Organ Mountain Zen



Thursday, June 18, 2009

A Koan

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Case 46 Kyosei's "Voice of the Raindrops"


Main Subject: Kyosei asked a monk, "What is the noise outside?" The
monk said, "That is the voice of the raindrops." Kyosei said, "Men's
thinking is topsy-turvy. Deluded by their own selves, they pursue things."
The monk asked, "What about yourself?" Kyosei said, "I was near it, but I
am not deluded." The monk asked, "What do you mean by 'near it but not
deluded'?" Kyosei said, "To say it in the sphere of realization may be easy, but
to say it in the sphere of transcendence is
difficult."


Setcho's Verse:

The empty hall
resounds with the voice of the raindrops.
Even a master fails to
answer.
If you say you have turned the current,
You have no true
understanding.
Understanding? No understanding?
Misty with rain, the
northern and southern mountains.


from The Blue Cliff Record, translated by Sekida


The Dao that can be spoken is not the Dao. Our realization is a private affair. Too often we seek confirmation that we've "got it". In both the seeking and in the speaking we betray our true status. Our practice is selfless. No enlightened beings may enter: The empty hall resounds with the voice of the raindrops.

Here is life, step into it. Don't ponder it. Don't talk about it. Eat it.
Be well.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Training

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

In the silence of early morning, zazen tends to be still and easy, except for Tripper wanting to cradle his twenty old pounds into my cosmic mudra. We sit together. It is good.

Zazen is not always so pleasant.

Yet, pleasant and unpleasant are part of the training. To be completely present in both, seeing through them to expose their true nature: this is zazen. In such a sense, there is no good zazen or bad zazen. Just zazen.

So, the point is in the training: disciplined spiritual practice. The bell rings, we sit. Food is prepared, we are cognizant of its value and its sacrifice. We go to the bathroom and are aware and grateful that everything works as it is intended...and when it doesn't, we are grateful for that awareness and the physicians and medical professionals who are there to heal us.

As we see, Zen Training is in every moment.

This is the most important point. The universe does not offer you anything, there is no you. The universe offers itself to itself. When self awareness becomes universal awareness: infinite serenity.

Be well.

On a personal note: My Little Honey will be travelling to Ohio for her 45th college reunion today. She will be gone a week. I expect massive parties at my house. ;) Actually, I expect nothing.

streetZen today at 4:00 PM at Veteran's Park!
Harvey So Daiho Hilbert-roshi
On the web at: http://www.clearmindzen.org
Telephone: 575-405-8522

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Meaning What?

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Each morning we open our eyes only to close them again. Like Sisyphus, we roll the stone up the hill, but to have it slide back down, yet compelled we are, to push it back up. Albert Camus thought this was absurd.

He was incorrect. .

Its not getting the rock to the top of the hill that is important, nor is it actually opening our eyes. What is important, it seems to me, is we are living--in-process. Living is what we do and living requires repetition, breath in, breath out, food in, crap out. What is the quality of our living? Forget your goals, for a moment, those god-awful grade cards, and concentrate on your life in this very breath. I am bathed by cricket sound, the soft sigh of Tripper on a zabuton in the Zendo, and the delicious cool morning air coming in from the desert through my window. This is the quality of my life just now.

If our goal is to get to the sun, big problem. Even if we could, that goal would kill us. On the other hand, if our aim were to follow the sun, our day would be illuminated and just think of the things we might discover in the light.

Just because the sun sets only to rise again, does not mean what we saw along the way was for naught.

Be well.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Koans

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone.

"Show me a piece of paper with only one side!" Matsuoka-roshi would sometimes ask my Teacher, Hogaku-roshi. He in turn, put it to me. Forget a mobius strip...you can see both sides of the strip. Forget "sides" Sides will just get in the way. This is similar to the one-hand clapping koan.

Koan work, though not a primary teaching method in Soto Zen, is still actually used by Soto Masters. Master Dogen has an entire collection he used in a lessor known work called "Mana Shobogenzo" and the Shobogenzo itself, is a collection of koan seeds.

What is a koan?

It is NOT a riddle. It is not a puzzle. A koan is a nut, or better yet, a fruit, to peel and bite into. The only way to "solve" a koan is to actually eat it.
We cannot realize a koan through the intellect. It is non-conceptual. We can answer koans only through intuitive slight of hand.

In Soto Zen we sit with no purpose whatever. Yet we deliberately take our seat. A koan arises. Deliberation requires an intent. Shikantaza (to just sit) denies intent.

We vow not to kill, but kill to live. Life itself is a koan.

Answer, please.


Be well.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Without Words, Without Silence

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Case 24 of the Gateless Gate is always instructive for us. In Senzaki's concise version, a monk asks Fuketsu:

"Without speaking, without silence,
how can you express the truth?"

Fuketsu observed,

"I always remember springtime in southern China.
The birds sing among innumerable kinds of fragrant flowers."

Like many koans, this approaches a key issue in Zen. How do we express the truth? Words? Silence? Neither are acceptable as both are prone to spin and distortion, neither is the truth, just a representation of perception.

Fuketsu answers weakly, though he is pointing us in a direction. His answer is weak because it is a copy of something he has heard, an old Chinese poem. A better answer, if he were in the outhouse, would have been a fart.
The truth is what we are just now. The truth is not our words, not our silence, but our manifestation of ourselves.

If Fuketsu were amid those birds, and they were chirping, his answer would be exactly on point. Today, we are so often off point, as we speak from history, conceptualization, prognostication: from everywhere but here.

What is Buddha? My coffee is cold.

Be well.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

streetZen

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

This morning I will sit streetZen at the downtown mall. I do this as prayer work, a witnessing on behalf of sanity and serenity. Our world seems so filled with hate and violence. Hateful people killing other people, greedy people raping the Earth and her resources, deluded people believing they are somehow independent of everyone and everything else and justifying tyranny in that way.

I know it is not so.

Our world is filled with peaceful, loving people, people with deeply compassionate hearts.

When I practice Zazen on the street, people seem warmed by this example. These are the people I witness on behalf of. These are the people who need support. We cannot sustain love in a world filled with messages of hate, greed, and delusion. Countermeasures are necessary. In Zen we understand these to be love, generosity, and wisdom.

If we want a world, public or private, to be serene and compassionate, then we must be serene and compassionate.

Zazen is the practice of serene reflection, a practice rooted in silent illumination on a cushion, then rising into the world. Please consider joining me in this practice.

Be well.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Harvey

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

I am writing in the blog portion of my new Yahoo Profile. This is the old Yahoo 360, now reincarnated as Yahoo Profiles. If you were a connection of mine on Yahoo 360 on either Buddhist99 or harveyhilbert IDs, please connect to me on the Yahoo profile, harveyhilbert.

In any event, it is morning and we finally were able to finish watching "Last Chance, Harvey" last night. I am a little disturbed that the name "Harvey" is so often portrayed as a weak, timid person, a stumble-bum, or a fool. Yet, there it is. The good news is that these characters, including the Harvey of this film, often rise to the occasion. Dustin Hoffman is himself, a bit self-effacing, but clearly authentic. The film is worth watching if for no other reason than it is a portrayal of small triumphs with large implications for our behavior toward one another. One added benefit, the film is a love story without a single sex scene, naked chest, or bare butt.

Reminder: streetZen at the downtown mall at 9:00 AM tomorrow.

Be well.