Atonement

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

From the new Soto Shu translation of the San Ge Mon, the Verse of Repentance,

All my past and harmful karma,

born from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion,

through body, speech, and mind,

I now fully avow.

For Zen Buddhists, these words have particular meaning. They speak to our understanding of the deep an intricate interconnection of everything, past, present, future, cause, effect, and release.

Each morning we recite this verse, knowing that our behavior is most important. Our behavior creates good. Our behavior creates bad. These behaviors are remembered by ourselves and others. Good and bad are conditions within which other things grow, both good and bad. When we do harm, harm is added; when we do something healthful, health is added. We see in each the possibility of evil and the possibility of good.

So, we acknowledge these do not exist apart from us; they are us. No devil, no god, just us. Confronting this truth is very difficult as it requires us to understand thoroughly that everything is ultimately our responsibility. Everything.

We could say that our current bad attitude is a result of our parents, thus we live in their bad karma. This would be true. Yet, when we look deeply into our own nature and see our True Self, the self that existed before our parents were born and will be in our great, great grandchildren, as well, we see this is also false. There is no parent, no child, no past, no future. Just the minute to minute manifestation of Buddhanature.

OK, so we inherit, and we plant. What we do with what we inherit is ours and what we plant is ours. Some of us are unaware of this fact. Some of us live in delusion, believing there is a god and a devil who are apart from us and that the world is thus divided. As Bodhisattvas it is our commitment to assist them, to help them, guide them, to see the light of non-duality.

This simple verse allows us to keep in mind precisely where we fit, that is, dead center, in the universe. Each of us, small universes reflecting each other, yet deeply interactive.

The last line of the verse is crucial: I now fully avow. We do not use such words today in everyday discourse. Perhaps we should. According to American Heritage Dictionary, to avow means

1. To acknowledge openly, boldly, and unashamedly; confess: avow guilt. or 2. To state positively.

I would rather understand "guilt" as "responsible" but guilt is also true. We moderns don't like to think of ourselves as guilty of much of anything, we'd rather feel responsible, as if there were a difference. Either way, to avow is to acknowledge our part in what we have created, good bad or indifferent, and to do so boldly, directly, and without flinching.

In contemporary times, we promote the notion that we are OK. We like to think that our behavior is not all that important, certainly not as bad as someone else's. When we are caught we immediately shift responsibility to others. In this way we seem like Teflon. Nothing sticks to us, we think. Yet this is an illusion as well as a serious flaw in our character and a shortcoming of perception.

Moreover, it also takes us away from our humanity, for to be human means to be self-aware and self-awareness carries acknowledgment of responsibility. In the end, this short verse brings us home to ourselves, it wraps us in our humanity like a warm blanket and offers us a way to become better human beings.

What will we do with our awareness? What will we do with our responsibility? This choice is ours and ours alone. Chose wisely.

Be well.

A Moment in Time

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

This morning I woke late. Our visits to Memphis to see Grandson Tate are real vacations. I have set up a small alter in my daughter's walk-in closet. I brought cedar incense my zafu, and small bell. I sit there for a period in the evening before bed.

Morning zazen is out. At least a formal period. Too many people with differing agendas. So, I sit is small moments. As we talk, play with the baby, wait for dinner, or some other activity. I bring my back up, plant my feet like small trees, and sit still. The moment and me join hands.

In this way we can be mindful throughout the day. Taking every sound and scent, taste, and action, as a temple bell. Such moments are delicious. Yet we should never become attached to them. The most important thing is what we do with our mind in each moment. If we use our mind to cling, to add value, diminish value, or in other ways distort the moment, big problem.

Better is to just be.

And so it goes.

Be well.

A Single Step

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

There are always moments when we don't feel like doing what we are supposed to do. Small Mind whispers, "do it later, it'll be OK." Or, "you shouldn't have to do anything you don't want to do." Or, "its just one day, it won't matter."

These are the whispers which take us away from enlightened living. They help us keep our eyes closed. They keep us slothful, lazy, and ignorant.

Enlightened living is immediate, direct, diligent, and vigorous. We do because it is ours to do. And the whole universe is us so everything is our responsibility. So what is it we should do?

Understand a leader is by definition alone. Because you are there by yourself does not mean you are not making a difference. Become informed. The world needs informed individuals. Be willing to act. The world needs engaged human beings. Become fearless. The world needs people unafraid of what others might think. Become enlightened. The world needs decisive, non-wobbling Bodhisattva Warriors. The step is yours to take.

Be well.

Grandparent Zen

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

In Memphis, we are enjoying Baby Tate immensely. He is nothing but cute, inquisitive energy stuffed into New Skin with eyes and fingers, mouth and feet.

Our practice is being witness, guide, protector, clown, and nurturer.

I've exchanged my morning zazen for a kindergarten of one. We learn to make cereal bowls into bells, Cheerios into offerings, and dirty diapers, incense.

This is the Way of Grandparents.

Be well.

The Thirty Second Zen Master

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

Our practice is not talking practice, its not philosophy practice, its practice practice. Zazen is something we all would like to do. Many people want to meditate. Few do.

Everything is a problem. Not enough time. Our back hurts. Our legs hurt. Its too noisy. There is nowhere in our homes that we feel comfortable. Our spouses aren't supportive. We have children, dogs, cats, jobs... you get the idea.

All of these, however, are not problems. They are real opportunities. Zazen is not outward, it is inward. Zazen is about our attitude: right understanding. When our understanding is correct, then everything becomes zazen.

So, what is correct understanding? When we are completely present with ourselves and our activity. When the map, compass, body, and mind are in complete alignment, that is right understanding. With this understanding every step is the correct step, naturally.

We attain correct understanding, however through our practice of seated meditation and mindfulness.

Therefore, it is important to find five minutes to be still. Five minutes to place your attention on yourself and your environment as if you were simply there as a witness. Five minutes of serene reflection. If not five minutes, then one minute. If not one minute, then thirty seconds. Become a 30 second master!

Its rather like prayer, you know, No need for a fancy church or synagogue or mosque. No need for a priest, minister, or rabbi. No need for an official time, public pronouncement, advertisement of any sort. Just do it.

Be well.

Boxes

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

The other day someone said to me they "had enough religion." That comment, meant to be an offhand reply about coming back again to a service, has stuck with me. Like one of those scriptural phrases or a line of poetry, it rolls around in my mind.

A comment like this suggests religion exists outside of us. I suppose for some this is true, they slice life into pieces and create boxes: this is spiritual, that is religious, this is philosophical, that is scientific, and so on.

Actually, we all do this. It is an aspect of our mind, created by our brain, that we do it. Ad like any organ, it functions autonomically. What do we do with the products of such production?

Some of us take this products seriously, see the slice as existing outside of us, as if we were simply remarking on the natural state of the universe. We fail to see how silently and how quickly our mental knife cuts, sorts, and moves on. In fact, we fail to see we are doing it at all.

So we live in a world of boxes. Some ours, some others. Comparing, valuing, and selecting, boxes and symphonies of boxes compete. We work for this box, we've had enough of that box. We love this other box and hate that one over there. All the while not understanding that the boxes are our own mental creation and that actually there are no boxes, just life.

Our practice is the practice of living without boxes. Everything is us. Nothing is not us.

Be well.

The Great Teacher

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

The desert air is cool. I am sitting by the living room window and feeling a chill from its touch on my shoulder through the open window. The feel of natural air, unconditioned by our machines, is a delight. The less we process things, it seems, the better they are.

So too with zazen.

When we sit down on our cushion. We should just sit down, back upright, shoulders open, and head erect. We feel the bones as they seem to organized themselves one on top of another while taking our seat. There is nothing special about this save the deliberate nature of being still. Nothing conditioned. No machine involved. There is just zazen.

We should not process this experience while in the experience. Processing things takes us away from them and in fact, kills the moment. Being witness with a student's eye is being there without a self. A student's eye is unencumbered by the dust of "things we know."

Practicing this way is the great teacher.

Be well.