Thank you Jundo
Thank you Jundo
Thank you JUndo;
May we all meet at Shaolin to encounter the true Dharma, the wisdom of the petunia and the spacious mind of Daruma."There is no distinction or location, no edge or outside."
Safe journey to you and family,
_/_
When I was a kid Ming meant just Ming the Merciless. I'm glad to have found a new association for this word. Great series Jundo. Sincere thanks.
Gassho
I am in China today, where Youtube is banned ... so I am not sure if I can post today's sitting or not ....
But I would like to wish each and all members of Treeleaf, and our "Sit-a-Long" family, a Peaceful Rohatsu, Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah ...
.... as well as All the Happy Holidays of Peace and Goodwill, whenever and whatever they are ...
... and a Very Tranquil and Content 'Just This Very Moment' too, ever new and changing ...
This also leads to a related topic ...
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: Sing all the songs, be with the ones we love ... Celebrate Peace & Joy!
Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows at this link. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 15 to 35 minutes is recommended
Last edited by Jundo; 12-05-2013 at 02:53 AM.
Thank you Jundo, your Buddhist jingles made me smile
Wish you and all Sangha a happy holiday season!
Thank you Jundo;
Thank you for the holiday wisdom :lol:
Wishing you a happy China experience and Holiday happiness to all of Tree Leaf
_/_
And happy Solstice to all !!!!
8)
Thank you, a timely reminder
_()_
Peter
Thank you Jundo,
After listening to your talk, am going to feel less of an alien when I get dragged to the Sikh temple every week!
May all at treeleaf have a joyous and peaceful Christmas and new year.
Gassho
Ray
You are great Jundo! Thanks for sharing.
I love the idea of turning the rohatsu into a family event. Keep us posted about that.
This Xmas I'm going to work on a koan: how do you silently sing "Silent Night"? :lol:
Gasho-ho-ho
Rimon
Thank you Jundo.
Enjoy your time with your new one.
G
s
PS - Published to podcast! As an aside...you mention the challenge of viewing YouTube in China, but apparently you can hear the podcast! Here's a shot of the Treeleaf podcast listeners:
Also, visitors who have read about the podcast (or bots):
Attached files
Thank you Jundo.
Gassho,
Dosho
You really made me smile with this talk and for that I thank you, Jundo San.
I totally agree. Sometimes we forget that our own mental blocks get in the way of enjoying the holidays.
And now I will perform for you Silent Night....
Happy Holidays to you and your even bigger family.
I, too, like the idea of making the Buddhist holidays more family-friendly.
Thanks,
Jodi
Thank you and merry humbug one and all
Ho Ho Ho mani padme hum :lol:
Thank you Jundo ... happy holidays! And happy holidays to everyone at Treeleaf! 2011 one heck of year for me and the fam, but we're still a fam!
Gassho,
Jisen/BrianW
How fun :lol:
Totally in favor of making more family friendly Buddhist holidays as well!
Gassho,
John
Happy times, sad times, rainy days and sunny ... earthquake and nuclear disaster, good health and sickness ... the death of someone we love, our new daughter coming home ... getting older ... ups, downs, beginnings and endings ...
Oh, what a year this has been!
But in truth, a year like any year. The Buddha knew that such is the stuff of life, all of life filled with many things we long for and many we fear and resist ...
I usually describe Shikantaza Zazen to newcomers by a "sky-and -clouds" metaphor (one of the 'classic' metaphors in the Zen world) .... with the Light, Clear, Open, Boundless Shining Sun and Sky as Buddha Nature ... and clouds of ignorance, thoughts and emotions that may becloud or obstruct our experiencing such.
Yet our way of Shikantaza (unlike some flavors of meditation and Zazen) is not about attaining a mind always 100% totally free of clouds, though sometimes that may come too. Rather, sometimes we do and sometimes we don't ... clouds drift in, clouds drift out. Sometimes, the sky is so wide and blue and clear in all directions, without a cloud in the sky! That is good Zazen! Boundless, Cloud Free!
And sometimes (maybe most times), there are clouds drifting through the sky ... but we do not latch onto them or stir them up ... just let them go and drift away. Shining Blue peaks through the wide open spaces between the clouds. Moreover, the light of the sky can be seen to shine right through-and-through the clouds themselves ... so that clouds and sky are not seen as apart or in any conflict whatsoever. The clouds are now illuminated and transformed from their darkness, the Sun and Blue Shining right through-and-through each and all, and the Sky Whole. It is not "cloud free", but rather, the clouds are encountered as having been Free, Light and Clear All Along! 8) That is good Zazen too ... maybe even more precious than an all clear sky!
Now, sometimes (in human darkness and ignorance), the sky is so cloudy, fogged and stormy, filled with rampant thoughts and emotions, that the clear blue is completely hidden and bound in! That is not good Zazen ... that is just ignorance, confused and cloudy bad Zazen! And so, we should let the clouds clear and blow away, returning to the spacious, shining blue as described above.
However, even when the sky and sun are totally hidden ... not a patch of blue to see in the gray and stormy sky ... the sky and sun are still there even though we are blocked from seeing by the covering clouds. In fact, there is no bad Zazen ... even the bad Zazen.
More here:
"Right" Zazen and "Wrong" Zazen
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2783
Now, take those clouds as also representing too the events and times in our own life ... each cloud just happy times or sad times, rainy days and sunny ... earthquake and disaster, good health and sickness ... the death of someone we love, our new daughter coming home ... getting older ... beginnings and endings ...
... and just let them be too, the changing clouds of life moving along. Know the Light, Clear, Open, Boundless Shining Sun-and-Sky that illuminates each happening ... all the white clouds or black clouds or gray of daily life. Our way is not about always having a life free of problems, any more than there can be a sky always free of clouds! But each is instantly transformed in the Silent Illumination of the Bright Boundless Sky ... and the Sky and Clouds are seen as Whole ...
... even the darkest moment just Light, Clear, Open, Boundless, Shining when known as such!
It is a lovely way to live.
Happy New Year ...
... and a Peaceful Right This Moment to ALL!
Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows at this link. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 15 to 35 minutes is recommended
[youtube] [/youtube]
.
Thanks jundo.
I feel this talk ties up the loose ends of 2011 and also brings a lotn of your talks together from the last year. Which is the best way to end the year.
Happy new year to all the Treeleaf family and may all of you be free from suffering.
Gassho
Ray
Hehe...
I'm brainwashed!
The night before you posted this, after Zazen my wife asked me if the sitting "went well". I didn't know how to answer that since sitting is never good or bad... So I told her about the blue sky and clouds... She said she got it. The day after I showed her this thread and her response was: "Yes? Isn't that exactly what you said yesterday?"
/Pontus
Thank you Jundo. Wishing you clear skies and a sky that is clear too.
Gassho,
Dokan
PS - Posted to Podcast!
Thank you Jundo for the teaching. And Happy New Year.
Gassho
Soen
Thank you, Jundo.
Happy Right Now to all too!
I'm looking forward to sitting with all of you this coming year!
Gassho,
Yugen
Happy right this moment! _/_
Thank you Jundo, thank you all.
With gratitude
Gary
Gassho! That was such a wonderful talk.
Risho
Jundo,
Thank you for this teaching.
Gassho,
Dosho
:lol:
As always, thank you for your wisdom and humor.
_/_
This week, Japanese Lineages of Soto Zen celebrate the 811th BIRTHDAY OF MASTER DOGEN! YEA! YIPPEE!
But in some ways, MASTER DOGEN IS VERY OLD AND OUT OF DATE!
Oh, don't misunderstand! So many of Dogen's Teachings are FOR ALL TIMES AND ALL PLACES. In fact, his vision of Time and Timelessness, BEING-TIME, is ALL TIME IN EVERY TIME, THIS TIME AS TOTALLY THIS TIME AND THAT TIME, ITS OWN TIMELY TIME, EACH TIME OR HALF TIME JUST A WHOLE TIME, A WORMHOLE-TIME, A RABBIT HOLE TIME ...THE WHOLE HOLY TIME. Dogen once-upon-a-time wrote this ...
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. In essence, all things in the entire world are linked with one another as moments. Because all moments are the time-being, they are your time-being. The time-being has the quality of flowing. So-called today flows into tomorrow, today flows into yesterday, yesterday flows into today. And today flows into today, tomorrow flows into tomorrow.
In my way of reading the old boy, DOGEN IS A RIFFING JHANA JAZZ MAN-POET, free expressing-bending-unbinding-reexpressing-releasing the 'standard tunes' of the Sutras and Koans, making time and keeping time in syncopation of time ...
Zen master Guixing of She Prefecture ... taught the assembly:
For the time being mind arrives, but words do not.
For the time being words arrive, but mind does not.
For the time being both mind and words arrive.
For the time being neither mind nor words arrive.
Both mind and words are the time-being. Both arriving and not-arriving
are the time-being. When the moment of arriving has not appeared, the moment
of not-arriving is here. Mind is a donkey, words are a horse.
Having-already-arrived is words and not-having-left is mind. Arriving is not
"coming," not-arriving is not "not yet."
That's Dogen-Time, Man! Digg It!
But sometimes Dogen is JUST A MAN OF HIS CULTURE AND TIMES, preaching about things with limited relevance today. You can take Dogen out of ancient samurai Japan, but you cannot take the ancient Japanese samurai out of Dogen. I find him sometimes obsessive, sometimes grumpy, sometimes naive and ill informed, sometimes perhaps downright wrong in his advice then and now (as in this guidance to a prospective monk on leaving his old infirm mother to fend for herself)
A monk inquired,
“My aged mother is still alive. I am her only son. She lives solely by my support. Her love for me is especially deep and my desire to fulfill my filial duties is also deep. ... If I leave the world and live alone in a hermitage, my mother cannot expect to live for even one day.
Dogen instructed,
If you abandon your present life and enter the Buddha-Way, even if your mother dies of starvation, wouldn’t it be better for you to form a connection with the Way and for her to permit her only son to enter the Way? Although it is most difficult to cast aside filial love even over aeons and many lifetimes, if, having being born in a human body you give it up in this lifetime, when you encounter the Buddha’s teachings you will be truly fulfilling your debt of gratitude. Why wouldn’t this be in accordance with the Buddha’s will? It is said that if one child leaves home to become a monk, seven generations of parents will attain the Way.
4.html">http://global.sotozen-net.or.jp/common_ ... 03-14.html
Hmmm.
(Also, to the mention of "many lifetimes" I offer another agnostic 'Hmmm'.)
At other times, Dogen spoke out of Both Sides of His No-Sided Mouth, for example, sometimes saying this about the practice of lay folks (usually when writing to lay folks, as here in Bendowa)
Q: Can a layman practice this zazen or is it limited to priests?
A: The patriarchs have said that to understand Buddhism there should be no distinction between man and woman and between rich and poor. ... It has nothing to do with being either a priest or a lay man. Those who can discern excellence and inferiority will believe Buddhism naturally. Those who think that worldly tasks hinder Buddhism know only that there is no Buddhism in the world; they do not know that there is nothing that can be set apart as worldly tasks in Buddhism. ... All this tells us that worldly tasks do not hinder Buddhism. ... In the age of the Buddha, even misguided criminals were enlightened through his teachings. Under the patriarchs, even hunters and woodcutters were enlightened. And others will gain enlightenment. All you have to do is to receive instructions from a real teacher.
At other times, later times in his life, Dogen changed his tune. When speaking to his band of "all boy" monks in a 13th century monastery in the snowy boondocks, you can often hear him, in talks from this period, dealing with real "human to human" issues in the monastery. A lack of donors and hard economic times, rough food and no money to fix the roof. From what we know of the Eiheiji monks, a hodgepodge of refugees with various spiritual and personal backgrounds, Dogen's work was sometimes like herding cantankerous cats. You can hear in his voice the coach or commander, trying to keep up the sometimes flagging morale among his "men" ... men probably sometimes wondering why they'd left the comforts of home life and town to live and sit through the hard, cold, long, lonely winter days in a monastery in the middle of nowhere. No easy task, unless you preach a little "fire and brimstone". He would say such things as (in Shobogenzo Shukke)
Clearly know that the attainment of the way by all Buddhas and ancestors is only accomplished by leaving the household and receiving the precepts. ... None of those who have not left the household are Buddha ancestors
...
Breaking the precepts as a home leaver is better than keeping them as a layperson. You cannot experience emancipation by keeping the precepts as a layperon."
Hmmm.
If Dogen had not been driven out of town with his small band of monks, his ecumenical dreams a bit tarnished, forced to take retreat in the lonely cold and snow of remote Echizen Province ... would he have later become so seemingly closed to lay practice? I wonder. But, no matter ... for Dogen was a man of many moods and visions, and even Dogen is not the "final word" on what Soto Zen is or is not, and who can practice and who cannot, on what "home leaving" is or is not.
Dogen was a genius, beyond doubt. He was also a man with strong, personal views and opinions. Although someone may be truly gifted in some aspects, and have All the Answers ... be it spiritual or otherwise ... he/she need not have all the answers in every part of their life, having every answer to every life question. Mozart, a genius, was nonetheless not so on all matters and all music for all times. It is enough for me that Dogen, or any of the Buddhas and Ancestors, pierced to the heart of how this mind-self-universe works ... even if their particular social or scientific views, or views on daily conduct or how to treat one's mother ... can be taken with a grain of salt. One need not live in a 13th century Japanese monastery to find the heart of these Teachings!
Master Dogen was sometimes just a man of his place and time, with views not necessarily always right for our times.
(OH, AND PLEASE WELCOME OUR NEW BABY DAUGHTER, WHO JOINED ME FOR PART OF TODAY'S TALK! DOGEN DIDN'T PRACTICE 'PAPA ZEN' EITHER!)
Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows at this link. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 15 to 35 minutes is recommended
[youtube] [/youtube]
A talk supreme.
Gassho
Myozan
[youtube] [/youtube]
IndeedOriginally Posted by Myozan Kodo
Also great to see we have a new Zen teacher in the sangha, in charge of the bells.
Gonna try to switch my watch to Dogen time. I really enjoyed the first paragraph of the written text on the nature of time. Thank you Jun(do) Coltrane
Gassho
Rimon
gassssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss sssssssssssssssho
T.
Wonderful talk. Thank you Jundo.
Gassho,
Dokan
PS - Posted to podcast.
Thank you.
Gassho, Kojip.
Gassho
Jen
To truly understand Dogen, the Shobogenzo, once should simply put down trying to understand it in the head and go out for a nice walk in the park. With each step, with each breath, with each sound, with each sight, you will begin to see what this whole practice is about.
Wait, you're saying Dogen is dead!? :shock: :shock: :shock: And HUMAN? :shock: :shock: :shock: I'm chocked!
Bless you!Originally Posted by Taigu
/Pontus
Is that also true for playing the Puerto Rican 'cuartro' guitar which you play so well, and learning to appreciate jibara music? Simple walk in the park.Originally Posted by Seiryu
viewtopic.php?p=49658#p49658
El sonido del viento. That and a daily Practice! Ten strings in five courses, tuned in fourths from low to high B-e-a-d'-g',54321, with B and E in octaves and A, D and G in unisons.
The untrained ear can't make head or tail of it, complex rhythms, notes flying, wild tempo ... Dogen in San Juan.
Gassho, J
Marvelous, Thank you!
Gassho,
Yugen
Great talk! Thank you.
Thank you for this teaching.
Indeed, we carry the dharma into everyday life
Thank you Jundo, I put this one on my favorites list
The best part of this teaching was seeing you with your daughter. She is so cute!
Gassho,
Ekai/Jodi
Thank you so much for this talk. Very timely, as lately I have wondering to myself, "is Soto not a cult of Dogen? Was Dogen not also a man? Has nothing more been said in 800 years?"
I think you've laid it all to bare here, wonderfully. Your honest assessment of our ancestors is just one more reason this Sangha is so relevant to me.
And congrats again on the wonderful little life you've welcomed home!
I agree!!Originally Posted by Ekai
Do they have angels in Buddhism?
They do now. :wink:
I probably won't remember anything you said after 8:20. My wife and I are avaiable for baby sitting btw :lol:
gassho
Greg
Da vinci code... LOL.
Best bell ringer ever! :lol:
Thank you for this teaching Jundo!
Always so fresh and direct :mrgreen:
deep gassho,
Jinyu