With palms together,
Good Morning All,
O Shariputra, remember, Dharma is fundamentally emptiness, no birth, no death. Nothing is pure, nothing is defiled. Nothing can increase, nothing can decrease. Hence: in emptiness, no form, no feeling no thought, no impulse, no consciousness; no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no seeing, no hearing, no smelling, no tasting, no touching, no thinking, no realm of sight, no realm of thought, no ignorance and no end of ignorance, no old age and death and no end to old age and death. No suffering, no craving, no extinction, no path, no wisdom, no attainment.
This scriptural teaching from the Great Heart of Wisdom Sutra, suggests all of the things we believe are real are just concepts created in our minds. They have no meaning apart from that meaning we apply,. We must be careful, therefore in our application of, and wedding to, this meaning. We must see it for what it is, a convenience, a shorthand, a tool, but most of all, an invention.
When we can move freely from form to no form, realizing birth and death are artificial constructs, living with both purity and impurity as places upon a single plane of existence, then we are truly free.
Clinging to any one of these concepts becomes a knife that cleaves the universe in two.
If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?
Sound is audible, sound is a name for something audible. For audible to be, there must be ears to hear. For name to be, there must be a mind to both name and recognize name. No sense organs, no sense.
So, does a tree falling in the forest make a sound?
Be well.
Organ Mountain Zen
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Monday, June 12, 2006
Wrestling with Whatever
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
What are we here for? Why do we exist? Is there indeed a purpose to our existence?
Thinking like this leads us to the sky.
Such questions.
Who knows. Who cares!
We are here. That's what matters. Or does it?
Thinking like this leads us to the earth.
What matters even more?
What happens when earth and sky come together.
Philosophy and religion have always grappled with such things, as has mythology. Sky beings, lofty, wise, untouched and untouchable on one hand; earth beings, crude, dirty, and wet on the other hand.
For philosophy, these were points of departure. The original mind conceiving and then laying out conception: maybe Hegelian, maybe Epicurean. Yet, in literature and mythology, including the stories of the bible, Zen, we see these two wrestling.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, that five thousand year old Babylonian drama, casts Gilgamesh the light prince engaging Enkidu the earth demon. Jacob wrestles with God. Beowulf wrestles with Grendel, Buddha wrestles with Mara. In all of these, it is the wrestling that matters.
Nothing is clear cut. Nothing is one way or the other. The universe is a sloppy, wet, muddy affair. Yet there are rocks to climb on so that we may dry off and rest for a bit. One such rock might be your church or mosque, yet another, your cushion. In any event the real wrestling resides within.
Cherish it.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
What are we here for? Why do we exist? Is there indeed a purpose to our existence?
Thinking like this leads us to the sky.
Such questions.
Who knows. Who cares!
We are here. That's what matters. Or does it?
Thinking like this leads us to the earth.
What matters even more?
What happens when earth and sky come together.
Philosophy and religion have always grappled with such things, as has mythology. Sky beings, lofty, wise, untouched and untouchable on one hand; earth beings, crude, dirty, and wet on the other hand.
For philosophy, these were points of departure. The original mind conceiving and then laying out conception: maybe Hegelian, maybe Epicurean. Yet, in literature and mythology, including the stories of the bible, Zen, we see these two wrestling.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, that five thousand year old Babylonian drama, casts Gilgamesh the light prince engaging Enkidu the earth demon. Jacob wrestles with God. Beowulf wrestles with Grendel, Buddha wrestles with Mara. In all of these, it is the wrestling that matters.
Nothing is clear cut. Nothing is one way or the other. The universe is a sloppy, wet, muddy affair. Yet there are rocks to climb on so that we may dry off and rest for a bit. One such rock might be your church or mosque, yet another, your cushion. In any event the real wrestling resides within.
Cherish it.
Be well.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
While the Sun Rises
With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,
In the morning news I read about a kitty that tree'd a bear, the beheading of three people in Iraq, that Lindsay Lohan doesn't want to be seen as a "party girl", and that three prisoners of America, held without charges or hope of a trial, just hung themselves in prison. The kitty wins.
I, on the other hand, will sit Zazen while the sun rises over the mountains.
Be well.
Good Morning Sangha,
In the morning news I read about a kitty that tree'd a bear, the beheading of three people in Iraq, that Lindsay Lohan doesn't want to be seen as a "party girl", and that three prisoners of America, held without charges or hope of a trial, just hung themselves in prison. The kitty wins.
I, on the other hand, will sit Zazen while the sun rises over the mountains.
Be well.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Passion
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
Is there a fire in your life? A passion that draws you, demands that you wake and get out of bed? Is it raging? Is it smoldering? How do you recognize it? How do you feel about it? What do you do with it?
Is this fire a good thing or a bad thing?
These are life questions, imortant to both our happiness and our quality of life. As Viktor Frankl pointed out years ago, we cannot exist as human beings without meaning in our lives. Yet, is meaning and our search for it, the same as this fire?
Most of us live with something we feel passionate about, if only our spouse or children (not to suggest these are small things). Some of us are fortunatre to work in fields we feel passionate about. In such cases work is not work, but life itself. Others feel passionate about the world and its condition. We live to repair it, to bring it to life, to heal it, to make the world a better place.
In whatever context this passion arises, it must be balanced. Tempering our passions is like temporing steel. We fold the steel over and over, pounding it, folding it, pounding it, folding it, until the moment it becomes a fine blade. With each folding the steel must rest. There is a time for heat, a time for pounding, a time for folding, and a time for rest. So too with what we love.
It would be a good practice for each of us to address the questions at the top of this post then ask ourselves how we balance and integrate these into our lives.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
Is there a fire in your life? A passion that draws you, demands that you wake and get out of bed? Is it raging? Is it smoldering? How do you recognize it? How do you feel about it? What do you do with it?
Is this fire a good thing or a bad thing?
These are life questions, imortant to both our happiness and our quality of life. As Viktor Frankl pointed out years ago, we cannot exist as human beings without meaning in our lives. Yet, is meaning and our search for it, the same as this fire?
Most of us live with something we feel passionate about, if only our spouse or children (not to suggest these are small things). Some of us are fortunatre to work in fields we feel passionate about. In such cases work is not work, but life itself. Others feel passionate about the world and its condition. We live to repair it, to bring it to life, to heal it, to make the world a better place.
In whatever context this passion arises, it must be balanced. Tempering our passions is like temporing steel. We fold the steel over and over, pounding it, folding it, pounding it, folding it, until the moment it becomes a fine blade. With each folding the steel must rest. There is a time for heat, a time for pounding, a time for folding, and a time for rest. So too with what we love.
It would be a good practice for each of us to address the questions at the top of this post then ask ourselves how we balance and integrate these into our lives.
Be well.
Friday, June 9, 2006
Pacify my mind!
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.
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.
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.
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