SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (I) (ANGO BEGINS!!)

[Jundo]

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http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MAhR9rbvXCE/TU8QqAr4Z1I/AAAAAAAAAUk/ao4xdBuC0d4/s320/HATE+LOVE+-+LOVE+HATE.jpg

Treeleaf Sangha marks the start of our annual ANGO (90-Day Special Practice Season) and, next week, the start of our JUKAI (Undertaking the Precepts) training ...

Additional information on Ango and Jukai at Treeleaf here:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4041 (http://http://www.treeleaf.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4041) and viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4042 (http://http://www.treeleaf.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4042)

... by a series of sittings with the Xin Xin Ming, the Faith in Mind Verses (信心銘) ... one of the most cherished teachings in Zen/Chan Buddhism ... traditionally said to be the words of the Third Chinese Zen/Chan Patriarch Sengcan (鑑智僧璨) (though, even if likely not his words, and written by another fellow just a bit later, wonderful nonetheless).

The Xin Xin Ming presents, straight and true, our trust in the fundamental mind of Zazen ... Zazen on the cushion, and 'Zazen' in its boundless meaning off the cushion as well, in and as our sometimes easy sometimes hard life. Today, sitting before the ugliness and hardship of earthquake wreckage piled high in Japan ... broken homes, broken glass, hearts and lives ... we will sit with the opening words (Translated by Richard B. Clarke):


The Great Way is not difficult
for those not attached to preferences.
When neither love nor hate arises,
all is clear and undisguised.
Separate by the smallest amount, however,
and you are as far from it as heaven is from earth.


No complicated meditation instructions are needed, no intricate practices, just this simple way pointing directly to a still (even amid & as the turmoil and commotion) and illuminated mind of equanimity and wholeness. This is the Buddha mind available to all of us ... as all of us ... all judgments and frictions dropped away, the divisions of 'self vs. others and the world' dropped away ... even amid a world we sometimes do not like, and in the heart of life's struggles and strife.

What's more, this mind can come and go ... sometimes in a day, a single Zazen sitting, just a moment. In my talk, I also mention this poem attributed to Hui-Neng, the 6th Patriarch, pointing to how the Buddha Mind (though beyond coming and going) can come and go ...



Deluded, a buddha is a sentient being;
awakened, a sentient being is a buddha.
ignorant, a buddha is a sentient being;
with wisdom, a sentient being is a buddha.
if the mind is warped, a buddha is a sentient being
if the mind is impartial, a sentient being is a buddha.
when once a warped mind is produced,
buddha is concealed within the sentient being.
if for one instant of thought we become impartial,
then sentient beings are themselves buddha.


We will sit with this Xin Xin Ming over the coming days and weeks ... amid our lives of sometime ease and sometime difficulties, with the people and situations we seek and those we run from, the beautiful and the ugly ... all human judgments, resistance and separations.


What wholeness arises when all judgments and separations are dropped dropped away?


Please undertake the commitments and tasks of ANGO and JUKAI with this same attitude of dropping ... pushing ahead diligently, encountering both that which is easy and pleasing, and that which is hard or resisted ... with an attitude simultaneously transcending easy and hard, pleasing and displeasing. WONDROUS BUDDHA-MIND WILL APPEAR.



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.



www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-QLzzydWvw&feature=channel_video_title
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[Myozan Kodo]

Jundo,
Thank you. Good luck with your work.
Gassho
Soen

[Jundo]

Jundo,
Thank you. Good luck with your work.
Gassho
Soen

Ah, a typhoon kept our community team from any clean-up work today. Too dangerous to work in the wind and rain, they said. Oh well, just another thing we wish were not so, and is unliked. :cry:

Gassho, J

[Nenka]

Ah, a typhoon kept our community team from any clean-up work today. Too dangerous to work in the wind and rain, they said. Oh well, just another thing we wish were not so, and is unliked. :cry:

Ah, that's too bad. But even so, all the best to you and your team. :)

And happy first day of Ango to everyone.

Gassho

Jen

[Dokan]

Thank you Jundo for not only teaching us through your words, but your actions.

Gassho,

Shawn

PS - Posted to podcast (http://treeleaf.podbean.com/). Should show up in iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/treeleaf-zendo-podcasts/id417051167) shortly.

[Jiken]

Thanks for the teaching Jundo

[Myozan Kodo]

Sorry to hear that Jundo. What's it like, by the way, there on the ground? Is the place coming back to life? Or is it still a pile of rubble where you are?
Gassho
Soen

[Hoyu]

Even amid the rubble, birds and cicada sing!

Gassho,
John

[Dustin]

Thank you for this teaching Jundo.

Dustin

[Hoyu]

And happy first day of Ango to everyone.

Gassho

Jen
I second that _/_

[Yugen]

Thank you for the teaching Jundo

With deep appreciation and gratitude

Yugen

[Shui_Di]

thanks Jundo, for this Xin Xin Ming.

it's really interesting.

Gassho, Mujo

[ChrisA]

Gassho for that teaching, Jundo. As you can see, (http://www.treeleaf.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4144&p=60054#p60054) I've put it into practice immediately. The image of you in front of that rubble will be with me as I sit and walk and drive today.

[Jundo]

Gassho for that teaching, Jundo. As you can see, (http://www.treeleaf.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4144&p=60054#p60054) I've put it into practice immediately. The image of you in front of that rubble will be with me as I sit and walk and drive today.

Hi,

And once more it is important that such lessons as those of the Xin Xin Ming spelling out how to "sit Zazen right" are not in any conflict whatsoever with the view that "Zazen cannot be wrong (even when totally done wrong)" ...

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2783&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a (http://http://www.treeleaf.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2783&start=0&st=0&sk=t&sd=a)

... which, yes, has everything to do with the Xin Xin Ming's admonition to drop such things as "preferences" and views of "wrong and right!" ... which is how we sit Zazen right!! :shock:

Yes, a Koan!

Gassho, J

PS - What's it like, by the way, there on the ground? Is the place coming back to life? Or is it still a pile of rubble where you are?

Things are still a mess, devasted, north of Fukushima ... where I will get with our community group in about 2 weeks I anticipate. The clean-up is going slowly, plus the fishing industry (and much farming and local businesses) are wiped out by both the Tsunami and the pollution of the nuclear plant. So many are still homeless. Ibaraki Prefecture, our prefecture just to the south of Fukushima, is much less impacted, but there are still pockets.

[Myoku]

Gassho Jundo,
thanks for everything
_()_
Peter

[Dosho]

Jundo,

Thank you for this teaching...and for your efforts...in all things.

Gassho,
Dosho

[Kyonin]

Jundo,

Thank you for being there helping. Thank you so much for this teaching.

[Jundo]

Jundo,

Thank you for being there helping. Thank you so much for this teaching.

It is just a token. Frankly, the half day drive up there one way (the roads are still bad and often blocked around the reactors and such, so that it is not a simple drive to the areas impacted hard) and then back, the gas burned, makes it no more than a token effort for a few days here and there. Still, there are some very wonderful projects even for unprofessional volunteers who "drop in", like going through the remains of peoples fallen houses to try to pull out anything that may be of value ... old photos, legal documents, anything. Sometimes it is clearing mud which is everywhere. Then again, on a weekend like this (cause of the Typhoon), some folks here just did what could be done in the local community.

There are thousands of people helping from "weekend warriors" to hundreds of people full time who are true heroes ... some of whom even left their careers to devote themselves to the cleanup without a day off, living in tents. And it will take real professionals to clear the wreckage that still remains, not to mention rebuild. Folks are contributing, rolling up their sleeves, from the boy scouts to the army to temples and other religious groups to the Lions Club and the like, to even the Yakuza (turning ill gotten gains into "relief supplies, I suppose)!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/ ... TF20110325 (http://http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/25/us-yakuza-idUSTRE72O6TF20110325)

Gassho, J

[Hoyu]

Jundo wrote:
even the Yakuza (turning ill gotten gains into "relief supplies, I suppose)!
This actually doesn't surprise me. On of Kyoko's friend's husband works for the police in specific regard to the yakuza. He once told me that it was the yakuza who played a mojor role in fighting off bands of invaders after Japan was decimated from WW2. Lots of other interesting facts too. Surprisingly, he had a lot of respect for them considering it's his job is to arrest them!

Gassho,
John

[Rimon]

Trying to go beyond likes and dislikes, however deeply moved by both your teachings and your actions. Thank you Jundo

And happy first day of Ango to everyone

Rimon

[Ekai]

Thank you Jundo. It is great that you are doing what you can to help out with the clean up.

Thanks,
Jodi

[KellyRok]

Hello all,

Jundo, thank you! Beautiful things can come from even the most horrible of conditions.

_/_

Kelly/Jinmei

[Hogo]

Thank you.
Gassho.

[Shokai]

Thank you Jundo-oso, the broken tiles were beautiful

gassho,

[Geika]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jundo-- bows. I look forward to Ango with all of you!

[Kaishin]

Great start to Ango/Jukai.

[Heisoku]

Thank you for this teaching Jundo.
Best wishes in all your efforts,

[andyZ]

Thank you Jundo for the teaching. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

[Engyo]

Nothing to add; nothing to take away.
Just this.
Gassho,

[Shugen]

Gassho

Ron

[Risho]

Thank you Jundo sensei! I have felt much resistance this Ango.

Gassho,

Risho

[Ray]

Thanks for the teaching.

Gassho

Ray

[Jika]

gassho1