To See

With respect,


Good Morning Everyone,



Yesterday’s wind storm is past, so this morning I went outside onto the courtyard, reset the chairs and tables, watered the plants, and picked up my binoculars to see birds fluttering in the trees. It was 42 degrees or so and the sun was just peaking up over the mountains. Suki had a great time trying to eat the water streaming from the hose as I watered and so I had to towel her dry. The smell of her dog dampness, the fresh air, and the sounds of wings aflutter were wonderful. It is a beautiful day.



There are simple things in our lives that so often go unnoticed unless we practice mindfulness. Some of these are pleasant, some not, but all are aspects of our lives and when directly experienced, complete us in unimaginably beautiful ways. If we just pay attention.



An artist sees without necessarily looking at objects, for example. Lines, positive space, negative space, and color all combine to yield something our mind organizes and labels. If we approach seeing with a looking eye, we will invariable fail to see. We might practice seeing without looking. This means just letting that which is there in front of our eyes appear as it is without reference to what it is. What it is is in our head and, as a filter, will distort the thing itself. To see clearly, we must let go of the what of things.



Be well

Genjokoan Discussion

With respect,


Good Morning Everyone,



Last night's discussion was animated, thorough, and dynamic. We are indeed fortunate to have such thoughtful, inquiring, and dedicated practitioners coming together in our Zendo to manifest the dharma itself. We had only one open seat, which is delightful.



I saw many of us have our paradigms seriously challenged this evening. The sense of the questions coming to and fro was, "What do you mean, there is no separate and abiding self that survives 'us' after death? " And, "What about 're-incarnations?" and so on...



One thing I would like to say is this, Let's let our practice answer our most disturbing questions. Disturbing questions and challenging teachings are what our study practice is all about! The question I asked Leslee, "Show me one thing about you that is unchanging,." is an "Everyman" question intended to help us cut through our paradigm of a constant "I." This question is akin to the ancient, "Show me your original face, the face you had before your father and mother were born."



Such questions are not intended to have actual answers, rather, their intent is to take us to the edge of our paradigm. We are asked through the work on the question, to pick up a hammer and shatter the paradigm we use to frame our existence.



The daily practice of zazen should be the starting point of our inquiry. Remember, if we think we "know" something, we will never see the thing we think we know. In Zen practice, we open ourselves to "don't know" and reside there.



Be well.

Hanamatsuri

With respect,




Good Morning Everyone,







Along with our spring winds and warmer temperatures comes our Hanamatsuri Sesshin. It is during this time that we, in our Order, honor the Buddha’s birth. Siddhartha was a prince, born into the Sakya clan in India some 2600 years ago. When he heard the suffering of the world he suffered. He left his palace and his family, cut off his hair, and began to walk the path of a bodhisattva. We are very fortunate to have his model as a teacher. He lived an upright life, a life of serene reflection meditation, a life of peace.







Our lives today are not much different from the Buddha’s life. As human beings we all want and need common things. We each feel the poverty of our lives, be it money, time, or relationships. Pressed this way and that, we experience stress and anxiety, anger and sadness, and even joy and sometimes happiness. But all of these are fleeting, just as our lives are short: the candle burns.







What the Buddha taught was a way to live in the eternal now. And to live in this now without suffering. We cannot learn this teaching through our intellect. We learn it through studying ourselves. It is this study we call Zazen and Sesshin is its complete practice.







We will practice sesshin from Wednesday, April 4, through Sunday, April 8, beginning each day at 8:00 AM, closing each day at 5:00 PM. Please consider putting this period in your calendar so that you might join us.







Lastly, we continue our study of Master Dogen's Genjokoan this evening at 7:00 PM following our evening service.







Yours,

Philosophy or Not

With respect,


Good Morning Everyone,



“Mahamati, what I speak of as eternal and inconceivable is eternal because it is based on the attribute of personal realization and because it transcends the existence and non-existence of what is created. …As this (such discussions) distracts people from the attainment of personal realization of the realm of buddha knowledge, it is not worth talking about.” The Buddha, The Lankavatara Sutra, Red Pine trans., p. 91.

In section XVII of the Lankavatara Sutra, the Buddha addresses the question of the eternal and inconceivable first cause. In very few lines he makes short work of First Cause schools, essentially denying creation ex nihilo. Further, as in the above quote, he flatly says such discussions are not worth talking about as they are distractions from our real purpose which is the personal realization of the truth.

At first blush we might say, “What?” Discussion leads to the truth. After all, this is what all philosophy is founded upon. But the Buddha is making a point that discussion is in service to projection and therefore, acts as a smoke screen to clear mind.

Those of us new to Zen often come loaded with books, the two Suzuki’s, a few Dalai Lamas, and maybe a copy or two of Brad Warner in a bag. We know what we are talking about! Yet, this is it exactly. We know what we are talking about, but what we are talking about is not it. As they say in Maine, you cannot get there from here.

Study in the Zen sense is not intellectual, but practical. It is the practical application of everyday mindfulness, through body, speech, and mind. Discussion of concepts is just discussion of concepts: it gets us no closer to the moon than the end of a finger pointing to it. Yet, we are seemingly addicted to our need to converse, communicate, and so on.



On the other hand, in an earlier part of the same sutra, the Buddha points out that he must use many means to teach and says in verse, “Thus, my teachings are diverse/ tailored to the situation/ if a teaching doesn’t fit/ then it isn’t taught. Because each patient differs/ good physicians adjust their cures/ buddhas thus teach beings/ according to their capacities.” The Buddha, The Lankavatara Sutra, p. 79.

So, it would seem we could consider discussions of concepts, theories, and even conversations regarding First Cause as useful provided these are understood as skilful means toward creating conditions within which (through our practice) we find personal realization.



As Red Pine notes of this section, “Amen.”



Be well.

Matsuoka-roshi on MP3

http://clearmindzen.org/ has an MP3 of Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka-roshi, the first Soto Zen Teacher to establish Zen Practice in America, chanting the Maka Hanya Haramita Shin Gyo.  Cleck it out on the Practice - chanting page of the site!

Websites

With respect


Good Morning Everyone,



Our two websites are now fully operational with the sole exception of the visitor blog option on the Engaged Zen site. We have additional content and graphics to add on each site,including an audio file of Matsuoka-roshi chanting the Hanya Shin Gyo, but in the main, they are complete. We will post scrolling announcements on each site frequently. The websites contain our Newcomer's Handbook, Registration Forms, and By-Laws. Copies of the Heart Sutra, Hsin Hsin Ming, and Sandokai are there as well as commentary on the Ten Ox-Herding pictures. These websites are well worth your viewing and we would very much like your feedback.



Click here: http://clearmindzen.org

and here: http://daihoroshi.org



Be well.

Gratitude

With respect,


Good Morning All,



Student Jeff and I worked on the new site until late in the night. In fact, I am writing this at 1:00 AM. I just came in from a break where I sat out on the patio under the stars. It is 53 degrees under a starry night. I thought about the work we are doing.



The site has an enormous amount of information, from how we do things in the Order to pages about our Japanese founder, Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka. Jeff has worked tirelessly with and without me. We are in his debt.



During all of this I found out my son’s wife is pregnant again and, as a result, they may be moving back to New Mexico where he will likely need to establish another restaurant. And PayPal decided to request an enormous amount of documentation regarding our Non-Profit Organization. I have been working on scanning docs, editing and writing pages of text, and with Rev. Soku Shin’s able assistance, we are on the bright side of night.



None of us can accomplish things alone. The Order of Clear Mind Zen, while founded by me, is not me. It is everyone who enters the doors of its Zendos, who practices on the street, in the prisons, and in hospice. I am very pleased with our development as a Sangha. While we are small, we are a dynamic group.



My thanks to Rev. Kankin for driving up this evening from El Paso with his students, Shikan and Rob, to sit in with us to study the Genjo Koan. It is very good to have the company of sangha,.



Some of us are alone, like Ron Mitsugo Zacharski, in Virginia, who sits by himself and practices nearly monthly weekend retreats with a group from a different tradition. Others practice with little assistance from us, like Rev. John Shoji Sorenson, in California who travels great distances in his Buddhist Chaplaincy Program and every other week or so enters Folsom Prison to bring the dharma to the incarcerated.



Yes, I am pleased. We might be small, but we are walking the walk. This is a very good thing.