Rohatsu Talk 1.6a
http://www.treeleaf.org/sit-a-long/with-jundo-and-taigu/archives/2011/12/-welcome-toour-treeleafat.html

http://www.treeleaf.org/sit-a-long/with-jundo-and-taigu/archives/2011/12/-welcome-toour-treeleafat.html
http://www.treeleaf.org/sit-a-long/with-jundo-and-taigu/archives/2011/12/-welcome-toour-treeleafat.html
This week's passage of the Xin Xin Ming instructs us how to live in this trying and hectic life, yet with a mind open, clear and free ... living amid and as this world of the senses, thoughts, goals, emotions -- yet light, unfettered, unbound ... seeing distinctions and complexity as Wholeness and Simplicity ... at once, as one ... If you wish to move in the One Way do not dislike even the world of senses and ideas. Indeed, to accept them fully is identical with true Enlightenment. The wise man ...
This picture from a temple in India is said to be the aged Buddha not feeling so well. In other images, the Buddha would recline when ill ... an excellent way to "lay" Zazen when one can't get out of bed ... Our Xin Xin Ming today speaks of moments of freedom and clarity which can come even amid the murkiness, uncertainty and fear of being sick ... Obey the nature of things, and you will walk freely and undisturbed. When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden, for everything is murky and uncl...
Now, we look into it, the truth is all-pervasive or Upon investigation,the Buddha enlightenment is all around Alors que nous la recherchons, la voie-vérité pénètre originellement toutes choses. Please visit the forum thread here!
Please visit the forum thread here!
Hi, Awhile back, I reminded our Treeleaf Ango-ers that there are no mistakes in Ango, no way that life can intervene, that obstacles are just "opportunities for Practice" ... ... that ALL OF LIFE IS PRACTICE! viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4230 However, I certainly did not mean that one could just do the parts of Practice that one likes or is moved by, skipping the rest. I did not mean that, just because there are "no mistakes", such was an excuse to be careless or slack, being forgetful, just practic...
Just letting things be in their own way (even the hard things in life) is neither easy nor hard. Neither be hesitant and fearful, nor wound too tight and charging forward. (This reminds me of the Buddha's famous parable of the lute strings ... strung neither too loose nor too tight to produce beautiful music) Do not cling, but be open and spacious beyond limits ... Do not even cling to the goal of 'not clinging' or Enlightenment! Do not run after or run away, but flow with the flow ... letting a...
Fukanzazengi: Universal guide to the standard method of Zazen Rules of Sitting-Zen for everybody Pour la diffusion universelle des Principes du S'asseoir-Zen Please visit the forum thread here!
A fruity talk returning to this passage of the XIN XIN MING ... a fundamental view of most Eastern religions in one way or another, as basic as "A is for Apple" ... really quite simple though the mind resists to see ... When no discriminating thoughts arise, the old mind ceases to exist. When thought objects vanish, the thinking-subject vanishes, as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish. Things are objects because of the subject; the subject is such because of things (object). Understand the re...
This week, among all the many horrible stories in the news, two particularly stuck out ... A disturbing video caught by surveillance cameras shows a 2-year-old girl in China laying in the street bleeding, a victim of a hit and run. Even more shocking is that the toddler was then ignored by at least 18 people. Video of the incident, which took place Oct. 13, shows pedestrians and vehicles passing by the toddler, named Yueyue, after she was run over outside her family's shop in the Chinese city of...
Please visit the forum thread here!
This passage of the Xin Xin Ming instructs us to not remain divided, and to drop ... through and through ... this and that, good and bad, beautiful vs. ugly, all the divisions of little 'self' from this life and world ... ... yet don't be caught there either, do not remain emptied into Emptiness, and bring the One down into/as/right through-and-through the Many. When we do so, life's greatest obstructions and challenges, ups and downs, are not encountered quite as they were before. Do not remain...
We encounter again the instruction neither to become entangled in circumstances, nor fall into emptiness ... neither remaining in one extreme or the other, finding that which embraces both. But it is not something merely to talk or philosophize about experiencing life this way, like some "ARMCHAIR BUDDHA". Rather, it is to pierce the wholeness of Zazen, carve such into one's bones, bring such to life in this ordinary life. Thus, the Xin Xin Ming tells us ... The more you talk and think about it,...
We continue from last time's passage of the Xin Xin Ming ... Live neither in the entanglements of outer things, nor in inner feelings of emptiness. ... As long as you remain in one extreme or the other you will never know Oneness. Those who do not live in the single Way fail in both activity and passivity, assertion and denial. To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality. to assert the emptiness of things is to miss their reality. Neither entangled in things, nor a captive of sweet em...
The Talk this time will be on Master Hongzhi's 'Guidepost of Silent Illumination' ... http://www.treeleaf.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4226 A little more about Master Hongzhi (Wanshi in Japanese) here ... http://www.elqui.mailworks.org/Hongzhi-Zhengjue/index.html And for our true "Dharma Wonks", an essay by Soto teacher, translator and historian Taigen Dan Leighten on ... Hongzhi (Silent Illumination), Dogen and the Background of Shikantaza http://www.ancientdragon.org/dharma/articles/the_...
Please visit the forum thread here!
TODAY'S SIT-A-LONG WAS PRE-RECORDED LAST WEEK BECAUSE JUNDO IS IN NORTHERN JAPAN TODAY, IN THE REGION HIT BY THE EARTHQUAKE/TSUNAMI/NUCLEAR ACCIDENT AND HIT AGAIN BY LAST WEEK'S BIG TYPHOON Daily life is filled with many storms. They blow around us great and small, and the circumstances of life can sometimes knock us right off our feet! They blow within us, as the mind reactively rages and storms with emotions and thoughts about those circumstances ... fears, "what if's", anger, clutching, resis...
I would like to offer an important reminder and CAUTION to ALL THOSE UNDERTAKING ANGO, RAKUSU SEWING FOR JUKAI and such at Treeleaf ... ... both those who say "it is all going well" ... and those who say "it is not going well" ... ... those who say that "all has been smooth as silk" ... and those who have encountered bumps and places to trip ... ... those who say they have met every goal they set for themselves ... and those who have not. Do not forget about "Goalless Goals", about having no pla...
The town next to ours here in Ibaraki, Japan, is known for two attractions: Its Giant Buddha Statue, over 100 meters tall (never too big!)... and the new "Outlet Mall" looking like it could be transplanted right from Southern California, each clearly seen from the other. What better place than the mall to look at today's passage from the Xin Xin Ming? The Way is perfect like vast space where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess. Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject that w...
Koun Ejo's text is here: http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/C%20-%20Zen/Ancestors/Zen%20Master%20Ejo/Absorption%20in%20the%20Treasury%20of%20Light.pdf gassho to all Taigu
Today's talk was offered during our September ZAZENKAI to make the start of our annual JUKAI (Undertaking the Precepts) season of Rakusus sewing, sitting and Precepts study, as well as the continuation of our ongoing ANGO (90-Day Special Practice Period) at Treeleaf Sangha ... If I were pressed to describe the heart of all our Practices in one word ... Zazen, living by Precepts, all we do from sewing a Rakusu to bowing to chanting a Meal Gatha ... that one word is WHOLENESS. This way allows us t...
Last year I spoke about the little girl that my wife and I have been trying to adopt from China for five years to no avail, caught in red tape and creeping bureaucracy. She is just a name to us, a shadow, an empty child's room that has gathered dust. Our little son always asks for his absent sister, year after year. Now, after much pushing through obstacles, wrangling with regulations, negotiating, simple waiting ( there are so many families in like position, and we did not want to push ahead of...
Please visit the forum thread here!
Dogen writes: Do not suppose that what you realize becomes your knowledge and is grasped by your consciousness. Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. Its appearance is beyond your knowledge. Zen master Baoche of Mt. Mayu was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, "Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. When, then, do you fan yourself?" "Although you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent," Baoche repli...
Please visit the forum thread here!
Doing one practice... Now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, this bird or this fish will not find its way or its place. When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find you way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point; for the place, the way, is neither large nor small, neither yours nor others'. The place, the way, has not carried over from the past and it is not merely...
Please visit the forum thread here!
Please visit the forum thread here!
That brightness beyond all brightness cannot be own. As you display the moonlight, you cannot see it. Its activity cannot be soiled or limited by your games: dividing, separating, breaking, the dual is left behind. Dogen uses a metaphor and at the same time, it is not a metaphor. Quite clearly, the dewdrop is a dewdrop~you~moon~light~reflection~time~universe. All these words not forming a neckless of pearls but a single pearl~like word~world. Please visit the forum thread here!...