Harmonies Of Buddha Fields

One of the first doanryo jobs I had was as a cleaning chiden, the person who takes care of the altars so they are pristine for the morning schedule, and one of the first things I learned in that job was that altars are supposed to be symmetrical. Each altar should have a clear centre line, which typically comes down through the nose of the Buddha, Manjushri or other statue, through the incensor and kobako, and is continued through the altar furniture, on which, in most cases here,  there is detailing that makes the centre line very clear. Other elements on the altar, particularly the candle and flowers, are arranged to reflect this central symmetry, creating a harmonious whole.
Close readers of the blog will have noticed that I can be a stickler for things being in the right place, and this is more to do with my character than the job of ino; when I was tenzo I spent a lot of time tidying up trays, cutlery, and other things, keen to leave the impression that the kitchen was being taken care of. At the end of the dishwashing counter, where people would frequently leave miscellaneous items that had been through the sanitiser, I placed a sign that said,"Everything has its place, and it is not here" - not that it had much effect, though.
As a doshi, in which role you are always at the energetic centre of a room, I notice how I feel if parts of the altar are not correctly lined up, and during the service I usually endeavour to put them back in alignment. Recently I had noticed that the zendo altar did not feel right, and when I took the time to measure it, I found that the whole thing had moved a couple of inches, and was not properly centered in the space between the dividers; when I put it back, I felt much better again.
Somewhere I read, and I thought it was in a book by Eido Shimano, but I have not been able to find it again, a wonderful passage, where the teacher talks of the practice of monks taking off their shoes outside the zendo or any other place. The encouragement was to be mindful of even such commonplace actions, and the passage ended by saying, when your shoes are neatly lined up, the entire universe is functioning correctly.
As part of my musings on this, I was thinking of various translations of dukkha that we sometimes hear, beyond the basic 'suffering', and this quote from Wikipedia abundantly catches what I was wanting to articulate:

Sargeant (2009: p. 303) explains the historical roots of duḥkha and its antonym sukha:

It is perhaps amusing to note the etymology of the words sukha (pleasure, comfort, bliss) and duḥkha (misery, unhappiness, pain). The ancient Aryans who brought the Sanskrit language to India were a nomadic, horse- and cattle-breeding people who travelled in horse- or ox-drawn vehicles. Su and dus are prefixes indicating good or bad. The word kha, in later Sanskrit meaning "sky," "ether," or "space," was originally the word for "hole," particularly an axle hole of one of the Aryan's vehicles. Thus sukha … meant, originally, "having a good axle hole," while duhkha meant "having a poor axle hole," leading to discomfort.^[27]

According to grammatical tradition, dukkha is derived from dus-kha "uneasy", but according to Monier-Williams more likely a Prakritized form of dus-stha "unsteady, disquieted".^[28] The Sanskrit prefix 'su' is used as an emphasis suggesting wholesome, high, evolved, desirable, strong and such.

Woken Up

On Tuesday I had noticed that I was feeling pretty tetchy as the day wore on, and it continued into the morning yesterday. I paid attention to what was causing it, and came up with a few factors: apart from a couple of situations in my life that have some uncertainty in them now, which perhaps contributed a little to my unease, it mainly seemed to be due to the Wake Up event. Not the event itself, even though I knew I was going to be onstage representing Zen Center, and having to speak in front of a crowd of people. This made me a little nervous, but generally I had the sense that that part of it would go fine. It was more that people were asking me a lot of questions about details around the event, and not only did I not know the answers, as it was going to be something entirely new for us, but I realised I hadn't had given myself the time or the space to think about those kinds of questions, which made me feel incompetent, something I do not like to be perceived as. When Rosalie stepped in to say she would take care of some of those details, I immediately felt a lot better.
I also had an important meeting with Christina at the end of yesterday afternoon, which went well; I put my robes on and went straight to the zendo, just as Roger and Farnoosh had guided the ten or so visiting monks, nuns and lay followers to seats in the zendo. I felt happy to have a chance to sit with them all, and since the theme was meditation in the city in the 21st century, I was listening to the usual sounds of the zendo with an ear to that topic.
In the end, I think the event was everything we all hoped it would be: the group sang songs as we settled down in the dining room, setting a lovely tone for the evening. Members of the audience were singing along, so it was clear that other people practising in that tradition had come along. I was delighted to see at least a dozen familiar faces from Young Urban Zen, and felt very supported by their presence; the dining room was full once the panel started.
I ended up being asked to speak first on the panel, and felt that I, and Tim when he spoke, held up our end perfectly well. The two young monastics who shared on behalf of the Wake Up group, Brother Phap Chieu (aka Brother Shiny), and Sister Bội Nghiêm (True Pearl) offered very refreshing perspectives on mindfulness practices. The feeling I got from being up on the stage for that part, and the question and answer session that followed was of real heart opening, and we all agreed that it was wonderful to be sharing the dharma with each other on an occasion like this. I remember the same feeling when I spent a few weeks at Great Vow, that the opportunity to practise with sincere practitioners who do things slightly differently is a wonderful tonic that also allows you to look at your own practice anew. They offered another song at the end which served to wrap things up beautifully, and Christina suggested we end with the Pali Refuges, which, as we often note, is the closest thing we have to a song in our regular practice. I came away feeling completely grateful and uplifted, transported from where I had been a day before, and that is still in me, I am glad to say. Reactions from people today have been universally positive for the whole event, so of course we say, 'we really should do this more often'.
Being on the panel, it was not so easy to take photographs, but here are a few from before and after.

I went up on the roof before the event, and the beautiful sky helped ground me and prepare me for what I was going to say

The two communites mingled after the event

Lucy and Sister Bội Nghiêm

Lucy translated the inscription on the big bell in the Buddha Hall as we showed them around afterwards

Wake Up

Last night's Young Urban Zen felt really sweet: several of us noticed how settled the zazen felt, very quiet and still even with more than thirty people in the space. Afterwards Eli gave a short but most thought-provoking mini way-seeking mind talk. I often notice that people start getting fidgety if they are just sitting and listening, so after some fifteen minutes of questions, I decided to try something that has been requested before, which is to split the group along gender lines. We didn't have a particular topic lined up, so I just suggested that in each group everyone took a turn to say a few words about why they had come along this evening, or, if they were regulars, what kept them coming back.
There were maybe twenty guys in the main room, and when it was my turn to speak, after half of them had already said their piece, I talked of noticing how my body was responding to the things that had been said. Many different ideas had been brought forward, but I felt so glad to be hearing of people's desire for practice and community, and happy to be a part of this offering. Unfortunately we didn't get time at the end to hear what the women had been talking about, but there seemed to be some warm feelings fostered as well.

Time for a not-unrelated naked plug: tomorrow night we are hosting monks, nuns and lay-people from the Thich Nhat Hanh lineage as part of their 2012 west coast Wake Up Tour, which is focused on bringing mindfulness to the 18-35 age group.They have posted some excerpts of their recent events here and here.We have been encouraging YUZ attendees to come along, and I invite any other reader within striking distance of San Francisco to come and support this event tomorrow evening from 7:30. The theme for the evening is meditation in the city in the 21st century. You don't have to be in that age group, but it helps.

Study Hall

It's nice to dive into Each Moment is the Universe again after a couple of weeks away from study:
"Dogen constantly emphasizes that practice is shikan. Shikan is just wholeheartedness; it is experience, so practice is experience.
Practice as experience is based on the manifestation of reality. Manifestation means the relationship between subject and object. We manifest subject and object in many ways through the six consciousnesses of sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and thought. So we can manifest practice with our mind. But practicing just with the mind is not good enough; we also have to practice with our body.
For example, if you are cooking, and you use a vegetable, if you think, 'This is a vegetable', it immediately becomes an object, something that is separate from you, and you see the vegetable in the ordinary way. But you can take a different attitude toward the vegetable. Before you consciously label the vegetable, you can touch and handle the vegetable as something more than a vegetable - Buddha - and face the vegetable in terms of timelessness with no label.  This is really the attitude we should take. This is wisdom. Then cooking is practice based on manifesting reality.
This is a very difficult practice, but with wisdom you can face the real vegetable, which is not something separate from you. Then even though your dualistic consciousness says, 'Oh, that is a vegetable', wisdom keeps you straight. So calm your dualistic consciousness and just face the vegetable. Place the vegetable right in the middle of timelessness. When you place your object, the vegetable, in the middle of timelessness, then your subject, you, is also placed in the middle of timelessness. At that time, all things come back to nothingness, emptiness, and you wake up.
But practically speaking, you cannot ignore the fact that you and the vegetable exist in everyday life. So how should you deal with a vegetable? First place the vegetable in timelessness, where carrots, cabbage and potatoes all exist with no discrimination. Then come back to everyday time, where you cannot cut a carrot the same way you cut a potato, because a carrot is a being with its own characteristics. Recognize that a carrot is a carrot and deal with your carrot without confusing it with potatoes, water, or the pan. When you deal with a carrot like this, you manifest yourself as a cook and the carrot as a particular being, but at the same time, both you and the carrot are manifested as Buddha".

Buddha's Birthday

As long as the sun is shining, as it did today, with none of the chilly north winds that have blown in this past week, Buddha's Birthday is a colourful and fun affair. It's still hard to impress on the assembly that the essential part of circumambulation is the ambulating part, and it took a few of us acting as traffic cops to keep people moving up and down the stairs in the park, but the chanting was strong, and I think everyone got to pour sweet tea over the baby Buddha as we went around. This year we put the altar at the garden gate, where it had been in years gone by, and it looked great, as did the flower house. Easy pickings for a photographer, and I expect to see some shots on Facebook soon as well - Kate showed me the pictures she had taken at lunchtime, but also said she was going to the beach as it was such a nice day...

Rosalie was the doshi today.

Baby Buddha is in the shade under the flower house.

There is some circumambulation going on here.

No-one seemed to be in a hurry to go back to Zen Center

Preparations

Kate came to find me in the courtyard at lunch, to ask if I would take a photo of the flower house being made ready for tomorrow's ceremony so she could post it to Facebook. I was happy to tell her I had already done so, as I was thinking of putting a post together on the subject.
People often come to me to say they really appreciate how much effort goes in to putting on a ceremony. Buddha's Birthday is one of the most notable in that respect, as the following photos hopefully demonstrate. You can click here to see the finished effect, or wait for a post on this year's ceremony.

A view from the roof of the flower house being worked on, and herbs and petals being gathered for the procession

Mark and Nadine helping with the flower house, each in their own way

Balloons were being blown up in the dining room

Konin and Takken working on the parasols

Daigan collected ceremonial objects in my office

Rocks and Fault Lines

It has been a fine interim week, not least because I have taken some time off, and slept an almost unprecedented amount. Today is going to be quite full as I will be setting up Buddha's Birthday which we do tomorrow - a rare conjunction with a Full Moon Ceremony as well - and taking care of some administrative stuff which I am happy to have the head space to do right now.
I haven't even mentioned the comings and goings of the week: a number of the practice period residents left after sesshin, and people have been coming up from Tassajara after their practice period finished; as so often happens, there is a feeling of flux and energy around the building.
It is always invidious to ask someone who has just been through three months of intensive monastic training, "So, how was it?" The question is hard enough to answer for a seven-day sesshin, such are the ebbs and flows of experience. This morning at breakfast with Nada, Heather and Marcia, it felt much nicer talking about specifics; somehow we got onto earthquakes and the fault lines that run close to Tassajara, and from there, a short hop to the subject of rocks, which got me reminiscing, and also thinking ahead, as I am due to go down there in a couple of weeks to work on a rock project as part of the work period, along with a small group from Young Urban Zen (they may or may not get roped into the rock part, mostly they are going to experience the place). It actually took me a while to remember some of the rock work I had done down there, then I thought of this rock, which looks pretty innocuous in photos. In fact, after I had noticed a corner of it in the creek below the courtyard cabins and decided it was worth bringing out, it took a team of seven or eight people to haul it up on the rock stretcher. I don't know if they all thought it was worth the effort, but I certainly did, partly because it is like a miniature version of the rock at Suzuki Roshi's memorial site. At the breakfast table we marveled at how much effort it must have taken to get that one up the hill.

The 'small' version

The memorial site rock

Lip Reading And Stepping Backwards

Monday did indeed turn out to be a very restful day, but it was back to business yesterday: there was a training that started at 8:30, after which I caught up with emails and events and tried to tidy up my office; in the afternoon, Practice Committee and more tidying - after sesshin the zendo was not left the way I like it to be, and having left it for several days, the more OCD side of me came to the fore to straighten things up a bit.
There was an unprecedented, to my knowledge at least, change of ceremonial form yesterday. Hoitsu Suzuki Roshi flew back in - he is on his way to Gaelyn's Mountain Seat in Houston - and I had assumed he would want to be a part of the monthly memorial services for his father. It turned out that he was already booked for last night, so we did the English version in the evening, and the Japanese one this morning - Konin was brave enough to volunteer to be kokyo this morning, but her Japanese is better than all but the native speakers around here anyway, and she even managed to get the words of the dedication changed to reflect the different offerings in the morning ceremony. Yesterday we were also struck with a severe jisha shortage, as Barbara is sick, and several of the usual replacements were away, so I had another reason to be grateful to Dennis who was on hand to fulfil the role admirably. He had even brought his own white socks.
One thing I always have to do as ino for these ceremonies, apart from being the first person in the food offering chain, is to try to keep the chanting synchronised between those inside the kaisando and those outside. Where I stand, it is particularly easy to look at the people on the stairs and lip read which words they are chanting and trim my speed - and hopefully the other priests' - accordingly. This usually, but not always works well, and it helps to have one strong chanter near the front of the assembly outside that I can trust to be imposing their speed up and down the stairs. This morning we had an all-star cast in the kaisando: I had Shungo Suzuki, Hoitsu's son, on my left, chanting the Sandokai in a wonderfully resonant deep voice, and across from us were Hoitsu, Blanche and Steve, with Christina as the doshi, so our chanting tempo prevailed over the small crowd outside.
Another little detail I always love about doing any ceremony in the kaisando is the exit, when pairs of priests walk to the entrance from each side, turn to do a gassho bow towards the altar from the threshold, and then step backwards into the hallway. The black lacquer kaisando floor is raised a few inches above the hallway, so you are stepping back and down, and I always like to do this while still looking straight ahead, just trusting the ground is indeed there. Yesterday Rosalie and I, who usually stand opposite each other in the kaisando as we do in the Buddha Hall (it was a nice suggestion from her that we do), managed what I thought was a most graceful synchronised exit, and indeed the kokyo commented favourably on it. Always nice to be scoring points for style.

What we might call an undated file photo of the kaisando after the evening service on the third