Monday, November 15, 2010
Study Hall - Shobogenzo
'Mountains and Waters Sutra', 'Sansuikyo', is an easy one to really get your teeth into. Turning our usual way of looking at things on its head, it dwells on the interconnection of phenomena and their essence without being as impenetrable as other fascicles. Dogen cautions: "When your understanding is shallow, you doubt the phrase Green mountains are always walking. When your learning is immature, you are shocked by the words 'flowing mountains'. Without fully understanding even the words 'flowing water', you drown in small vews and narrow understanding", just as in the Genjo Koan he says, with regard to how you see the ocean "you see and understand only what your eye of practice can reach". He even takes time to disparage some "bald-headed fellows" in China who prefer to throw up their hands and say that these statements are simply illogical. There are many exhortations to try harder: "Examine in detail the characteristics of the mountains' walking...Penetrate these words...Study and investigate this thoroughly...Pursue this beyond the limit of pursuit". He wants us to be free from conventional and limited views; being separate from mountains, or being separate from water is being separate from understanding.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
The Road to Green Gulch
There are many versions of this story that I have heard over the years - Linda Ruth tells a funny one about oryoki - but here is mine from today:
It was a beautiful morning, and I was riding to Green Gulch for the Coming of Age program; I would have ordinarily wished to be riding further, but was perfectly happy where I was, absorbing and enjoying the energy around me, getting over the bridge with the early sun, feeling like I could feel the benefits of yesterday's sitting in my state of mind and body; I wasn't rushing, I felt relaxed and ready for whatever was going to happen with the group of boys later on.
On the descent of Highway One above Green Gulch, I could see the sea, it was warm and quiet, and having just ridden the same route on Thursday I was thinking, 'I know this road really well these days', and I was enjoying taking the tight corners at speed. It was right after a thought of 'yep, going very nicely' that I spaced out for a moment, and then realised I was not going to make the next corner. There was a distinct thought 'I'm going to hit the rocks on the side of the road', but I did not hit the rocks. I think I came off the pavement and then jumped back onto it; there was a sharp noise, a distinct thought 'I'm going to go over', and I had a vision of sliding along the road on one side with the bike on top of me, but I did not fall over. My back wheel, the cause of the noise, had buckled and jammed right against the frame, so I very quickly came sliding and wobbling to a halt in the middle of the road; there was no traffic around, thankfully.
When I saw what had happened to the wheel, I shouldered the bike and walked the last few hundred yards to the driveway entrance - I could not have asked for this to happen at a more auspicious place. I didn't feel any real shock after the incident, and was greatly heartened by the fact that a couple of passing motorists stopped to check on my well-being and if I needed any assistance.
Having walked down and got changed, I met Sarah and Michaela, getting ready for the girl's group, who asked, 'did you bike over?.... are you okay? - you don't look okay...'
So I told the story, and actually I felt relieved that many things had turned out just the way they had and not any worse, and I was fully prepared to own the fact that my own smugness had been almost entirely responsible for the whole thing; the only down-sides I could see were that I wouldn't get to ride back to the city afterwards, which I had greatly looking forward to, and that I would have to buy some new wheels, which I had already know I would have to do anyway; I just don't know if I can afford them until we get paid again.
It was a beautiful morning, and I was riding to Green Gulch for the Coming of Age program; I would have ordinarily wished to be riding further, but was perfectly happy where I was, absorbing and enjoying the energy around me, getting over the bridge with the early sun, feeling like I could feel the benefits of yesterday's sitting in my state of mind and body; I wasn't rushing, I felt relaxed and ready for whatever was going to happen with the group of boys later on.
On the descent of Highway One above Green Gulch, I could see the sea, it was warm and quiet, and having just ridden the same route on Thursday I was thinking, 'I know this road really well these days', and I was enjoying taking the tight corners at speed. It was right after a thought of 'yep, going very nicely' that I spaced out for a moment, and then realised I was not going to make the next corner. There was a distinct thought 'I'm going to hit the rocks on the side of the road', but I did not hit the rocks. I think I came off the pavement and then jumped back onto it; there was a sharp noise, a distinct thought 'I'm going to go over', and I had a vision of sliding along the road on one side with the bike on top of me, but I did not fall over. My back wheel, the cause of the noise, had buckled and jammed right against the frame, so I very quickly came sliding and wobbling to a halt in the middle of the road; there was no traffic around, thankfully.
When I saw what had happened to the wheel, I shouldered the bike and walked the last few hundred yards to the driveway entrance - I could not have asked for this to happen at a more auspicious place. I didn't feel any real shock after the incident, and was greatly heartened by the fact that a couple of passing motorists stopped to check on my well-being and if I needed any assistance.
Having walked down and got changed, I met Sarah and Michaela, getting ready for the girl's group, who asked, 'did you bike over?.... are you okay? - you don't look okay...'
So I told the story, and actually I felt relieved that many things had turned out just the way they had and not any worse, and I was fully prepared to own the fact that my own smugness had been almost entirely responsible for the whole thing; the only down-sides I could see were that I wouldn't get to ride back to the city afterwards, which I had greatly looking forward to, and that I would have to buy some new wheels, which I had already know I would have to do anyway; I just don't know if I can afford them until we get paid again.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Shosan
Shosan should not be confused with chosan. Nor should shosan be confused with Shosan - the ceremony is not the teacher; though perhaps if Shosan is doing shosan, they are one. In any case, tonight with Shosan we did a less formal shosan, which was a very sweet way to end a day of sitting. There were not so many bows involved, and again asking a question was optional, but this time, the questioners did get up to meet face to face with the teacher, in a dimly lit Buddha Hall. The wonderful thing about these ceremonies is feeling the moment being met, the person being met, the mood - which can go from high-spirited to deeply tender in a moment - being met, and all being held, lovingly. After we were done, we did prostrations and the refuges resonated around the room, which was very beautiful. Then we put everything away, thanked each other, and said goodnight. At least I did, I think other people are heading out to do something with their energy...
I was happy with the day; there was the usual quota of situations, people being sick, people going missing, having almost no time after meals to sit down, but I did get to focus on some zazen this afternoon, and that felt good. Everybody had a seat, everybody got fed, and as usual, nothing really bad happened. Not on the outside at least.
I was happy with the day; there was the usual quota of situations, people being sick, people going missing, having almost no time after meals to sit down, but I did get to focus on some zazen this afternoon, and that felt good. Everybody had a seat, everybody got fed, and as usual, nothing really bad happened. Not on the outside at least.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Study Hall - Shobogenzo
Fascicles 13 and 14 in this collection are 'The Power of the Robe', 'Kesa Kudoku', and 'Transmitting the Robe', 'Den'e', and as is pointed out in the introduction, since they have the same date and largely the same subject, it may be that they were a single talk that got divided in two somewhere along the line.
Dogen uses the Buddha robe, the kashaya, as an emblem of, or even the essence of, true practice, and points to the transmission of the robe as a guarantee of the continuation of true practice; what he writes about Japan in the thirteenth century is just as true for the west today:
"We were born beyond beyond mountains and oceans more than a hundred thousand li away from the land where Buddha was born. We are uncivilized and foolish. However, if you receive and maintain a kashaya even for a day and night, and study one phrase or one verse of it, you will have the merit of making an offering not only to one or two buddhas, but also to countless, one hundred, thousand, billion buddhas...
There is a common saying: 'One thousand hearings do not match one seeing. One thousand seeings do not match one attainment'. If we reflect on this, even one thousand seeings and ten thousand hearings cannot match one attainment, an authentic receiving of the buddha robe.
Those who doubt authentic transmission have not dreamed of it, but authentic transmission of the buddha robe is more intimate than hearing about a buddha sutra. Even one thousand sutras and ten thousand attainments cannot match one realization. Buddha ancestors are the merging of realization. Do not follow the mediocre schools of scripture and precepts".
I do love Dogen when he is righteously dismissing other ways. This is not only due to his confidence in his own understanding, and that of his teacher, and the lineage of his teacher, but also as a way of impressing this on his perhaps fragile congregation of monks, who would have been exposed to other schools in Japan before coming to Dogen.
At Tassajara, before sewing class, we recite the sutra on the ten excellent merits of the okesa, which Dogen also includes in 'Kesa Kudoku', and I was trying to find a copy of it on the ino's computer, or even online, rather than copy the whole thing out by hand, but have not managed to locate it, so that will have to be for another time.
Dogen uses the Buddha robe, the kashaya, as an emblem of, or even the essence of, true practice, and points to the transmission of the robe as a guarantee of the continuation of true practice; what he writes about Japan in the thirteenth century is just as true for the west today:
"We were born beyond beyond mountains and oceans more than a hundred thousand li away from the land where Buddha was born. We are uncivilized and foolish. However, if you receive and maintain a kashaya even for a day and night, and study one phrase or one verse of it, you will have the merit of making an offering not only to one or two buddhas, but also to countless, one hundred, thousand, billion buddhas...
There is a common saying: 'One thousand hearings do not match one seeing. One thousand seeings do not match one attainment'. If we reflect on this, even one thousand seeings and ten thousand hearings cannot match one attainment, an authentic receiving of the buddha robe.
Those who doubt authentic transmission have not dreamed of it, but authentic transmission of the buddha robe is more intimate than hearing about a buddha sutra. Even one thousand sutras and ten thousand attainments cannot match one realization. Buddha ancestors are the merging of realization. Do not follow the mediocre schools of scripture and precepts".
I do love Dogen when he is righteously dismissing other ways. This is not only due to his confidence in his own understanding, and that of his teacher, and the lineage of his teacher, but also as a way of impressing this on his perhaps fragile congregation of monks, who would have been exposed to other schools in Japan before coming to Dogen.
At Tassajara, before sewing class, we recite the sutra on the ten excellent merits of the okesa, which Dogen also includes in 'Kesa Kudoku', and I was trying to find a copy of it on the ino's computer, or even online, rather than copy the whole thing out by hand, but have not managed to locate it, so that will have to be for another time.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Sitting With Sirens
It is a rare period of zazen, morning or evening, that is not punctuated by a siren passing by; this is the joy of living in the city. This evening we were also treated to Led Zeppelin's 'Communication Breakdown' from a passing car, which brought a big smile to my face as I have deep visceral responses to that song going back to when I was twelve - followed soon after by someone getting a good workout on their car horn as they slowly progressed down the hill. Only when we sit before seven in the morning at weekends is there less traffic noise. And then we get the interruptions from inside - this week, a cell-phone going off, a watch that beeps at the top of the hour, and I have been reflecting on how my response to these sounds is different to my response to the external events - because the people with the watches and the cell-phones (and it is, let's face it, a regular occurrence these days) are part of our activity, and share responsibility for creating the container of stillness in a way that a passing motorist is not, and thus I hope that they bring a mindfulness to that responsibility, and can less equanimous when they don't.
As anyone who has sat zazen at Tassajara can testify, heading deep into the mountains is not a guarantee of silence - between the creek in the winter, the guests in the summer, and the blue jays pretty much year round, there is always something going on that you can get affixed to and irritated by if you want.
As anyone who has sat zazen at Tassajara can testify, heading deep into the mountains is not a guarantee of silence - between the creek in the winter, the guests in the summer, and the blue jays pretty much year round, there is always something going on that you can get affixed to and irritated by if you want.
Monday, November 8, 2010
A Big Do with Dogen
Zen Center's Dogen Translation Forum was a pretty big deal this weekend, and by all accounts it was a great success. We had the biggest crowd I can remember in the Buddha Hall for Peter Levitt's very rich talk, with apparently a full dining room of overflows as well; certainly the zendo and the gaitan were packed full for the period of zazen beforehand. Where I sit for lectures always gives me a good view of the assembly, and scanning the crowd I could see that there were a number of zen luminaries in attendance, including some teachers who have helped me greatly on the path - Gaelyn Godwin, Houston Zen Center's resident teacher who gave me my dharma name at my jukai in 2004, and Hogen and Chozen Bays from Great Vow Monastery, which I visited in 2006 at the end of a year away from Zen Center, a visit I fondly remember as very grounding and rewarding.
As ino, there was not really anything special for me to do - most of my work involved me wearing my sound engineer hat. Our web maestro Laura had set up a Livestream channel, and between us we managed to connect our somewhat primitive Buddha Hall PA system onto the web. As technical accomplishments go, it did not have the same scope as some of my adventures at the BBC (like say, using an early generation satellite phone the size of a large suitcase, powered, via a power inverter, by a car battery, for a live link-up between a small town in Central Nigeria and the World Service in London at five in the morning) but it was actually very gratifying on Saturday morning to connect everything up, go upstairs to my office - as the front office computer did not have any speakers - and to go online to hear Blanche, who had graciously agreed to be miked up during zazen instruction, though I don't think she had expected to be beamed to the listening masses (actually I hope I was the only person listening at that stage). During the question and answer session afterwards, we even had Laura asking a question that had been submitted from Belfast via the chat stream; while again this may not be the pinnacle of technological wizardry, it was nice to know that we were spreading the dharma far and wide in real time.
And since we are speaking of the wonderful world of online connections, I don't know if Brad would like to be referred to as one of the zen luminaries, but I suspect he probably has less problem being one of the "ROCK STARS of the American Zen community"- and my thanks to him for that link.
Now I shall be waiting for the comment that goes "Enough with the Dogen...we are not all as enthralled as you are".
As ino, there was not really anything special for me to do - most of my work involved me wearing my sound engineer hat. Our web maestro Laura had set up a Livestream channel, and between us we managed to connect our somewhat primitive Buddha Hall PA system onto the web. As technical accomplishments go, it did not have the same scope as some of my adventures at the BBC (like say, using an early generation satellite phone the size of a large suitcase, powered, via a power inverter, by a car battery, for a live link-up between a small town in Central Nigeria and the World Service in London at five in the morning) but it was actually very gratifying on Saturday morning to connect everything up, go upstairs to my office - as the front office computer did not have any speakers - and to go online to hear Blanche, who had graciously agreed to be miked up during zazen instruction, though I don't think she had expected to be beamed to the listening masses (actually I hope I was the only person listening at that stage). During the question and answer session afterwards, we even had Laura asking a question that had been submitted from Belfast via the chat stream; while again this may not be the pinnacle of technological wizardry, it was nice to know that we were spreading the dharma far and wide in real time.
And since we are speaking of the wonderful world of online connections, I don't know if Brad would like to be referred to as one of the zen luminaries, but I suspect he probably has less problem being one of the "ROCK STARS of the American Zen community"- and my thanks to him for that link.
Now I shall be waiting for the comment that goes "Enough with the Dogen...we are not all as enthralled as you are".
Study Hall - Shobogenzo
When you live as scheduled a life as we do here at Zen Center, the clock change is always an event, though I think everyone notices it to some extent. I remember my first April in practice period at Tassajara, when I was chronically tired, and the fact that we lost an hour's sleep seemed like a huge injustice at the time. Today we had the sun coming up during morning service again, and doubtless it will be getting dark during afternoon zazen. All in all, a perfect morning to read 'The Time Being', 'Uji', where Dogen tosses out any conventional notion of time in favour of his own understanding. It is one one of the more notoriously dense fascicles, though glimmers of understanding are possible:
"Each moment is all being, each moment is the entire world. Reflect now whether any being or any world is left out of the present moment...Do not think that time merely flies away. Do not see flying away as the only function of time. If time merely flies away, you would be separated from time. The reason you do not clearly understand the time being is that you think of time only as passing...The time being has the characteristic of flowing. So-called today flows into tomorrow, today flows into today, yesterday flows into today. And today flows into today, tomorrow flows into tomorrow".
He doesn't say what he thinks about clocks going back, but I think it is included in the flowing.
"Each moment is all being, each moment is the entire world. Reflect now whether any being or any world is left out of the present moment...Do not think that time merely flies away. Do not see flying away as the only function of time. If time merely flies away, you would be separated from time. The reason you do not clearly understand the time being is that you think of time only as passing...The time being has the characteristic of flowing. So-called today flows into tomorrow, today flows into today, yesterday flows into today. And today flows into today, tomorrow flows into tomorrow".
He doesn't say what he thinks about clocks going back, but I think it is included in the flowing.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Skies
This being San Francisco, it is tempting to see this as a political statement rather than a natural phenomenon:
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