With palms together,
Good Morning All,
This morning's zazen was made a special event by the presence of our founding Teachers Ken and Fern Roshi. Vicki and I had already completed the opening chants as they slipped in, sat erect, and immediately requested the Kyosaku. Ever on my Ino toes, I raised the stick and smacked them on their shoulders each in their turn.
Sitting down once more, mountains became mountains, and rivers became rivers.
The Zendo Shoji screens are now complete. The shoe box is being built and is paid for. We discussed finishing touches for the Zen Center physical plant. We discussed teaching and our various points of view. All with tea in hand and a joyful heart.
Be well,
Friday, August 18, 2006
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Rain and its Teaching
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
We have been receiving rain. Lots of rain. In the desert, rain is both a blessing and a curse. Since it doesn't rain often, the ground is not receptive to the water. The water hits the ground and bounces. Then flows. Then rages through arroyos. We should all learn from this.
The lesson? The ground must be both prepared and willing to receive.
What does this mean for us? We are a lot like that ground. We harden and dry up. We fail to receive in our hardness and defensiveness.
To receive the blessings of a wet world, we must prepare ourselves to be watered. This means we must do the hard work of reflection and examination. We must be willing to dig up the rocks of our past and expose them to the light of day. We must be willing to aerate our soil with dialog. So when the waters of life do visit us, we are both ready and have the space to receive them.
Be well,
Good Morning All,
We have been receiving rain. Lots of rain. In the desert, rain is both a blessing and a curse. Since it doesn't rain often, the ground is not receptive to the water. The water hits the ground and bounces. Then flows. Then rages through arroyos. We should all learn from this.
The lesson? The ground must be both prepared and willing to receive.
What does this mean for us? We are a lot like that ground. We harden and dry up. We fail to receive in our hardness and defensiveness.
To receive the blessings of a wet world, we must prepare ourselves to be watered. This means we must do the hard work of reflection and examination. We must be willing to dig up the rocks of our past and expose them to the light of day. We must be willing to aerate our soil with dialog. So when the waters of life do visit us, we are both ready and have the space to receive them.
Be well,
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Our Toolbox
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
Have you ever met a person who has had the sense knocked into him?
I have. These people tend to be bitter, resentful, deceitful, and act out of fear.
What is one man's terrorist is another man's liberation fighter. Its all in the point of view. Yet we insist that we can win a war on terror. Hmmm. How should we best go about that? Knock some sense into their heads?
We need to realize that each "war" we seem to engage in (and we love this metaphor for action here in America) requires the appropriate tools. Just as a "war" on hunger does not require Stealth Bombers. A "war" on terror would benefit from a set of tools that might diffuse the terrorist's motivation and support.
So, what motivates a "terrorist"? Ahhh, the problem begins to crystallize. We have no real clue, since we put them all in the same box and mark them up as terrorists. So, this is a one tool fits all war. And the tool is "kill." Rather like that old Arlo Guthrie refrain in Alice's Restaurant, and just so, reveals a level of insanity caused by our unwillingness to talk with people we disagree with or don't understand.
There are lessons for life in this.
Talk with people. Invite them to sit down with you. Listen without packaging up their thoughts before they have left their mouths. Find the commonalities of experience and needs. Be flexible and creative in addressing issues. One tool rarely fits all things. That's why we have soooo many tools.
In the end, it will be our willingness to understand our enemies that will make them our friends. Life is like that.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
Have you ever met a person who has had the sense knocked into him?
I have. These people tend to be bitter, resentful, deceitful, and act out of fear.
What is one man's terrorist is another man's liberation fighter. Its all in the point of view. Yet we insist that we can win a war on terror. Hmmm. How should we best go about that? Knock some sense into their heads?
We need to realize that each "war" we seem to engage in (and we love this metaphor for action here in America) requires the appropriate tools. Just as a "war" on hunger does not require Stealth Bombers. A "war" on terror would benefit from a set of tools that might diffuse the terrorist's motivation and support.
So, what motivates a "terrorist"? Ahhh, the problem begins to crystallize. We have no real clue, since we put them all in the same box and mark them up as terrorists. So, this is a one tool fits all war. And the tool is "kill." Rather like that old Arlo Guthrie refrain in Alice's Restaurant, and just so, reveals a level of insanity caused by our unwillingness to talk with people we disagree with or don't understand.
There are lessons for life in this.
Talk with people. Invite them to sit down with you. Listen without packaging up their thoughts before they have left their mouths. Find the commonalities of experience and needs. Be flexible and creative in addressing issues. One tool rarely fits all things. That's why we have soooo many tools.
In the end, it will be our willingness to understand our enemies that will make them our friends. Life is like that.
Be well.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Something Wonderful
With palms together,
Good Morning (barely) All,
Our window is open and the gardeners are taking a break from their work. It is such a delight to sit here and look out a window onto the courtyard. It is green and there are a few trees. We have picnic tables and tall grasses with even taller plumes. It rained earlier and the air is clean and fresh. I wish you could be here to experience this with me. Yet, we each have our own beauty to experience, don't we?
It is so important to stop for a bit and take note of it. In our rush to get here and there, we often miss the simple, natural, beauty that surrounds us. Beauty is everywhere: even in the darkest places. We only need open our eyes and hearts to see and experience it.
Often in the midst of conflict, stress, or suffering of some sort or other, we are so overwhelmed with the difficulty that we just want to close our eyes and make the world go away. Not the best approach, I'm afraid. The world will remain forever. It is our problems that will go away.
What we need to do in such circumstances is work hard to take a moment to see something wonderful there in front of us. Nothing there? Think again. There is always something wonderful. Always.
Be well.
Good Morning (barely) All,
Our window is open and the gardeners are taking a break from their work. It is such a delight to sit here and look out a window onto the courtyard. It is green and there are a few trees. We have picnic tables and tall grasses with even taller plumes. It rained earlier and the air is clean and fresh. I wish you could be here to experience this with me. Yet, we each have our own beauty to experience, don't we?
It is so important to stop for a bit and take note of it. In our rush to get here and there, we often miss the simple, natural, beauty that surrounds us. Beauty is everywhere: even in the darkest places. We only need open our eyes and hearts to see and experience it.
Often in the midst of conflict, stress, or suffering of some sort or other, we are so overwhelmed with the difficulty that we just want to close our eyes and make the world go away. Not the best approach, I'm afraid. The world will remain forever. It is our problems that will go away.
What we need to do in such circumstances is work hard to take a moment to see something wonderful there in front of us. Nothing there? Think again. There is always something wonderful. Always.
Be well.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Peace
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
A fragile peace, and there is no other kind, has been achieved in Lebanon and Israel. How wonderful! Let us all work together to maintain it. Peace is always fragile because life hurts. We don't enjoy suffering and try to stop ourselves from suffering by force. This just increases the suffering of all concerned. A cycle of violence and injury emerges and takes on a life of its own.
To stop it we must find a way to accept the blows of others, verbal or physical, and accept them in such a way as to both survive ourselves and nurture our enemies in the process. Love erodes hatred. It is like anti-toxin. But is slow working, demanding, and very difficult to produce in the face of hatred.
Still, we must learn this practice. All of us. We must stop taking the violent steps that we take believing they will make us safe, and take the far more courageous steps of loving-kindness.
We do this with practice. We do this with love. We do this because we don't have any other choice.
Be well.
Harvey So Daiho Hilbert, Ph.D. May All Beings Be Free From Suffering
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Sunday, August 13, 2006
The Great Divide
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
Offering a stick of incense this morning, I bowed and affirmed that all beings be free from suffering. I say affirmed because all too often when we talk about prayer we are talking as we and the thing we are praying for (and to) are somehow different or apart.
Prayer is not just a request. In its highest form its an affirmation of non-duality. Just as we resolve a paradox by becoming the paradox, resolve a koan by becoming the koan, so too, we pray.
So, we could say, I pray for peace. Or we could say, I become peace. Or better still, I realize peace. The truest statement is the statement that most reduces the divide between subject and object.
While our language, hardwired in duality, is a tall barrier to our full realization, our practice can be a hammer breaking down that barrier.
Peace.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
Offering a stick of incense this morning, I bowed and affirmed that all beings be free from suffering. I say affirmed because all too often when we talk about prayer we are talking as we and the thing we are praying for (and to) are somehow different or apart.
Prayer is not just a request. In its highest form its an affirmation of non-duality. Just as we resolve a paradox by becoming the paradox, resolve a koan by becoming the koan, so too, we pray.
So, we could say, I pray for peace. Or we could say, I become peace. Or better still, I realize peace. The truest statement is the statement that most reduces the divide between subject and object.
While our language, hardwired in duality, is a tall barrier to our full realization, our practice can be a hammer breaking down that barrier.
Peace.
Be well.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Get to Work!
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
The world is suffering. Each of us is witness and participant. Yet, what are we really doing about it? From the silence of our deepest practice arises the deepest compassion. How so? Because from our deepest practice comes the deepest realization that everything is one, so that when one suffers all suffer; when one is joyful, all are joyful. When one dies, all die.
Not becoming attached to one state of being or another does not mean ignoring a problem when it presents itself. It does not mean becoming stoic and quiet and withdrawing to the mountains. As Master Dogen points out, even the green mountains walk.
As I sat at the Peace Vigil this past Wednesday, I was heartened by the drivers who honked in our support, but was dismayed by the severe lack of people on the line with us. At Zen Center andat the synagogue I am struck by the lack of attendance. At the soup kitchen, where are the food donations that should be overwhelming the pantry's ability to contain them? At the child care centers and homeless shelters, where are the goods, services, and people that will repair the wounded in our communities?
We are a world of great wealth and great intelligence and yet the distribution of basic necessities, as well as social justice is askew. We are a world now embattled by fundamentalism and the fear that drives it. We see the images and want to turn away.
I say turn away, go ahead! Stop the poison from entering your heart. But then turn to something! You want to reduce suffering? Get to work!
Be well.
Good Morning All,
The world is suffering. Each of us is witness and participant. Yet, what are we really doing about it? From the silence of our deepest practice arises the deepest compassion. How so? Because from our deepest practice comes the deepest realization that everything is one, so that when one suffers all suffer; when one is joyful, all are joyful. When one dies, all die.
Not becoming attached to one state of being or another does not mean ignoring a problem when it presents itself. It does not mean becoming stoic and quiet and withdrawing to the mountains. As Master Dogen points out, even the green mountains walk.
As I sat at the Peace Vigil this past Wednesday, I was heartened by the drivers who honked in our support, but was dismayed by the severe lack of people on the line with us. At Zen Center andat the synagogue I am struck by the lack of attendance. At the soup kitchen, where are the food donations that should be overwhelming the pantry's ability to contain them? At the child care centers and homeless shelters, where are the goods, services, and people that will repair the wounded in our communities?
We are a world of great wealth and great intelligence and yet the distribution of basic necessities, as well as social justice is askew. We are a world now embattled by fundamentalism and the fear that drives it. We see the images and want to turn away.
I say turn away, go ahead! Stop the poison from entering your heart. But then turn to something! You want to reduce suffering? Get to work!
Be well.
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