July 19

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



This morning I wrote a note and thoroughly bored myself with my own words. Zen words are boring. They are often sophomoric. Zen words are empty and too often without real world connection. Words. Just words. Like dead leaves on a concrete floor.



I have been writing Zen words now for over ten years on my blog. What arrogance. Maybe I had to do that to get here. Enough.



I think it would be best if I just wrote about my life as it is and as it unfolds. Maybe there is the best, high-class Zen in that. Forget the Zen words. They get you into trouble.



This morning I woke to love.

This morning the moon was high

This morning Suki needed to go out early while still dark.

This morning we walked along the irrigation canal.

This morning mosquitoes had their breakfast on my calves.

Is there anything more that can be said?

Time for peanut butter on toast and espresso coffee.



Be well.

July 16

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



Lately, I have been thinking about our mission. We say we are an Engaged Zen Sangha. People who have filled out membership forms have said they would like to find ways to make our practice socially relevant. We have practiced at parks and on the street. We have taught meditation at yearly Peace Camps for five years. We have sporadically volunteered at the local soup kitchen. And, recently, we have reconnected with the J. Paul Taylor Juvenile Correctional Facility to offer meditation to the youth incarcerated there. Members of the Order are volunteers at hospice. One member is going through the initial stages of accessing the Folsom prison network. Moreover, our Temple has opened itself to examining religious diversity and women’s issues through our groups focused on these areas.



With few exceptions, these are often individual projects, not accomplished as a community together. I wonder about that. We are a small group, spread out, that comes together most often through sesshin and Zazenkai. Our practice schedule makes it possible for some of us not to know others in the sangha. We have individuals who come sometimes on weekday mornings. Some who come to groups only. One who was just coming to Zen in the Park.



Then there is the on-line sangha, those who no one knows, except perhaps me, but who feel a part of us through their reading of these posts and, perhaps, Skype interviews. Where do these folks fit in the overall sangha?



Maybe the question is, how do we share our mission?



Here is my two cents: we should do our practice and share our practice. Part of the mission is to model our practice so that others may feel invited to take up the practice and step onto the path as they see it. This is not to evangelize, but rather to model. We are not interested in converts, we are interested in helping others learn to practice for their own benefit. We know that when a person practices, the rest of the universe benefits. We need not underscore this or give it a name.



What do you think?



Be well.

July 15

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



We conclude this week with Peace Camp at 8:30 AM, Morning Services at 9:30 AM, and Evening Services at 6:00 PM. It has been a full week with Peace Camp each morning back to back with our Morning Service, and on Thursday, our effort to bring Zen to the youth at the Southern New Mexico Juvenile Corrections Facility. Soku Shin co-led Peace Camp, Student Steve assisted with the Corrections Facility, and we are now looking at a day of rest on Saturday.



Sunday we will offer our weekly Zen Service with Tea Service and Teisho. We will follow this with a discussion of our recent Sesshin. We will provide coffee, tea, and muffins for this discussion’s refreshments.



We have ordered two copies of the Heart of Being and two copies of the Eight Gates of Zen, texts used in our two discussion groups. The order was delivered somewhere yesterday, just not to us. Amazon has shipped overnight another order. It is supposed to arrive today. We will see.



Lastly, we will offer a Zazenkai Saturday, August 6th from 9:00 AM through 4:00 PM. This is a day long meditation retreat with the contemplative eating practice of Oryoki featured at lunch. Please consider joining us. Email me your reservation. Our suggested donation fee is $15.00.



I hope to see you soon.



Yours,

Daiho

What's What?

With respect,


Good Morning Everyone,



Work with what is in front of you. Sometimes we don’t like our work, the book we are studying or the person we are within the moment. It’s all understandable and our first inclination is to change work, texts, or people in order to make a better situation. This is relatively easy to do, but is it the right thing to do?



In Zen we are asked to work with what’s presented to us. We are taught that everything has value, everything is our teacher and/or a dharma gate. This is a very important invitation as it offers us a teaching or two. First, everything is, indeed, a dharma gate, and everything is, indeed, our teacher. Second, our response to these things is also a practice point. The nature of our relationship between things is critical: do not overlook it. Is it hierarchal or horizontal? Are we “knowers” or “learners”?



How can we appreciate our lives if we cannot appreciate our actual life? As we practice not to live in a dream, to see “things as it is,” we are more able to see what is there for itself. To not do so disrespects what is there, while at the same time deprives us of a learning opportunity.



A child at play is a most excellent example for us. She plays with a pot and it becomes a drum. She plays with a box and it becomes a house. She does not think, “pot” or “drum,” “box” or “house.” She simply explores the possibilities and learns from them. We adults, on the other hand, “know” a pot is a pot and not a “drum,” or a box is a box and not a “house.” This is unfortunate. Our learning has the potential to deprive us of an open heart.



May you be a blessing today,

Daiho

Sewing the Buddha's Robe

With respect,




Those interested in attending a rakusu sewing group for Jukai Ceremony, please reply to me via telephone or email. Soku Shin has volunteered to lead this group. Our first meeting will be Tuesday evening at 6:00 PM before Zen 101. We will then do a closing service and practice period afterwards. The sewing group is open to any who wishes to learn about the Buddha's robe and how one is made.



Be well.

July 12

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



From the outside looking in:



If we spend our day in silent illumination it is possible to begin to see every breath as life itself. Our breath is our life. Breathing in, we allow the universe to enter us; breathing out, we enter it. And in time, we discern there is no inner or outer and that flow is actually just present moment awareness. Then, there is no breathing.



Wave actualizes water. Two depends on one.



From the inside looking out:



We notice we are born in every breath, a birth that separates us one from another. Over and over we ask ourselves “who is this” which notices anything at all? And what does “notice” imply? The moment “we” notice, we create a division: this notices that. I am breathing.



Water notices wave. One depends on two.



“What are the teachings?” Master Dogen asks, the elder Tenzo replies, “One, two, three, four, five.”



Everything is both separate and not separate simultaneously. Thing and no-thing simultaneously. Through our breath we manifest both our individual and universal realities.



Relationship is everything.



Be well.

Illness

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



With the morning light comes hope for a day with less coughing and less runny nose events. My joints are no longer achy, but my nose keeps flowing and the cough is still there, though not quite as bad. I think I can actually speak in a near normal voice, as well. The sad news is that Soku Shin seems to have caught this from me. Being ill is no fun. Yet, it does bring a few benefits if we are willing to accept them.



First, being ill is a clear reminder that we are not permanent. We are of the nature to get sick. Sooner or later we will naturally succumb to illness of one sort or another. Second, illness slows us down. It is good to slow the pace from time to time. In such a slow pace it is easier to assess where we are and what we are doing with our lives. With slowness comes the third benefit of illness, appreciation. We are much more inclined to appreciate things when we are deprived of them for a time. Illness deprives us of energy and diminishes our capacity to listen to others, but at the same time it causes us to pay attention to that which we too often neglect, our bodies.



So, while I do not suggest we all go out and become sick, I do think that when we do become sick, we might pay attention to the lessons our illness may be teaching us.



May you be a blessing in the universe today.



Yours,

Daiho