Good Morning All,
Recently, I have decided to not blog daily on this site. I will be posting different sorts of posts, more like commentaries, I suppose, on Zen practice and Buddhist Sutras. I will do these as I can.
I have been writing this blog daily for a year now and I really need to break away from the habit of going to the computer first thing in the morning to write.
I still blog at my Yahoo 360 site, however, and those notes are more of a personal, day-to-day nature.
If interested, go to Yahoo 360 and type in my Yahoo ID, buddhist99
Be well.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Friday, December 22, 2006
On Being Alone
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
Another Friday. Hmmm. For those of you about to leave for work and those already at work, please enjoy your day today. Remember each moment is what it is; it is we who add the good or bad of it.
Last night before bed, I was studying a short sutra on being alone. The Buddha was teaching in this scripture that literally being alone was not necessary, nor was it a particularly good practice as seeking this way places our attention on the "I" of the equation.
There are some who prefer to be alone. I was one of them. I rationalized this by romanticizing the thing, you know, mental pictures of a seeker away from the crowd, treading the road less traveled, and so on. Yet, this was a form of delusion. It is a trap just as wickedly poisonous as that of seeking a crowd for approval. The truth is, I was uncomfortable with people, insecure in myself I relied far too heavily on their opinions of me for my opinion of myself.
The Buddha taught that the best way to be alone was to be mindful wherever we are. This way of mindfulness means, essentially, to practice being "all one." When we live as all one, our literal singularity is the universe and we are its sense organs.
Practice to be a partner in the process.
Be well.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
The Life of Buddha
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
Good Morning All,
Last night at Zen Center we held a "Movie Night." A Sangha member, Joshua, brought in a DVD projector. We sat on our zafus against one in the Zendo and projected the film on the other. I had brought in bags of party mix and some soft drinks. We had a very nice evening together.
The film was "the Life of the Buddha." It was a French made film, circa 2003, a documentary in English, and was beautifully photographed. It was essentially a anthropological and sociological study of the Buddha's life. The filmmakers interviewed countless Indians on location in India, and followed the archaeological investigations into the Buddha's life. Religious teachers from various traditions told the stories of the Buddha's birth, training, seeking, enlightenment, teaching, and death. These provided the necessary thread through the film.
In the end, however, after all is said and done, we should know that even such a one as the Buddha,was just a man and all that we say about him is fantasy. The real Buddha is the Universe aware of Itself in and through us.
When we make an idol of the Buddha and forget he was just a man, we do him and ourselves a grave disservice. What the Buddha taught is that we should turn our light inward, we should not be deceived by the icons and religions and philosophies and glitter that surrounds us, but rather we should unfold ourselves as universal witness.
In this way be become Buddha.
Be well.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Faith, Belief, and Practice
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
Practice of the Buddha's Way requires our diligence and constant attention. In fact, these are the Buddha Way. In the morning, we open our eyes and consider the universe with compassion. We embrace our lives and embrace each other. This is our life.
One does not believe in Buddha. One does not believe in Dharma. One does not believe in Sangha. There is no dogma, no doctrine, no belief at all. There is just the practice of noticing, the practice of loving, and the practice of embracing.
In all of this, the core practice is faith: not in a God or a set of beliefs, but in ourselves and the universe. Such faith enables us to trust silence. It enables us to trust others. It is these that are the most challenging aspects of our practice.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
Practice of the Buddha's Way requires our diligence and constant attention. In fact, these are the Buddha Way. In the morning, we open our eyes and consider the universe with compassion. We embrace our lives and embrace each other. This is our life.
One does not believe in Buddha. One does not believe in Dharma. One does not believe in Sangha. There is no dogma, no doctrine, no belief at all. There is just the practice of noticing, the practice of loving, and the practice of embracing.
In all of this, the core practice is faith: not in a God or a set of beliefs, but in ourselves and the universe. Such faith enables us to trust silence. It enables us to trust others. It is these that are the most challenging aspects of our practice.
Be well.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
All in a Day
With palms together,
Good Evening All,
This morning was different...I did not feel like posting. My apologies. After morning practice, My Little Honey and I went for a walk with our dogs. Then she went a-knitting and I went back to the Zendo. It was good to be there. Regular zazen at the Zen Center is a wonderful, priestly task. I enjoy puttering there, taking care of little things, like watering the plants or replacing the toilet paper and candles.
Susana from Juarez, Mexico joined me at the afternoon practice period. It was good to see her. She is such a good practitioner. We sat upright, then talked over tea in the kitchen until My Little Honey stopped by to pick me up. I rode my bike to Zen Center and it was pretty nasty outside on my ride in, but the weather had taken a turn for the worse since. We left the bike at Zen Center and headed home.
Tonight I sat at home in my home Zendo. I lit a stick of incense, bowed, and sat down. The time was short, but the sitting was just perfect. I then chanted the Maka Hanya Shin Gyo, Four Great Vows and quietly left the room.
Today Student Mu Shin had a surgical procedure and my Aunt had a bone marrow test. My prayers are with both.
Be well.
Good Evening All,
This morning was different...I did not feel like posting. My apologies. After morning practice, My Little Honey and I went for a walk with our dogs. Then she went a-knitting and I went back to the Zendo. It was good to be there. Regular zazen at the Zen Center is a wonderful, priestly task. I enjoy puttering there, taking care of little things, like watering the plants or replacing the toilet paper and candles.
Susana from Juarez, Mexico joined me at the afternoon practice period. It was good to see her. She is such a good practitioner. We sat upright, then talked over tea in the kitchen until My Little Honey stopped by to pick me up. I rode my bike to Zen Center and it was pretty nasty outside on my ride in, but the weather had taken a turn for the worse since. We left the bike at Zen Center and headed home.
Tonight I sat at home in my home Zendo. I lit a stick of incense, bowed, and sat down. The time was short, but the sitting was just perfect. I then chanted the Maka Hanya Shin Gyo, Four Great Vows and quietly left the room.
Today Student Mu Shin had a surgical procedure and my Aunt had a bone marrow test. My prayers are with both.
Be well.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Mountains and Rivers in Morning
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
The silence of the early morning is broken by a siren in the distance. Like a bell, it brings me back to myself as I sit here to write to you.
Morning is not delicate. Open space, it receives sound and light. When through the day, such sound and light is everywhere, morning is still morning. Morning, an equivalent of zazen, does not require silence.
Just as a mountain sits as the rain pounds it, the people trample on it, or fire burns it, so morning opens to the day. Mountain does not require separateness. Morning and mountain are the same as zazen.
The river flows through the valley and as it flows it does not care whether a tree falls in it. It embraces the tree. Eventually the tree and the river become one. The river does not require a path. Morning, mountain and river are the same as zazen.
Sometimes it is our view of a thing that blinds us to seeing it.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
The silence of the early morning is broken by a siren in the distance. Like a bell, it brings me back to myself as I sit here to write to you.
Morning is not delicate. Open space, it receives sound and light. When through the day, such sound and light is everywhere, morning is still morning. Morning, an equivalent of zazen, does not require silence.
Just as a mountain sits as the rain pounds it, the people trample on it, or fire burns it, so morning opens to the day. Mountain does not require separateness. Morning and mountain are the same as zazen.
The river flows through the valley and as it flows it does not care whether a tree falls in it. It embraces the tree. Eventually the tree and the river become one. The river does not require a path. Morning, mountain and river are the same as zazen.
Sometimes it is our view of a thing that blinds us to seeing it.
Be well.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Time
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
My goodness here it is Sunday once more. Have you noticed how time is so relative to age? When we are young and imagine all the benefits of being older, we so look forward to the passing of time that it slows. And as aging people, we are not so looking forward to the end of days and time just becomes a torrent!
Life is like that.
The lesson is to not seek, but to be present. The relativity of time is teaching us this lesson and when we are ready to receive the teaching it is very good news.
Being present is timeless. Being present is being as it is. Our discriminating mind, doing what it does, takes us away from this and thrusts us into the relativity of judgment, recrimination, and, expectation. This mind must be mastered, but to master it is not to control it, it is to passively witness it.
Going back to an image I frequently use: the motor is racing, but you don't have to put the car in gear. Let it race. And as it races, you are serenely reflecting on its racing. Hoping it will stop racing will slow time down.
Be well.
Rev. Harvey So Daiho Hilbert, Ph.D. May All Beings Be Free From Suffering
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