Apparently Amazon.com has taken it upon itself to lower the asking price of my book! It lists at $16.95 and they are selling it much cheaper! Enjoy!
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Friday, March 7, 2014
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Musings
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Someone reminded me yesterday that I promised a flood of email teachings after receiving my MacBook Pro for my birthday. No flood is coming. I have, however, been working on my book, “Living Zen: the Diary of an American Zen Priest,” and it should be ready for distribution in a week. I have a “proof” copy in my hands and will tell you that it looks good. Its hefty, weighing in at 410 pages, and I’m told it is an interesting read.
The book is an edited collection of my writing from the year 2007. It includes my understanding of my life at that time and how my life and Zen became one. There are teachings on a variety of issues, the Diamond sutra, the Paramitas, Zazen, etc., but more importantly for me, anyway, is that they reflect my reflection on how Zen offers us teachings regarding ourselves as we interact with the world.
Zen is not a thing. It is life itself. Life lived awake and direct. From a Zen point of view, everything is a teacher, a source of awakening. How we live, where our mind is in any given moment, is all there is: it is this that we practice. All the rest, the robes, bells, altars, incense, all of it is just an invitation to enter the stream.
I’ve found many of us reject these invitations. And with good reason. The objects and rituals are not the thing so attachment to them is just as serious a mistake as attachment to mu, perhaps an even larger mistake. Attachment to forms make us impostors. Consider that.
For those who reject the invitations, may I ask you to reconsider. For those who accept the invitations, may I ask you to reconsider, as well. I ask you, by way of invitation, to just live.
Gassho
PS, we will meet in the zendo this evening at 6:30 for Study. Please remember to bring your book. I think it is time to wrap up this text and choose another.
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Important Notes
With palms together,
Good Morning All & Happy New Year to each of you!
First, please consider coming to practice Thursday evening with Rev. Shukke Shin who will be addressing the Eightfold Noble Path as it applies to everyday life. She suggests people arrive at 6:00 PM.
Second, unfortunately, I must cancel this month's Zazenkai as I am needed in Albuquerque to assist in an escort for a funeral service of a fallen brother.
Third, please consider offering your dana and dues for the month of January. You may do this in person at the temple, by mail to CMZ, 642 S. Alameda Blvd, Las Cruces, NM 88005, or through the PayPal button on our website at http://clearmindzen.org All donations are greatly appreciated and are used to pay the rent on the temple.
I look forward to practicing with you through this new year. May you each be a blessing in the universe.
Gassho
Good Morning All & Happy New Year to each of you!
First, please consider coming to practice Thursday evening with Rev. Shukke Shin who will be addressing the Eightfold Noble Path as it applies to everyday life. She suggests people arrive at 6:00 PM.
Second, unfortunately, I must cancel this month's Zazenkai as I am needed in Albuquerque to assist in an escort for a funeral service of a fallen brother.
Third, please consider offering your dana and dues for the month of January. You may do this in person at the temple, by mail to CMZ, 642 S. Alameda Blvd, Las Cruces, NM 88005, or through the PayPal button on our website at http://clearmindzen.org All donations are greatly appreciated and are used to pay the rent on the temple.
I look forward to practicing with you through this new year. May you each be a blessing in the universe.
Gassho
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Don't Waste Time
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Last night our Study Group finished our study of “Living by Vow,” an excellent commentary on the key chants used in our Zen tradition. Next week we will begin our study of “Moku-Rai” a text of writings by Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka-roshi.
In our group last night we closed out the Sandokai’s last verse, the first section reads:
Hearing the words, you should understand the source:
Don’t make up standards of your own.
If you don’t understand the path as it meets your eyes,
How can you know the way as you walk? (p.246)
As in a segment of the Heart Sutra, we should begin in the vast emptiness of Samadhi. This emptiness is the Buddha Nature from which all things manifest, including standards for life. To make up standards of our own separates us from our True Nature and creates duality. Meeting the path as it meets your eyes is an admonition to only go straight, doing what is in front of you to do.
Duality has no ground. It is relative. Discussion of philosophy and logic cannot lead us to non-duality, only practice does that. As Okumura points out, “Any theoretical system of concepts or thoughts is a distorted copy of reality. We can only practice it, experience it, and nod our head.” (p. 247)
This is very important and often ignored by students and teachers alike. We human beings love to think about things, talk about things, and sit for hours with coffee contemplating things. True Zen demands we put a stop to this wasted effort. If we want to get to the source, we must practice letting go of our ego-self so that the source may be seen. The source then manifests through our actions.
“I humbly say to those who study the mystery,
Don’t waste time.”
In this last line, we may see Dogen’s source for his first lines in the Shushogi, ”The most important issue for all Buddhists is the thorough clarification of the meaning of birth and death.”
Be well
Good Morning Everyone,
Last night our Study Group finished our study of “Living by Vow,” an excellent commentary on the key chants used in our Zen tradition. Next week we will begin our study of “Moku-Rai” a text of writings by Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka-roshi.
In our group last night we closed out the Sandokai’s last verse, the first section reads:
Hearing the words, you should understand the source:
Don’t make up standards of your own.
If you don’t understand the path as it meets your eyes,
How can you know the way as you walk? (p.246)
As in a segment of the Heart Sutra, we should begin in the vast emptiness of Samadhi. This emptiness is the Buddha Nature from which all things manifest, including standards for life. To make up standards of our own separates us from our True Nature and creates duality. Meeting the path as it meets your eyes is an admonition to only go straight, doing what is in front of you to do.
Duality has no ground. It is relative. Discussion of philosophy and logic cannot lead us to non-duality, only practice does that. As Okumura points out, “Any theoretical system of concepts or thoughts is a distorted copy of reality. We can only practice it, experience it, and nod our head.” (p. 247)
This is very important and often ignored by students and teachers alike. We human beings love to think about things, talk about things, and sit for hours with coffee contemplating things. True Zen demands we put a stop to this wasted effort. If we want to get to the source, we must practice letting go of our ego-self so that the source may be seen. The source then manifests through our actions.
“I humbly say to those who study the mystery,
Don’t waste time.”
In this last line, we may see Dogen’s source for his first lines in the Shushogi, ”The most important issue for all Buddhists is the thorough clarification of the meaning of birth and death.”
Be well
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Silent Illumination
With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
It is late in the evening, approaching early morning, and my mind is at rest. I just read a short section in “The Kyosaku” by Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka-roshi, my Dharma grandfather. In it he speaks of Zen as quietness and action. He says, “Soto Zen is an intuitive way, with little attachment placed on the knowledge of the mind in finding the truth about life and about its deeper meaning. Education is respected, but it is felt that the experience of the deep meaning of life will not be found in philosophical arguments or illogical questions and answers like the koan.” (p. 274)
Where might we find this “deep meaning” of life then? And what exactly does “deep meaning” mean? Frankly, I am of the experience that it has no meaning at all save that which we assign through our thoughts and feelings. Which is to say, it is highly subjective and therefore relative. Master Dogen (refining what a predecessor (Hongzhi [see "Cultivating the Empty Field"]) called “Silent Illumination” ), put forth the notion that “just sitting” was enlightenment itself, or what he referred to as practice realization. No steps or rungs, no higher or lower, intelligent or stupid: just the practice of the Great Way, a way of deep respect for all beings whether high school drop-out or holder of a fancy PhD.
My personal sense is this: the brighter we are, the more inclined we are toward mistaking concept for reality. The brighter we are the more inclined to have great faith in thought and logic, and the empirical way…and, as a result, the further away from the phenomenal truth. Knowing what something is is not knowing it at all. For in “knowing” we reside in the world of thought, which is to say, the world of fingers pointing to the moon.
Be well
Good Morning Everyone,
It is late in the evening, approaching early morning, and my mind is at rest. I just read a short section in “The Kyosaku” by Rev. Dr. Soyu Matsuoka-roshi, my Dharma grandfather. In it he speaks of Zen as quietness and action. He says, “Soto Zen is an intuitive way, with little attachment placed on the knowledge of the mind in finding the truth about life and about its deeper meaning. Education is respected, but it is felt that the experience of the deep meaning of life will not be found in philosophical arguments or illogical questions and answers like the koan.” (p. 274)
Where might we find this “deep meaning” of life then? And what exactly does “deep meaning” mean? Frankly, I am of the experience that it has no meaning at all save that which we assign through our thoughts and feelings. Which is to say, it is highly subjective and therefore relative. Master Dogen (refining what a predecessor (Hongzhi [see "Cultivating the Empty Field"]) called “Silent Illumination” ), put forth the notion that “just sitting” was enlightenment itself, or what he referred to as practice realization. No steps or rungs, no higher or lower, intelligent or stupid: just the practice of the Great Way, a way of deep respect for all beings whether high school drop-out or holder of a fancy PhD.
My personal sense is this: the brighter we are, the more inclined we are toward mistaking concept for reality. The brighter we are the more inclined to have great faith in thought and logic, and the empirical way…and, as a result, the further away from the phenomenal truth. Knowing what something is is not knowing it at all. For in “knowing” we reside in the world of thought, which is to say, the world of fingers pointing to the moon.
Be well
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