Dharma

With respect,








Thank you very much Kobutsu for both sharing this insightful and powerful piece of writing, but also for the person you are. Thank you also for taking the time to call me, it is always a moment pregnant with the possibility of awakening to speak with you. Reading this piece reminded me so much of my ten years of work in child protective services, work as much for myself as for the children and families I was asked to work with. How to feel compassion for a perpetrator of sexual violence on a small child? How to understand a family system that produces and allows such behavior?





Such work changes us and also, I think, invites us to examine deeply, the phrases and jargon we Zennists drape ourselves with. Buddha nature is nature and nature is the universe: not all sweetness and light. Stars collide, civilizations brutalize one another, and individuals eat each other for lunch. All dharmas. Life unfolds.







Releasing ourselves from the grip of our thoughts and feelings about such things to just enter the situation is, I suspect, the best approach. When beings suffer we are there, not to help as your quote suggests, but to liberate.







Here's the thing, it seems to me we all live in cages. We all use our situation and condition to justify our behavior regardless of that behavior's morality. To free ourselves from the cage is to free ourselves from the whole structure: ego, id, and super-ego, on the individual level, but also from macro social structures, as well. We brutalize ourselves daily with our ideas, our values, and our economicic systems. A cage by another other name is still a cage.







To use the logic of the Buddha in his Diamond Sutra, to free ourselves from Dharma labels, such as being Zen practitioners, we must realize we are not Zen practioners. Because of this we are Zen ptractitioners. So, what does this mean? It means to me, just do what is in front of you to do.







Be well.







Daiho





"You need not enter a monastery, but make a monastery of your heart."

Soyu Matsuoka



Harvey Daiho Hilbert

Order of Clear Mind Zen

Telephone: 575-680-6680







--- On Thu, 3/24/11, Kobutsu Malone wrote:





From: Kobutsu Malone

Subject: Re: Greetings

To: "Harvey Daiho Hilbert"

Date: Thursday, March 24, 2011, 5:13 PM





http://www.engaged-zen.org/articles/Kobutsu-Paradox.html























On Mar 24, 2011, at 7:01 PM, Harvey Daiho Hilbert wrote:



With palms together,



Kobutsu, I hope you are well. I am writing to ask if you would offer a few words/insights to one of my students who has expressed an interest in prison work. He is a very bright, engaged scientist, who also holds a 3rd degree black belt, and will become a novice priest in April.





Again, I hope you are well. I look forward to hearing from you soon.



In gassho,



Daiho







"You need not enter a monastery, but make a monastery of your heart."

Soyu Matsuoka



Harvey Daiho Hilbert

Order of Clear Mind Zen

Telephone: 575-680-6680

The Wholehearted Way

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



The morning began at 2:00 AM with Suki being sick. I cleaned the carpet and walked her. She seemed to feel better, went to sleep, as I tried myself to recover my dreams. Soku Shin was dead to the world. Good. She really needed the rest. So, up again at 4:30, I began with Zazen, did a arms and shoulders weight workout, and followed that with a yoga routine. After writing this note, I will head out into the desert for a 2.8 mile hike. Then return to paint. My afternoon is filled with dokusan interviews. This evening the women gather for their Zen group and I will practice Zazen and yoga at the Temple beginning at 7:00 PM. Such is my day.



A new student and I have been studying the Bendowa, an essay by Master Dogen on the practice of the Wholehearted way. I consider this often through the day. Am I wholeheartedly present? Is my mind divided? I notice, that often it is, and I gently bring it back together in a simple breath with my shoulders open and my eyes cast downward. I think this is a good practice, to notice and return, notice and return. It should be a moment to moment practice.



In this practice, as I breath in, I release my mind and let the present environment in. Who is there before me? What is going on? How am I responding? Release. Release. Release.



Soku Shin just left to take her car in for servicing. Suki and I need our morning aerobic work. It is time, then, to close.



Be well.

Morning Practice

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



This morning we rose early. It feels good to get up early sometimes, but then again, it feels good to sleep in on occasion. This morning I went through my morning yoga routine feeling ever-so-tight and feeling as if springs were uncoiling in the process. Yoga when done slowly and mindfully is such a centering, contemplative practice. I followed this with an easy leg workout with weights: squats and calf-raises, then for abs, crunches and knee tucks. In a week or two I will increase this day’s workout to include lunges and much heavier weight.



Last night at Temple we explored a few fragments of Master Dogen’s “Fukanzazenji.” It was a good discussion, I thought, about coming to experience what is true and already present within us: our buddha-nature. Once this unfolds and we see it clearly, everything in our lives has the portent of teaching and learning: from downward facing dog to making coffee in the morning to typing such a message as this. Once our eyes are open, we can actually see.



I like to think of it as similar to walking in our own authority, the authority of substance. Knowing, one need not speak. Everything is there in every gesture. Now, to get ready to go out the door for a walk.



Be well.

A Day

With palms together,


Good Afternoon Everyone,



This morning I am still nursing a blister on my left foot’s Big Toe…I need it to heal for Sunday’s race at White Sands Missile Range. So, I have not walked but a half mile or so over the last two days. Kathryn (Soku Shin) and I did go down to the Rio Grande where we biked two miles the day before yesterday. (It was very beautiful at sunset!)



What I have been doing is yoga twice a day and weights. This morning I punched up my weight routine, pulled out my old workout log, and re-did it to reflect a few changes. As it stands: Monday and Thursday are Arms and Shoulders, Tuesday and Friday are Chest and Back, Wednesday is Legs, Abs are daily. Yoga is twice daily. Tai Chi Chih is Wednesday. I am going from three sets of 8 reps heavy, building to five sets of 8 heavy.



On the aerobic side: After the Bataan Death March on Sunday, I thought I would move back to running, since I think I have solved the foot issues (at least temporarily) so Monday is a Slow Run, Tuesday is a Walk, Wednesday is a Tempo run, Thursday is a Walk, Friday is an Easy Run, Saturday is a Long Run, Sunday is Off.



This said, Zazen is my main contemplative practice, although I work hard to train in a contemplative mode in all things I do. Zen, as I taught last night, is an every moment thing: Zen is life itself. In everything we do, we should do it aware that we are doing it. There is no room for auto-pilot in life. Life is far too short for that sort of thing.



This evening at Clear Mind Zen Temple, we will host Zen 101 at 6:00 PM, practice Zazen at 7:00 PM, and practice Yoga at 7:30 PM. Please consider joining us!



Be well.

A Peaceful Nation

With palms together,




Good Afternoon Everyone,







This morning we woke in good time, a few stretches (I wouldn’t call it yoga) a few reps of the dumbbells (I wouldn’t call it a weight workout) and a trip to the Temple to don the vestments, open the service, sit Zazen and then leave to join Rev. Gozen-sensei, my former disciple, as he gave Shukke Tokudo to one of his disciples, Rev. Kim Vajramanas Pries. After the festivities, we regrouped at the International Delights Deli for a wonderful lunch. Rev. Dai Shugyo completed the service in my stead at the Temple and Dharma Teacher Zen Shin offered a talk. Afterwards, Soku Shin and I took Suki for a walk in the desert, albeit, a short walk, as MY DOGS are tired and still sore. Now resting, I have some time to write to you.







The wars of the United States seem to keep increasing, all very legitimate I am given to understand, yet wars, none-the-less. I am wondering where our resolve to find peaceful solutions to conflict went. What? Oh, excuse me, you’re right, there was never any such resolve. Must be all in my mind, but I thought our president was elected to bring an end to this nonsense. I must be mistaken, as there seems no real end in sight and now we have joined with other nations to fight another war.



Maybe I am just getting old, but frankly, this is such old news. Here's the deal, I will be conned no more. I was born shortly after the conclusion of World War Two. So, I just researched our war efforts since I was born. Since then, we have been involved in the Korean war, the Vietnam war, and the following “operations”:







1. Operation Urgent Fury-Grenada (1983)



2. Operation Just Cause-Panama (1989)



3. Operation Desert Storm-Iraq (January and February 1991)



4. Operation Restore Hope-Somalia (1993)



5. Operations in Europe-Bosnia (1990's)



6. Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan (2001-present)



7. Operation Iraqi Freedom-Iraq (2003-present)





And now, Libya. (for a very detailed and eye-opening index of US Military operations, see this link. I feel sad for us. We have been led to believe for so long that we are a peaceful, peace-loving nation, but the record speaks for itself. For me to consider us a peaceful nation at any time in the future, I will need to see evidence that we can actually live in peace. I think I will be dying long before that ever happens. Until then, let’s be peaceful and peace-loving individuals, communities, and even cities.







I will be resuming my Peace Witness Vigils on Monday and Friday mornings at the Veteran’s Park tomorrow. In addition, I believe I will begin again to sit for peace at the Federal Building in downtown Las Cruces on Wednesday afternoons at 4:00 PM.







Please consider joining me.







Be well, be peace.

13.1 Today

With palms together,


Good Afternoon Everyone,



Students Yubao and Alice and I finished our last long training hike this morning in preparation for the Bataan Death March Memorial race coming up this Sunday, the 27th. I left them at a corner about a mile from my apartment and when I walked in the door I had done 13.1 miles. My toes were killing me. A cold bath helped, Aleve helped more! And now, after lunch, a cold beer is topping off a wonderful morning. Soku Shin and I are planning a trip into Old Mesilla today. She wants to look at a proposed biking route. I think we will rest after that…or at least I know I will!



Be well.

Morning Note

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



Today is a full day. Walking this morning with friends, Allen and Eve, Peace Village Board Meeting at noon, a birthday greeting for a friend at 1:30, several dokusan interviews this afternoon, and the evening’s Zazen and yoga tonight. I have been quite busy for a retired guy who is a monk.



We have put together a small team for the Bataan Death March: I will join students Yubao and Alice on the March. Yesterday I ordered special t-shirts for us to wear. On the front, Clear Mind Zen with our Order’s logo. On the back, “Stillness in Motion” with “Team Zen” underneath.



So far each evening we are chanting the Heart Sutra for our brothers and sisters in Japan. I have few moments in the day where that nation is not on my mind. Such suffering makes my worries seem thoroughly insignificant, even embarrassing. The Japanese have much to teach us, I suspect, about handling adversity. No looting, no craziness, just a determination to do what needs to be done. No doubt there will be introspection and a desire to do better with the results. I have watched their 24 hour news show on my PC and see none of the sort of talking head, faux news, emotional screaming we see in the United States. Yes, there are lessons. We might benefit from paying attention to them.



So, off to take a desert trails walk and enjoy the conversation of friends.



Be well.