Nothing Special

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



Lee Love, a friend in Japan, made a comment on my Face Book wall about a practice used by Tibetan followers of the Buddha Way. This practice, called "Tummo" is about deep concentration, a concentration that allows for the raising of body temperatures, reducing heartrate, blood pressure, metabolism, etc. The Dalai Lama was instrumental, and continues to be, in bringing Buddha's practices under the light of scientific investigation.



Much has been learned as a result. The text I am now reading (Buddha's Brain) is a practical guide that bases its work on such investigations. And while there is clearly much benefit from such practices and their study, I often wonder about what we take away from such efforts.



For one, I think many people see our practices as (maybe) sophisticated techniques and tools. The practice is eviscerated, gutted of its spiritual heart. Secondly, I think people think there is something special about the practices, Tibetans, or the East. Not so.



The entire aim of practice is to simply be awake and aware. As a consequence, heart awakens, body awakens, and our senses explore without grasping. It is nothing special. It is allowing the world to be as it is: in our hearts, minds, and bodies. Such practice leads to a complete awareness of the vast interconnectivity of everything. This is prayer in each moment. This makes every speck of sand, every bag of trash, every piece of toast or every sound, smell, taste, or touch, prayer. This is the heart of religion.



Be well.

Rest

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



Cloudy skies greet the morning light. A threat of snow lingers. The land feels barren. Winter is like that, a natural break from the forces of growth. Rest is important to us all.



Last night I went to bed fairly early, fell asleep munching on some creamy chocolate, and woke this morning at 3:30 as Tripper wiggled and snorted, and snuggled, until I let him and his two brothers out. Too early to rise, back to bed for another hour or so.



Rest is, indeed, important.



Calm abiding in everyday life is rest in motion. Resisting nothing, enfolding everything, living things bend and yield. We practice to create a mind that is aware of the changing environment, as well as its own changing nature. Anger and frustration happen: yield to patience and compassion. Poverty and greed happen; yield to generosity and understanding. Alienated and isolated; yield to the deep wisdom of interdependence.



With each breath, a universe rises and falls. Keep nothing. Release everything. Our lives are ours to be lived.



Be well.

Rules

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Our Study Group has been dancing for awhile now, cutting a pretty mean 'rug', some might say. Cutting through things is important practice. What's at the core? What is being said? Understood? Done?

Yet, I am finding that if we really like something, we will find a way to make it not only "OK", but downright necessary to do. We will then weave a new rug spun from threads grown of either desire or necessity. Yet woven in such a way as to make what was once understood one way, now understood in another way. The new way is on the one hand closer to the Infinite (we convince ourselves) and on the other hand, something we really wanted to do in the first place (more truthful).

An article on the question of Yoga's place in Judaism set off a whole chain of thoughts in this regard, as the author, an Orthodox Jewish woman, clearly struggled with archaic notions foisted upon her by her rigid theology. In the end she seemingly came to no conclusion, yet continued her yoga practice. As my yoga teacher said last night of this, "she liked it!"


We are a species of rationalizers and once we discern a rationalization, we seem to think we have found a blemish in the sterling nature of a position. I am not convinced.

Reframing an old position in order to come to terms with new circumstances is an evolutionary and highly adaptive practice. It suggests principle rather than rule.

We are far more than our rules. We (and our continuation as a interdependent species) are the reason for the rules in the first place.

When looking at a precept, do not see a rule, see a principle. As one of my old friends and a social wok pioneer used to say, we needed "principles for living." Rules are not principles, they are ruts. Getting stuck in one disallows fresh energy to enter us and so we wilt.

To live in the present moment requires a willingness to live within immediate touch of the ultimate meaning of our lives. If I say, 'do not kill' I am also saying "support and nurture life". As fearless bodhisattva warrior, we should practice to use ourselves toward this aim.

In a world of One, there is no Christian, no Jewish, no Muslim, no Hindu, no Naive American: there are just practices, gates if you will, which invite us closer to the Infinite. Like fingers pointing to it, please don't mistake them for the moon.

Be well.

Wednesday Notes

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



The day today is full. Breakfast Discussion Group, Torah class, lunch with friends, meeting with my Teacher Hogaku-roshi, meditation, yoga, and finally Journey's Class. Somewhere in there I need to do a walk.



Such days remind me of my working life when every 30 minutes from 5:00 AM to 10:00 PM were accounted for in a huge professional office calendar.Need time to just look at the sky? Better block it in!



Sometimes this is a very good thing. If we are not so very well disciplined, a calendar is a wonderful tool. We should not, however, obsess over it! People are often surprised by how much time is actually spent in mindlessness. No time to practice zazen? BS! Got time to pee? Of course. Well?



Discipline has gotten such a bad rep. It is far too often placed in opposition to freedom and creativity. Big mistake. Its like responsibility. No responsibility, no freedom. No morning, no evening. As sleep walkers we can get away with this. But as bodhisattvas, it is impossible.



Discipline offers s a form within which we are free. Freedom within form is delicious. Freedom without form is chaos. Just keep in mind, both form and emptiness are one in the same.



Be well



PS., I found a time to walk.

The Kannon Sutra

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



The Kannon Sutra:



"Kanzeon,

Praise to Buddha,

All are one with Buddha,

All awake to Buddha,

Buddha, Dharma, Sangha,

Eternal joyous selfless pure,

Through the day

Kanzeon,

Through the night

Kanzeon,

This moment arises from Mind,

This moment itself is Mind."

This little piece is powerful. Kanzeon or Kannon is the Bodhisattva of Compassion. A Bodhisattva is an "awakened being" (or one devoted to, and on the path to, awakening). Kannon hears the cries of the world. She/he responds with myriad hands. We should not think of Kannon as a God-being. Kannon is us, each one of us. Kannon is our own compassion.



When we chant this sutra, we are inviting our own compassion to emerge. We are acknowledging the beauty of being awake, the complete unity of the universe, and expressing a base fact: nothing is not as it should be. Everything is because everything is, all deeply connected through both time and space.



So, we open ourselves and create a willingness to hear the suffering of beings, of ourselves, as we go through the various proceses of living and dying. Night and day, and we place our attention on a compassionate reply.



Eternity is nothing. It is a concept. This moment arises from a concept of Mind. What is, is Mind, yet, even this, when named, dies.



Here is the thing. Forget about it. This sutra, delightfully simple and straight forward, shows us how. Its all about placing our attention on what is most important, our love for everything.



Be well.

Going No Where Again

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



Groundhog day. I just wrote a marvelous little note on Going No Where, Version Two, and in the spellcheck, refreshed the page and lost the entire post. Reconstruction never works. So, I will begin afresh.



More or less.



I have thought to myself often, "I'm going no where". I wonder now what that really means. To say such a thing points to a dream, a fantasy, that has no reality except in my mind. It is also a set-up for disappointment, as life never is as it is in our mind's eye.



In truth there is no where to go. The only place we are (at this moment) is here, now, with me. If we allow ourselves room in our brain for another place to go, we are pushing out our true reality, our actual life, in favor of a thought. In so doing we lose our life. Not a good idea. Worse, a bad reality,



So, here is the thing. Whatever is your life, embrace it. Make it whole. Allow no spaces for somewhere else to enter. To manipulate an old saying: "When walking walk, when dreaming dream, when sitting sit, above all;, don't get things confused.."



Be well.

Going No Where

With palms together,
Good Evening Everyone,

Having just returned from the Refuge, had dinner, washed the dishes, and done the laundry, I am now sitting quietly in my small Zendo. I chanted the Hanya Shin Gyo and deeply experienced its truth. There is something about that sutra that gets me every time. I just get caught in the sound of the drum and the drone of the characters. Or should I say,a self that never was drops away to allow a Self that always was to emerge. Star-stuff.

Of a sudden, there is no thing else, just the sound: just he beat, the bell, the breath.

This is as it should be. A wake-up in the middle of nothing to go no where for no thing. Just to be is enough. I often forget that.

Granddaughter Sammi took my iPhone outside this evening. I have a "Planets" app on it and she can take a 3D look at the horizon and pick out the constellations. She also took son Jason's Camaro out and learned to do donuts or something with her father's skilled guidance. She learned there are marvels in just standing under the sky, as well as in driving oneself across the desert floor only to feel the horses slide out from under her in sharp turns.

A wake up in the middle of no thing to go no where for no thing. That's what I am talking about: enjoy.


StreetZen in the morning at 10:30 AM, Veteran's Park. Zazen at the Roshi's Zendo each morning at 6:30 AM.