Upaya

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

My last two days were spent at Upaya Zen Center, a monastic cluster of unasuming adobe buildings, people, trees, flowers, birds, and programs. I went there to meet Joan Halifax Roshi, someone I have admired and followed for years. I also met Sensei Beate Genko Stolte, their co-abbot.

My aim was to get a better understanding of Upaya, its programs, and how it functions. I wanted to learn about their chaplaincy program, in specific. On first approach, the center appears unkempt. Gardens seem untended, pathways are encroached somewhat by flowing plants. My son, a French Chef, explained these were classic french style gardens. And my discriminating mind found a bell.

We are both from a Soto tradition, yet there were many differences in our practices. Some subtle, others not so subtle. Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka Roshi taught a Zen that was clear, direct, and unadorned. We sit facing a wall. In daily practice, we recite minimal sutras (one, the Heart Sutra), the Sanki rai mon (three refuges) and the Shi gu sei gon mon, (the Four Great Vows), and that's about it. Sanpai (three prostrations) and Tekkesa Ge (the robe verse) are private matters. Lineage recitaton is not done.

The service at Upaya is both elegant and classic Soto. Zazen, followed by the robe verse (repeated three times), followed by sanpei, a sutra chant, a recitation of the lineage, homage to heirs, again sanpai. It is good to know how these things work for just such occasions as visiting a monastery.

Still, I find the direct, simple Matsuoka style refreshingly humble. Our practice centers have used sanpai by the officiating priest at the beginning of services, but not always. We do these prostrations in the privacy of our own zendo and in front of our own alters. At my home Zendo, we come in, stand by our cushions, the priest offers incense, we recite the Three refuges, the great Heart of Wisdom sutra and take our seats for two periods of zazen with kinhin in between. At the conclusion of the second sitting period, we recite the Hannya Shin Gyo, the Four Great Vows, offer incense, bow, and take our seats for tea service and teisho.

One is not better than the other. Neither are correct or incorrect. It is in the doing.

Engaged Zen is a practice, not a thought or a set of rituals. We practice in the world for the benefit of the world.

Upaya is a wonderful training center. Its Teachers are warm and welcoming. Its staff and the practitioners are hard working and dedicated to the Great Way. This was clear.

I saw possibilities for developing similar programs here in southern New Mexico. I would like to have a Zen Center once again to house training and practice. streetZen is clear and direct. Visiting the sick is clear and direct. Much of our work does not require a building. In fact a building seems to get in the way of the work and some even see it as a substitute. On the other hand, a building offers a refuge and a place to conduct classes.

We are looking for such a building as I write.

If you would be interested in helping, please email me. Regular donations are essential. Generosity is our first paramita. It sustains us: both in the giving and the receiving.

Nine bows to Upaya, its Founding Teacher, and the many lives and many hands that went into its creation and go into its continued practice.

May you each be a blessing in the universe.

So?

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

We both use our mind and set our mind aside to be bodhisattvas. Our mind creates time, visualizing a past, creating a present, imagining a future. When we set aside our mind, we live in the exact present. We both, therefore, grow old, and do not grow old. We are born and not born. We die and don't die. So, "growing", "birth", "death", these are ideas of mind.

If I say I hate growing old, I am speaking from duality. I am not old. I am not young. I am not sick or well. I am this moment as it is.

So what?

Don't you just love the so what of things? We can get so fascinated with the language of Zen, its mystery, contradiction, esoteric quality. We can be philosophers. It is most important to know that if we are these we are asleep. "So what?" is the bell of awakening. Never forget it, always ask it.

Plan when it is time to plan Master Dogen teaches in his Tenzo Kyokun, Instructions to the Cook. It is not that we are not to use our mind, we are, but we are to know we are using it and not abusing it. We do not use our mind to avoid or fear the present moment.

"So what?" brings us back to our true moment, this one. My fingers touch the keys as I speak to you. Here, now. The so what is the sharing of our lives. We call it being human. Others call it being bodhisattvas.

Be well.

Mutual Aid

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Last night after a wonderful meal and considerable chess, I took a walk with Tripper. We put in a mile plus a tenth. It was after nine. Unusual for me to be up and about that late. I came in, took a brief shower, sat for a few minutes, and went to bed. This morning after zazen I managed to complete a fast walk in the park with Allen and Eve just as the sun was rearing its mighty face over the mountains. It was a mile and three quarters, the walk. We in the desert are not used to the humidity levels we have been encountering. Dry heat is far easier to endure than the damp stickiness of humid air. Within the first two or three tenths of a mile, Allen and I reported breaking a sweat.
My friend Allen is doing wonderfully well. His scar is nearly disappeared. He is walking strong and feeling better each day. Having brain surgery is no small thing. Zen teaches us that we do better when we actualize in the thing itself. Allen has taken the steps to do this. He engaged his life as it is.

Sawaki Roshi says: "Heaven and Earth give themselves. Air, water, plants, animals, and humans give themselves to each other. It is in this giving-themselves-to-each-other that we actually live. Whether you appreciate it or not, it is true." (The Zen Teaching of Homeless Kodo", p.79).

Giving to each other is a moment in itself. It is multilateral, exponential, and exempt from time. Its core ingredient is care.

Here's the rub: we must be open not only to giving, but receiving. In receiving there is giving; in giving, there is receiving. One who closes himself to help does a great disservice to those around him. I am ashamed to say that has been my way most of my life. Deceived by the rhetoric of rugged individualism, I failed to see the delight of mutual aid.

Our practice teaches us to look deeply. As we do, we experience our own interconnected reality, we experience mutual aid.

I am very grateful for this practice and for those around me who have been my teachers.

Be well.

Peace Village

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

This morning we will begin our second week of Peace Village here in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I am looking forward to sitting with bundles of wiggle worms. I am honored to be asked yearly to return to teach these children. Every year it is actually a delight and an affirmation of our society's commitment to peaceful living.

It is not important that everyone believe this, in fact, believe nothing. The thing that is important is that we do.

Practicing peace is a precious gift to the universe. It involves a lot of inner work: A willingness to stop; a willingness to not act when we are chomping at the bit to do so, and a willingness to allow another her point of view and see it's value.

Children can learn to be still. They can learn to mouth the words of peace, but they need parents and communities who are willing to walk that walk. Peace Village creates an opportunity to do just that.

May we each be a blessing in the universe.

Enso

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Zen is often pictured by the enso, a brushed circle of ink. Why? There are a variety of reasons, I suppose, but I believe a basic one is to point to the timeless unity of Zen. Tozan in the Rinzai tradition has his five ranks; Seung Sahn has his 360 degree Compass, and Master Dogen, his Genjo Koan.

To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.

Those who enter the stream, do so in order to achieve enlightenment. Yet we discover soon enough, that holding such a goal is actually an obstacle. Seeking enlightenment is a big mistake, according to many masters, including Seung Sahn. There are those who chatter on and on about enlightenment. One gets the idea that it is a sugar plum fairy dancing around in their heads. And often, it is just that, an idea bearing absolutely no relation to experience...or worse...and experience turned into an idea so that it can be expressed.

That fifth rank is a place of complete integration. "No trace of realization remains" according to Dogen. As Sahn says, "put it down." The last of the Ten Ox-Herding pictures portrays a happy monk wandering free and easy in the marketplace. As Kapleau puts it:

10. ENTERING THE MARKET PLACE WITH HELPING HANDSBarechested, barefooted, he comes into the market place.Muddied and dust-covered, how broadly he grins!Without recourse to mystic powers,withered trees he swiftly brings to bloom!The gate of his cottage is closed and even the wisest cannot find him. His mental panorama has finally disappeared. He goes his own way, making no attempt to follow the steps of earlier sages. Carrying a gourd, he strolls into the market; leaning on his staff, he returns home. He leads innkeepers and fleshmongers in the Way of the Buddha. (see Three Pillars of Zen)

This is the Bodhisattva Way

Be well.

Listen Up!

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

This morning we practiced Jewish meditation at Peace Village, chanting a variant of the "Sh'ma". I replaced, "Hear, O Israel" with "Listen up, Everyone!" The children seemed to respond well to the chanting.

Personally, I am not a mantra sort of practitioner. I enjoy silent illumination. But then, perhaps that's a pretty good reason to do something different. Daido Loori-roshi often suggests that we should move away from that which we know or are comfortable with to that which is uncomfortable. If we are "good" at shikantaza, perhaps a koan or two is in order. So, sitting there, chanting "Listen up, Everyone, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one" was a useful departure from my norm.

This afternoon at 4:00 PM: streetZen at Veteran's Park and Meditation at Temple Beth El at 6:00 PM.

May you each be a blessing in the universe.

Enlightenment

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

When we speak, we are communication thoughts. It is important to know that thoughts are not the things they point to or describe or name. Thoughts are just thoughts. So when we talk about being "awake" we are speaking about something, but not the thing, only our thought about the thing. All talk of enlightenment is a barrier to the experience itself.

Some intellectual practitioners, academics, and so forth, get themselves all excited about enlightenment. Its like people at a chess club discussing various "lines" in a game. All very esoteric, abstract, and a lot of fun. But not particularly useful.

Zen is about doing awake: Not being awake, not seeking awake, not being led to awake. The Buddhas and the Patriarchs, says Master Dogen, practiced awake. How? Zazen.

Master Dogen writes, "To suppose that practice and realization are not one is nothing but a heretical view; in buddha-dharma they are inseparable. Because practice of the present moment is practice-realization, the practice of beginner's mind is itself the entire original realization." (Bendo-wa, as translated by Tanahashi-sensei in Moon in a Dewdrop, p. 151)

So, let us not speak so much of this enlightenment. Let us rather do enlightenment. As Yun Men says, "When walking, walk; when sitting, sit; Above all, don't wobble."


Be well.