Organ Mountain Zen



Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Stirring the Dust

With palms together,
Good Morning All,
 
We shared a few really nice hours with friends yesterday around and in their pool. Eating and drinking iced tea and lemonade, swimming and floating in the pool, all are good things. But the best part is sharing with others.
 
Someone suggested that I should back off a little at the synagogue, that I was alienating others as a new kid on the block coming in and taking over. Its funny how organizations are so often like this. Intentions are one thing, perception is a whole other thing. Sometimes an organization grows stale, it languishes in inertia, then someone comes in and stirs the dust and all the particles get upset.  I understand this.  I see myself as a catalyst sometimes whose destiny is to be a stirrer of dust.  
 
Well, the dust has been stirred. I am willing to sit down and see what new patterns emerge.
 
Meanwhile, the Zen Center is thriving. We had three new people from El Paso visit Sunday and were nearly at capacity.
 
This is so even over the summer when people are often away for this vacation and that vacation. I am pleased.
 
We will continue to work on making this a vital center of Zen practice. Please feel free to join us.
 
Be well.


Harvey So Daiho Hilbert, Ph.D. 
May All Beings Be Free From Suffering
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Tuesday, July 4, 2006

Independence Day

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

Hoopla today in the USA. Independence Day should give us pause to be thankful of the things independence from oppression offers us. Yet this independence is conditional, it always is. We are never independent, as if we are stand alone entities, pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. This most profound and basic statement of American value contains a fatal flaw. Someone must make the boots, the pants, and the shirts we wear. Someone must drill for the oil we burn, grow and harvest the food we eat, make the chemicals and do the magic that creates the plastic that forms so much the framework of our lives.

We celebrate our independence from oppression here today, yet live deeply oppressed. What's the name of the boot on our neck? Desire. True independence is our awakening to our true interdependence.

Be well,

Monday, July 3, 2006

The Truth is Out There?

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

Have you ever noticed how things change? Of course you have, it happens that we notice this so often, we've developed phrases for it: things change, whatever, so it goes, and so on. Yet, what we don't so often notice is just how much energy we put into keeping absolutes permanent. We want some things not to change, truth, for example. We want something we perceive to be true to stay that way. Otherwise our world would be a relativistic nightmare, we fear. Yes, we need our anchors.

The trouble is we look for anchors in all the wrong places. We look for them, first of all, as if they exist somewhere out there. We reify them, make them concrete and hard, like a statue or a note from God on a tablet made of stone. At this point we decide these are, indeed, the truth and the truth must be defended. And so it goes.
Yet, when we bother to examine truth closely what do we see? We see that truth always depends on the perceiver. Truth is, by definition, a mental construction. It does not exist independent of us. Therefore it is something we have invented to perceive, an overlay of sorts, like a gel used in theater to color a subject.
So where to look for truth and what is its true nature?

Here's a twister: the absolute truth is always relative to a context. We can say killing is wrong and that is an absolute truth and that would be true, but at the same time we must understand that the context of this absolute is the context of the value we place on life. So if life is being threatened and there is no other way to prevent it from being killed, we must kill the threat.

Second. Context is always subjective and relative. Context depends on a perceiver and perceivers exist in context with one another: they are, therefore relative. Some may argue that absolutes exist, by nature apart from a perceiver. To those I would ask, show me an absolute that could be understood without a context.

We begin with being still and we end in that stillness. Knowing that the stillness is not something out there, but something we are, as being itself. Stillness is not "running" when we are running. Stillness is not "working" when we are working. Nor is stillness "sitting" when we are sitting. Truth, like stillness, is both universal and relative. Hold onto it and it becomes false.

Be well.

Sunday, July 2, 2006

Zen Stories

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

This morning the sky is overcast, a somewhat unusual state here in the desert. Still, we do have our rainy season and the 4th of July weekend is the 'traditional' mark of its beginning. This morning I go to Zen Center. This afternoon I have a lunch discussion group on Zen Stories at the International Delights Deli and Cafe. A cup of Zen Tea, a liitle rice, salad, hummas and pita, and good conversation.

Story telling is a great teacher. Stories are not like television or movies where so little is left to the imagination. Stories require us to truly engage ourselves, use our history, experience, imaginations, and feelings to co-create and explore the story. In the process we tease out the meanings and the lessons and personalize them. Because of this, stories are always different. Stories include, by definition, both the story-teller's story and the reader.

Today we will study story number four in 101 Zen Stories edited by Reps and Senzaki
http://www.101zenstories.com/

Be well.

Saturday, July 1, 2006

When Worlds Collide

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

A somewhat tumultuous conversation after services last night lead me to think a lot about consistency of values and actions. If one holds themselves out to be a person of faith and that faith calls for or points to certain values, then we should attempt to behave according to those values. So goes the story line. On the other hand, we each must come to our own values through our own spiritual work. It appears that spiritual work or reflection is no guarantee that common values will emerge. And then what? We cannot discount the values we oppose. We cannot dictate values. Yet, at the same time a group's cohesiveness often depends on shared values.

So what are we to do?

One thought I had is that people might begin speaking of only what their values are, rather than what others should not value. This will at least give us a set of values cast as positives. From this list of values, we could select those we believe are either worthy of our attention or less worthy of our attention, and then work on objectives and goals.

Of course, the problem with such a plan is that it ignores the crux of the issue: ethical dilemmas. An ethical dilemma occurs when two values of equal merit conflict with one another. Such an example might include a woman's right to choose what happens to her own body verses the value of life. Or the value of freedom on the one hand and the value of peace on the other.

Traditionally value conflicts or ethical dilemmas are dealt with by two types of resolution, a deontological perspective and a consequentialist perspective. A deontological approach is rules based, such as those within Judaism: a set of commandments decides.A consequentialist approach looks at what happens if each of the two paths to a conflict are taken, attempts to weigh the consequences for all concerned, and selects the path that leads to the greater good over bad for most of the people involved.

Yikes. Another problem! What happens to those people who hold a value, such as non-violence and others are able to establish the moral supremacy of their value, armed intervention?

We might say that some values are universal, peace, for example. But is peace always a universal value? This is the heart of true spiritual practice, in my opinion.

It is to those who engage in this true spiritual practice that I bow.

Be well.

Friday, June 30, 2006

Repairing the World

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

Last evening at a meeting someone said they did not want politics in their house of worship. They argued that they come to Temple for refuge and that there were plenty of groups and activities "out there" who would gladly accept our help, why bring the these issues into the Temple? She was referring to the Jewish Temple.

I have heard this argument in Zen Centers as well. And I am sure they are voiced in Christian churches, and Mosques, and wherever people gather together to connect to the Universe. Yet, in every major religion, there will come a time in its practice where it must move from the inside out.

Christianity has a strong missionary thrust, sometimes to my dismay, Judaism has a very long history of holding that they have a partnership with God to "repair the world," that is, to act as co-creators, finishing the work of creation. Buddhism has a very strong social and ethical commitment and recognizes that we ourselves create evil, as well as good, and therefore must act to support the choice for good.

Most of the people who want to keep politics out of the sanctuary are really saying that they need a sanctuary, free from strife and division. They seek a place without acrimony and negative, derisive, emotion. And for his, I can agree. But if we leave it there, we are failing these individuals. Our practice community, our Sangha, is a microcosm of the world itself. We practice within it, bringing to it all of what we are, our hopes, fears and dreams, as well as our prejudices and delusions. Chief among these is the notion that there is somehow an inside and and outside, a us and a them.

One of the tests of authentic practice is how consistently syntonic it is. We say we vow to stop doing evil, to do good, and to bring about good in the world (and every faith tradition has vows or prayers similar to these concise vows), but the test is how much they are expressions of ourselves.

As a religious or philosophical person, we must take our belief, faith, our practices, if they are authentic, out into the world. We must stand for the good against evil. Good and evil are not amorphous concepts. They are practical and political realities.

It takes a certain faith to accomplish this. Sometimes we must pretend, so to speak, talking the talk until our walk is more firm and centered. This takes time and commitment to the faith and values of our tradition. It also takes great strength and courage, but most of all it takes a great and growing love for the world.

Be well.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Weebles

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

If we could see around corners, we would never get hit. But we cannot see around corners, so we must be cautious. I wonder.

When we are one with the universe, where is a corner?

Caution is like a weeble, tilting to and fro, but never actually getting anywhere.

A True Master understands there is no birth and death, just this. A True Master is the Buddha inside and out. The Infinite and Finite are one and without a blink of an eye. A True Master is both giver and receiver at once and at the same moment. A True Master is both love and hate, peace and war, all residing in serene reflection.

We call this authority, and being one with it, we call manifest Buddha.

Be well.