SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: TOTALLY ENGAGED

[Jundo]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_y1JLprx9dmU/THxWjh-3WEI/AAAAAAAAABQ/-v5FF8nPuuM/s1600/save+the+world.jpg

As this is just the New Year, it is a good time to stir the pot at Treeleaf's ENGAGED & CHARITABLE PROJECTS CENTER ...


ENGAGED CENTER LINK (http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?67-ENGAGED-CHARITABLE-PROJECTS-CENTER)

We want to activate the place, and believe that it should be front and center in our Practice right with Zazen ... in fact, charity and volunteer activities --are-- Zazen "off the cushion."

Every couple of weeks or so, we will be presenting projects that anybody can ... should ... dig into, and we would like to make this a Community Team Effort! There will be many options available, something for anybody, even folks who have mobility or other health issues. There are always ways to reach out wherever you find yourself, always someone who you can help a bit no matter how much you are struggling in your own life (maybe just pick up a phone or computer and reach out to someone else who is also housebound, for example).

Busy working parents can make this a chance for time with the kids and spouse, not to mention a time to get some good lessons and examples into the children (today my wife and I grabbed a couple of garbage bags and sturdy gloves, and picked up trash someone had dumped on a road near out house. Got my son away from the video game for an hour, and made him think about keeping the world clean.)

I will be offering a short series of talks on this in the coming days. Really, engaged activity pulls us out of our self-concern, leaves the world a little bit better, and is one way to fulfill our Bodhisattva Vows to help our fellow Sentient Beings.

Right now, I would like to point you to some recent threads on this:


Alone (http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14158-Alone)

Need Some Help (http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14129-Need-Some-Help)

Blanket/Coat Drive (http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14050-Blanket-Coat-Drive)


Our small efforts are dedicated to Bernie Glassman Roshi, one of the pioneers of engaged Buddhism in the West, who is in hospital himself this week.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygZJRVFDhPE

THE DOWNLOADABLE AUDIO PODCAST VERSION IS HERE:

Click for Podcast or Audio Download (http://treeleaf.podbean.com/e/january-2016-sit-a-long-with-jundo-totally-engaged)

[Jishin]

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Mp]

Thank you ... engage in the world around us is a important and beautiful thing. =)

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

[Byokan]

Thank you Jundo, let's all inspire and help each other with this. :):encouragement:gassho1

"If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way."
or
"If you cannot do great things, do small things with great love."

This saying is variously attributed to James Freeman Clarke, or Martin Luther King, or Napoleon Hill, or Mother Teresa, take your pick, anyway someone smart said it.


Gassho
Byōkan
sat today

[Sekishi]

Talk as podcast episode: http://treeleaf.podbean.com/e/january-2016-sit-a-long-with-jundo-totally-engaged

Gassho,
Sekishi
#SatToday

[Myosha]

Hello,

Born perfect. Maintain.

Can't not.


Gassho
Myosha sat today

[Jika]

gassho1

Jika
#sattoday

[Washin]

Thank you, Jundo. gassho2

Gassho
Sergey
st-today

[Kyonin]

Thank you Jundo.

It's a nice reminded that our practice is a call for action too.

Gassho,

Kyonin
#SatToday

[Jakuden]

Thank you, Jundo!

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

[Risho]

Thank you

Gassho,

Risho
-sattoday

[Gokai]

Thank you very much!

Gassho
David

[Kanzeon sitter]

Thank you, Jundo-sensei. You are talking about something that I've been telling people all the time, even when I'm teaching English: this is why we are in this world. Plain and simple: To help one another in such a way that you make the other person's life worth living. Yes, it sounds very general, but it's also that simple, I have found. In that process it's also most important that we don't waste time. There are so many distractions nowadays, and the Internet has made everything ten times as fast. We know in our hearts what the right choices are, and yet we don't make them. Maybe because this takes discipline and initiative. Initiative to simply get up and to leave the distractions behind, to go to work on what you got to do. And we all know for ourselves what that is, or what these things are.

I'm new here, and I'm looking forward to sharing thoughts with you about this (for me) most important item, the answer to the most important question: "Why are we here".

Gassho, Joris

[Yugen]

As Zen takes shape in the West; forms its own identity and takes root in our culture one of the most important manifestations of practice is service - perhaps the most important.

Deep bows
Yugen


sat2day

[Tai Shi]

I never thought about it but You are Jundo Sensei. Thank you, Jundo. More to think about.

[Shoki]

There is a field and a wooded area next to my house that has become the neighborhood trash dump. Every so often I go out and clean up the beer bottles, candy wrappers, plastic bags, bricks, broken toys, building materials, etc. The other day I went out there and somebody dumped a large plastic tub at the edge of the woods. I just dumped all the junk in the tub and disposed of it the trash. So now I have a plastic tub that I can use for trash, mulch, weeds, etc. It's really nice with two rope handles. Win, win.

Gassho
Sat Today
James

[Myosha]

Hello,

What a blessing to find useful crap.

Lived in a high-rise apartment house on the Upper West side and what people threw away paid rent.


Gassho
Myosha sat today