With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning it is a delightful dark outside. The bulb in the door light has blown out and I am pleased at its passing. Darkness seems underrated, light overrated. In the darkness, we more easily access stillness. In the darkness, we more easily access ourselves. Light provides a myriad of distractions and takes our attention away that we might see what is there to see. So, a blown-out light bulb provides a respite from the light and I reside for a moment, with Suki, in the dark as she does her morning business.
Suki seems to be doing a little better. Less hacking, no blurry eyes, and her nose seems much better. I have an appointment with a veterinarian tomorrow. I am hopeful she will offer some medicines in addition to that which I am using. She has a lot of heart. Clearly, she struggles valiantly to be well.
Zen life is like that, putting one foot in front of the other aiming to complete the journey, but not really knowing what that means. We abandon meaning for the sake of the experience of each breath. And when asked, “Is that all there is?” We say, “Yes.”
Each breath is life itself, entirely and completely. Each blink of the eye, turn of the mouth, movement of a finger or foot, is the universe arousing itself. Being well is nothing more or less than being awake in this arousal.
May your journey today be what it is, but that it is peaceful and safe.
Organ Mountain Zen
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Suki's Moment
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Life seems to test us. Life does not seem to test us. On the one hand, as our brain separates us from what life is, we can perceive it as something outside of us; testing us, embracing us, celebrating, or supporting us. On the other hand, if we realize there is nothing outside of us, that this inside/outside is just a function of our brain perception and organization and not reality, then nothing is presenting itself in any way, we are just living.
Suki is still sick. Another trip to the shelter revealed a threat to her life. The vet tech thought that maybe she had distemper. Since I do not “own” her yet, as the mandatory waiting period and spaying has not occurred, they could simply seize her and put her down. We are trying a heavier dose of drugs and a few other things. She seems to be doing well, but for the cough, and has no symptoms of distemper itself.
One way of looking at this situation is it is another loss in a row of losses. I could add them up, say OMG, and feel like crap. Another way is to say, “Suki is ill, care for her.”
Tomorrow is an imagining, yesterday a fictionalized memory. This moment, this moment is all there actually is. My function in this moment is to care.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
Life seems to test us. Life does not seem to test us. On the one hand, as our brain separates us from what life is, we can perceive it as something outside of us; testing us, embracing us, celebrating, or supporting us. On the other hand, if we realize there is nothing outside of us, that this inside/outside is just a function of our brain perception and organization and not reality, then nothing is presenting itself in any way, we are just living.
Suki is still sick. Another trip to the shelter revealed a threat to her life. The vet tech thought that maybe she had distemper. Since I do not “own” her yet, as the mandatory waiting period and spaying has not occurred, they could simply seize her and put her down. We are trying a heavier dose of drugs and a few other things. She seems to be doing well, but for the cough, and has no symptoms of distemper itself.
One way of looking at this situation is it is another loss in a row of losses. I could add them up, say OMG, and feel like crap. Another way is to say, “Suki is ill, care for her.”
Tomorrow is an imagining, yesterday a fictionalized memory. This moment, this moment is all there actually is. My function in this moment is to care.
Be well.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Rain
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning the air feels heavy. The rainy season is fast approaching. In the desert southwest we typically get rain, often heavy, in the afternoons each day through August and sometimes into September. It is a pleasant season overall, cooler due to the afternoon overcast sky, but the humidity rises and in can get quite uncomfortable, especially in large black robes.
Yesterday, we held our Zen discussion group and the section of the Platform Sutra we addressed was the Fifth Patriarch’s request for his students to show their understanding and the senior disciple’s poetic reply. He writes on the wall,
“The body is a bodhi tree
The mind is like a standing mirror
Always try to keep it clean
Don’t let it gather dust.”
As a corollary, I introduced a koan Student that John S and I were working on, Master Langye’s “Original Purity.” This is Case 6, from Master Dogen’s True Dharma Eye and puts forth the notion that all things appear and each of them are dharma gates: so what is purity?
These two points of ancient text stand as kyosaku. The senior disciple has part of it. He teaches us serenity and practice, but he does so with an aim: the aim of purity. Red Pine points out that the poem “is not the teaching that sets us free, but the teaching that itself becomes a burden…”(p.99).
Master Dogen’s koan offers us a way through the problem: everything is pure, everything. As Daido Loori points out, “There is nothing outside of it.”
The result? Pure and Impure lose their meaning. What is left is absolute Oneness.
Rain is not rain, it is just what we call rain; rain is just rain and it appears as though we might get some today.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning the air feels heavy. The rainy season is fast approaching. In the desert southwest we typically get rain, often heavy, in the afternoons each day through August and sometimes into September. It is a pleasant season overall, cooler due to the afternoon overcast sky, but the humidity rises and in can get quite uncomfortable, especially in large black robes.
Yesterday, we held our Zen discussion group and the section of the Platform Sutra we addressed was the Fifth Patriarch’s request for his students to show their understanding and the senior disciple’s poetic reply. He writes on the wall,
“The body is a bodhi tree
The mind is like a standing mirror
Always try to keep it clean
Don’t let it gather dust.”
As a corollary, I introduced a koan Student that John S and I were working on, Master Langye’s “Original Purity.” This is Case 6, from Master Dogen’s True Dharma Eye and puts forth the notion that all things appear and each of them are dharma gates: so what is purity?
These two points of ancient text stand as kyosaku. The senior disciple has part of it. He teaches us serenity and practice, but he does so with an aim: the aim of purity. Red Pine points out that the poem “is not the teaching that sets us free, but the teaching that itself becomes a burden…”(p.99).
Master Dogen’s koan offers us a way through the problem: everything is pure, everything. As Daido Loori points out, “There is nothing outside of it.”
The result? Pure and Impure lose their meaning. What is left is absolute Oneness.
Rain is not rain, it is just what we call rain; rain is just rain and it appears as though we might get some today.
Be well.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Notes
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning is Street Zen at Sagecrest Park. I enjoy very much sitting under the trees at this pleasant little park. Birds do their morning dances and people walk their dogs, gathering in small pockets of the park to share stories.
Afterwards, I am going to T or C to talk with our webmaster. From there, its back to the Zendo for a Dokusan appointment followed by our weekly Zen Discussion Group at 4:00 PM. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Sesshin approaches for the second weekend of July. We have space for one additional person at this point. Confirmed registrants include Daiho, Bussho, Zen Shin, Dai Shugyo, Soku Shin, and from California, Ko Myo, Casey Cochran, and John Sorenson.
Donation for the weekend is $25.00. Meals included.
Please register now if you want to attend.
Lastly, we have availble copies of my booklet, "The Zen of Trauma" ($2.00) and the DVD short independent film, "Street Zen" ($12.00) . If you would like a copy, please email me.
Thank you.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
This morning is Street Zen at Sagecrest Park. I enjoy very much sitting under the trees at this pleasant little park. Birds do their morning dances and people walk their dogs, gathering in small pockets of the park to share stories.
Afterwards, I am going to T or C to talk with our webmaster. From there, its back to the Zendo for a Dokusan appointment followed by our weekly Zen Discussion Group at 4:00 PM. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Sesshin approaches for the second weekend of July. We have space for one additional person at this point. Confirmed registrants include Daiho, Bussho, Zen Shin, Dai Shugyo, Soku Shin, and from California, Ko Myo, Casey Cochran, and John Sorenson.
Donation for the weekend is $25.00. Meals included.
Please register now if you want to attend.
Lastly, we have availble copies of my booklet, "The Zen of Trauma" ($2.00) and the DVD short independent film, "Street Zen" ($12.00) . If you would like a copy, please email me.
Thank you.
Be well.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Caring
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
A morning like any other: wake, get up, and walk Suki around the building. She particularly enjoys wrapping herself around something and looking at me to see if I can solve the puzzle. Invariably, I do and she is delighted to be able to continue our walk together.
Suki is suffering from a case of Kennel Cough and we have been treating it with medicine the shelter gave us, and by using a humidifier. It is difficult to experience an animal suffer. I gave her pill this morning wrapped in peanut butter, and then sat on the floor brushing her while she licked the remains of the peanut butter from her chops.
We all need nurturance and more often than not, our best nurturance is that which we derive from nurturing others. Giving others the gift of touch or kind speech gives us the opportunity to open our heart and in so doing, our true nature has an avenue to manifest.
Caring changes everything.
Be well.
Good Morning Everyone,
A morning like any other: wake, get up, and walk Suki around the building. She particularly enjoys wrapping herself around something and looking at me to see if I can solve the puzzle. Invariably, I do and she is delighted to be able to continue our walk together.
Suki is suffering from a case of Kennel Cough and we have been treating it with medicine the shelter gave us, and by using a humidifier. It is difficult to experience an animal suffer. I gave her pill this morning wrapped in peanut butter, and then sat on the floor brushing her while she licked the remains of the peanut butter from her chops.
We all need nurturance and more often than not, our best nurturance is that which we derive from nurturing others. Giving others the gift of touch or kind speech gives us the opportunity to open our heart and in so doing, our true nature has an avenue to manifest.
Caring changes everything.
Be well.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Social Action, Part Four
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone.
Social Action, Part Four
The Three Pure Precepts originate from the Dhammapada (v. 183). Here the Buddha says, “To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind -- this is the teaching of the Buddhas.” We in the Order of Clear Mind Zen argue that the impetus for social action comes directly from these. In the Mahayana tradition, cleansing one’s mind was replaced by the more socially responsible Bodhisattva vow, to bring about the awakening of all beings.
As Zen practitioners we understand the relationship between freeing one’s self and freeing all others is an intimate one. We are, in a very real sense, already free, already one. Yet, the clouds created by the Three Poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion obscure this fact. Our practice is to cut through these clouds in order to see with complete clarity: as we are already free, so are all other beings.
In Zen, we realize evil does not exist as some force independent of us. There is no devil making anyone do anything. Just so, there is no God pulling our strings either. It is therefore our job, with the taking of these precepts, to avoid creating evil on the one hand, and to bring about good, on the other hand. The two fold into the last, which is to say, we avoid evil and do good for the sake of freeing of all beings.
This said, we still have a responsibility to create the conditions upon which others may come to see their own freedom. In this, we address the three poisons directly. It is our way to reduce and eliminate greed, hatred, and delusion in our lives and in the lives of those around us. We do this through manifesting the three antidotes: generosity, compassion, and wisdom. We work simultaneously to reduce or eliminate social conditions based in the poisons while offering the three medicines.
Human beings must have their basic needs met. We must have food, clothing, and shelter. We must be free from fear, fear of oppression, exploitation, and abuse. We must also be offered the tools to arrive at our own freedom. These tools include the contemplative practices of Zen Buddhism.
Be well
Good Morning Everyone.
Social Action, Part Four
The Three Pure Precepts originate from the Dhammapada (v. 183). Here the Buddha says, “To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind -- this is the teaching of the Buddhas.” We in the Order of Clear Mind Zen argue that the impetus for social action comes directly from these. In the Mahayana tradition, cleansing one’s mind was replaced by the more socially responsible Bodhisattva vow, to bring about the awakening of all beings.
As Zen practitioners we understand the relationship between freeing one’s self and freeing all others is an intimate one. We are, in a very real sense, already free, already one. Yet, the clouds created by the Three Poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion obscure this fact. Our practice is to cut through these clouds in order to see with complete clarity: as we are already free, so are all other beings.
In Zen, we realize evil does not exist as some force independent of us. There is no devil making anyone do anything. Just so, there is no God pulling our strings either. It is therefore our job, with the taking of these precepts, to avoid creating evil on the one hand, and to bring about good, on the other hand. The two fold into the last, which is to say, we avoid evil and do good for the sake of freeing of all beings.
This said, we still have a responsibility to create the conditions upon which others may come to see their own freedom. In this, we address the three poisons directly. It is our way to reduce and eliminate greed, hatred, and delusion in our lives and in the lives of those around us. We do this through manifesting the three antidotes: generosity, compassion, and wisdom. We work simultaneously to reduce or eliminate social conditions based in the poisons while offering the three medicines.
Human beings must have their basic needs met. We must have food, clothing, and shelter. We must be free from fear, fear of oppression, exploitation, and abuse. We must also be offered the tools to arrive at our own freedom. These tools include the contemplative practices of Zen Buddhism.
Be well
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Social Action, Part Three
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Social Action, Part Three
Master Dogen said in his Final Instructions, “This monastery is an excellent place. We may become attached to it, but we should live in accord with temporal and worldly conditions. In the buddha-dharma any place is an excellent place for practice.”
To live away from “the world” is a marvelous thing. It enables us to go deeply inside and experience ourselves intimately as we go through the tasks of living. At our Refuge in the mountains where we lived for three years, the first two years we lived without electricity. Our lives were very slow and very deliberate. If I wanted to make biscuits for breakfast I needed to get up at 4:00 AM and get the wood cook stove going. If we wanted water in out tap, I needed to make sure we had the gravity feed tank full. Once or twice a week we would start the generator in order to accomplish tasks that required electricity, such as pumping water, charging the laptop’s batteries, etc.
Under such conditions, meditation and mindfulness were both easy and required. I could (and did) easily hurt myself without mindfulness at the stove or with the axe cutting my daily portion of wood. Meditation was a cinch since without lights, when the sun went down, contemplation came naturally. Eventually, however, we had to leave the Refuge. Groceries were necessary, meetings at the Volunteer Fire Department were scheduled, and visits needed to be made.
It was during this period of my practice life I determined Engaged Zen was necessary. Engaged practice is the practice of not being on auto-pilot. Engaged practice is the practice of the buddhas and is an antidote to the sleepiness of a life become so easy to cruise through. To live in engaged practice requires a commitment to wake up and stay awake.
Social action is a natural consequence of living with our eyes open. When we are awake to the fact that turning on the lights just to have the lights on, or turning on the television just to have it on, is wasteful and and example of sleeping in the present moment, we turn them off. We might replace our incandescent bulbs with more energy efficient spirals. This might lead us to consider not driving our cars so much or finding ways to use less consumable products.
Living away from people teaches us the value of silence and thus the value of right speech when we are with others. Idle chatter is never a good idea and leads to hurtful gossip. Our world is made completely of our own construction. If we need to hate we will find something or someone to hate. If we need to love, we will find something or someone to love.
When we encounter situations and people who are harmful, we engage them with mindful compassion. War is harmful, we engage those making war with peace and understanding. Social Discrimination is harmful, we engage those who discriminate with the wisdom of non-duality. We offer alternatives such as serene reflection meditation and generosity of heart/mind.
Social action is not something writ large with big signs and electric lights. It is the simple practice of walking in the world with our eyes and heart open coupled with a willingness to engage what comes before us in the simplest and most direct manner.
So, as Master Dogen points out in the opening quote, “In the buddha-dharma any place is an excellent place for practice.” This means taking the serenity and mindfulness of our zazen and walking through town with it, through work with it, and through play with it.
May we each be a blessing in the universe.
Rev. Harvey Daiho Hilbert-Roshi
Order of Clear Mind Zen
Clear Mind Zen Temple
Our Order's Store
Telephone: 575-680-6680
See Roshi's personal Calendar
Good Morning Everyone,
Social Action, Part Three
Master Dogen said in his Final Instructions, “This monastery is an excellent place. We may become attached to it, but we should live in accord with temporal and worldly conditions. In the buddha-dharma any place is an excellent place for practice.”
To live away from “the world” is a marvelous thing. It enables us to go deeply inside and experience ourselves intimately as we go through the tasks of living. At our Refuge in the mountains where we lived for three years, the first two years we lived without electricity. Our lives were very slow and very deliberate. If I wanted to make biscuits for breakfast I needed to get up at 4:00 AM and get the wood cook stove going. If we wanted water in out tap, I needed to make sure we had the gravity feed tank full. Once or twice a week we would start the generator in order to accomplish tasks that required electricity, such as pumping water, charging the laptop’s batteries, etc.
Under such conditions, meditation and mindfulness were both easy and required. I could (and did) easily hurt myself without mindfulness at the stove or with the axe cutting my daily portion of wood. Meditation was a cinch since without lights, when the sun went down, contemplation came naturally. Eventually, however, we had to leave the Refuge. Groceries were necessary, meetings at the Volunteer Fire Department were scheduled, and visits needed to be made.
It was during this period of my practice life I determined Engaged Zen was necessary. Engaged practice is the practice of not being on auto-pilot. Engaged practice is the practice of the buddhas and is an antidote to the sleepiness of a life become so easy to cruise through. To live in engaged practice requires a commitment to wake up and stay awake.
Social action is a natural consequence of living with our eyes open. When we are awake to the fact that turning on the lights just to have the lights on, or turning on the television just to have it on, is wasteful and and example of sleeping in the present moment, we turn them off. We might replace our incandescent bulbs with more energy efficient spirals. This might lead us to consider not driving our cars so much or finding ways to use less consumable products.
Living away from people teaches us the value of silence and thus the value of right speech when we are with others. Idle chatter is never a good idea and leads to hurtful gossip. Our world is made completely of our own construction. If we need to hate we will find something or someone to hate. If we need to love, we will find something or someone to love.
When we encounter situations and people who are harmful, we engage them with mindful compassion. War is harmful, we engage those making war with peace and understanding. Social Discrimination is harmful, we engage those who discriminate with the wisdom of non-duality. We offer alternatives such as serene reflection meditation and generosity of heart/mind.
Social action is not something writ large with big signs and electric lights. It is the simple practice of walking in the world with our eyes and heart open coupled with a willingness to engage what comes before us in the simplest and most direct manner.
So, as Master Dogen points out in the opening quote, “In the buddha-dharma any place is an excellent place for practice.” This means taking the serenity and mindfulness of our zazen and walking through town with it, through work with it, and through play with it.
May we each be a blessing in the universe.
Rev. Harvey Daiho Hilbert-Roshi
Order of Clear Mind Zen
Clear Mind Zen Temple
Our Order's Store
Telephone: 575-680-6680
See Roshi's personal Calendar
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