Change

With palms together,

Good Morning All,

 

Although the sun is already high in the sky, the desert air feels cool. There is a breeze off the mountains and a lovely scent comes with it.   My early morning walk required a long sleeved shirt and my robe felt comfortable at zazen. All tell tale signs that we are approaching autumn.

 

Autumn is a wonderful time. The leaves begin their turn from green to yellow to brown. The dogs are a bit more eager to prance. The birds seem happier. Change is in the air. These are equinox seasons, spring and autumn. They are transitions. Like all periods of change, we can use them to reflect on the past, resist its passing, or look forward to the future, perhaps becoming impatient with the present. Yet, when we do, we miss each moment's particular brilliance.

 

Being present with change we see change is really an illusion.  Change only exists in our mind as a mental construction. Pictures of what was and compared to the present and yet again compared to what we want the picture to be. The truth is, the present is the only time that really exists for us. And so, what is here now is everything.

 

Enjoy your universe.

 

Be well. 

 

Team Zen: Early morning walk with pups and My Little Honey: 1 mile; Hillwork 4 x 1/10 mile (1/10 mile intervals) 1.15 miles: weight workout;  arms, shoulders, abs . 

 

 

Rev. Harvey So Daiho Hilbert, Ph.D. 
May All Beings Be Free From Suffering

On the web at:

http://www.zencenteroflascruces.org
http://daihoji.blogspot.com/

and http://360.yahoo.com/buddhist99

 

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Good Stuff

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

On this lovely morning, I would like to talk about good things. What are good things? Things that nurture ourselves. Things that we do to nurture others. When you take a few moments to think about it, nurturance is the stuff of life. As plants crave sunlight, water, and soil, so we crave activity, nutritional sustanance, and most importantly, love. In my own life, I am often reminded that I do the first two very well, easily actually, but the last one takes work.

Why is it so challenging to love? In the abstract, love is easy. We can say we 'love this' or we 'adore that,' but to actually love it? This takes some work as well as courage.

To love means to undress. It means to let go of our armor and any other sorts of defenses as we allow another to enter our hearts. For those of us injured by ones who cared for us, this can be exceedingly difficult. We want to love, but are at the same time so wary of it. Love becomes an intimacy tango of sorts. We should all take a few minutes a day to offer something to someone else. In the offering, place your thoughts on the person. Open your heart to them. Its a good thing.

Activity is something we all enjoy, well most of us. Some (like myself, enjoy solo sports like running (big surprise)), others enjoy the team aspect of things. This does not have to be difficult, nor does it need to be a challenge. Ten minutes here and there through the day. Who doesn't have ten minutes? We each drive and park our cars. So, park far away from the entrance and "walk" to the store. Do walking meditation while slowly pushing the shopping cart at the grocery store. Slowly and mindfully pick up and place items in your cart. Notice how your muscles move, how they operate. Good practice, this. I'm sure with your creative minds you will find other ways to move your bodies!

Nutrition is always a challenge in the United States. Odd, such a wealthy country, yet so poorly fed. Choose a vegetable every day. Choose a piece of fruit every day. Limit your red meat, if you eat such a thing, and your dietary fat. Drink V-8 juice or tomato juice instead of that cup of coffee. Replace a cup of coffee with a cup of green or white tea. Its all a matter of paying attention: being mindful in the everyday.

Lastly and most importantly, practice zazen daily. Establishing a regular sitting time is important, as is making a place to sit. This place should only be used for sitting, if possible. Create an alter for yourself. You might place a photograph or a plant on this alter. Traditionally, Buddhist alters have a candle, a small water offering, a statue of the Buddha, and incense burner, and a plant or flower. Again, be creative. Offer yourself a space that is special to you. A space that will nurture you. Then avail yourself of that space and time and just sit.

Be well.


Team Zen: Yesterday; 3.85 mile run in the AM; 1 mile walk in the PM: Today; 1 mile walk with pups AM, 1.1 mile run solo AM, chest, back, ab workout.

Cool Air

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

Its a nice Sunday morning and the air is wonderfully cool. Summer is clearly coming to a close. The passing seasons can be gentle reminders of the changing nature of things. Change is rarely sudden, though sometimes it can seem so. More often than not, change simply happens in small increments, detectable only when we pay attention.

Zazen teaches us to pay attention. When we practice zazen we choose to keep our attention focused, our body and mind join together in this focus, and soon, there is nothing but attention.

In this attention resides our True Nature. What is this Nature? Attention itself.

As the sun dims, the flower falls away. The earth receives the petals and the seeds of spring lay in wait. Life is like that. Breathing in, I receive the universe; breathing out, I release myself to the universe. Close attention to these processes reveals everything changes, yet everything is the same.

Then again, sometimes cool air is just cool air.

Be well.

The Real World

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

To the untrained student, spiritual practice and practical practice seem to be two different things. Spiritual practice makes us feel good, relaxed, special, closer to the Infinite, whatever; Practical practice encounters the real world and considers its dangers, as well as its needs and benefits. While this may sometime seems to be so, it is not always so, and in the final analysis, is never so.

When we practice this way, we think we must go to a special place to practice, dress in a special way, take on a special attitude and posture, and so on, in order to be spiritual. Then when we leave that place we can take on the attitude and posture of the real world, thus justifying our need to be unjust, cruel, and self-centered.

Zen does not differentiate between these two worlds. The Master walks in both at the same time, recognizing what needs to be done and doing it, does so with mind like water, thus revealing the truth, that there is only one world.

Buddhist values are practical values. Generosity ends suffering; morality ends harm; patience encourages success; diligence increases endurance; meditation creates receptivity; and wisdom manifests the whole. It is only when we understand what we are doing through the narrow eyes of the self, that these seem impractical.

When a stone is tossed into the water, the water embraces it.

Be well.

Zazen

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

Zazen this morning was a quiet affair. I sat alone in the Ino's seat chanting and ringing the bells. Then silence in the upright posture. Zazen is a silent and deeply quieting practice, through the practice periods themselves can be riotous. In the end, just as the breath finds its own rhythm so do our minds.

I read a piece in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind a short while ago that caught my attention. Suzuki suggested that talking about the philosophy of Zen was a little blasphemous. He pointed out that talking about what you do not realize is wrong headed. I suggest it is a little like putting the cart before the horse, or curtainly like mistaking a picture for a thing.

So, what is Buddhism? Sit zazen.

Be well.

Value

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

What is a value? Over the years I have spent being a therapist and now a priest, I have often wondered. My early academic interests were in the areas of philosophy and religion, then social work, which I saw as applied ethics. Core to any 'spiritual' or religious path, is an exploration of values.

A value is a quality we invest with meaning, perhaps. Or perhaps our values are nothing more or less that the named meanings of our lives.

In any event, like all things, value have meaning only when lived, not when thought.

Values that are only thoughtful expressions are window dressing, spiritual candy, or worse: chimera. By thoughtful expressions I mean things we've named and mistaken the name for the thing. For example, when we value peace and do not live peacefully, we are not living authentically. Peace and living peace must be one and manifest in our lives to be a value.

All of our values seem to flow from something, that is they seem to be dependent upon something. In my case, they flow from a single core value: life. So, what supports and nurtures life is good, what doesn't is bad.

In this sense, then, war is a last option, not a first or pre-emptive one. If someone wishes to cause me harm, my resistance to their effort must be measured and only enough to prevent them from harming me. But even before physical resistance, I must emotionally and psychologically resist and attempt to find non-aggressive ways to avoid the conflict in the first place.

Our willingness to do this is a measure of our value.

Be well.

Notes

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

This morning we went out early to have our blood drawn at a laboratory as part of our annual physicals. Overnight fasting meant nothing to eat or drink this morning: no tea, no coffee, no breakfast, no morning pills. Zero, nada, goodness.

The nurse at the lab was a very cheerful woman who had been an Army Medic. She was impressed with the scar on my head. War stories. One never has to go to far to hear them. The thing is, these days they are often about what happens after discharge and how our country fails its veterans. We shared easily together.

Then home for a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs with mushrooms and peas, yogurt and whole wheat toast, and of course a cup of coffee. Tripper enjoyed waiting eagerly for anything that would come his way in the preparation. I thought of all the hands and lives that went into bring this food to us as I shared with both Tripper and Pepper.

My Little Honey ate quickly and went off to knit with the ladies of the Stitch & Bitch group. Knitting is her Zen practice, and a good one it is, too. I am here with Tripper, Pepper, and Pete. I think its time for a walk, but first the dishes.

The clouds are dark, but not looking all that much as though they will open up on us. At least not just yet. We are recovering from these rains in small steps. The Zen Center's ceiling has to dry out. We will do our sesshin in Cloudcroft at my Teacher's Zendo.

But just now a small cup of hot white tea and do the dishes.

Be well.