With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning a moon
so large and beautiful
sat just above the horizon.
It nearly took my mind away.
I stopped and witnessed this wonder.
Then, the dishes called,
and the plants needed water,
and the coffee needed to be made,
and the Zendo required my presence.
Each a wonder of its own.
Please enjoy your day.
Be well.
Organ Mountain Zen
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Oh My
With palms Together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Practice is nothing. Without practice, everything.
Hmmm.
Here's what I mean. When we practice we realize no thing ness. When we don't practice, we live in thing ness. On the one hand non-duality, no thing ness. On the other hand, duality and thing ness.
It's the difference between experiencing the world as I-Thou and I-it.
Life is lived most fully in relationship. When we realize our relationships are essentially non-dualistic, that is, based on an interdependent, interconnected oneness, then we will treat the "other" as "me". This understanding opens the door to empathy.
The Zen of everyday life is the Zen of oneness. At a meeting the other day I talked about my renunciation. When a person enters the stream, one renounces self. The work is to see no-self. To see oneness.
This is very challenging because we believe the messages of our brain. From a certain POV, our brain sees itself as the center of the universe, collecting data from a variety of sensory organs. Locating that data in categories, filtering it through memories and experience, it creates the world as we know it.
In truth, it is mistaken. It collects what it perceives and only what it perceives and it collects as if it were a singular entity. There is far more to the universe than our ability to sense and perceive reveals.
We must come to realize the limitations of our brain and its sensory organs. It only knows what it can measure and it will take that data and store it as if the subject were the center of the universe,.
From a Zen POV, we might say, no brain, no universe. No brain, no any thing. Zen teaches us to experience under, over, and around this center of the universe POV. True renunciation of self means beginning in vast emptiness. It means residing in impermanence. Every I a We, every We an expression of the Infinite.
Express your True Self today.
Practice Notes:
This morning at 9:00 AM I will practice streetZen in front of the SW Environmental Center at the Downtown Mall.
Later this afternoon I will be in El Paso at the Both Sides / No Sides Zen Sangha. The service will be at 3:30 PM, at 711 Robinson in the Kern Place neighborhood. The contact person there is Bobby HenShin Byrd. His cell is 915-241-3140.
I will offer Zen at our Clear Mind Zendo on Sunday morning at 9:00 AM.
In addition, I will practice streetZen on Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 PM at the Veteran's Park rotunda.
If you are interested, please join me.
Good Morning Everyone,
Practice is nothing. Without practice, everything.
Hmmm.
Here's what I mean. When we practice we realize no thing ness. When we don't practice, we live in thing ness. On the one hand non-duality, no thing ness. On the other hand, duality and thing ness.
It's the difference between experiencing the world as I-Thou and I-it.
Life is lived most fully in relationship. When we realize our relationships are essentially non-dualistic, that is, based on an interdependent, interconnected oneness, then we will treat the "other" as "me". This understanding opens the door to empathy.
The Zen of everyday life is the Zen of oneness. At a meeting the other day I talked about my renunciation. When a person enters the stream, one renounces self. The work is to see no-self. To see oneness.
This is very challenging because we believe the messages of our brain. From a certain POV, our brain sees itself as the center of the universe, collecting data from a variety of sensory organs. Locating that data in categories, filtering it through memories and experience, it creates the world as we know it.
In truth, it is mistaken. It collects what it perceives and only what it perceives and it collects as if it were a singular entity. There is far more to the universe than our ability to sense and perceive reveals.
We must come to realize the limitations of our brain and its sensory organs. It only knows what it can measure and it will take that data and store it as if the subject were the center of the universe,.
From a Zen POV, we might say, no brain, no universe. No brain, no any thing. Zen teaches us to experience under, over, and around this center of the universe POV. True renunciation of self means beginning in vast emptiness. It means residing in impermanence. Every I a We, every We an expression of the Infinite.
Express your True Self today.
Practice Notes:
This morning at 9:00 AM I will practice streetZen in front of the SW Environmental Center at the Downtown Mall.
Later this afternoon I will be in El Paso at the Both Sides / No Sides Zen Sangha. The service will be at 3:30 PM, at 711 Robinson in the Kern Place neighborhood. The contact person there is Bobby HenShin Byrd. His cell is 915-241-3140.
I will offer Zen at our Clear Mind Zendo on Sunday morning at 9:00 AM.
In addition, I will practice streetZen on Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 PM at the Veteran's Park rotunda.
If you are interested, please join me.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Zombie Slaying
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
We did a nice 2.84 mile desert hike this morning with Judy, Eve, Allen, and Rachel. Of course, dogs Tripper and Lacey went along, as well. The sky is overcast a bit so the sun was hidden as it rose over the mountains. The air is a bit humid, but cool, so the walk was comfortable. I have our dishes in the dishwasher, my clothes in the clothes-washer, and coffee on my wooden clappers which act as a coaster in the zendo.
Walking and talking, looking after dogs, and just plain enjoying the company of friends is such a joy. While not, in itself, contemplative, it is deeply "spiritual". By this I mean such moments bring us to life.
We make life so passive so often that we forget it is to be lived. Deliberate living is Zen Living. It requires attention. It requires discipline. It requires pliability and flexibility. Life demands us to be awake in order to be lived.
When we live passively, we are the walking dead. We are modern zombies. I remember reading something, I think it was in that classic, "Blue Highways" by William Leastheat Moon, where he comments that people driving in the cars seem to have tombstones in their eyes.
Engaged Zen, Clear Mind Zen, is about zombie slaying. We are here to help wake people up. Get the tombstones out of their eyes. Call them to life. Of course, we cannot do that. What we can do, however, is wake ourselves up. We can live with our eyes wide open, see clearly what is before us, and doing what is there to do.
What is before you now?
Good Morning Everyone,
We did a nice 2.84 mile desert hike this morning with Judy, Eve, Allen, and Rachel. Of course, dogs Tripper and Lacey went along, as well. The sky is overcast a bit so the sun was hidden as it rose over the mountains. The air is a bit humid, but cool, so the walk was comfortable. I have our dishes in the dishwasher, my clothes in the clothes-washer, and coffee on my wooden clappers which act as a coaster in the zendo.
Walking and talking, looking after dogs, and just plain enjoying the company of friends is such a joy. While not, in itself, contemplative, it is deeply "spiritual". By this I mean such moments bring us to life.
We make life so passive so often that we forget it is to be lived. Deliberate living is Zen Living. It requires attention. It requires discipline. It requires pliability and flexibility. Life demands us to be awake in order to be lived.
When we live passively, we are the walking dead. We are modern zombies. I remember reading something, I think it was in that classic, "Blue Highways" by William Leastheat Moon, where he comments that people driving in the cars seem to have tombstones in their eyes.
Engaged Zen, Clear Mind Zen, is about zombie slaying. We are here to help wake people up. Get the tombstones out of their eyes. Call them to life. Of course, we cannot do that. What we can do, however, is wake ourselves up. We can live with our eyes wide open, see clearly what is before us, and doing what is there to do.
What is before you now?
Thursday, June 4, 2009
streetZen
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Internet Student Rose asked about streetZen. So, to answer her I am writing today about my practice, the practice I call streetZen.
Bernie Glassman-roshi, founder of Zen Peacemaker Sangha, wrote a wonderful book entitled, "Bearing Witness". In it he describes his street work. Bearing witness to homelessness, poverty, war and so on. His practice includes actually becoming homeless for a period. Taking nothing with us, we just sit with the population we are bearing witness on behalf of.
I used to participate in peace protests after I returned from fighting in the Vietnam war. I was uncomfortable with the adversarial role I often felt the protesters had with others. It was about peace and non-violence, but anger and patriotism are a challenging poison to serenity. Awhile ago I met my friend, Claude Anshin Thomas, author of "At Hell's Gate", and street Zen Priest. Anshin practices homeless wondering and lectures on Peace and Non-Violence. Like me, he is a combat veteran. His practice strongly influenced me and mine.
So, over the last two years or so I began a practice I am calling streetZen. In this practice I simple sit zazen in public places. The places I select have to do with particular issues, such as the environment, veterans, etc. If I am sitting on behalf of the environment, I consider myself an Earth Witness. If I sit at Veteran's Park, I am there as a Peace Witness. One other form of practice is Soup Kitchen work. I did that for awhile, but haven't recently. In this, I simply volunteer at the local soup kitchen and put in a few hours there.
The ground rules of the practice are simple. Practice zazen. No talking. If spoken to, reply quietly, politely, and with a gassho and bow. At the soup kitchen, the work is similar to "samu" or "work meditation" and the rules would include mindful silence and mindful practice as I cut things, place things, etc.
When practicing streetZen, I place a small sign in front of me. It simply says "PEACE" or "Earth Witness". I also have a begging bowl and sometimes incense. I chant the Heart Sutra at the beginning and end of the sitting period.
I currently sit Earth Witness at the SW Environmental Center at the Downtown Mall in Las Cruces on Saturday Morning from 9:00 to 10:00 AM. I am considering renewing my Peace witness practice at Veteran's Park on Wednesdays at 4:00 - 5:00 PM. as the Temple Beth El sitting group seems to have gone on vacation this summer.
I invite everyone to join me. If not in Las Cruces, then in your own town or city. The world needs Bodhisattva witnesses.
May you each be a blessing today.
Good Morning Everyone,
Internet Student Rose asked about streetZen. So, to answer her I am writing today about my practice, the practice I call streetZen.
Bernie Glassman-roshi, founder of Zen Peacemaker Sangha, wrote a wonderful book entitled, "Bearing Witness". In it he describes his street work. Bearing witness to homelessness, poverty, war and so on. His practice includes actually becoming homeless for a period. Taking nothing with us, we just sit with the population we are bearing witness on behalf of.
I used to participate in peace protests after I returned from fighting in the Vietnam war. I was uncomfortable with the adversarial role I often felt the protesters had with others. It was about peace and non-violence, but anger and patriotism are a challenging poison to serenity. Awhile ago I met my friend, Claude Anshin Thomas, author of "At Hell's Gate", and street Zen Priest. Anshin practices homeless wondering and lectures on Peace and Non-Violence. Like me, he is a combat veteran. His practice strongly influenced me and mine.
So, over the last two years or so I began a practice I am calling streetZen. In this practice I simple sit zazen in public places. The places I select have to do with particular issues, such as the environment, veterans, etc. If I am sitting on behalf of the environment, I consider myself an Earth Witness. If I sit at Veteran's Park, I am there as a Peace Witness. One other form of practice is Soup Kitchen work. I did that for awhile, but haven't recently. In this, I simply volunteer at the local soup kitchen and put in a few hours there.
The ground rules of the practice are simple. Practice zazen. No talking. If spoken to, reply quietly, politely, and with a gassho and bow. At the soup kitchen, the work is similar to "samu" or "work meditation" and the rules would include mindful silence and mindful practice as I cut things, place things, etc.
When practicing streetZen, I place a small sign in front of me. It simply says "PEACE" or "Earth Witness". I also have a begging bowl and sometimes incense. I chant the Heart Sutra at the beginning and end of the sitting period.
I currently sit Earth Witness at the SW Environmental Center at the Downtown Mall in Las Cruces on Saturday Morning from 9:00 to 10:00 AM. I am considering renewing my Peace witness practice at Veteran's Park on Wednesdays at 4:00 - 5:00 PM. as the Temple Beth El sitting group seems to have gone on vacation this summer.
I invite everyone to join me. If not in Las Cruces, then in your own town or city. The world needs Bodhisattva witnesses.
May you each be a blessing today.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Show Me Don't Tell Me
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
There is a maxim in writing which has wide application in life: "Show me, don't tell me!" I said this to son Jacob last night. I could see he struggled with it and finally asked how.
Ahhh, the answer. A koan has no answer. We fool ourselves if we think there is an answer. Only unfolding questions and our presence matter It is the authenticity of our presence as we address the questions that is the "show me" of life..
We live in our heads. Its a sickness we Americans inherited from the Age of Enlightenment which really was a turn toward a sort of narcolepsy of the soul. We left our affective, intuitive dimensions to wither and put our energy and nurturance into our reason and intellect. In short, we thought ourselves to sleep.
So. here we are today, living in our heads, thinking, thinking, thinking. Not bad. Thinking is a tool. A tool. Thinking is not reality. Nor are our thoughts who we are.
Who we are is what we are. How do we know what we are? First, we might stop thinking about it. Thinking separates us from the what of it. We might feel what we are, but feeling, like thought, is internal. Second, we might look to evidence, our tracks in the sand, if you will. These tracks are our karmic footprints: they include our work and our relationships. But these are mere shadows, a base relief of ourselves.
So, if I ask you to show me yourself, how would you do it?
We Buddhists might argue there is no self to show. OK. Then what could you possibly show the world? The truth of the matter is that there is a self. Its just that the self is fluid and always changing. It is an amalgam in process. Because it is not permanent does not mean that it does not exist. Still, this amalgam is not our thought about this amalgam, that's just our thought about it. What is the self? It is only what is shown.
So, we are back to square one: show me, don't tell me.
When I look at my behavior, I see my true nature. My work is to extinguish the filters, thoughts, fears, and all other obstacles so that my true nature is an expression of my actuality. .I live to be free and easy in the marketplace. I live to be. If there is consonance between these and my actual behavior, fine. If not, I have work to do. Our True Nature is not that well hidden. But the layers that surround it are insufferably tenacious.
Be tenacious as well, be free.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
There is a maxim in writing which has wide application in life: "Show me, don't tell me!" I said this to son Jacob last night. I could see he struggled with it and finally asked how.
Ahhh, the answer. A koan has no answer. We fool ourselves if we think there is an answer. Only unfolding questions and our presence matter It is the authenticity of our presence as we address the questions that is the "show me" of life..
We live in our heads. Its a sickness we Americans inherited from the Age of Enlightenment which really was a turn toward a sort of narcolepsy of the soul. We left our affective, intuitive dimensions to wither and put our energy and nurturance into our reason and intellect. In short, we thought ourselves to sleep.
So. here we are today, living in our heads, thinking, thinking, thinking. Not bad. Thinking is a tool. A tool. Thinking is not reality. Nor are our thoughts who we are.
Who we are is what we are. How do we know what we are? First, we might stop thinking about it. Thinking separates us from the what of it. We might feel what we are, but feeling, like thought, is internal. Second, we might look to evidence, our tracks in the sand, if you will. These tracks are our karmic footprints: they include our work and our relationships. But these are mere shadows, a base relief of ourselves.
So, if I ask you to show me yourself, how would you do it?
We Buddhists might argue there is no self to show. OK. Then what could you possibly show the world? The truth of the matter is that there is a self. Its just that the self is fluid and always changing. It is an amalgam in process. Because it is not permanent does not mean that it does not exist. Still, this amalgam is not our thought about this amalgam, that's just our thought about it. What is the self? It is only what is shown.
So, we are back to square one: show me, don't tell me.
When I look at my behavior, I see my true nature. My work is to extinguish the filters, thoughts, fears, and all other obstacles so that my true nature is an expression of my actuality. .I live to be free and easy in the marketplace. I live to be. If there is consonance between these and my actual behavior, fine. If not, I have work to do. Our True Nature is not that well hidden. But the layers that surround it are insufferably tenacious.
Be tenacious as well, be free.
Be well.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Life and Death
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Yesterday I read a few of my Dharma Grandfather's Teishos. They had to do with Zen in everyday life and included many reference to the Vietnam war and the self-immolation of Buddhist monks. I have a photograph of one of them and, of course, fairly vivid memories of seeing this on the TV news.
The teishos and the burning monks brought my mind to look at life and death. Life and death are the key issues of Zen priests and practitioners. Life and death is the source of seeing clearly.
We are asleep most of the time. Walking like zombies through our day. Wake up!When we practice Zen and commit to facing reality, we are committed to finding the answer to life and death...and there is an answer. When our eyes are open, there it is.
Practice to open your eyes.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Yesterday I read a few of my Dharma Grandfather's Teishos. They had to do with Zen in everyday life and included many reference to the Vietnam war and the self-immolation of Buddhist monks. I have a photograph of one of them and, of course, fairly vivid memories of seeing this on the TV news.
The teishos and the burning monks brought my mind to look at life and death. Life and death are the key issues of Zen priests and practitioners. Life and death is the source of seeing clearly.
We are asleep most of the time. Walking like zombies through our day. Wake up!When we practice Zen and commit to facing reality, we are committed to finding the answer to life and death...and there is an answer. When our eyes are open, there it is.
Practice to open your eyes.
Be well.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Peeing Along the Way
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Summer weather is here forcing me to move morning Zazen back to 5:30 and my workouts to 6:30. I have a 30 minute window now each morning to write to you between 6:00 and 6:30. The exception is this morning as it is today that I am using to revise my schedule. :)
Speaking of this morning, we went out at 6:30 and did a short, but intense, 1.5 miles in a new park. The park has compacted crusher-fine pathways and even includes well placed water fountains. It is one tangled mass of winding paths and hills, some quite steep. So, while it is a short loop, if you take it a a good clip, your heartrate will reach target in no time.
We took Tripper and Pepper this morning which slowed things down a bit. You know, dogs love to stay in the moment, sniffing and peeing everywhere. We human beings go at it with purpose. Which suggests purpose takes us out of the moment. And it does if all of our attention in on whether or not we are achieving our purpose.
In Zen, we often mistakenly think that staying in the moment means letting go of planning, etc. Master Dogen says that if the moment is to plan for tomorrow, then planning for tomorrow is our task for the moment. Whatever we are doing, we should do with our full and complete attention. That is the most important thing.
If sniffing, just sniff; if peeing, just pee. Hmmm....a dog's life? Does a dog have Buddha Nature?
Good Morning Everyone,
Summer weather is here forcing me to move morning Zazen back to 5:30 and my workouts to 6:30. I have a 30 minute window now each morning to write to you between 6:00 and 6:30. The exception is this morning as it is today that I am using to revise my schedule. :)
Speaking of this morning, we went out at 6:30 and did a short, but intense, 1.5 miles in a new park. The park has compacted crusher-fine pathways and even includes well placed water fountains. It is one tangled mass of winding paths and hills, some quite steep. So, while it is a short loop, if you take it a a good clip, your heartrate will reach target in no time.
We took Tripper and Pepper this morning which slowed things down a bit. You know, dogs love to stay in the moment, sniffing and peeing everywhere. We human beings go at it with purpose. Which suggests purpose takes us out of the moment. And it does if all of our attention in on whether or not we are achieving our purpose.
In Zen, we often mistakenly think that staying in the moment means letting go of planning, etc. Master Dogen says that if the moment is to plan for tomorrow, then planning for tomorrow is our task for the moment. Whatever we are doing, we should do with our full and complete attention. That is the most important thing.
If sniffing, just sniff; if peeing, just pee. Hmmm....a dog's life? Does a dog have Buddha Nature?
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