With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
It is 4:30 AM. I just took Suki out and am settling in to write. The morning air is delicious. I would love to sit outside to compose this message, but I am afraid Suki would be a maniac with the rabbits and birds.
Suki lives in Buddha-nature. It is direct living, living that is in actualized contact with function viz a viz the world around her. For Suki it is automatic; for human beings it must be a choice. We choose to live deliberately or not. We choose to keep our eyes shut or open then. We choose to open our heart/mind or not.
Some may argue that eyes shut or open is duality. It is. Asleep or awake is duality? Yes. Dogen Zenji says the following in the Genjo-koan: “When all dharmas are the Buddha-dharma there are delusion and enlightenment… When the myriad dharmas are all without self, there is no delusion, no realization…” Yusatani comments, “”It’s the relative position that has the absolute position as its ground. In other words it’s the relative in the midst of the absolute.” Duality and non-duality are the same, just as we in the Mahayana tradition say nirvana and samsara are the same. A whole awake to itself cannot be divided: its every facet will be awake to its wholeness.
Our practice is to live seamlessly. Thoughts and feelings, mind and heart, do not respond to the environment; they are the environment. When we practice and our body/mind falls away, the shell that seems to separate us from the universe falls away. We are water in an ocean of water, aware we are water in the ocean of water. As we come to be a wave, are we not still water in water? Even so, waves are waves and have their function. So too, we. What is wave? What is water? What was our face before our father and mother were born?
This face is no face at all. Just walk the dog.
Be well.
Organ Mountain Zen
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Forms
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Last night we nearly had a full house for evening Zazen. There were four of us facing the wall. In my small Zendo, this is a considerable number. After practice, Rev. Kajo served tea and I told the story of the Buddha’s enlightenment.
It is quite a story, you know: Leaving his family, seeking a cure for suffering, finding it, then wandering around the countryside through cities and villages, practicing and teaching the Way. Recently, on my Tricycle.com’s community page, a friend and I came to be on “the same page.” This page has to do with emptiness on the one hand, and teaching on the other. He comes at things as a Daoist: that which can be spoken is not the Dao. I find him delightfully challenging, especially since I came to Zen through a Daoist POV (one of my very early online IDs was Taoist).
In my opinion, the Buddha never taught anything but method. He declined comment on the philosophic arguments of the day. His sutras are about how to practice, thus how to live, because from his POV they were the same. He was the ultimate pragmatist. While it is true that he did establish rules and guidelines for the Sangha, understand these rules are about how to live, they are not forms to be mindlessly revered or taught as dogma.
The trouble is, as forms develop they often become replacements for the aim of the forms themselves(awakening). Dogen Zenji was somewhat guilty of this, becoming quite dogmatic in his assertions regarding Zazen as practice realization. In some ways, his teaching de-mystified the enlightenment experience. He took the magic out of it. Just sit down, take up the Buddha’s posture, and there you are.
I believe this is so, as I experience its truth each moment. Yet, it takes much practice to understand what Dogen was actually saying. An unpracticed understanding misses the mark and is rather like sliding stones along the surface of the pond.
Our forms should be contemporaneous, not mindless repetitions of the past. Forms have a context, indeed they are a context, for practice. It is the practice, friends, that is the point not the derivatives.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Last night we nearly had a full house for evening Zazen. There were four of us facing the wall. In my small Zendo, this is a considerable number. After practice, Rev. Kajo served tea and I told the story of the Buddha’s enlightenment.
It is quite a story, you know: Leaving his family, seeking a cure for suffering, finding it, then wandering around the countryside through cities and villages, practicing and teaching the Way. Recently, on my Tricycle.com’s community page, a friend and I came to be on “the same page.” This page has to do with emptiness on the one hand, and teaching on the other. He comes at things as a Daoist: that which can be spoken is not the Dao. I find him delightfully challenging, especially since I came to Zen through a Daoist POV (one of my very early online IDs was Taoist).
In my opinion, the Buddha never taught anything but method. He declined comment on the philosophic arguments of the day. His sutras are about how to practice, thus how to live, because from his POV they were the same. He was the ultimate pragmatist. While it is true that he did establish rules and guidelines for the Sangha, understand these rules are about how to live, they are not forms to be mindlessly revered or taught as dogma.
The trouble is, as forms develop they often become replacements for the aim of the forms themselves(awakening). Dogen Zenji was somewhat guilty of this, becoming quite dogmatic in his assertions regarding Zazen as practice realization. In some ways, his teaching de-mystified the enlightenment experience. He took the magic out of it. Just sit down, take up the Buddha’s posture, and there you are.
I believe this is so, as I experience its truth each moment. Yet, it takes much practice to understand what Dogen was actually saying. An unpracticed understanding misses the mark and is rather like sliding stones along the surface of the pond.
Our forms should be contemporaneous, not mindless repetitions of the past. Forms have a context, indeed they are a context, for practice. It is the practice, friends, that is the point not the derivatives.
Be well.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Zazen
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Last night before evening practice period, I opened all of the windows and shut off the air conditioning system. Suki enjoyed barking at every passerby and soon enough she required the blinds to be drawn. When the one student arrived for Zazen, the Zendo was in its own energy: warm, soft, and inviting,
Candlelight and incense are quite a potent combination. When our bodhi mind has been aroused, a place like a Zendo is a marvelous place to come in order to let go and manifest our true self. Each aspect of the wall in front of us opens, blooms, and begs to be filled with ideas, memories, and feelings. Yet we simply witness.
Students just coming to practice seem either lost in this open expanse or frightened. Those who are lost, seek shelter in the forms. Forms offer a container or a ground, something they can sit with. Those who are frightened seek shelter in their ideas and pick up books, books, and more books.
I steadfastly invite everyone who comes to our center to sit. Practice is the ground upon which everything is planted. Nothing grows without its soil, sun, water, and fertilizer.
Serene reflection meditation is available to you. Just put your palms together, face a wall, sit upright, and remain fully present.
Be well.,
Good Morning Everyone,
Last night before evening practice period, I opened all of the windows and shut off the air conditioning system. Suki enjoyed barking at every passerby and soon enough she required the blinds to be drawn. When the one student arrived for Zazen, the Zendo was in its own energy: warm, soft, and inviting,
Candlelight and incense are quite a potent combination. When our bodhi mind has been aroused, a place like a Zendo is a marvelous place to come in order to let go and manifest our true self. Each aspect of the wall in front of us opens, blooms, and begs to be filled with ideas, memories, and feelings. Yet we simply witness.
Students just coming to practice seem either lost in this open expanse or frightened. Those who are lost, seek shelter in the forms. Forms offer a container or a ground, something they can sit with. Those who are frightened seek shelter in their ideas and pick up books, books, and more books.
I steadfastly invite everyone who comes to our center to sit. Practice is the ground upon which everything is planted. Nothing grows without its soil, sun, water, and fertilizer.
Serene reflection meditation is available to you. Just put your palms together, face a wall, sit upright, and remain fully present.
Be well.,
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Only the Work
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
We are told that practice makes perfect, but I can say spending the night with a cheap brush and ink stick is not necessarily a good idea. At three o’clock I was too tired to sleep. My alarm is set for 4:30. Hulu was on the Notebook, and I was sipping some very cheap Merlot.
There is something about the feel of grinding and mixing the paint that is so sensual. Practicing this grinding and mixing is allowing me to begin to feel when the paint is ready for a particular kind of brush stroke. It would seem this is important when doing painting. Also, the amount of paint on the brush seems important, especially in an effort to creatively express a free form of kanji.
I am looking at brushwork less for perfection of kanji and more for the potential of creative expression. Unlike art, perhaps like art, there is no perfection in Zen. There is just this and just that. Whatever is before me is an expression of perfection, warts and all. During my first two semesters of college back in 1968 or so, I fancied myself an art major and took a heavy dose of classes: Drawing 101, 102, Figure drawing, Intro to Painting, and Intro to Sculpture. My art professors often talked about “happy accidents,” those strokes of pen or brush that are unintentional, but there they are in the middle of our otherwise “perfect” effort. We students trained to begin to see the perfection of the accident.
Och!
It has just dawned on me how deeply I drew that practice into me. A willingness to see the truth of a happy accident is a baseline skill in our ability to be present. Like Art, in Zen there is only the work.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
We are told that practice makes perfect, but I can say spending the night with a cheap brush and ink stick is not necessarily a good idea. At three o’clock I was too tired to sleep. My alarm is set for 4:30. Hulu was on the Notebook, and I was sipping some very cheap Merlot.
There is something about the feel of grinding and mixing the paint that is so sensual. Practicing this grinding and mixing is allowing me to begin to feel when the paint is ready for a particular kind of brush stroke. It would seem this is important when doing painting. Also, the amount of paint on the brush seems important, especially in an effort to creatively express a free form of kanji.
I am looking at brushwork less for perfection of kanji and more for the potential of creative expression. Unlike art, perhaps like art, there is no perfection in Zen. There is just this and just that. Whatever is before me is an expression of perfection, warts and all. During my first two semesters of college back in 1968 or so, I fancied myself an art major and took a heavy dose of classes: Drawing 101, 102, Figure drawing, Intro to Painting, and Intro to Sculpture. My art professors often talked about “happy accidents,” those strokes of pen or brush that are unintentional, but there they are in the middle of our otherwise “perfect” effort. We students trained to begin to see the perfection of the accident.
Och!
It has just dawned on me how deeply I drew that practice into me. A willingness to see the truth of a happy accident is a baseline skill in our ability to be present. Like Art, in Zen there is only the work.
Be well.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Takuhatsu and Zazenkai
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
It is the end of the month and that means two things: time to practice takuhatsu (begging) and time for Zazenkai. Our Order will move into its Temple Building this month. We exist from donations. All of our services are free and open to the public. Unfortunately the products and services we consume in the process are not free. Our rent there is $560.00 which includes utilities. The Order, instead of paying me a salary, pays for the equipment and services I use on behalf of the Order. These include gasoline, cell phone and Internet service. In addition, there are tea, coffee, and small amounts of food for events such as Zen Discussion Group, Zazenkai, etc. Together, these equal about $300.00 per month, which means our budgeted financial needs are $860.00.
Dana (charity) is our very first perfection. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to our new Temple.
Also, we are in desperate need of basic supplies like zafus and an inkan bell. If you have an old zafu and consider donating it, please do so. Or, if you would rather not make a cash donation, go online to a zafu company and order one on our behalf.
Coming next week is Hiroshima/Nagasaki Memorial Day (August 5). We will offer a one-day Zazenkai on the first Saturday of August in memorial to this dreadful event. As a part of the Zazenkai, we will show a film called “Atomic Flame” which is the story of a flame kindled by the A-bomb that devastated Nagasaki and was kept burning for sixty years, finally to be returned to its source at Trinity Site here in New Mexico. Members of our Sangha participated in the ceremony.
Zazenkai will begin at 7:00 AM and close at 4:00 PM Please RSVP. Thank you.
Good Morning Everyone,
It is the end of the month and that means two things: time to practice takuhatsu (begging) and time for Zazenkai. Our Order will move into its Temple Building this month. We exist from donations. All of our services are free and open to the public. Unfortunately the products and services we consume in the process are not free. Our rent there is $560.00 which includes utilities. The Order, instead of paying me a salary, pays for the equipment and services I use on behalf of the Order. These include gasoline, cell phone and Internet service. In addition, there are tea, coffee, and small amounts of food for events such as Zen Discussion Group, Zazenkai, etc. Together, these equal about $300.00 per month, which means our budgeted financial needs are $860.00.
Dana (charity) is our very first perfection. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to our new Temple.
Also, we are in desperate need of basic supplies like zafus and an inkan bell. If you have an old zafu and consider donating it, please do so. Or, if you would rather not make a cash donation, go online to a zafu company and order one on our behalf.
Coming next week is Hiroshima/Nagasaki Memorial Day (August 5). We will offer a one-day Zazenkai on the first Saturday of August in memorial to this dreadful event. As a part of the Zazenkai, we will show a film called “Atomic Flame” which is the story of a flame kindled by the A-bomb that devastated Nagasaki and was kept burning for sixty years, finally to be returned to its source at Trinity Site here in New Mexico. Members of our Sangha participated in the ceremony.
Zazenkai will begin at 7:00 AM and close at 4:00 PM Please RSVP. Thank you.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Takkesa Ge
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Takkesa ge (Our Robe Verse, recited before we put on our robes).
“How great, the robe of liberation. a formless field of merit. Wrapping ourselves in the Buddha’s teaching, we free all living beings.”
When we unfold the robe we manifest morality. The o’kesa, as well as the smaller rakusu, is a patchwork robe made up of strips of fabric that are sewn together in a particular pattern. The robe represents the actualized dharma, transmitted from teacher to student through the millennia.
We do not take these robes lightly. The practice of sewing a robe has come to us generation by generation all the way back to Shakyamuni. It is our heart and soul. We wear our robes and exist in them. Our robes are nothing but an outward manifestation of inward vows.
Some might see the robes as a form of costume or a uniform of sorts. Others may understand them to be a curtain to hide behind. This would seriously diminish both the wearer and the robe. Every stitch is the heart and soul of a bodhisattva. Every stitch a vow to free others, knowing it is impossible to free anything.
Katagiri said “Zen is action.” We cannot just think our way through the barriers, we must actualize ourselves and we accomplish this through our forms. With proper reverence, may we each enfold ourselves in the Buddha’s teaching today.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Takkesa ge (Our Robe Verse, recited before we put on our robes).
“How great, the robe of liberation. a formless field of merit. Wrapping ourselves in the Buddha’s teaching, we free all living beings.”
When we unfold the robe we manifest morality. The o’kesa, as well as the smaller rakusu, is a patchwork robe made up of strips of fabric that are sewn together in a particular pattern. The robe represents the actualized dharma, transmitted from teacher to student through the millennia.
We do not take these robes lightly. The practice of sewing a robe has come to us generation by generation all the way back to Shakyamuni. It is our heart and soul. We wear our robes and exist in them. Our robes are nothing but an outward manifestation of inward vows.
Some might see the robes as a form of costume or a uniform of sorts. Others may understand them to be a curtain to hide behind. This would seriously diminish both the wearer and the robe. Every stitch is the heart and soul of a bodhisattva. Every stitch a vow to free others, knowing it is impossible to free anything.
Katagiri said “Zen is action.” We cannot just think our way through the barriers, we must actualize ourselves and we accomplish this through our forms. With proper reverence, may we each enfold ourselves in the Buddha’s teaching today.
Be well.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
1,2,3,4,5
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
“What are the teachings? ‘One, two, three, four, five!’”
“What is practice? ‘In the whole world, it can never be hidden.’”
This teaching comes from Dogen Zenji’s Tenzo Kyokun (Instructions for the Cook).
Here we have a direct lesson in living in the Way. The teachings point to lessons as plain as the nose on our face, the question is, can we see our nose?
We often say, “When washing the dishes, just wash the dishes.” When I wash the dishes it is a great lesson in mindfulness. My left hand, partially paralyzed, refuses to hold things in soapy water. So, I must consciously and deliberately find a way to hold the glass while washing it with my other, “good,” hand.
In this simple everyday task is a very deep teaching: washing the glass is none other than one, two, three, four, five. Practice awareness is “things whether slippery and wet, or dry as a bone, are none other than the universe itself: exercise great care.” The buddha way is nothing more than this.
I am grateful for my paralysis, though at times it is a clear pain in the ass. It is a dharma gate. Without it, I would be able to wash the dishes without putting attention on the dishes. I would be able to put on my kesa without struggling to tie it. I would be able to tie my shoes without feeling like Captain Hook. Things would definitely be easier, but mindlessness would be knocking at my door.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
“What are the teachings? ‘One, two, three, four, five!’”
“What is practice? ‘In the whole world, it can never be hidden.’”
This teaching comes from Dogen Zenji’s Tenzo Kyokun (Instructions for the Cook).
Here we have a direct lesson in living in the Way. The teachings point to lessons as plain as the nose on our face, the question is, can we see our nose?
We often say, “When washing the dishes, just wash the dishes.” When I wash the dishes it is a great lesson in mindfulness. My left hand, partially paralyzed, refuses to hold things in soapy water. So, I must consciously and deliberately find a way to hold the glass while washing it with my other, “good,” hand.
In this simple everyday task is a very deep teaching: washing the glass is none other than one, two, three, four, five. Practice awareness is “things whether slippery and wet, or dry as a bone, are none other than the universe itself: exercise great care.” The buddha way is nothing more than this.
I am grateful for my paralysis, though at times it is a clear pain in the ass. It is a dharma gate. Without it, I would be able to wash the dishes without putting attention on the dishes. I would be able to put on my kesa without struggling to tie it. I would be able to tie my shoes without feeling like Captain Hook. Things would definitely be easier, but mindlessness would be knocking at my door.
Be well.
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