With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
The morning light seems to rise from the ground, and while it is beautiful, it means nothing in itself. Dark and light are the same. Nirvana and samsara, heaven and hell, good and bad: same-same. When we behold beauty, we behold ugliness. Beauty excludes ugliness and thus becomes ugly. A good that excludes bad, excludes itself. If heaven excludes hell, then heaven is hell. Do you understand?
Live in your world. Embrace your world. Seeking bliss is like seeking a narcotic; its use excludes us from being awake. The same with peak experiences. Peak experiences are to be avoided; they separate us from the everyday. Avoid feeling good; avoid feeling bad: reside in the great middle of each moment and be authentic in that residence.
Practice Zazen. Eat life. Share your food.
Be well.
Organ Mountain Zen
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Late
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Late edition today: dishes, a walk, and waking up late took me off schedule. Floating along, son Jacob made the tuna salad for Breakfast Club, and I have a few minutes to write to you now. Friends Allen and Eve just walked in, maybe less time than I thought. So it goes.
Time does not exist, really, there is just this typing on these keys, just now. Late is a notion invented by our mind focused on a point in thought. This point is chimera. Being present is being alive. In a certain sense, then, being in time is being asleep. Time and being are one and in this oneness, time itself, loses its meaning.
So, what happens if we are late? Are we still ourselves? Is our world still not intact? The walls don't crumble, the curtains aren't rent, and the earth doesn't open up and swallow us. We are here.
On the other hand, being prompt is essential to civilized life. Thus a problem. Solution? Plan properly when it is time to plan, be disciplined, and thoroughly be present as you "move" from one thing to another. You are your own master, always, regardless of what anyone else thinks or says, but master of yourself you must be.
Now, it it time for Breakfast Club.
A bow to each of you.
Good Morning Everyone,
Late edition today: dishes, a walk, and waking up late took me off schedule. Floating along, son Jacob made the tuna salad for Breakfast Club, and I have a few minutes to write to you now. Friends Allen and Eve just walked in, maybe less time than I thought. So it goes.
Time does not exist, really, there is just this typing on these keys, just now. Late is a notion invented by our mind focused on a point in thought. This point is chimera. Being present is being alive. In a certain sense, then, being in time is being asleep. Time and being are one and in this oneness, time itself, loses its meaning.
So, what happens if we are late? Are we still ourselves? Is our world still not intact? The walls don't crumble, the curtains aren't rent, and the earth doesn't open up and swallow us. We are here.
On the other hand, being prompt is essential to civilized life. Thus a problem. Solution? Plan properly when it is time to plan, be disciplined, and thoroughly be present as you "move" from one thing to another. You are your own master, always, regardless of what anyone else thinks or says, but master of yourself you must be.
Now, it it time for Breakfast Club.
A bow to each of you.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
So?
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
So, a student enters a training center and says, "please teach me." The Teacher asks, "Have you finished eating?" The student says, "Yes." The Teacher replies, "Go wash your bowl!"
Case 7 offers us a direct teaching. Very important; deeply profound. Most of us we want teachers to teach us with fantasies of mind. We want our heads filled with thoughts, as if to say, thoughts are the universe. We want to feel smart, philosophical, poetical, artistic, social, loving, etc. We think we can think ourselves into this way of being.
Zen is far more economical: go wash your bowl.
What more is there to teach?
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
So, a student enters a training center and says, "please teach me." The Teacher asks, "Have you finished eating?" The student says, "Yes." The Teacher replies, "Go wash your bowl!"
Case 7 offers us a direct teaching. Very important; deeply profound. Most of us we want teachers to teach us with fantasies of mind. We want our heads filled with thoughts, as if to say, thoughts are the universe. We want to feel smart, philosophical, poetical, artistic, social, loving, etc. We think we can think ourselves into this way of being.
Zen is far more economical: go wash your bowl.
What more is there to teach?
Be well.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Let Go and Live
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
A little while ago friends Allen and Eve walked with me as I jogged 1.5 miles of hills. I did this sort of in-place jogging, enough to break a sweat and really enjoy myself. At home, I did a few different upper body weight exercises, including push ups, then stretched out with a few minutes of yoga. I woke late today, missed writing practice and zazen, but am catching up now.
Sometimes life would be out of sync if we had sync to begin with. No sync, nothing to be out of: when hungry, eat, when sleepy, sleep. Or so I sometimes say. Zen is like that.
Here you are. Zen practice, says Kyogen, is like a man hanging in a tree by his teeth over a cliff. In the ravine below, a man asks him, "Why did Bodhidharma come to China from India?" If the man in the tree does not answer, he fails. If he answers, he falls and loses his life. So, what should he do? (Case 5, the Gateless Gate). Always between a rock and a hard place; the devil and the deep blue sea: that's Zen.
I hear the water falling in my pond. My gate needs to be fixed. A friend needs a ride. To let go is to live.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
A little while ago friends Allen and Eve walked with me as I jogged 1.5 miles of hills. I did this sort of in-place jogging, enough to break a sweat and really enjoy myself. At home, I did a few different upper body weight exercises, including push ups, then stretched out with a few minutes of yoga. I woke late today, missed writing practice and zazen, but am catching up now.
Sometimes life would be out of sync if we had sync to begin with. No sync, nothing to be out of: when hungry, eat, when sleepy, sleep. Or so I sometimes say. Zen is like that.
Here you are. Zen practice, says Kyogen, is like a man hanging in a tree by his teeth over a cliff. In the ravine below, a man asks him, "Why did Bodhidharma come to China from India?" If the man in the tree does not answer, he fails. If he answers, he falls and loses his life. So, what should he do? (Case 5, the Gateless Gate). Always between a rock and a hard place; the devil and the deep blue sea: that's Zen.
I hear the water falling in my pond. My gate needs to be fixed. A friend needs a ride. To let go is to live.
Be well.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Assumptions
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning My Left Hand showed itself again. I weed whacked the small patch of grass My Little Honey left last night with our new weed whacker. This paralysis thing is always just a little twisted. Sometimes I can get get my fingers around something and sometimes I can't. It appears always that the assumption is I cannot do something. Bad assumption for a person with a disability. We must assume we can, then set about finding a way to get it done.
I also started two holes for my tomato plants. Just now they are not large enough, but they will get bigger. And when I raked up the cut grass, I saw patches that need whacking.
Disability can create either mindful practice or insane frustration. When I assume I "should" be able to do something "like everyone else" its frustration. When I set about doing it with a beginner's mind, with no expectations, no "how it should be dones", its an excellent practice and a practice prone to innovation. It just might look a little odd.
So, the next time you go into a public bathroom and see someone with their right foot pressing down a faucet with an automatic shut-off, no worries. It could be me washing my hands.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning My Left Hand showed itself again. I weed whacked the small patch of grass My Little Honey left last night with our new weed whacker. This paralysis thing is always just a little twisted. Sometimes I can get get my fingers around something and sometimes I can't. It appears always that the assumption is I cannot do something. Bad assumption for a person with a disability. We must assume we can, then set about finding a way to get it done.
I also started two holes for my tomato plants. Just now they are not large enough, but they will get bigger. And when I raked up the cut grass, I saw patches that need whacking.
Disability can create either mindful practice or insane frustration. When I assume I "should" be able to do something "like everyone else" its frustration. When I set about doing it with a beginner's mind, with no expectations, no "how it should be dones", its an excellent practice and a practice prone to innovation. It just might look a little odd.
So, the next time you go into a public bathroom and see someone with their right foot pressing down a faucet with an automatic shut-off, no worries. It could be me washing my hands.
Be well.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
1,2,3
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
streetZen this morning after a walk with friends. It is the 4th of July and we celebrate independence from tyranny. The only true tyranny is the tyranny of mind, however. Mind that designs traps; mind that establishes problems; mind that resides in thought: this is the mind of tyranny.
Become independent of that mind. Reside in the experience of interdependence.
1,2,3 is not 1,2,3; it is 1,2,3. What is the difference? Experience one and many simultaneously; let go of one; let go of two.
The soil receives the rain water, but does not keep it.
Happy Days,
Good Morning Everyone,
streetZen this morning after a walk with friends. It is the 4th of July and we celebrate independence from tyranny. The only true tyranny is the tyranny of mind, however. Mind that designs traps; mind that establishes problems; mind that resides in thought: this is the mind of tyranny.
Become independent of that mind. Reside in the experience of interdependence.
1,2,3 is not 1,2,3; it is 1,2,3. What is the difference? Experience one and many simultaneously; let go of one; let go of two.
The soil receives the rain water, but does not keep it.
Happy Days,
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Life Appreciation
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Profound is like a bell only because we are a species of dullards. It is actually quite ordinary. A person who walks with deliberation, mindfully placing his feet on the ground, mindfully opening a door, or slicing a tomato, is deeply and profoundly there. There is something very wonderful about the feel of a sharp knife cutting through a tomato. The smell of an onion's juices being diced, or the smooth sheen of a dining room table as it is being polished. Wonderful, but not special.
If we allow our mind to create fictions of later and earlier, we are asleep as we do these things, and miss their everyday wonder.
As a species, we are very bright, able to penetrate the absolute reality of our universe. Creative, we improve our universe, lengthen our lives, and vegetate in front of televisions. Eyes closed and unschooled to discovery, we slug back drinks that dull our minds, inject ourselves with chemicals and escape this very moment of our lives. Yes, a species of dullards. Dangerous dullards at that.
Zen is said to be very boring by some. Careful! Only those who are dullards can say that! There is nothing boring about infinity. Nothing boring about the present. Take a course in life appreciation, practice zazen.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Profound is like a bell only because we are a species of dullards. It is actually quite ordinary. A person who walks with deliberation, mindfully placing his feet on the ground, mindfully opening a door, or slicing a tomato, is deeply and profoundly there. There is something very wonderful about the feel of a sharp knife cutting through a tomato. The smell of an onion's juices being diced, or the smooth sheen of a dining room table as it is being polished. Wonderful, but not special.
If we allow our mind to create fictions of later and earlier, we are asleep as we do these things, and miss their everyday wonder.
As a species, we are very bright, able to penetrate the absolute reality of our universe. Creative, we improve our universe, lengthen our lives, and vegetate in front of televisions. Eyes closed and unschooled to discovery, we slug back drinks that dull our minds, inject ourselves with chemicals and escape this very moment of our lives. Yes, a species of dullards. Dangerous dullards at that.
Zen is said to be very boring by some. Careful! Only those who are dullards can say that! There is nothing boring about infinity. Nothing boring about the present. Take a course in life appreciation, practice zazen.
Be well.
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