With palms together,
Happy Father's Day to each of you fathers out there. I hope each of you is well and thoroughly enjoying your offspring!
Fathers get shorted a lot. We are so often portrayed as stumble bums or workaholics or drunks or worse. The reality is most of us do a pretty damn good job doing what we believe we need to do for our children and our families. So often, though, these beliefs get in the way of intimacy with our children.
Work is good, but so is home. Fun is good, impulse can be exciting, but we should also value and work on being the steadfast presence of a patient man.
Many of us must overcome years of abusive fathering. Doing things "right" is an echo in my mind. Failure was common. Shame was never far away. Yet, there it is. A contradistinctive model for ourselves.
The trick is to get the right balance. Correct methods are important, as are other fatherly values such as promptness, work, responsibility, and protectiveness. Err to the right, big problem; err to the left, also big problem.
Just as we have three antidotes to the three poisons, so too, we much practice antidotes to extreme responsibility, control, and problem-solving. Practicing compassion, practicing patience, and practicing generosity, may be these antidotes.
Let's practice first and foremost, though, to be present with our children.
With love,
Be well.
Organ Mountain Zen
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Desperation
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
The other day I was in Walgreen's looking for Band-Aids. There are Band-Aids for every conceivable injury. No one size fits all mentality here. Many sizes, shapes, colors, patterns, and even Sponge Bob Square Pants, are available. Across the aisle were various headache remedies, cold remedies, allergy remedies. To be in Walgreen's is to be in the middle of America's love affair with symptom relief.
As a therapist, I saw the tide turning years ago when therapeutic models focused on symptom rather than cause. Brevity was tauted as insurance companies and willing therapists praised brief, solution-focused models. Yet, in schools we were teaching systems approaches, exploring the interdependent causal (dare I say, karmic) linkages between this and that.
Ecclectic approaches were popular as we thought of therapeutic tools in tool-bags. Never mind the internal inconsistency of the models, we were pragmatists!
As America shopped for symptom relief, it shopped for religious fit, as well. This church "felt" right, that one didn't. And so the religious horizon was increasing populated by new and different churches, synagogues, mosques, and a few and increasingly variant Buddhist centers. Orthodoxy was on the defensive: innovation was the knight in shining armor.
Here's the thing: its all quick fix, based in our own stupid unwillingness to do the work we need to do in order to be human beings in a civilized world. Every one's feelings matter, few people actually think things through. And we grab at the bottle of Orajel to get us through the night.
Zen is a disciplined practice. It isn't a feel good practice. It is not a quick fix, not a pill or a drink, or a hit of bliss. It is work, the real work, of examining the actual nature of the universe with no real aid from anything outside of your actual experience of it. No wonder many people visit a Zen Center and quietly, but very quickly leave. Looking deeply into oneself while staring at a wall is very uncomfortable.
We all want serenity, peace of mind, symptom relief, but we want it without the fundamentals. We don't want to examine our own lives with a cool eye. We want wiggle room. We want to point fingers to other causes of our suffering. Anything but turning the eye inward.
Our fundamentals are the paramitas: generosity, morality, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom. Practice these earnestly and need fewer and fewer quick fixes. Practice these and the annoyances of the self become less relevant as we open our eyes and ears to the suffering of the world.
Like anything else, the solution is the steadfast determination to put one foot in front of the other.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
The other day I was in Walgreen's looking for Band-Aids. There are Band-Aids for every conceivable injury. No one size fits all mentality here. Many sizes, shapes, colors, patterns, and even Sponge Bob Square Pants, are available. Across the aisle were various headache remedies, cold remedies, allergy remedies. To be in Walgreen's is to be in the middle of America's love affair with symptom relief.
As a therapist, I saw the tide turning years ago when therapeutic models focused on symptom rather than cause. Brevity was tauted as insurance companies and willing therapists praised brief, solution-focused models. Yet, in schools we were teaching systems approaches, exploring the interdependent causal (dare I say, karmic) linkages between this and that.
Ecclectic approaches were popular as we thought of therapeutic tools in tool-bags. Never mind the internal inconsistency of the models, we were pragmatists!
As America shopped for symptom relief, it shopped for religious fit, as well. This church "felt" right, that one didn't. And so the religious horizon was increasing populated by new and different churches, synagogues, mosques, and a few and increasingly variant Buddhist centers. Orthodoxy was on the defensive: innovation was the knight in shining armor.
Here's the thing: its all quick fix, based in our own stupid unwillingness to do the work we need to do in order to be human beings in a civilized world. Every one's feelings matter, few people actually think things through. And we grab at the bottle of Orajel to get us through the night.
Zen is a disciplined practice. It isn't a feel good practice. It is not a quick fix, not a pill or a drink, or a hit of bliss. It is work, the real work, of examining the actual nature of the universe with no real aid from anything outside of your actual experience of it. No wonder many people visit a Zen Center and quietly, but very quickly leave. Looking deeply into oneself while staring at a wall is very uncomfortable.
We all want serenity, peace of mind, symptom relief, but we want it without the fundamentals. We don't want to examine our own lives with a cool eye. We want wiggle room. We want to point fingers to other causes of our suffering. Anything but turning the eye inward.
Our fundamentals are the paramitas: generosity, morality, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom. Practice these earnestly and need fewer and fewer quick fixes. Practice these and the annoyances of the self become less relevant as we open our eyes and ears to the suffering of the world.
Like anything else, the solution is the steadfast determination to put one foot in front of the other.
Be well.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Two Dogs and a Moon
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning's light is softly diffused by clouds behind the eastern mountains. I see a crescent moon and Jupiter I hear our drip system as the water flows out to the plants. I smell my two dogs as they lay near me on the bed. It is a delicious, soft, moment.
Everything is in relation to everything. This means there are things and there are no things. When we see things, we see with relation; when we see no things, we see in pure, seamless, existence. Systems and subsystems are constructions of an organizing brain. No brain, no systems.
Its a beautiful universe if we leave it alone and see it as it is. Some of us find beauty in discriminating patterns; others find beauty in the largest pattern, which is to say, no pattern at all. These are the dependent co-arising truths of Zen.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning's light is softly diffused by clouds behind the eastern mountains. I see a crescent moon and Jupiter I hear our drip system as the water flows out to the plants. I smell my two dogs as they lay near me on the bed. It is a delicious, soft, moment.
Everything is in relation to everything. This means there are things and there are no things. When we see things, we see with relation; when we see no things, we see in pure, seamless, existence. Systems and subsystems are constructions of an organizing brain. No brain, no systems.
Its a beautiful universe if we leave it alone and see it as it is. Some of us find beauty in discriminating patterns; others find beauty in the largest pattern, which is to say, no pattern at all. These are the dependent co-arising truths of Zen.
Be well.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Sesshin Announcement
With palms together,
Good Afternoon Everyone,
Obon Sesshin will be Friday at 7:00 PM through Sunday at 12:00 PM July 10-12.
Sesshin will be held at our Refuge in Cloudcroft. If the weather does not permit, I will seek an alternative site, perhaps at Dharma Mountain Zendo.
We ask for $25.00 donation. All meals are vegetarian.
Please reply as soon as possible with your reservation.
Be well.
Good Afternoon Everyone,
Obon Sesshin will be Friday at 7:00 PM through Sunday at 12:00 PM July 10-12.
Sesshin will be held at our Refuge in Cloudcroft. If the weather does not permit, I will seek an alternative site, perhaps at Dharma Mountain Zendo.
We ask for $25.00 donation. All meals are vegetarian.
Please reply as soon as possible with your reservation.
Be well.
A Koan
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Case 46 Kyosei's "Voice of the Raindrops"
Good Morning Everyone,
Case 46 Kyosei's "Voice of the Raindrops"
Main Subject: Kyosei asked a monk, "What is the noise outside?" The
monk said, "That is the voice of the raindrops." Kyosei said, "Men's
thinking is topsy-turvy. Deluded by their own selves, they pursue things."
The monk asked, "What about yourself?" Kyosei said, "I was near it, but I
am not deluded." The monk asked, "What do you mean by 'near it but not
deluded'?" Kyosei said, "To say it in the sphere of realization may be easy, but
to say it in the sphere of transcendence is
difficult."
Setcho's Verse:
The empty hall
resounds with the voice of the raindrops.
Even a master fails to
answer.
If you say you have turned the current,
You have no true
understanding.
Understanding? No understanding?
Misty with rain, the
northern and southern mountains.
from The Blue Cliff Record, translated by Sekida
The Dao that can be spoken is not the Dao. Our realization is a private affair. Too often we seek confirmation that we've "got it". In both the seeking and in the speaking we betray our true status. Our practice is selfless. No enlightened beings may enter: The empty hall resounds with the voice of the raindrops.
Here is life, step into it. Don't ponder it. Don't talk about it. Eat it.
Be well.
The Dao that can be spoken is not the Dao. Our realization is a private affair. Too often we seek confirmation that we've "got it". In both the seeking and in the speaking we betray our true status. Our practice is selfless. No enlightened beings may enter: The empty hall resounds with the voice of the raindrops.
Here is life, step into it. Don't ponder it. Don't talk about it. Eat it.
Be well.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Training
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
In the silence of early morning, zazen tends to be still and easy, except for Tripper wanting to cradle his twenty old pounds into my cosmic mudra. We sit together. It is good.
Zazen is not always so pleasant.
Yet, pleasant and unpleasant are part of the training. To be completely present in both, seeing through them to expose their true nature: this is zazen. In such a sense, there is no good zazen or bad zazen. Just zazen.
So, the point is in the training: disciplined spiritual practice. The bell rings, we sit. Food is prepared, we are cognizant of its value and its sacrifice. We go to the bathroom and are aware and grateful that everything works as it is intended...and when it doesn't, we are grateful for that awareness and the physicians and medical professionals who are there to heal us.
As we see, Zen Training is in every moment.
This is the most important point. The universe does not offer you anything, there is no you. The universe offers itself to itself. When self awareness becomes universal awareness: infinite serenity.
Be well.
On a personal note: My Little Honey will be travelling to Ohio for her 45th college reunion today. She will be gone a week. I expect massive parties at my house. ;) Actually, I expect nothing.
streetZen today at 4:00 PM at Veteran's Park!
Harvey So Daiho Hilbert-roshi
On the web at: http://www.clearmindzen.org
Telephone: 575-405-8522
Good Morning Everyone,
In the silence of early morning, zazen tends to be still and easy, except for Tripper wanting to cradle his twenty old pounds into my cosmic mudra. We sit together. It is good.
Zazen is not always so pleasant.
Yet, pleasant and unpleasant are part of the training. To be completely present in both, seeing through them to expose their true nature: this is zazen. In such a sense, there is no good zazen or bad zazen. Just zazen.
So, the point is in the training: disciplined spiritual practice. The bell rings, we sit. Food is prepared, we are cognizant of its value and its sacrifice. We go to the bathroom and are aware and grateful that everything works as it is intended...and when it doesn't, we are grateful for that awareness and the physicians and medical professionals who are there to heal us.
As we see, Zen Training is in every moment.
This is the most important point. The universe does not offer you anything, there is no you. The universe offers itself to itself. When self awareness becomes universal awareness: infinite serenity.
Be well.
On a personal note: My Little Honey will be travelling to Ohio for her 45th college reunion today. She will be gone a week. I expect massive parties at my house. ;) Actually, I expect nothing.
streetZen today at 4:00 PM at Veteran's Park!
Harvey So Daiho Hilbert-roshi
On the web at: http://www.clearmindzen.org
Telephone: 575-405-8522
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Meaning What?
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Each morning we open our eyes only to close them again. Like Sisyphus, we roll the stone up the hill, but to have it slide back down, yet compelled we are, to push it back up. Albert Camus thought this was absurd.
He was incorrect. .
Its not getting the rock to the top of the hill that is important, nor is it actually opening our eyes. What is important, it seems to me, is we are living--in-process. Living is what we do and living requires repetition, breath in, breath out, food in, crap out. What is the quality of our living? Forget your goals, for a moment, those god-awful grade cards, and concentrate on your life in this very breath. I am bathed by cricket sound, the soft sigh of Tripper on a zabuton in the Zendo, and the delicious cool morning air coming in from the desert through my window. This is the quality of my life just now.
If our goal is to get to the sun, big problem. Even if we could, that goal would kill us. On the other hand, if our aim were to follow the sun, our day would be illuminated and just think of the things we might discover in the light.
Just because the sun sets only to rise again, does not mean what we saw along the way was for naught.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Each morning we open our eyes only to close them again. Like Sisyphus, we roll the stone up the hill, but to have it slide back down, yet compelled we are, to push it back up. Albert Camus thought this was absurd.
He was incorrect. .
Its not getting the rock to the top of the hill that is important, nor is it actually opening our eyes. What is important, it seems to me, is we are living--in-process. Living is what we do and living requires repetition, breath in, breath out, food in, crap out. What is the quality of our living? Forget your goals, for a moment, those god-awful grade cards, and concentrate on your life in this very breath. I am bathed by cricket sound, the soft sigh of Tripper on a zabuton in the Zendo, and the delicious cool morning air coming in from the desert through my window. This is the quality of my life just now.
If our goal is to get to the sun, big problem. Even if we could, that goal would kill us. On the other hand, if our aim were to follow the sun, our day would be illuminated and just think of the things we might discover in the light.
Just because the sun sets only to rise again, does not mean what we saw along the way was for naught.
Be well.
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