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Thread: Nov 1st/2nd, 2013 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI!

  1. #1

    Nov 1st/2nd, 2013 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI!

    NOTE DAYLIGHT SAVINGS HAS ENDED IN EUROPE, NOT YET IN US & CANADA

    Readings for today's Dharma Talk are below in this thread.


    Please 'sit-a-long' with our MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI, netcast LIVE 8am to noon Japan time Saturday morning (that is New York 7pm to 11pm, Los Angeles 4pm to 8pm (Friday night), London 11pm, to 3am and Paris midnight to 4am (early Saturday morning)) ... and visible at the following link during those times ...

    ... to be visible at the following link during those times and any time thereafter ...

    LIVE ZAZENKAI NETCAST at GOOGLE+ IS HERE:
    CLICK ON THE TAB ON LOWER RIGHT FOR 'FULL SCREEN




    FOR THOSE NOT ALREADY MEMBERS OF THE CIRCLE WHO WISH TO JOIN TO SIT LIVE WITH A CAMERA, INSTRUCTIONS are posted AT THIS LINK. WE ARE NOW LIMITED TO 10 INDIVIDUALS WITH CAMERAS, BUT ANY NUMBER CAN WATCH LIVE 'ONE WAY' AND SIT-A-LONG VIA THE ABOVE SCREEN. IF JOINING WITH CAMERA, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR MICROPHONE IS MUTED:

    The Sitting Schedule is as follows;

    00:00 - 00:50 CEREMONY (HEART SUTRA / SANDOKAI IN ENGLISH) & ZAZEN
    00:50 - 01:00 KINHIN
    01:00 - 01:30 ZAZEN
    01:30 - 01:50 KINHIN

    01:50 - 02:30 DHARMA TALK & ZAZEN
    02:30 - 02:40 KINHIN

    02:40 - 03:15 ZAZEN
    03:15 - 03:30 KINHIN
    03:30 - 04:00 METTA CHANT & ZAZEN, VERSE OF ATONEMENT, FOUR VOWS, & CLOSING


    Our Zazenkai consists of our chanting the 'Heart Sutra' and the 'Identity of Relative and Absolute (Sandokai)' in English (please download our Chant Book at the link below), some full floor prostrations (please follow along with me ... or a simple Gassho can be substituted if you wish), a little talk by me ... and we close with the 'Metta Chant', followed at the end with the 'Verse of Atonement' and 'The Four Vows'. Oh, and lots and lots of Zazen and walkin' Kinhin in between!

    Please download and print out the Chants we will recite at the following link (PDF):

    Chant Book (PDF)

    or

    Chant Book (SHORT VERSION HTML)

    I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU POSITION YOUR ZAFU ON THE FLOOR IN A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE NOT STARING DIRECTLY AT THE COMPUTER SCREEN, BUT CAN GLANCE OVER AND SEE THE SCREEN WHEN NECESSARY. YOUR ZAFU SHOULD ALSO BE IN A POSITION WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE COMPUTER SCREEN WHILE STANDING IN FRONT OF THE ZAFU FOR THE CEREMONIES, AND HAVE ROOM FOR BOWING AND KINHIN.

    ALSO, REMEMBER TO SET YOUR COMPUTER (& SCREEN SAVER) SO THAT IT DOES NOT SHUT OFF DURING THE 4 HOURS.


    I hope you will join us ... an open Zafu is waiting. When we drop all thought of 'here' 'there' 'now' 'then' ... we are sitting all together!
    Last edited by Jundo; 11-01-2013 at 11:03 PM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  2. #2
    There is a famous Koan …

    When Master Ekai, Zen Master Daichi of Hyakujō, gives his informal
    preaching, generally present there is an old man. He always listens to the
    Dharma along with the assembly, and when the people in the assembly retire,
    the old man also retires. Then suddenly one day he does not retire. The master
    eventually asks him, “What person is this, standing before me?”
    The old man answers, “I am not a person. In the past age of Kāśyapa
    Buddha, I used to preside on this mountain [as an Abbot]. Once a student asked me, ‘Do
    even people in the state of great practice fall into cause and effect, or not?’
    I answered, ‘They do not fall into cause and effect.’ Since then I have fallen
    into the body of a wild fox for five hundred lives. Now I beg you, Master,
    to say for me words of transformation. I long to be rid of the body of a wild
    fox.” Then he asks, “Do even people in the state of great practice fall into
    cause and effect, or not?”
    The master says, “Do not be unclear about cause and effect.”
    The old man, under these words, realizes the great realization. He does
    prostrations and says, “I am already rid of the body of a wild fox ...
    In Shobogenzo Shinjin-Inga (written in 1255), Dogen writes …

    [P]eople of learning in practice
    are not clear about the truth of cause and effect, and they make the mistake
    of idly negating cause and effect. It is pitiful that, with a wind of decay
    blowing all around, the Patriarch’s truth has slipped into decline. “They do
    not fall into cause and effect” is just the negation of cause and effect, as a
    result of which [the negator] falls into bad states. “Do not be unclear about
    cause and effect” evidently is deep belief in cause and effect, as a result of
    which the listener gets rid of bad states. We should not wonder [at this], and
    should not doubt it. Among people of recent generations who profess to be
    “students of the Way of Zen practice,” most have negated cause and effect.
    How do we know that they have negated cause and effect? Namely [because]
    they have considered that “do not fall” and “do not be unclear” amount to
    the same and are not different. Hence, we know that they have negated cause
    and effect.



    There are non-Buddhists who already know eighty thousand kalpas [but their teaching]
    is never esteemed as the Buddha’s teaching. To know barely five hundred
    lives is no great ability. The greatest ignorance of recent Zen practitioners
    of the Song dynasty lies just in their failure to recognize that “not
    falling into cause and effect” is a doctrine of the false view. It is pitiful that,
    in a place where the Tathāgata’s right Dharma has spread, and while meeting
    the authentic transmission from patriarch to patriarch, they form wrong
    groups who negate cause and effect. Zen practitioners should urgently clarify
    the truth of cause and effect. The truth of the present Hyakujō’s “not being
    unclear about cause and effect” is “not to be ignorant of cause and effect.



    Some say: “When human beings die, they unfailingly return to the ocean of spiritual essence;
    even if they do not practice and learn the Buddha-Dharma, they will naturally
    return to the ocean of enlightenment, whereupon the wheel of life and
    death will turn no more. For this reason, there will be no future.” This is the
    nihilistic view of non-Buddhism. Even if in form they resemble bhikṣus,
    those who hold such wrong opinions are not the Buddha’s disciples at all.
    They are just non-Buddhists.


    In Shobogenzo-Daishugyo (written in 1244), Dogen writes …

    When we have groped for and grasped “great practice,” it is just great “cause and effect” itself.
    Because this cause and effect is always the round fulfillment of causes and the complete
    fulfillment of effects, it has never accommodated discussion of falling
    or not falling and has never accommodated words of being unclear or not
    being unclear. If “They do not fall into cause and effect” is a mistake, “Do
    not be unclear about cause and effect” might also be a mistake. Even when
    mistakes are put in their place as mistakes, there is falling into the body of a
    wild fox, and there is getting free of the body of a wild fox.



    Many past masters through the ages have vied to
    assert that the expressions “not falling into” and “not being unclear about”
    [cause and effect] are equally valid. But if they have never attained bodily
    experience of “not falling into” and “not being unclear about” [cause and
    effect] within the stream of those very words, they consequently neither experience
    the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of falling into the body of a wild
    fox, nor experience the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of getting rid of the
    body of a wild fox.


    ...

    Should the five hundred lives mentioned now be counted as in the human world? Should they be counted
    as in the state of a wild fox? Should they be counted as in the Buddha’s truth?
    Furthermore, how could the eyes of an old wild fox glimpse Hyakujō? Those
    who are glimpsed by a wild fox may be the ghosts of wild foxes. Those who
    are glimpsed by Hyakujō are Buddhist patriarchs. ...
    Hyakujō has intimately experienced meetings with a wild fox ...
    Thus, “a wild fox” is the Eye of “Hyakujō’s intimate experience.” “...
    At the very moment of so doing, we get free of the body of a wild fox, get
    free of the body of Hyakujō, get free of the body of an old non-man, and get
    free of the body of the whole universe.


    ...

    We should learn in practice that in this particular
    episode the past Hyakujō does not mention a mistaken answer and
    the present Hyakujō does not mention a mistaken answer. Rather, using five
    hundred skins of wild foxes, each three inches thick, [the past Hyakujō] “has
    experienced life on this mountain,” and for the benefit of practitioners he
    expresses it ....
    There is falling down and getting free that “at every moment is beyond mistakes,” and there
    is “cause and effect” that at every moment speaks [liberating] words for others. They
    are the evident “great practice” itself.
    Last edited by Jundo; 11-01-2013 at 11:28 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  3. #3
    Thank you, Jundo. Padmasambhava also spoke on cause and effect saying:

    "Although my view is higher than the sky, my respect for the cause and effect of actions is as fine as grains of flour."


    I look forward to sitting with you on Sunday.

    Gassho
    Andy

  4. #4
    I'll be there live!

    Gassho,

    Kyonin
    Hondō Kyōnin
    奔道 協忍

  5. #5
    Sadly, I am flying out of town for work today and I will not get back till close to midnight. So, I will sit this one tomorrow. Best wishes to all.

    Gassho,
    William
    "First you have to give up." Tyler Durden

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Kyonin View Post
    I'll be there live!

    Gassho,

    Kyonin
    By the way, Kyonin ... I went to check if Daylight Savings had ended in Mexico and found the answer is ... yes, no and maybe depending where! Really Dogen time!

    Gassho, J
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  7. #7
    Yugen
    Guest
    It's my son's tenth birthday today, we will be having dinner and a brithday cake afterward - will most likely join you at some point during the zazenkai....!

    Gassho
    Yugen

  8. #8
    Mp
    Guest
    I will be there as well.

    Gassho
    Shingen

  9. #9
    Whether I can make it live, or join in later. I will be sitting with you all.
    Humbly,
    清竜 Seiryu

  10. #10
    I'll be there live! Provided the Netbook doesn't burst into flames haha.

    Gassho, John

  11. #11
    Joyo
    Guest
    With the time change I will only be able to catch the end. Looking forward to practicing with everyone though.

    Gassho,
    Treena

  12. #12
    Hi Emmy,

    No time change yet in Canada. That is from next time.

    Gassho, Jundo
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    By the way, Kyonin ... I went to check if Daylight Savings had ended in Mexico and found the answer is ... yes, no and maybe depending where! Really Dogen time!

    Gassho, J
    I love it!

    From now on there is GMT, Pacific and East times... and DZT (Dogen Zen Time)

    My time zone is +1ZDT

    Gassho,

    Kyonin
    Hondō Kyōnin
    奔道 協忍

  14. #14
    Joyo
    Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    Hi Emmy,

    No time change yet in Canada. That is from next time.

    Gassho, Jundo
    Sorry, Jundo, I didn't word that very well. I meant with the zazenkai time change, it is earlier, I'm assuming due to it being 4 hrs. Looking forward to joining in at the end

    Gassho

  15. #15
    " . . .live,one way. . . "


    Gassho,
    Edward
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  16. #16
    I'll be here with bells on and mokugyo at the ready.

    Gassho,
    Dosho

  17. #17
    Hello,

    whatever the time, I'll be on my zafu tomorrow!

    All the best and gassho,

    Hans Chudo Mongen

  18. #18
    As usual, I will sit with you where all time and place is trancended, wishing us all a good Zazenkai!

    Gassho

    Enkyo
    Mu

  19. #19
    Had some difficulties with the Netbook, so I can only pop in from time to time on the computer in the living room. It was good practice in sitting with frustration and letting it pass trying to get the Netbook to work though

    Gassho, John

  20. #20
    See you all sitting in Zen time. Which for me is Sunday.
    Gassho
    C

  21. #21
    Mp
    Guest
    Thank you Jundo and everyone ... have a great weekend. Excellent job Dosho.

    Gassho
    Shingen

  22. #22
    Thanks to all.


    Gassho,
    Edward
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  23. #23
    Thanks everyone! This was my first sitting with other people. It was nice... I can't believe I sat through all of it. This has probably been the longest I've sat. Ever. Gotta say that everytime Jundo would say zazen again, in my head I was like, "No more ;___;" but I pulled through anyway. Was nice.

    Once again, sincere, heartfelt thanks!

    Gassho,
    Ben
    Gassho
    Ben

  24. #24
    Thanks everyone...wonderful to practice with you!

    Gassho,
    Dosho

  25. #25
    Treeleaf Engineer Seimyo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Yuba City, California, USA
    Google didn't want to cooperate so I sat offline for half and will finish with the recording tomorrow.

    Thank you all for sitting.

    Gassho
    Seimyo

    明 Seimyō (Christhatischris)

  26. #26
    a thanks to all who sat & will sit. Great Dharma talk. cause is cause, effect is effect, cause is effect, effect is cause. May we all spin with grace. Thank you Jundo. And thank you Dosho.
    Gassho
    David

  27. #27
    Thank you everyone, have a wonderful weekend
    Gassho
    Myoku

  28. #28
    Thank you all who sat/will sit.

    Gassho,

    Kyonin
    Hondō Kyōnin
    奔道 協忍

  29. #29
    Thank you for the wonderful teisho Jundo and also thanks to ino Dosho. Gassho to everyone sitting this.
    Heisoku 平 息
    Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. (Basho)

  30. #30
    Hi all,
    Looking forward to this one. Love this koan.

    Will have to sit when my guests leave tomorrow.

    Gassho
    Myozan

  31. #31
    Just finished. This was my first time to have tried the four-hour zazenkai, and I really enjoyed it.

    Thank you for the sit, everyone.

    Gassho, Stacy

  32. #32
    Treeleaf Priest / Engineer Sekishi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Virginia, USA
    Sat this one today. "Danced" with you all on a brisk fall afternoon. The leaves are falling and the ladybugs are everywhere.

    Thank you all for your practice.

    Gassho,
    Eric
    Sekishi | 石志 | He/him | Better with a grain of salt, but best ignored entirely.

  33. #33
    A really great Dharma talk.
    Gassho, with thanks,
    Myozan

  34. #34
    Thanks all!

    Gassho
    Björn


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

  35. #35
    Lovely Zazenkai and an awesome Dharma Talk - perhaps you should post the talk as a separate video, too, as I think it is about an important aspect of our practice.

    Thank you all!

    Gassho,

    Timo
    no thing needs to be added

  36. #36
    Thank you to all who sit.
    求道芸化 Kyūdō Geika
    I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.

  37. #37
    Hi all thanks for a great Zazenkai.

    Jundo all I can say is Phew!! I am sure glad you took a good long time to explain all those writings because I can honestly say I understand it now. I can't explain it to anyone else but I do understand it, which is a far cry better than after just reading them!

    One thing that kept come to mind as your were explaining about the great dance, is that the ballerina is dancing NOW at this pivot point, but she is also spinning, and as she spins we can look at her spinning, her front, side, and back. You can look at each angle separately if you freeze the spin, but what you are really seeing is each one constantly affecting and dependent on the other. So past, present, future or cause and effect are like this. It is difficult to pin any down and it is impossible to see one with out seeing the other. As the ballerina spins it becomes blurry which are we really looking at. What was once the front is now the back and will be the front again. Can you see it now? Did you see it then? What will it be? All you can say really is that she is spinning in the dance.

    To quote someone - " or something like that"

    Gassho C

  38. #38
    Thank you all for your practice. These four hour Zazenkais have become even more important to me during Ango.

    Great talk too, Jundo!

    Gassho
    Andy

  39. #39
    Thank you Jundo, thank you all.
    Beautyfull dharma talk
    Gassho
    Gi shu-George
    Gi Shu -George

  40. #40
    Kantai
    Guest
    Thank you everyone!
    I like the birds, they are like a kyosaku.
    Makes it easier to stay awake!

    Gassho
    Edward

  41. #41
    Quote Originally Posted by Milarepa View Post
    Thank you everyone!
    I like the birds, they are like a kyosaku.
    Makes it easier to stay awake!

    Gassho
    Edward
    Yes!

    Gassho
    C

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