At this moment...

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



At this moment,

I woke from a dream

and can no longer see

heaven.

The ladder has lifted.

Or maybe was never there.

(We can never be sure.)

The voice is silent:

I am left to sit alone

In its echo.

This is the ground

of being itself

and I sit upon it

with no fear.



Be well.

Entering the Way

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



The language of the spirit is not to be assigned the particular, but must remain in the universal. This means matters of spirit are not masculine or feminine. They are not Jewish or Christian, Muslim or Buddhist. Spiritual is by definition of everything and therefore completely universal. In a very real way, taking up the path of spiritual journey requires a shift in orientation away from the particular. It requires leaving home.



Assignment of gender or ethnicity or religion or social class of anything leads to separation.separation to valuation, valuation to discrimination, discrimination to suffering. Assignment leads to being stuck in a view and considering that view reality.



Reality is none of that and a true Bodhisattva Warrior lives without the assignment of, and alignment of, labels, classes, categories, or hierarchies. A Zen Buddhist is not a Zen Buddhist, but a being connected with the universe assisting others to realize that same connection. We wear our robe not to separate, but to unite.



The literal robe is just pieces of cloth sewn together as peoples are sewn together. Yet, it is, itself, just pieces of cloth. The true robe is the formless field of benefaction residing in non-duality and the non-assignment of linguistic categories.



Our practice is to drop away, drop away, in order to allow the Universal room to bloom within us.



Be well.

Drop Away, Drop Away

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



It is a cool morning with water in the air. A beautiful dark sky. Awake!



Student Kate told me she had practiced "Dropping Away Zen" at Tassajara during a summer retreat. She wondered about instruction regarding attention to the breath.
which she has heard from me.



We Westerners are not oriented correctly for Zen practice. We are pragmatists. We seek outcomes, think linearly, use the scientific method and so on. We want results. Zen practice is both means and end together. There is no "end" that already is not present. Very challenging to those who want, as being is seemingly just not enough.



When I give instruction for practice, it is stepwise. It is like the liturgy in Judaism. There are opening practices which orient oneself, then there is the practice itself, i.e., union with the Infinite.. Attention to breath, breath counting, are means of orientation. Orientation is my aim.



Thus, my aim is how I am oriented, my goal, on the other hand, is to what I am seeking. There is a vast difference. A goal is outside of reality. It is a thought even if it is about something concrete, and sets an expectation. An aim is an internal orientation in the goal's direction. To have an excellent aim is to already be the goal. This is shikantaza.



We cannot sit and think drop away self. We sit and the self drops away of its own accord in its own time, once body, mind, and environment are in accord, that is, oriented.



Attention to breath is a warm-up, counting is a warm-up. Once warmed-up, once oriented, relax the count, open the grip of thought, and be without being.



Be well.

Lost

With palms together,

Good Morning All,



Being lost. Feeling as if there is nothing familiar --- or that the familiar is slipping away and cannot be grasped ---, this is in the pit of our stomach yuk. We avoid such places. We want desperately for solid ground. Its only natural.



However, all is not lost, ever. We are. We are not individuals. New does not happen without a dropping away of old. And creation is always on-going. Far from nihilism, Zen resides in eternal change.



Any effort to open our eyes when lost will reveal new wonders. Lost just means we feel the loss of our cradle. Step out. Stand up. Be alive.



Be well.

Change

With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,

Our lives are full of mysteries and we organize them into what makes sense and what does not, what we accept and what we do not, what we fear, love, hate, and just plain will not admit to. Its all very natural. Its all very challenging. So, we pretend or hope or pray. And one day it all comes crashing down. The paradigm no longer tolerates the cracks.

The world took a long time to accept the planet was not flat...some still believe it to be so. The new paradigm takes time to settle in, to gain acceptance, and for us to throw off the old.

We have a view of things, perhaps from childhood, perhaps from an experience so penetrating that its memory always remains fresh, or perhaps from a social convention: what to do when this view no longer works?

As John Bingham is fond of saying regarding running, "There's No Need for Speed". Patience is a necessary partner in this process, as are all the other paramitas. A wise person does not rush in to change the world. Nor does he tarry along the way. Nor does he throw the baby out with the bathwater. We rarely know what the change needs to be, what direction it should take, or how far it should go.

Life offers us many opportunities to address change, as change is like the elephant in the room no one seems willing to seriously address. Religious views change, social practices and norms change, our essential understanding of ourselves changes. all the while we hold on, put off, deny, or otherwise fail to deal.

An open heart, an open mind, and a compassionate hand go a long way in this process Change is difficult, not changing in the face of a need for change can be tragic.

We waddle on.

Be well

One Step

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,,



Today, Zazen at 6:30 AM at Roshi's residence; streetZen at 10:30 at Veteran's Park; Mediation at 3:00 and Study Group at 4:00 at Roshi's residence..



Yesterday I tried to take a walk with friends Allen and Eve through the desert park. Could only go half way and had t return. My Left Foot was having none of it.Perhaps it is time now to use kinhin as my walking style.



Kinhin is a deliberate, slow, mindful walking too often wrongly understood as a break from Zazen.Kinhin is meditation, it is Zen in motion. Mindful, it embraces body in motion in environment. Balance, touch, breath, forward motion, and empty mind abide there.



Slow, like Tai Chi, there is no where to get to where one has not already been.. The universe in each step. Infinity and ground meet. Spirit moves across the face of the deep. With each breath our universe is crated and maintained.



It's the Zen One Step.



Be well.

May We Be a Blessing

With palms together,

Good Morning Everyone,



Morning of the only day there is

opens in silence.

My breath is slow and steady.

My heart opens to you.

Breathing in, I take in our suffering,

breathing out, I offer us my love.



But there is so very much suffering

and yet I am serene.



Last night

at a Rabbi's house

We said a blessing,

ate a lovely meal,

and settled in to watch.

a film

.

It was about an IED unit in Iraq.

And demanded recall:



war is far more than a nasty word...



The energy of deep compassion

Set a-swirl, like the stars in the sky

in a drunken night...i chant,

Everything is precious.


All my past and harmful karma...

Born from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion,

Through body, speech, and mind,

I now fully avow...



Scotch helps.

As does zazen.

Breathing in,

breathing out.



It is morning.

and I have not slept much.

I sit in the zendo and listen.



The sky is still dark

But the swirls have

become gentle streams.

Vast wings

enfold all beings

and I release myself

into them.



Let war be no more, let love be your light.



Be well.