With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
There is a slate sky becoming light blue outside my house. I study these things. Ever since Vietnam I have had a near obsession with morning light. The nights were so dark and dangerous there and the light of morning bathed me with a sense of hope. Yet, I also feel drawn to the night: soft, hidden. A time when our ears turn from human sound to nature's sound.
_____________
So, now it is later in the morning. Zazen is done. Yoga is done. And the house is clean.
Livvie, our granddaughter, is with us this morning. She is not well and had to stay home from daycare. So, I made us all pancakes and sent her to play on the organ. she loves to put on a recorded tune and either "play" along or dance to it.
Three year olds are so interested and expressive!
Anyway, I am not sure how to wrap this note into a spiritual practice other than to say its often enlightenment itself to be with children.
Be well.
Organ Mountain Zen
Monday, February 2, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Order
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning I woke feeling better than I did when I went to bed. Always nice. Our robot went to cleaning; I dusted, made coffee and tea, did the dishes, and picked things up a bit. Order is an important trait.
In Zen, as we enter a Zendo, we remove our shoes, place palms together and bow. We step in on our right foot. We walk in slow, measured steps. We bow to our cushion, bow to the room, take our seat. As the priest enters he or she goes through a set of motions, all prescribed, all measured. Order. We place palms together facing the wall and bow when the bell is offered. We sit in silence and with great concentration. The bell rings, we relax. Order.
Life is a process that has its own order. Sometimes it is hidden, sometimes it is as plain as the nose on our face. Sometimes gentle, sometimes stormy, but know this: there is no stormy, no gentle: we create these in our mind. Become one with the storm, no storm. Become one with gentle, no gentle.
Order is therefore something not related to outside appearance, but rather to our balance inside. We call this equanimity.
Outside order, placing things just so is our way of training ourselves to find stillness of mind and body. Like a reflection in a pool, order is a reflection of ourselves.Choppy water; choppy reflection.
This is a very important point. If you want to find peace, become peace by letting your conception of peace go. As we say, if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning I woke feeling better than I did when I went to bed. Always nice. Our robot went to cleaning; I dusted, made coffee and tea, did the dishes, and picked things up a bit. Order is an important trait.
In Zen, as we enter a Zendo, we remove our shoes, place palms together and bow. We step in on our right foot. We walk in slow, measured steps. We bow to our cushion, bow to the room, take our seat. As the priest enters he or she goes through a set of motions, all prescribed, all measured. Order. We place palms together facing the wall and bow when the bell is offered. We sit in silence and with great concentration. The bell rings, we relax. Order.
Life is a process that has its own order. Sometimes it is hidden, sometimes it is as plain as the nose on our face. Sometimes gentle, sometimes stormy, but know this: there is no stormy, no gentle: we create these in our mind. Become one with the storm, no storm. Become one with gentle, no gentle.
Order is therefore something not related to outside appearance, but rather to our balance inside. We call this equanimity.
Outside order, placing things just so is our way of training ourselves to find stillness of mind and body. Like a reflection in a pool, order is a reflection of ourselves.Choppy water; choppy reflection.
This is a very important point. If you want to find peace, become peace by letting your conception of peace go. As we say, if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!
Be well.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Questions and Answers
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Last night around 1:30 AM I woke with this sentence running through my mind, an apparent snippet of conversation, "Yesterday's choices are today's questions." I sense that this means each choice we make unfolds new questions and, from a spiritual point of view, its rarely the answers that matter; what really matters are the questions. Why?
Questions open us, answers close us. Questions inspire us, answers satisfy us. Questions ask us to look under something, answers assume there is no need to look further.
As in life itself, in Zen practice there are no answers, only questions. How we face these questions becomes critical and determines our character. To answer a question with "don't know" mind, is to not really answer a question, but to open our mind to see what is really there as opposed to what we assume is there.
Let your life be an open question.
(I suspect the degree to which we feel comfortable with this is the degree to which we have attained don't know mind.)
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Last night around 1:30 AM I woke with this sentence running through my mind, an apparent snippet of conversation, "Yesterday's choices are today's questions." I sense that this means each choice we make unfolds new questions and, from a spiritual point of view, its rarely the answers that matter; what really matters are the questions. Why?
Questions open us, answers close us. Questions inspire us, answers satisfy us. Questions ask us to look under something, answers assume there is no need to look further.
As in life itself, in Zen practice there are no answers, only questions. How we face these questions becomes critical and determines our character. To answer a question with "don't know" mind, is to not really answer a question, but to open our mind to see what is really there as opposed to what we assume is there.
Let your life be an open question.
(I suspect the degree to which we feel comfortable with this is the degree to which we have attained don't know mind.)
Be well.
Friday, January 30, 2009
The Matrix
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Zen is a very practical tool. It is also rooted in Buddhism, an ancient Eastern religion. A religion without a God, per se. What is a religion without a God? The question is not unimportant, but I suspect it is not helpful either. Buddha set aside anything that was not helpful in his practice. Yet, in doing so, developed a set of practices we tie together over the millenia and call a religion..or a philosophy.. .or a way of life. The latter, being most likely the more correct understanding.
Do words parsing this and that help us get closer to truly understanding ourselves? Do words get us any closer to realization? Words can offer us a degree of clarity between us, but only a degree. It is the heart/mind that must be shared...or to put it in a more contemporary sense, plugged in.
Like Neo in The Matrix, we are able to realize we are "plugged in" to vast Mind. Each of us gives sensation to Mind. We and Mind are, in truth, One. Unlike Neo, there is nothing sinister about this Matrix and the world we make without our awareness of our plugged in nature is the false world. Our Matrix is our true universe and the vast and deep interconnectedness of everything is our true experience. Like a giant, boundless organism we live and breath, expand and contract.
Now, forget this: go practice. Test your relationship to the universe. Look deeply. Where do you begin and end? Do you begin or end? What exactly is this "you" you think exists? Is there any such thing as a causeless beginning? How can anything ever actually "end"?
Remember, matter can neither be created or destroyed. What is, is, and always was and always will be: its form will change, but its substance, its essential nature remains.
As Alan Watts pointed out years ago, "we are it."
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Zen is a very practical tool. It is also rooted in Buddhism, an ancient Eastern religion. A religion without a God, per se. What is a religion without a God? The question is not unimportant, but I suspect it is not helpful either. Buddha set aside anything that was not helpful in his practice. Yet, in doing so, developed a set of practices we tie together over the millenia and call a religion..or a philosophy.. .or a way of life. The latter, being most likely the more correct understanding.
Do words parsing this and that help us get closer to truly understanding ourselves? Do words get us any closer to realization? Words can offer us a degree of clarity between us, but only a degree. It is the heart/mind that must be shared...or to put it in a more contemporary sense, plugged in.
Like Neo in The Matrix, we are able to realize we are "plugged in" to vast Mind. Each of us gives sensation to Mind. We and Mind are, in truth, One. Unlike Neo, there is nothing sinister about this Matrix and the world we make without our awareness of our plugged in nature is the false world. Our Matrix is our true universe and the vast and deep interconnectedness of everything is our true experience. Like a giant, boundless organism we live and breath, expand and contract.
Now, forget this: go practice. Test your relationship to the universe. Look deeply. Where do you begin and end? Do you begin or end? What exactly is this "you" you think exists? Is there any such thing as a causeless beginning? How can anything ever actually "end"?
Remember, matter can neither be created or destroyed. What is, is, and always was and always will be: its form will change, but its substance, its essential nature remains.
As Alan Watts pointed out years ago, "we are it."
Be well.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Cat's Meow
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
In the morning Pete-kitty enjoys sitting between me and the computer's keyboard. He wants to be touched. I am trying to teach him patience. :) I move him to the side, put my hand on his neck under his ears and, as he leans in, we care for each other.
Pete often doesn't get it that I want him to stay on the side of the computer and not directly in front of it. But such is life. As long as I reach out to him from time to time, he can be content to sit on my side and wait. Who is teaching whom?
I have often heard that it is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. By this is meant those who complain the most, who get between a person and his task, ultimately get that which they need, if for no other reason than to quiet their squeak.
Both parties can learn from this when the light is turned inward.
Perhaps the wheel is not, afterall, squeaking on purpose. Perhaps it is truly in need of attention. Perhaps we need to be still and listen. Setting aside our need for the sake of the other. Oh boy.
Taking care of a squeaking wheel is what we do. Would that we could hear the squeak before it becomes a roar. We can if we try. We can if we set our ears away from our own voice long enough to hear the cries of the world.
This is a most challenging practice.
Try it.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
In the morning Pete-kitty enjoys sitting between me and the computer's keyboard. He wants to be touched. I am trying to teach him patience. :) I move him to the side, put my hand on his neck under his ears and, as he leans in, we care for each other.
Pete often doesn't get it that I want him to stay on the side of the computer and not directly in front of it. But such is life. As long as I reach out to him from time to time, he can be content to sit on my side and wait. Who is teaching whom?
I have often heard that it is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. By this is meant those who complain the most, who get between a person and his task, ultimately get that which they need, if for no other reason than to quiet their squeak.
Both parties can learn from this when the light is turned inward.
Perhaps the wheel is not, afterall, squeaking on purpose. Perhaps it is truly in need of attention. Perhaps we need to be still and listen. Setting aside our need for the sake of the other. Oh boy.
Taking care of a squeaking wheel is what we do. Would that we could hear the squeak before it becomes a roar. We can if we try. We can if we set our ears away from our own voice long enough to hear the cries of the world.
This is a most challenging practice.
Try it.
Be well.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
What Matters
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
In the greater scheme of things, what really matters? Do the big events of the day matter? Does the sound of a beloved pet matter?
What matters is what we invest meaning in. Things themselves without relation to others have no meaning. They come and go just as we do. But human beings are meaning makers. And we make meaning in terms of our relationship to things.
If we have a distant relationship to nature and natural events, they will matter little. If we have a close relationship to our pets, they will matter.
Regardless, what matters most and what matters least will drop away in the natural course of events. So, what really matters?
The common denominator of all this is relationship. It is very important to recognize that we are all interconnected, interconnected to the point that on the deepest level, we are all one, the entire universe is one. So, what matters most is our willingness to see and openness to nurture, relationship.
It is in this nurturance that we begin to see and solidify our realization that, we and the universe are not two, but one and always have been.
Reincarnation is just a matter of the Universe opening its eye through the continuous creation of eyes to open.
May you be a blessing in the universe today.
Good Morning Everyone,
In the greater scheme of things, what really matters? Do the big events of the day matter? Does the sound of a beloved pet matter?
What matters is what we invest meaning in. Things themselves without relation to others have no meaning. They come and go just as we do. But human beings are meaning makers. And we make meaning in terms of our relationship to things.
If we have a distant relationship to nature and natural events, they will matter little. If we have a close relationship to our pets, they will matter.
Regardless, what matters most and what matters least will drop away in the natural course of events. So, what really matters?
The common denominator of all this is relationship. It is very important to recognize that we are all interconnected, interconnected to the point that on the deepest level, we are all one, the entire universe is one. So, what matters most is our willingness to see and openness to nurture, relationship.
It is in this nurturance that we begin to see and solidify our realization that, we and the universe are not two, but one and always have been.
Reincarnation is just a matter of the Universe opening its eye through the continuous creation of eyes to open.
May you be a blessing in the universe today.
Monday, January 26, 2009
On Not Getting Stuck
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning I sat in my Zendo and worked through a large portion of the morning prayers Jews recite each morning. I have a CD that a friend made for me that should help me more correctly pronounce the Hebrew. I downloaded it onto my iPhone, but the thing organized the pieces alphabetically. Oh well. I will have to get a CD player or bring my laptop into the Zendo. Anyway, I then sat zazen for one period. I usually do this in reverse, sit Zazen, then do yoga, then review the morning prayers. So it was interesting to see how reciting the prayers prepared me for Zazen which then lead to yoga. It "felt" better. The one downside is that I usually more study the morning blessings than actually recite them, reciting them takes a bit away from that process.
It is a good idea to change up our routines from time to time. Its rather like stretching, teaching us something about pliability. Care must be taken, however, that we don't abandon routine in the process. It is our daily routine, our rituals of the day, that serve as guideposts as the sun traverses the sky.
May we each stay steady on our course.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning I sat in my Zendo and worked through a large portion of the morning prayers Jews recite each morning. I have a CD that a friend made for me that should help me more correctly pronounce the Hebrew. I downloaded it onto my iPhone, but the thing organized the pieces alphabetically. Oh well. I will have to get a CD player or bring my laptop into the Zendo. Anyway, I then sat zazen for one period. I usually do this in reverse, sit Zazen, then do yoga, then review the morning prayers. So it was interesting to see how reciting the prayers prepared me for Zazen which then lead to yoga. It "felt" better. The one downside is that I usually more study the morning blessings than actually recite them, reciting them takes a bit away from that process.
It is a good idea to change up our routines from time to time. Its rather like stretching, teaching us something about pliability. Care must be taken, however, that we don't abandon routine in the process. It is our daily routine, our rituals of the day, that serve as guideposts as the sun traverses the sky.
May we each stay steady on our course.
Be well.
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