TREELEAF ZENDO PODCAST

SIT-A-LONG with Taigu: Golden Week Impressions

Visit the forum thread here!

SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: I Don't Believe in Buddha!!

I have a confession to make: I don't believe in Buddha. It may be shocking for a Buddhist priest to say so, as shocking as hearing a Catholic priest say he "doesn't believe in Jesus". But it's true nonetheless. I am a Buddhist priest who thinks "Buddha" is largely bunk and baloney. At least, I think there's a lot of "bull" to how Buddha is typically portrayed. I think many of the utterly fantastic Mahayana Sutra stories of Buddhas are ridiculous ... hyper-exaggerated ... just unbelievable! (mean...

Whattsa Who'sa Bodhisattva? - Avalokiteshvara (Kannon)

Taigen Dan Leighton writes, in his wonderful book Faces of Compassion: Classic Bodhisattva Archetypes and their Modern Expression ... One meaning of Avalokiteshvara's name is "Regarder of the World's Cries or Sounds," indicated in the Japanese name Kanzeon. A shortened form of this is Kannon (or the Chinese Guanyin), "Hearing or Regarding Sounds." Avalokiteshvara is the one who calmly hears and considers all of the world's sounds of woe. This name implies that empathy and active listening are pr...

Baike 2

Dogen writes: "This old plum tree is boundless. All at once its blossoms open and of itself the fruit is born". Please visit the forum thread here!

Whattsa Who'sa Bodhisattva? - Samantabhadra

Baike, Plum Blossoms

Yes, baby, can you divide the reality of one thing happening? Can you cut the sound in half? More than that, with a single blossom, all blossoms. The whole reality is captured in a single unfolding. From star to bin, all is said and expressed. Check this. gassho Taigu Visit the forum thread here!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT Welcome Genpo Roshi, New Abbot at Treeleaf!

I have a BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG announcement to make: Let's extend a warm welcome to ... DENNIS 'GENPO' MERZEL ROSHI as our NEW ABBOT OF TREELEAF SANGHA!!! (and GOODBYE TAIGU!! You broke Jundo's heart ... ) NOTICE: NEW SANGHA FEES EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY! Visit the Forum Thread here!

April 1-2, 2011- Our Monthly 4-hour Zazenkai!

PLEASE NOTE THAT DAYLIGHT SAVINGS HAS BEGUN IN NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE. THE SUBJECT OF THE LITTLE TALK THIS TIME WILL BE A SONG CALLED "THE FERRYMAN" by Ralph McTell. PLEASE SEE THE LYRICS HERE and HAVE A LISTEN: LINK: http://www.treeleaf.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=51011#p51011 Dear All, Please 'sit-a-long' with our MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI, netcast LIVE 8am to noon Japan time Saturday morning (1/1) (that is New York 7pm to 11pm, Los Angeles 4pm to 8pm (Friday night 12/31), London midnight to 4am...

No Place To Run To, Baby ...

... no place to hide! I came back to Tsukuba yesterday to find a town returning to calm, neighbors helping neighbors, and a great spirit of volunteerism and service. People are staying out of the rain, trying to avoid drinking the water, and the ground still shakes now and then ... but, otherwise, pretty ordinary March day. These are images and newsreports of the 1896! tsunami in Japan which is said to have killed 27,000! people, rivaling the current disaster. 30,000 may have died earlier the sa...

Just a begging bowl

Ryokan, the old big useless fool, writer of cheap poetry and wanderer in both worlds, this one and the next, writes: Violets and dandelions mixed together in my beggar's bowl are offered to all the buddhas Manifest here, there and everywhere Broken bowls, begging bowls, that's what we are. Nothing special, nobody special. Takuhatsu is the action of going begging in the streets, floating away in this fleeting world, things given and received, but who gives, who receives? In the light of the sad e...

WHY BAD THINGS HAPPEN ...

... WHY BAD THINGS HAPPEN ... TO GOOD PEOPLE. With the death of perhaps tens of thousands here in Japan, the suffering of countless more ... seemingly innocent children and others among the hardest hit ... some perspectives and teachings on why 'bad things happen'. Karma? Nature? Destiny? A Deity's Mysterious Plan? Simple bad luck? In fact, the truth is that none of us in this life ... none of us ... escape this life with our lives. Long or short, we are here for a time, having wondrously been b...

Aftershock

There are people without homes, food, loved ones just 100 miles north of here. My son (who is -not- the child in the photo at left) is obviously shaken, tossed around with the other children in his school classroom when the earthquake hit. A seven year old cannot understand. The child in that photo must be so much more confused ... beyond a child's understanding. The aftershocks and "meltdown" talk as we constantly checked for bulletins were beginning to get to our son, so we send him (with my w...

SIT-A-LONG with Taigu: Koku 6

At the end of this chapter,Dogen is quite clear, worthy or not worthy is not the point. Koku is for all. This practice is for all. Everybody belongs. gassho ! Taigu Visit the forum for this discussion!

March 4-5, 2011- OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI!

PLEASE NOTE THAT SOME KINHIN TIMES HAVE BEEN LENGTHENED IN COMPASSION FOR NEW SITTERS JOINING US ... Dear All, Please 'sit-a-long' with our MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI,netcast LIVE 8am to noon Japan time Saturday morning (1/1) (that is New York 6pm to 10pm, Los Angeles 3pm to 7pm (Friday night 12/31), London 11pm to 3am and Paris midnight to 4am (early Saturday morning)) ... and visible at the following link during those times ... LIVE ZAZENKAI NETCAST at USTREAM: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sit-a...

Whattsa Who'sa Bodhisattva? - Manjushri

Each of the Bodhisattvas may be seen as an archetype for a vital aspect of Buddhist Practice ... Manjushri Bodhisattva for Wisdom. Taigen Dan Leighton writes in FACES OF COMPASSION ... Manjushri is the bodhisattva of wisdom and insight, penetrating into the fundamental emptiness, universal sameness, and true nature of all things. Manjushri ... sees into the essence of each phenomenal event. This essential nature is that not a thing has any fixed existence separate in itself, independent from the...

Whattsa Who'sa Bodhisattva? - Shakyamuni

We continue our series looking at THE GREATS AMONG THE GREAT BODHISATTVAS, inspired by the wonderful book FACES OF COMPASSION by Taigen Dan Leighton, highly recommended ... http://www.wisdompubs.org/pages/display.lasso?-KeyValue=32820&-Token.Action=&image=1 ... today looking at Shakyamuni ... the man who became "THE BUDDHA". Now, most folks usually think of Shakyamuni as "THE BUDDHA" ... but before he was "THE BUDDHA" Shakyamuni was a young seeker, in search of the key to human suffering...

Koku 5

Dogen writes the following: The migrating bird leaves no trace behind and does not need a guide This freedom from form and attachment, from past ( trace) and future (guide), this complete action, absolute and yet transitory is our practice. Koku is found in this wondrous life, in this body-mind. Totally experienced, it is forgotten. Once forgotten, it is realized. gassho Taigu Visit the forum for discussion on this topic!...

Living Devil

For the next few "sit-a-longs", I'm going to revive a series from awhile back on WHATSA BODHISATTVA, looking a some of the greats ... Avalokiteśvara (Kannon), Samantabhadra and others. Before, we looked at each of the traditional Virtues, the 'Perfections' of a Bodhisattva ... http://www.treeleaf.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?search=whattsa+who'sa+bodhisattva&IncludeBlogs=2&limit=20 Today, though, let's talk about the Devil, Satan, Mara, Evil ... Oh, I believe in the Devil! Bodhisattvas t...

Koku 4

The Nishijima Cross translation goes as follows: Daibutsu would like to tell Shakkyō the fol- lowing: “Before, when you grabbed Seidō’s nostrils, if you wanted to grasp space, you should have grabbed the nostrils of yourself, Shakkyō, and you should have understood how to grasp the fingertips with the fingertips.” Even so, Shakkyō does know a bit about the dignified behavior of grasping space. Even a good player at grasping space needs to research the interior and exte- rior of space, needs to r...

February 4-5, 2011- OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI!

*Note* - This Audiocast contains a 30 minute dharma talk followed by 8 minutes of zazen. For the full zazenkai, please visit the links below. PLEASE NOTE THAT SOME KINHIN TIMES HAVE BEEN LENGTHENED IN COMPASSION FOR NEW SITTERS JOINING US ... Dear All, Please 'sit-a-long' with our MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI,netcast LIVE 8am to noon Japan time Saturday morning (1/1) (that is New York 6pm to 10pm, Los Angeles 3pm to 7pm (Friday night 12/31), London 11pm to 3am and Paris midnight to 4am (early Saturda...

Masterpeace

In our Soto Way, this Life-Practice-Enlightenment is the constant painting of a picture ... a masterpiece ever created and simultaneously complete in each stroke by stroke by stroke. The goal is not to strip away the surface image in search of blank canvas. Nor is it a finished masterpiece, done once and for all, then hung in a museum to gather dust. It is not something one sees outside oneself, as if one merely need see the painting hanging on a gallery wall and is thus done. It is not simply a...

Koku 3

The Nishijima Cross translation gives this version of the text: Zen Master Shakkyō Ezō of Bushū asks Zen Master Seidō Chizō,“Do you understand how to grasp space?” Seidō says, “I understand how to grasp it.” The master says, “How do you grasp it?” Seidō clutches at space with his hand. The master says, “You do not understand how to grasp space.” Seidō says, “How do you grasp it, brother?” The master grabs Seidō’s nostrils and pulls them. Groaning with pain, Seidō says, “It is very brutal to yank...

The Good Fight

Some folks think that BUDDHISTS ARE MERELY PUSHOVERS. Well, sometimes we are "pushovers" ... allowing events to just push us over without resistance, roll past us, all until we (hopefully) roll back up! Other times ... like the Dalai Lama in his resistance to China, like the monks of Burma, like Gandhi (okay, not a 'Buddhist' really, but ya get the point), even like "Master Caine" in that old tv show ... we may need to push back, protest, resist, fight a good fight appropriate to the circumstanc...

Atonement / At-One-Ment

We all make mistakes ... big and small. Perhaps when we are all Buddhas, we will be beyond bad choices and harmful acts ... but now we are each just fallible human beings, Bodhisattvas living in this tricky Saha world, hopefully doing the best we can. Human beings will make mistakes. However, what we do with those mistakes ... whether we learn from them, seek not to repeat them, and repair the damage we have created ... makes all the difference in the world. What's more ... we ARE Buddha too, ri...

Koku 2

Futher comments on Koku based on Uji, Being-time. The broad and big body of Koku contains all actions and times: Visit the Forum for this topic!

Motion Still

Just Sitting, Thinking-Not Thinking ... is the silence always heard in noise and silence, the stillness that is both movement and standing still ... the peace encountered even as disturbance .... . ... ... ... the full, vibrant life ... ... ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... that is clear, living, empty space ... . . . . . Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows at this link. Remember: recording ends soon...

Eido's Shame ...

... and other reflections on "When Roshis Act Ugly, Small And All Too Human" ... Before I add my small voice to the many calls of condemnation of Eido Tai Shimano "Roshi", and demands for his self-reflection, dismissal and disgrace (more here from James Ford) ... http://monkeymindonline.blogspot.com/20 ... o-zen.html ... I would like to reflect on the overall question of when Buddhist teachers act with human weakness, ugliness, seemingly against all that they stand for. I think it a fallacy to b...

New Years Greetings

Dear All, Just a little New Years Greetings from the Cohen Family (it's already the New Year here in Japan) ... And don't forget our New Years Zazenkai today ... All Are Welcome! RING IN THE NEW YEAR ... AND EVERY NEW MOMENT ... WITH OUR 4-HOUR ZAZENKAI ... (detail here) viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3260 Gassho, Jundo, MIna, Leon and 'Tin Tin' the Cat Visit the Forum for this topic!...

Home for the Holidays!

Heading home to see family and friends always presents a few special "opportunities for Practice" at this time of year ... Meeting family and old friends ... how do you explain to them about "being a Buddhist"? You may even start to feel a little guilty for not being part of the religion you were raised in. How should we celebrate the holidays with friends and family? My answer: Celebrate Peace & Joy! Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows at this link. Remember: recording ends soon after the begi...

Shikan

Our practice is shikantaza. Shikan means just, nothing but...Core and essence of our tradition, it is also a practice of simplicity. Visit the Forum for this topic!