streetZen

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Internet Student Rose asked about streetZen. So, to answer her I am writing today about my practice, the practice I call streetZen.

Bernie Glassman-roshi, founder of Zen Peacemaker Sangha, wrote a wonderful book entitled, "Bearing Witness". In it he describes his street work. Bearing witness to homelessness, poverty, war and so on. His practice includes actually becoming homeless for a period. Taking nothing with us, we just sit with the population we are bearing witness on behalf of.

I used to participate in peace protests after I returned from fighting in the Vietnam war. I was uncomfortable with the adversarial role I often felt the protesters had with others. It was about peace and non-violence, but anger and patriotism are a challenging poison to serenity. Awhile ago I met my friend, Claude Anshin Thomas, author of "At Hell's Gate", and street Zen Priest. Anshin practices homeless wondering and lectures on Peace and Non-Violence. Like me, he is a combat veteran. His practice strongly influenced me and mine.

So, over the last two years or so I began a practice I am calling streetZen. In this practice I simple sit zazen in public places. The places I select have to do with particular issues, such as the environment, veterans, etc. If I am sitting on behalf of the environment, I consider myself an Earth Witness. If I sit at Veteran's Park, I am there as a Peace Witness. One other form of practice is Soup Kitchen work. I did that for awhile, but haven't recently. In this, I simply volunteer at the local soup kitchen and put in a few hours there.

The ground rules of the practice are simple. Practice zazen. No talking. If spoken to, reply quietly, politely, and with a gassho and bow. At the soup kitchen, the work is similar to "samu" or "work meditation" and the rules would include mindful silence and mindful practice as I cut things, place things, etc.

When practicing streetZen, I place a small sign in front of me. It simply says "PEACE" or "Earth Witness". I also have a begging bowl and sometimes incense. I chant the Heart Sutra at the beginning and end of the sitting period.

I currently sit Earth Witness at the SW Environmental Center at the Downtown Mall in Las Cruces on Saturday Morning from 9:00 to 10:00 AM. I am considering renewing my Peace witness practice at Veteran's Park on Wednesdays at 4:00 - 5:00 PM. as the Temple Beth El sitting group seems to have gone on vacation this summer.

I invite everyone to join me. If not in Las Cruces, then in your own town or city. The world needs Bodhisattva witnesses.

May you each be a blessing today.

Show Me Don't Tell Me

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

There is a maxim in writing which has wide application in life: "Show me, don't tell me!" I said this to son Jacob last night. I could see he struggled with it and finally asked how.

Ahhh, the answer. A koan has no answer. We fool ourselves if we think there is an answer. Only unfolding questions and our presence matter It is the authenticity of our presence as we address the questions that is the "show me" of life..

We live in our heads. Its a sickness we Americans inherited from the Age of Enlightenment which really was a turn toward a sort of narcolepsy of the soul. We left our affective, intuitive dimensions to wither and put our energy and nurturance into our reason and intellect. In short, we thought ourselves to sleep.

So. here we are today, living in our heads, thinking, thinking, thinking. Not bad. Thinking is a tool. A tool. Thinking is not reality. Nor are our thoughts who we are.

Who we are is what we are. How do we know what we are? First, we might stop thinking about it. Thinking separates us from the what of it. We might feel what we are, but feeling, like thought, is internal. Second, we might look to evidence, our tracks in the sand, if you will. These tracks are our karmic footprints: they include our work and our relationships. But these are mere shadows, a base relief of ourselves.

So, if I ask you to show me yourself, how would you do it?

We Buddhists might argue there is no self to show. OK. Then what could you possibly show the world? The truth of the matter is that there is a self. Its just that the self is fluid and always changing. It is an amalgam in process. Because it is not permanent does not mean that it does not exist. Still, this amalgam is not our thought about this amalgam, that's just our thought about it. What is the self? It is only what is shown.

So, we are back to square one: show me, don't tell me.

When I look at my behavior, I see my true nature. My work is to extinguish the filters, thoughts, fears, and all other obstacles so that my true nature is an expression of my actuality. .I live to be free and easy in the marketplace. I live to be. If there is consonance between these and my actual behavior, fine. If not, I have work to do. Our True Nature is not that well hidden. But the layers that surround it are insufferably tenacious.

Be tenacious as well, be free.

Be well.

Life and Death

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Yesterday I read a few of my Dharma Grandfather's Teishos. They had to do with Zen in everyday life and included many reference to the Vietnam war and the self-immolation of Buddhist monks. I have a photograph of one of them and, of course, fairly vivid memories of seeing this on the TV news.

The teishos and the burning monks brought my mind to look at life and death. Life and death are the key issues of Zen priests and practitioners. Life and death is the source of seeing clearly.

We are asleep most of the time. Walking like zombies through our day. Wake up!When we practice Zen and commit to facing reality, we are committed to finding the answer to life and death...and there is an answer. When our eyes are open, there it is.

Practice to open your eyes.

Be well.

Peeing Along the Way

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Summer weather is here forcing me to move morning Zazen back to 5:30 and my workouts to 6:30. I have a 30 minute window now each morning to write to you between 6:00 and 6:30. The exception is this morning as it is today that I am using to revise my schedule. :)

Speaking of this morning, we went out at 6:30 and did a short, but intense, 1.5 miles in a new park. The park has compacted crusher-fine pathways and even includes well placed water fountains. It is one tangled mass of winding paths and hills, some quite steep. So, while it is a short loop, if you take it a a good clip, your heartrate will reach target in no time.

We took Tripper and Pepper this morning which slowed things down a bit. You know, dogs love to stay in the moment, sniffing and peeing everywhere. We human beings go at it with purpose. Which suggests purpose takes us out of the moment. And it does if all of our attention in on whether or not we are achieving our purpose.

In Zen, we often mistakenly think that staying in the moment means letting go of planning, etc. Master Dogen says that if the moment is to plan for tomorrow, then planning for tomorrow is our task for the moment. Whatever we are doing, we should do with our full and complete attention. That is the most important thing.

If sniffing, just sniff; if peeing, just pee. Hmmm....a dog's life? Does a dog have Buddha Nature?

Float Mode

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

This morning I got up at 5:00 and began picking up, dusting, and polishing. We did most of the other stuff yesterday, the floors, sweeping, etc. Today we will host a party for Olivia (Livvie). We plan to have a pony here for her and her friends to ride. It is going to be a major effort to remain in float mode. :)

Zen is about float mode, so to speak. There's the choppy water float. There's the serene water float. All the while paddling toward that shore we are already standing on. Some of us have a need to flail around in the water, cursing the choppy when we seek serene. Yet serene is within us at all times.

Even with screaming children.

Here's the thing. When we are awake and aware of our oneness with all things, we easily feel the tension rise as things begin to go south. We breath into it, embrace it, and let it go with our breath. When there is too much and the storm is overtaking us, we walk away. We take a break. We practice zazen. There is no harm in taking a break; yet great harm in overstaying our ability to deal with things that are getting out of hand. As Clint Eastwood says, "a man's gotta know his limitations."

When we fail to get out of the way of the storm or don't know how to ride it, we point our fingers, blaming everyone under the sun for our suffering. All the shoulds and coulds and woulds come out like lightning biting at other's butts. Not very Zen. On the other hand, very Zen. Zen is only what the moment is.

The key is training and awareness with the added willingness to take a step away. May we each walk in wonder and ease.

Remember, silence is thunder.

Be well.

steetZen

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

This morning I will practice streetZen at the Southwest Environmental Center at the open air Downtown Mall from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM. If you are interested, please bring a cushion and join me.

Followers of the Buddha Way have practiced this sort of practice since the time of the Buddha himself. streetZen is practiced in mindful silence. A dana bowl is used. In the past, Buddha taught we should walk, approach a home, and simply stand with our bowls. In the USA no one would have any idea what we were doing and we would likely be arrested. Better to go to a public venue and practice Zazen. The benefit is the witness of serene reflection meditation.

I invite you to do this practice.

Be well.

knock, knock

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone.

With the rising sun
I hear the universe knocking.
Or is it my head pounding at its door?
Who knows?
Who cares.

Silence is thunder.

Be well.