Sit still at least thirty minutes a day and witness yourself in the universe.
10. Open your heart up to others as often as possible, but with dignity and respect for privacy and appropriate decorum.
Practice these daily for a month and see what happens.
War, What is it Good For?
With palms together,
I listened to the news last night. Honestly, I wish we would stop this fighting. I do not understand the need to do such harm.
People have dehumanized and demonized each other there for so long I fear it will take centuries of work to repair the damage.
I am embarrassed for us in the United States. I believe and believed since before he Iraq War began, this was a very bad idea. We had bad information, were impatient, were quick to rattle the sabres and were itching for a fight. Cooler heads needed to prevail, wisdom went out the window, and savagery was sucked into the vacuum.
The Iraqi people have suffered. We have suffered. The entire world is suffering. And in this suffering, hate brews, distrust and suspicion have become the foundation of communication.
We can put our heads in the sand, pretend its just not hapening, keep ourselves 'above it all' but there it is, in the air, in the food we eat, the prices we pay for that food, and in our language, our children's eyes, and our own hearts. Better we face it squarely, though we as a people are loath to do so, and engage in a process of reconcilliation. We must stop fighting. We must provide aid. We must stand down the arms and regain our moral compass.
Not only we, but the entire world would feel better if we did. It is important that your voice be heard. Write to your representatives, to the local newspapers, stand with us at peace vigils, your silence is often mistaken for agreement or apathy.
Be well.
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
As You Are
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
The sun is just now peaking out over the building next door to my Zendo window. I feel its heat on my face. There is something so reassuring about the sun rising in the morning. I have written about this before. For me it signals that I can relax. I've made it through the night.
For many of us, going to sleep does not mean we will for certain wake up again. Coming to sleep with this attitude is only possible when we are at peace with this moment. We must be willing to say and believe completely, this is enough. I have such an understanding, but it was not always so. Striving and desiring, craving for another day to make my mark, to do something wonderful, or to avaid a mistake, fix a problem, these were feelings that got in the way of rest.
With life, however, our true sphere of influence is revealed. It begins and ends in our own skin. Our true task is to master that sphere. With this realization, the wonder of a simple breath takes on incredible significance. The beauty of sitting at a desk or walking down a corridor or listening to a talk or building something or unpacking something becomes the beginning and the end: it is, in itself, fully and completely sufficient.
I am learning to feel what is there. The plastic keys of this computer, its casing as I rest my fingers and palms between words and thoughts, are each complete moments in them selves worthy of both recognition and respect. To do this well means recognizing the slippery slope of mental travel and letting the slope be by itself.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
The sun is just now peaking out over the building next door to my Zendo window. I feel its heat on my face. There is something so reassuring about the sun rising in the morning. I have written about this before. For me it signals that I can relax. I've made it through the night.
For many of us, going to sleep does not mean we will for certain wake up again. Coming to sleep with this attitude is only possible when we are at peace with this moment. We must be willing to say and believe completely, this is enough. I have such an understanding, but it was not always so. Striving and desiring, craving for another day to make my mark, to do something wonderful, or to avaid a mistake, fix a problem, these were feelings that got in the way of rest.
With life, however, our true sphere of influence is revealed. It begins and ends in our own skin. Our true task is to master that sphere. With this realization, the wonder of a simple breath takes on incredible significance. The beauty of sitting at a desk or walking down a corridor or listening to a talk or building something or unpacking something becomes the beginning and the end: it is, in itself, fully and completely sufficient.
I am learning to feel what is there. The plastic keys of this computer, its casing as I rest my fingers and palms between words and thoughts, are each complete moments in them selves worthy of both recognition and respect. To do this well means recognizing the slippery slope of mental travel and letting the slope be by itself.
Be well.
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
The Morning News
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
When the morning news contains stories about discovering severed heads in fruit baskets for a second time one must begin to wonder about the civilization which produces such things. War teaches us many things, one very important lesson is that we are none exempt from the world. Each of us has the capacity to do great harm to others when the conditions are right arise. Allegations of war crimes, torture, the severe blurring of the lines between the "good guys" and the "bad guys" should teach us that such lines are never real they are always subject to being shifted. Good and bad are but points of view and are conditioned by perspective.
My fear is that we will become more and more numb to the awfulness of these behaviors. It is easy to adapt, we do it all the time. Lowering our expectations, we don't work as hard for a better grade or a higher standard of living or a safer neighborhood, and by extension, a safer world.
One side justifies their behavior by pointing out what the other side has done or threatens to do. The end of course, as Gandhi pointed out, is the whole world will be blind. Fingers, meanwhile, point everywhere.
We must resist this murderous mentality, as well as a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness enveloping our world. Each of us has the capacity to be a buddha, to stop creating evil, to create good, and to create conditions for good to arise for all.
What's your next step? What would create conditions for good to emerge? Your answer is your future.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
When the morning news contains stories about discovering severed heads in fruit baskets for a second time one must begin to wonder about the civilization which produces such things. War teaches us many things, one very important lesson is that we are none exempt from the world. Each of us has the capacity to do great harm to others when the conditions are right arise. Allegations of war crimes, torture, the severe blurring of the lines between the "good guys" and the "bad guys" should teach us that such lines are never real they are always subject to being shifted. Good and bad are but points of view and are conditioned by perspective.
My fear is that we will become more and more numb to the awfulness of these behaviors. It is easy to adapt, we do it all the time. Lowering our expectations, we don't work as hard for a better grade or a higher standard of living or a safer neighborhood, and by extension, a safer world.
One side justifies their behavior by pointing out what the other side has done or threatens to do. The end of course, as Gandhi pointed out, is the whole world will be blind. Fingers, meanwhile, point everywhere.
We must resist this murderous mentality, as well as a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness enveloping our world. Each of us has the capacity to be a buddha, to stop creating evil, to create good, and to create conditions for good to arise for all.
What's your next step? What would create conditions for good to emerge? Your answer is your future.
Be well.
Monday, June 5, 2006
Facing a Day, Facing Yourself
With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,
Monday morning. Its a beautiful day. Many of us approach Monday as if we were climbing a mountain with sacks of rocks on our backs. Working at jobs that seem to work against us, our sense of accomplishment and personal worth challenged, we feel disheartened and even disconnected.
Others go to work with a sense of hope and joy, embracing their work, making it a part of them and their experience in the world. They have a sense of personal power and control, a sort of personal authority that enables real authenticity to develop.
What are the differences between these people?
Is it the work itself? Their peers? Their employers or supervisors? Is it something in the water?
So many variables. Yet, one major variable comes to mind: Right Understanding. Right Understanding is a sort of synchronicity, an orientation of compass, map, and traveler. Once oriented, it is possible to make sense of where we are, what direction to go, what degree of effort it will take, how much of what needs to be said, and so forth. People living without Right Understanding are like travelers at war with their compasses and maps.
As in each of the Eightfold Noble Paths, "Right" refers to "true, perfect, same." Understood as we are using the word here, then, we orient our selves with our compass and our map, making them "true." True here means many things, but mostly it means "the same." That is to say, when we become one with our activity, like an arrow flying true to its mark, where arrow and mark are, in truth one, then we are living within Right Understanding.
Who are you? What is your compass? What is your map? How are you not one?
Be well.
Good Morning Sangha,
Monday morning. Its a beautiful day. Many of us approach Monday as if we were climbing a mountain with sacks of rocks on our backs. Working at jobs that seem to work against us, our sense of accomplishment and personal worth challenged, we feel disheartened and even disconnected.
Others go to work with a sense of hope and joy, embracing their work, making it a part of them and their experience in the world. They have a sense of personal power and control, a sort of personal authority that enables real authenticity to develop.
What are the differences between these people?
Is it the work itself? Their peers? Their employers or supervisors? Is it something in the water?
So many variables. Yet, one major variable comes to mind: Right Understanding. Right Understanding is a sort of synchronicity, an orientation of compass, map, and traveler. Once oriented, it is possible to make sense of where we are, what direction to go, what degree of effort it will take, how much of what needs to be said, and so forth. People living without Right Understanding are like travelers at war with their compasses and maps.
As in each of the Eightfold Noble Paths, "Right" refers to "true, perfect, same." Understood as we are using the word here, then, we orient our selves with our compass and our map, making them "true." True here means many things, but mostly it means "the same." That is to say, when we become one with our activity, like an arrow flying true to its mark, where arrow and mark are, in truth one, then we are living within Right Understanding.
Who are you? What is your compass? What is your map? How are you not one?
Be well.
Sunday, June 4, 2006
Where's Buddha?
With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,
Yesterday I was re-reading a tiny little book bu Senzaki. He was a Japanese monk who came to America before there was much in the way of Zen here. He was a wanderer, not affiliated with a home temple, and despised what he called "Cathedral Zen." Cathedral Zen is the Zen of large Temples, rich patrons, and lavish pomp and circumstance. There is a tendency to move in this direction among American Zen Centers.
Americans like their Churches, Synagogues and Mosques to be large and ostentatious. We have the idea that if it is large and rich it must be doing something right and everyone wants to hang on to a winner. Yet even when full these places are empty. Something essential is missing.
True Zen begins as a temple of one and works its way out. True Zen is free. It is the color of the grass, the feel of the sand, the taste of a cold cucumber on a hot summer day. It has nothing to do with robes and bells, priests and laymen. We put on a robe, shave our head, sit Zazen because we are buddhas, not to become like buddhas.
Today be the buddha you are in everything you do. How is that possible? Be yourself.
Be well.
Good Morning Sangha,
Yesterday I was re-reading a tiny little book bu Senzaki. He was a Japanese monk who came to America before there was much in the way of Zen here. He was a wanderer, not affiliated with a home temple, and despised what he called "Cathedral Zen." Cathedral Zen is the Zen of large Temples, rich patrons, and lavish pomp and circumstance. There is a tendency to move in this direction among American Zen Centers.
Americans like their Churches, Synagogues and Mosques to be large and ostentatious. We have the idea that if it is large and rich it must be doing something right and everyone wants to hang on to a winner. Yet even when full these places are empty. Something essential is missing.
True Zen begins as a temple of one and works its way out. True Zen is free. It is the color of the grass, the feel of the sand, the taste of a cold cucumber on a hot summer day. It has nothing to do with robes and bells, priests and laymen. We put on a robe, shave our head, sit Zazen because we are buddhas, not to become like buddhas.
Today be the buddha you are in everything you do. How is that possible? Be yourself.
Be well.
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