On Flagpoles and Snow Globes

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



Zazen at the Veteran’s park was very serene this morning. The breeze was steady and refreshing in light of a blazing, but beautiful, morning sun. I had ridden my bicycle to the park, a distance of about 2.7 miles of mostly steep hills and welcomed the opportunity to sit still under the rotunda. Colette sat with me. It was very peaceful.



My mind was at work intermittently, though. I had re-read some of the very famous text, The Three Pillars of Zen, last night and was swirling in Yasutani-roshi’s words regarding his understanding of practice. The other day I read a piece of the commentary Daido-roshi had written on the Mountains and Rivers Sutra. Things seemed to coalesce in the stillness in front of the flag pole.



Both of these sages had views on our practice. Both had decidedly strong views on Soto and Rinzai schools. We would do well to pay attention to them. Our practice, however, must drive us. It is both our anchor and our wheel.



When the we are awake, there is no movement. Practice is like this. We, the wind, the flag, the dogs walking across in front of us as we are sitting, are all one. So, what is moving?



Mountains walk, the sutra points out, and “there should be no doubts about these blue mountains walking.”



So, walking while not moving? What’s this? Is the snow globe stationary as the snow within it falling?



We should practice in this way: centered, serene, still. All the while we walk.



Be well.

On Zen

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



Zen is Zen. It is not American, Asian, or European. It is the authentic practice of the buddhas and ancestors. No one, not one group, organization, temple, body of experts, blogger, website, web directory or nation has the authority to determine the authenticity of a lineage. Only our practice itself does that. Let me be clear (and maybe just a tad radical here): it is our practice, not our thoughts, feelings or pedigree that determines our authenticity in Zen.



Zen is alive. It is the living manifestation of the buddha-dharma. Authenticity is revealed in Zen’s practice, not in a piece of paper, chop, whisk, or shaved head. The questions, “where’s my mind?” in my activity, “who am I?” through in each moment, and “what is my next step?” as I encounter the world are fundamental questions and how I manifest their answers determines my authenticity.



My Teacher and his Teacher before him gave me a great gift: the opportunity to practice the dharma, to bring the dharma into the world, and to share it with others. I have steadfastly done that over the last nearly fifteen years I have been authorized to teach in my lineage. This gift is precious. So I take great offense at those in the Zen world who feel they are in a position to determine the authenticity of my practice, my teaching, or my lineage on the basis of anything other than its practice itself. To do this, they must know me, see me, experience my practice.



Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka-roshi has two living Dharma heirs who have steadfastly practiced and taught the dharma: Rev. Michael Taiun Elliston-sensei and Rev. Ken Hogaku ShoZen McGuire-roshi. One on the East coast, one on the west coast. Both of these teachers have established Temples or Zen Centers, taught and sanctioned dharma heirs. As in other lineages, dharma heirs differ in temperament, personality, and style. They also differ in how they perceive and manifest their mission as dharma teachers. One is not better, more authentic, higher or lower than the other. Both have lived the dharma and manifested the transmission of mind. As I see it, this is the only real and honest test of authenticity.



Comments have been made about the legitimacy of Matsuoka’s heirs and typically, one of these two heirs is considered “recognized” whereas the other is questioned or given short shrift. This effort damages Matsuoka, his lineage, and consequently his heirs. Is Hogaku’s silent, less in your face, practice any less “authentic” than Taiun’s larger, more publis effort? Does the fact that Hogaku has had a small temple and daily practice for over forty years not count? Hogaku is reticent about putting himself “out there.” Given the opportunity, Hogaku dresses in his purple robes, but he easily and quickly removes them, more comfortable he is in a t-shirt and western jeans. He does not write, he does not promote himself, he simply practices Zen on a daily, moment to moment basis in his woodshop, in his Zendo, and in his student’s hearts.



The seventh grave precept suggests we not elevate ourselves above others at their expense. We should honor this, and in the process, go about the business of bringing the dharma into the world.



Be well.

Karma Is

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



Reading a quote about karma on Facebook this morning pinched me. The quote, appearing on Adam Tebbe’s Sweeping Zen said the following:



“Karma is of body, speech and mind. Thoughts have karmic results. Speech has karmic results. Bodily actions have karmic results. That’s why it’s important to think, speak, and act properly.”



This is a common view, understandable given how things are so often taught, yet incorrect. While we often consider karma to be cause and effect, it is actually cause-effect, one, not two. People perceiving with Small Mind see a linearity, when seeing with a Big Mind, no linearity.



If we focus our attention on the “effect” of a “cause” we are separating one from the other, thus eviscerating a living, continuous and dynamic reality, and, in effect, killing it. We are no longer seeing karma, but instead examining a carcass.



Karma is one, not two. It is a continuum (cause-effect-cause-effect-cause, etc.), a complete, total manifestation of our intentional action in thought and body. Yet even this is not quite it. We suffer from linearity of language. Flowing water has no beginning or end: flowing water is just flowing water. Is it flowing to nourish or destroy?



Intention is key in understanding karma. This is so because it is a manifestation of our true nature. We cannot become a buddha, we are a buddha. Practice to open the self to that nature, be a buddha and no problem. So the precepts are not external rules, principles, or guides. They are a mirrored reflection of something we have hidden deeply within us. They are our true nature. We have but to shed the barriers that hide them in order to bring them into the universe. We shed through practice, as Master Dogen teaches, letting body and mind fall away.



Be less concerned with the result, give up the poison of delusion. Be buddha. Be well.

A Local Newspaper Story

A local newspaper story.

Chicken Little

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



Yesterday I was invited to offer a lecture on Zen Buddhism at Dona Ana Community College. The lecture was part of their Cultural Awareness Week. It was good to be on a college campus again. I enjoyed the relaxed nature of the venue very much. I sat on my travelling zafu in the center of a small stage in an open interior food court. They set me up with a microphone and I began by telling the story of Siddhartha.



As I spoke, working my way through the history of Zen and into its practices, I noticed people were actually listening. Students, faculty, and college staff sat at the tables and paid attention. How wonderful to be heard. I think each of us should be offered a similar opportunity. We each have very important things to say. We should each be heard.



A society that fails to listen to its members fails its members and in the end silences them through such a failure. We each have a story to tell and that story is the mosaic of our humanity. In Zen, we hear from the hardcore punkster, Brad Warner, as his band, Zero Defex screams into microphones. We hear from the soft spoken Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hahn. We hear from the disrobing Big Mind guru, Genpo-roshi. The chuckles of clown roshi Glassman. The smile of Joan Halifax-roshi. Through the blogosphere we hear from everyday Zensters, students, dabblers, and not so high class teachers like myself. The stories are there; the fabric is being woven.



Is anyone actually listening? A society that fails to listen fails itself.



Listening is not passive. Listening is active. It requires action. Too often it is in one ear, out the other, yeah, yeah, yeah. To listen we must engage the speaker, respond somehow. My fear is that we are not doing this so much in any meaningful way. We have a global crisis on many, many fronts: environmental, political, social, and spiritual. Many of us are squawking, looking very much like Chicken Little. In one ear, out the other. Many of us want the Chicken to sit down and shut up. The soft sand our heads are buried in feels safe and secure. Careful, though, some perfect storm approaches and with a scythe swung like a golf club, will take off our heads.



Be well.

Fearless Bodhisattvas?

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,



This morning I woke thinking about the six people standing around a small stand in a park on the left side of Las Cruces’ City Hall. They were witnessing for peace. On the other side of the Hall was a much larger group of people standing around listening to the newly elected governor of New Mexico give a speech. We were sitting Zazen on a small rise in between.



I was thinking about the six people as heroes. These were six people out of the thousands who live in southern New Mexico who thought enough about peace to actually get off their asses and show themselves. While I disagree politically with those on the right side of City Hall, those standing there were are also heroes. They were citizens who cared enough about their government to also get off their butts.



Here is the thing: we get what we deserve. Always. It’s the truth, plain and simple. Our apathy at the fact that we are at war on three fronts is astounding. The fact that we are wringing our hands and crying to save assistance to veterans, homeless, those without means, without medical care, and basic public educational necessities like teachers and classrooms while literally burning up a projected trillion dollars in spending on defense this year and next, just blows my mind. We get what we deserve. If you want good schools, schools that actually have teachers, buildings and classrooms, then, damn it, pay for them. If you want less homelessness, less poverty, less sickness, pain and misery, work to create the conditions within which these will no longer be such an unmanageable and devastating social problem.



Cutting taxes to Corporate America will not do this. Jobs are not related to tax cuts: increased salaries, benefit packages, and other perks to corporate CEOs and upper management stars are the true beneficiaries. We are sold a bill of goods by the conservative right, those deluded beings who think they actually deserve to flourish on the backs on the poor and disenfranchised. What’s good for business is good for America, right? Perhaps the upper 2 percent of America and, from their point of view, they are America. The rest of us are, and by rights, should be, in-service to them.



Our wars are no longer about freedom, they are about oil, power, influence and control of world resources. Our religious leaders, in the main, make me sick. They are either in bed with conservatives, lackeys of Corporate America, or direct supporters of war (in the name of peace, Jesus, and all that is right, of course). Good grief.



We Buddhists aren’t much better. We sit on our asses and do nothing. We talk about compassion, want to be bodhisattvas, and what? Live in La La Land thinking it will all somehow be OK.



Where is our passion? I don’t mean the sort of crap passion that drives evil, I mean our passion to live deeply, to actually BE bodhisattvas? Afraid we are, I suspect. Too comfortable in our robes and on our cushions, I suspect. We no longer have to beg for our food and have forsaken the Buddha as he actually lived, just as Christians have forsaken, twisted, or perverted the words of Jesus.



Maybe when we have to ride a bicycle because we cannot afford a car, or when we ourselves have to stock up on cheap carbs because we cannot afford real food, we might begin to wonder (as all the while that 2 percent of real America insists) even this we do not deserve.



We get what we deserve and our willingness to passively buy a bill of goods is our currency.



Be well.

Notes

With respect,












Last night was a delight at Rev. Kankin's Sangha. We sat two periods, did walking meditation, and had tea as I delivered a Dharma Talk on the Essentials of Zazen practice. Before all this, though, we had a wonderful meal of Bobby's Wonderful Beans, salad, and bread. We stoppd for a snack at an El Paso Starbucks on the way home.











This morning we did desert sand hill repeats of about a tenth of a mile each. The grade was varying but about 6%. We first walked to the hill through a sandy road, then did four repeats (me) five repeats (Kathryn). We then hiked back to the car. All tolled we did 1.5 miles. Heart rates were maxed out on the last two repeats, I believe (I forgot to put on my HR monitor this morning). Earlier this morning I caught up on my weights by doing a shortened version of Tuesday's chest and back workout. I did do the Wednesday leg workout, though, of squats and calf raises. I also carted my forty pound dumbbells up the flight of stairs to the weight room.







We are now on our way to the Temple for our private yoga class. Tai Chi Chih, Zazen, and yoga this evening beginning at 6:00 PM.







Sesshin begins at 7:00 PM this Friday!











Be well!.