Zazenkai

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



Zazenkai today. This is a day to spend in mindful silence. This is a day to allow the peace that resides within you to unfold. Each of has this peace. It is the stillness that resides in the space before thought. Our thinking mind is an oar in the water. It tells us to row and with each stroke, soft or no, our water is disturbed. Zazen is the cessation of rowing. And Zazenkai is a day of stopping.



If you are unable to come to Zazenkai, home practice is an excellent opportunity. Chose a time, sit in front of a blank wall, and breathe. First, however, you must settle things. Ensure you will have no intrusions or disturbances. Shut off cell phones. No radio, stereo, or TV. The length of time you sit is not as important as the quality of the time you sit. By quality we mean being awake, aware, and steady. No moving. No getting up and wandering around. No scratching. No stretching. Just sitting still.



In the event you can only do this five minutes, then you have five minutes “buddha.” Spend the rest of your day in mindfulness. This means orienting yourself to be completely aware of everything you are doing and how it feels to do it without holding on to any feeling or thought whatever. Picking up a coffee cup, you are aware that you are picking up a coffee cup. Putting down a coffee cup, you are aware that you are putting down a coffee cup. And so on.



What is the point? Serene reflection. Serenity. Peace. How hard is that?

Sangha

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

We have been considering sangha of late and what sangha really means.  It used to be that sangha was a group of monks who practiced together, lived together, and wondered together.  That was some time ago.  Through the centuries, though, and with the ascendancy of lay practice centers, sangha has widened to include nearly everyone and, in some cases, everything, in the universe.

Many lay practice centers welcome people in off the street, visitors who are curious, who might want to learn, and yet, have little real sense or desire to join a sangha. Visitors and people who simply attend, are not sangha members. We, in the Order of Clear Mind Zen, have just completed our grandfathering period.  From this point forward, sangha members will be those who have joined and, once accepted, become members of the sangha.  I think it should be said, a sangha is a commitment to join a group and support that group.  It is not about the individuals needs, but rather the group's needs.  This is where we, in America, seem to have an issue, because we seem to be all about ourselves. The Buddha Way is not that way.

Sangha today may not be place specific, but could be connected through the virtual reality of the Internet.  I have students in far away places, most I have met in person, some I have not, yet in each and every case, I feel a commitment and connection to them.  I am here for them; they are here for me,.  In a very real sense, in this, then, there is no "them" or "me," there is just the "sangha."

For those living in or near Las Cruces, NM, please consider visting us and at some point, joining our sangha.  If you are not in the area, please consider talking to me personally over Skype video chat.  Simply email my Jiisha, Soku Shin, and set a time. 

Be well.

Membership and Schedule

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



Last night we meet with the membership committee and discussed its role in our Sangha. Sangha Membership is an important commitment and one that ought not be taken lightly. There are both benefits and responsibilities to membership in this Order. One does not come without the other.



What are the benefits? Primarily mutual support for our practice. This is accomplished through the availability of a Zendo, Zabutons, Zafus, Teachers, the Roshi’s library and other resources, as well as the many practice opportunities the Order provides. What are the responsibilities? Mutual support of each other in our practice is primary. This occurs through the member’s physical and spiritual presence in the Zendo and at activities the Order provides. Secondarily, responsibility also includes the maintenance of the Temple and support structures as well as the support of its abbot.



Recently, we have experienced a surge (of sorts) in attendance at our groups. We are hopeful this will translate into higher attendance at our regularly scheduled practice periods. In order to better accommodate this and reduce the “watering down” effect of too many formal practice periods in a given week, we are changing our practice schedule as follows:



Monday Zazen at 7:00-8:00 PM

Tuesday Zen 101 Group, Zazen at 7:00-8:00 PM

Wednesday Tai Chi Chih at 6:00, NO ZAZEN

Thursday Women in Zen Group at 5:30, NO ZAZEN

Friday Zen Group at 4:00 PM, Zazen at 5:15 PM, Gathering at Abbot’s Residence at 6:30 PM

Saturday No Zazen

Sunday Formal Zazen at 9:00 AM

The Temple will be open for dokusan by appointment with the Abbot. Call 575-680-6680 to schedule an appointment.



Be well.

Stage One

With palms together,


Good Afternoon Everyone,



NOTE: No Zazen this evening as we will be involved in a Membership Committee Meeting.

Last night’s Zazen 101 Group was exciting. We had a total of nine people in attendance and three stayed after to continue the discussion. Our talk was on the First Ox-Herding Picture which is about beginning to seek our true self, what is referred to as “the Ox” in the series of paintings. We are the herder, pushing our way through the grasses of our lives, finding that what once was true is true no longer and seeking a deeper truth, a truth that was never born and never dies.



I read a piece I had written a few years ago on this stage of practice. I was struck at the time with how being wounded in Vietnam was a show=-stopper, real world-changer for me. But it does not have to something as dramatic or traumatic as combat. It can be anything that points to the reality that what we know is an illusion. A group member talked a bit about reading as that sort of gate, for example. Another thought a comment her child made did the trick. The point is this: each of us are seeking. We want to know who we are, what we are, and at the root, what our purpose is.



Often people see these questions as philosophic or religious. I see them as both and neither. Frankly, I really do not care whether they are religious, philosophical, spiritual, or any other head thing. What is most important is our attempt to address them and in Zen, we do this through our practice. The Eight Gates are practice gateways to exploring these questions in ways that are both meaningful and productive.



In our next group meeting we will explore Stage Two: Seeing the Traces or Discovering the Footprints.

Be well.

The Stages

With palms together,




Good Morning Everyone,







Last night at Clear Mind Zen Temple we had a nearly full house with eight of us practicing together. It was good to see so many zafus being put to good use. This evening we will host our Zen 101 Group at 6:00 PM and follow this with a practice period. The section of the text, “The Eight Gates of Zen” we will address is “The Ten Stages” from pages 39 through 78. I know we will not get through all of the stages this evening, but we will make a beginning.







The stages are based on the Ten Ox-Herding pictures and are an effort to offer some idea to students a sense of where they are in their practice. Much more a Rinzai notion than a Soto one, the idea of stages is a standard for Rinzai and a challenge for Soto. In the Soto tradition, we are taught that the practice of Shikantaza is, essentially, enlightenment itself. So, what need of “stages”?







Come this evening and we will discuss this question among others. If you are not able to come, I will begin to address these in a post tomorrow.







Lastly, remember, we will be hosting a joint Zazenkai this weekend with the Zen Center of Las Cruces. It will begin at 10:00 AM and close at 4:00 PM. Please reserve your space now by replying to this email.







Yours,



Daiho

Taking Refuge

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



What does it mean to be a follower of the Buddha Way? Yesterday at Temple, I offered a teisho on entering the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. I taught that the thing taking refuge requires first is a willingness to relinquish self. To study the Buddha way, Master Dogen says, is to study the self, and as we practice this Zazen, mind and body fall away. To practice Zazen is to relinquish the self and allow it to fall away.



We sit upright facing a wall. We do not move. We practice releasing our urges, our thoughts and feelings. We sit upright facing a wall. That is all. And in this sitting, we are taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. How so?



Buddha is the state of being awake. Present, Eyes wide open. Everything is there with us. Everything, thoughts, feelings, perceptions, are present and we are allowing them to just be. At some point the allowing ceases, there is no director directing, no perceiver perceiving, there is only awareness itself.



What is awareness aware of? The Dharma. What is Dharma? Pinch yourself hard. Sip a cold glass of water or a hot cup of coffee or tea. Experience directly what is there in front of you. It is your teacher when you get out of your own way.



Sangha is the non-dualistic universe itself. We like to make distinctions: this one is a monk, that one a lay person. This one is White, that one Black. That one over there is a Jew. Oh, and here is a flower, there is a weed. Distinctions. Duality. Delusion. In truth, everything is one, dependent on everything else. A great living web; an eternal green braid. Sangha is our home. It nurtures us and we nurture it. We cannot really do otherwise because if we do, we die.



When we sit facing a wall long enough these truths become manifest. They come from the inside out. They are not “laws” they are the actual nature of things. Entering the Buddha Way is the practice of becoming synchronous with reality.



Be well.

Butterflies

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



Waking this morning, my body tells me I am getting older by the day: the pain in my lower back, piriformis, and knee is creating a bent, hobbled look. Very unbecoming. Not at all youthful. But wait, I am NOT youthful, I am old and moving on to wise 



I don’t know about that last part. Maybe I am just growing old. Nothing worse in my mind than an unwise old man. Wasn’t I paying attention to life’s lessons? Maybe I was just too busy being busy.



Last night I painted a bit after going through the “Webinar” presented by Ambercare for professionals. I wrote my piece on it and sent it away. Then picked up a broad brush and made large strokes of a vibrant green on an already green canvas. I am seeking life in the grass. I look into it. I do not know what will emerge.



Maybe my heart. Maybe a butterfly. Maybe they are one in the same.



Be well.