With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
In Zen, we often will say something is so, then say it is not so. Some call this paradox. Some call it hooey. We would be mistaken if we thought it were "deep" or anything like that.
Master Seung Sahn happily points this out with his typical question, "are they the same or different?" Whack! to any thoughtful answer.
Someone on the Zen Living list writes: "I thought they were never "unwell" - they are just as they are."
In one post I say I am ill. In another I suggest illness does not exist. In still another I sign, "Be well". Very confusing, no?
Even more so: there is never a time when a non-moving mind is sick, well, happy, sad and never a time when a non-moving mind is not sick, well, happy, sad.
A non-moving mind is just mind experiencing mind or what Uchiyama-roshi calls the self becoming the self.
No thinking!
No making dreams, fantasies, expectations, desires at the cost of just being.
Just so, we think, we make dreams, have desires.
Do you see?
Our Small Mind world of fever, chills, sickness and wellness co-exists with our Big Mind world of Emptiness. They are one in the same, not two. It is for us to attain being within them fully awake to their wholeness, to their complete oneness, seamlessness, that is our practice. And even this is "empty."
Leaving us to be well within our own existence regardless of its differentiated quality.
Be well.
Organ Mountain Zen
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Note regards my absence
With palms together,
I have not been well. I am just on the mend from pneumonia and will begin blogging soon.
Be well.
I have not been well. I am just on the mend from pneumonia and will begin blogging soon.
Be well.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Mystic is as Mystic Does
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Last night at Temple Beth El, after two periods of seated meditation where I silently recited the Heart Sutra, the Sh'ma, and the Elohai N'Shama, I talked about emptiness and nothingness from a Jewish mystical point of view. The Wisdom Heart Sutra directly addresses compassion and understanding doing the twist on the head of deep samadhi. The Sh'ma declares God is One. The Elohai N'Shamah thanks God for creating a pure soul. Many words: one existence. My head dances at times.
From One comes everything. The kabbalists say God pulled Himself together creating a huge void, then created the universe to fill it. He created it with His words, that is, His breath sounds. Imbuing everything with His presence. We hold up a mirror, there is God.
The Sefirot are a sort of map of this image, detailing the attributes of God with human terms. There are ten of these, but I will only mention a few: On the top is Keter, the crown, understood to be Ayin, nothingness. Then comes Hokhmah, wisdom. Binah, on its left is understanding. Below these are Chesed, love and Gevurah, strength.
What is interesting to me about these attributes is that they seem key to most spiritual traditions. In Zen we talk about the emptiness, that is, the impermanence of existence. Achieving emptiness we understand the proper relationship between conditioned things.
The relationships between these sefirot have parallels in Zen. The Heart sutra teaches that as we sit with love and compassion, and reach a clear understanding, we see that all things are "empty". In order to do this we need a powerhouse of what in Japanese is called joriki, strength. This understanding is wisdom and the deepest wisdom is "empty".
My point is this: regardless of our religious tradition, if we sit with strength, concentrate on being present (the last sefirot, incidentally) we will reach a point where we see clearly the way of the Universal. We might call it Adonai, Godhead, Christ, or Buddha Mind, it is all the same. And once there, the words are like boats used to cross a river: tie them up and leave them be.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Last night at Temple Beth El, after two periods of seated meditation where I silently recited the Heart Sutra, the Sh'ma, and the Elohai N'Shama, I talked about emptiness and nothingness from a Jewish mystical point of view. The Wisdom Heart Sutra directly addresses compassion and understanding doing the twist on the head of deep samadhi. The Sh'ma declares God is One. The Elohai N'Shamah thanks God for creating a pure soul. Many words: one existence. My head dances at times.
From One comes everything. The kabbalists say God pulled Himself together creating a huge void, then created the universe to fill it. He created it with His words, that is, His breath sounds. Imbuing everything with His presence. We hold up a mirror, there is God.
The Sefirot are a sort of map of this image, detailing the attributes of God with human terms. There are ten of these, but I will only mention a few: On the top is Keter, the crown, understood to be Ayin, nothingness. Then comes Hokhmah, wisdom. Binah, on its left is understanding. Below these are Chesed, love and Gevurah, strength.
What is interesting to me about these attributes is that they seem key to most spiritual traditions. In Zen we talk about the emptiness, that is, the impermanence of existence. Achieving emptiness we understand the proper relationship between conditioned things.
The relationships between these sefirot have parallels in Zen. The Heart sutra teaches that as we sit with love and compassion, and reach a clear understanding, we see that all things are "empty". In order to do this we need a powerhouse of what in Japanese is called joriki, strength. This understanding is wisdom and the deepest wisdom is "empty".
My point is this: regardless of our religious tradition, if we sit with strength, concentrate on being present (the last sefirot, incidentally) we will reach a point where we see clearly the way of the Universal. We might call it Adonai, Godhead, Christ, or Buddha Mind, it is all the same. And once there, the words are like boats used to cross a river: tie them up and leave them be.
Be well.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Children
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
There is a slate sky becoming light blue outside my house. I study these things. Ever since Vietnam I have had a near obsession with morning light. The nights were so dark and dangerous there and the light of morning bathed me with a sense of hope. Yet, I also feel drawn to the night: soft, hidden. A time when our ears turn from human sound to nature's sound.
_____________
So, now it is later in the morning. Zazen is done. Yoga is done. And the house is clean.
Livvie, our granddaughter, is with us this morning. She is not well and had to stay home from daycare. So, I made us all pancakes and sent her to play on the organ. she loves to put on a recorded tune and either "play" along or dance to it.
Three year olds are so interested and expressive!
Anyway, I am not sure how to wrap this note into a spiritual practice other than to say its often enlightenment itself to be with children.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
There is a slate sky becoming light blue outside my house. I study these things. Ever since Vietnam I have had a near obsession with morning light. The nights were so dark and dangerous there and the light of morning bathed me with a sense of hope. Yet, I also feel drawn to the night: soft, hidden. A time when our ears turn from human sound to nature's sound.
_____________
So, now it is later in the morning. Zazen is done. Yoga is done. And the house is clean.
Livvie, our granddaughter, is with us this morning. She is not well and had to stay home from daycare. So, I made us all pancakes and sent her to play on the organ. she loves to put on a recorded tune and either "play" along or dance to it.
Three year olds are so interested and expressive!
Anyway, I am not sure how to wrap this note into a spiritual practice other than to say its often enlightenment itself to be with children.
Be well.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Order
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning I woke feeling better than I did when I went to bed. Always nice. Our robot went to cleaning; I dusted, made coffee and tea, did the dishes, and picked things up a bit. Order is an important trait.
In Zen, as we enter a Zendo, we remove our shoes, place palms together and bow. We step in on our right foot. We walk in slow, measured steps. We bow to our cushion, bow to the room, take our seat. As the priest enters he or she goes through a set of motions, all prescribed, all measured. Order. We place palms together facing the wall and bow when the bell is offered. We sit in silence and with great concentration. The bell rings, we relax. Order.
Life is a process that has its own order. Sometimes it is hidden, sometimes it is as plain as the nose on our face. Sometimes gentle, sometimes stormy, but know this: there is no stormy, no gentle: we create these in our mind. Become one with the storm, no storm. Become one with gentle, no gentle.
Order is therefore something not related to outside appearance, but rather to our balance inside. We call this equanimity.
Outside order, placing things just so is our way of training ourselves to find stillness of mind and body. Like a reflection in a pool, order is a reflection of ourselves.Choppy water; choppy reflection.
This is a very important point. If you want to find peace, become peace by letting your conception of peace go. As we say, if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning I woke feeling better than I did when I went to bed. Always nice. Our robot went to cleaning; I dusted, made coffee and tea, did the dishes, and picked things up a bit. Order is an important trait.
In Zen, as we enter a Zendo, we remove our shoes, place palms together and bow. We step in on our right foot. We walk in slow, measured steps. We bow to our cushion, bow to the room, take our seat. As the priest enters he or she goes through a set of motions, all prescribed, all measured. Order. We place palms together facing the wall and bow when the bell is offered. We sit in silence and with great concentration. The bell rings, we relax. Order.
Life is a process that has its own order. Sometimes it is hidden, sometimes it is as plain as the nose on our face. Sometimes gentle, sometimes stormy, but know this: there is no stormy, no gentle: we create these in our mind. Become one with the storm, no storm. Become one with gentle, no gentle.
Order is therefore something not related to outside appearance, but rather to our balance inside. We call this equanimity.
Outside order, placing things just so is our way of training ourselves to find stillness of mind and body. Like a reflection in a pool, order is a reflection of ourselves.Choppy water; choppy reflection.
This is a very important point. If you want to find peace, become peace by letting your conception of peace go. As we say, if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!
Be well.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Questions and Answers
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Last night around 1:30 AM I woke with this sentence running through my mind, an apparent snippet of conversation, "Yesterday's choices are today's questions." I sense that this means each choice we make unfolds new questions and, from a spiritual point of view, its rarely the answers that matter; what really matters are the questions. Why?
Questions open us, answers close us. Questions inspire us, answers satisfy us. Questions ask us to look under something, answers assume there is no need to look further.
As in life itself, in Zen practice there are no answers, only questions. How we face these questions becomes critical and determines our character. To answer a question with "don't know" mind, is to not really answer a question, but to open our mind to see what is really there as opposed to what we assume is there.
Let your life be an open question.
(I suspect the degree to which we feel comfortable with this is the degree to which we have attained don't know mind.)
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Last night around 1:30 AM I woke with this sentence running through my mind, an apparent snippet of conversation, "Yesterday's choices are today's questions." I sense that this means each choice we make unfolds new questions and, from a spiritual point of view, its rarely the answers that matter; what really matters are the questions. Why?
Questions open us, answers close us. Questions inspire us, answers satisfy us. Questions ask us to look under something, answers assume there is no need to look further.
As in life itself, in Zen practice there are no answers, only questions. How we face these questions becomes critical and determines our character. To answer a question with "don't know" mind, is to not really answer a question, but to open our mind to see what is really there as opposed to what we assume is there.
Let your life be an open question.
(I suspect the degree to which we feel comfortable with this is the degree to which we have attained don't know mind.)
Be well.
Friday, January 30, 2009
The Matrix
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Zen is a very practical tool. It is also rooted in Buddhism, an ancient Eastern religion. A religion without a God, per se. What is a religion without a God? The question is not unimportant, but I suspect it is not helpful either. Buddha set aside anything that was not helpful in his practice. Yet, in doing so, developed a set of practices we tie together over the millenia and call a religion..or a philosophy.. .or a way of life. The latter, being most likely the more correct understanding.
Do words parsing this and that help us get closer to truly understanding ourselves? Do words get us any closer to realization? Words can offer us a degree of clarity between us, but only a degree. It is the heart/mind that must be shared...or to put it in a more contemporary sense, plugged in.
Like Neo in The Matrix, we are able to realize we are "plugged in" to vast Mind. Each of us gives sensation to Mind. We and Mind are, in truth, One. Unlike Neo, there is nothing sinister about this Matrix and the world we make without our awareness of our plugged in nature is the false world. Our Matrix is our true universe and the vast and deep interconnectedness of everything is our true experience. Like a giant, boundless organism we live and breath, expand and contract.
Now, forget this: go practice. Test your relationship to the universe. Look deeply. Where do you begin and end? Do you begin or end? What exactly is this "you" you think exists? Is there any such thing as a causeless beginning? How can anything ever actually "end"?
Remember, matter can neither be created or destroyed. What is, is, and always was and always will be: its form will change, but its substance, its essential nature remains.
As Alan Watts pointed out years ago, "we are it."
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Zen is a very practical tool. It is also rooted in Buddhism, an ancient Eastern religion. A religion without a God, per se. What is a religion without a God? The question is not unimportant, but I suspect it is not helpful either. Buddha set aside anything that was not helpful in his practice. Yet, in doing so, developed a set of practices we tie together over the millenia and call a religion..or a philosophy.. .or a way of life. The latter, being most likely the more correct understanding.
Do words parsing this and that help us get closer to truly understanding ourselves? Do words get us any closer to realization? Words can offer us a degree of clarity between us, but only a degree. It is the heart/mind that must be shared...or to put it in a more contemporary sense, plugged in.
Like Neo in The Matrix, we are able to realize we are "plugged in" to vast Mind. Each of us gives sensation to Mind. We and Mind are, in truth, One. Unlike Neo, there is nothing sinister about this Matrix and the world we make without our awareness of our plugged in nature is the false world. Our Matrix is our true universe and the vast and deep interconnectedness of everything is our true experience. Like a giant, boundless organism we live and breath, expand and contract.
Now, forget this: go practice. Test your relationship to the universe. Look deeply. Where do you begin and end? Do you begin or end? What exactly is this "you" you think exists? Is there any such thing as a causeless beginning? How can anything ever actually "end"?
Remember, matter can neither be created or destroyed. What is, is, and always was and always will be: its form will change, but its substance, its essential nature remains.
As Alan Watts pointed out years ago, "we are it."
Be well.
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