July 21st, 2012 Treeleaf Weekly Zazenkai

[Jundo]

Hello All,

Please 'sit-a-long' with our weekly FRIDAY/SATURDAY 'LIVE FROM TREELEAF' 90 minute ZAZENKAI, netcast LIVE from 9am Japan time Saturday morning (that is New York 8pm, Los Angeles 5pm (Friday night), London 1am and Paris 2am (early Saturday morning)

... and 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

http://youtu.be/KrJB5Dtouu8

FOR THOSE NOT ALREADY MEMBERS OF THE CIRCLE WHO WISH TO JOIN TO SIT LIVE WITH A CAMERA, INSTRUCTIONS WILL BE POSTED FOR FUTURE WEEKS. WE ARE NOW LIMITED TO 10 INDIVIDUALS WITH CAMERAS, BUT ANY NUMBER CAN WATCH LIVE 'ONE WAY' AND SIT-A-LONG. IF JOINING WITH CAMERA, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR MICROPHONE IS MUTED:

00:00 – 00:15 CEREMONY (HEART SUTRA in English ONLY) and Dedication
00:15 – 00:45 ZAZEN
00:45 – 00:55 KINHIN
00:55 – 01:25 ZAZEN
01:25 – 01:30 FOUR VOWS & VERSE OF ATONEMENT

As you can see, our Zazenkai consists of chanting the 'Heart Sutra' in English (the words are at the link below), some full floor prostrations in sets of three (please follow along with me ... or a simple Gassho can be substituted if you wish), followed by our Dedication, Zazen twice for about 30 minutes each, with 10 minutes of Kinhin in between, and we end the sitting with 'The Verse of Atonement' and 'The Four Vows'.

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

Chant Book (PDF) (http://www.treeleaf.org/treeleaf_zazenkai_chant_book.pdf)

or

Chant Book (SHORT VERSION HTML) (http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?7032-Weekly-Monthly-Zazenkai-Chant-Book-is-Here)

So, please join us as soon as you can, and we will keep a Zafu open for you.

Remember, when we drop all thought of 'here' 'there' 'now' 'then' ... we are sitting all together!


Gassho, Jundo gassho1

[Mp]

Thank you Jundo ... I will see you later tonight for a live sit. :)

Gassho
Michael

[adrianbkelly]

I'll be there on Sunday morning!

_/\_

Ade

[Koshin]

I'll be there live, hoping the weather cooperates and there is no power outages because of storms

Gassho

[Dosho]

My internet has been out all morning, so I'm not sure if I'll be there. But if my internet connection is resorted, I will be.

Gassho,
Dosho

[Kyonin]

I won't be able to do it live. This one will be on Saturady morning for me. :(

[Dokan]

Celebrating my sisters' 50th tonight and so will do the recorded sit.

Gassho

Dokan

[Dosho]

Internet seems to be back, so I should be there!

Gassho,
Dosho

[RichardH]

I'll be here/there...


Gassho/kojip

[Thane]

Will watch the recording Sunday :)

[Dosho]

My thanks to Jundo, our sitters in Tsukuba, and all Treeleafers around the globe...deep bows!

Gassho,
Dosho

[RichardH]

Thank you!..

Gassho, kojip

[Jundo]

Thank you, guys. For some reason folks were not allowed in today. I will figure it out for next time.

Gassho, J

[Koshin]

Thank you Jundo and all sitters... my guess is that the Hangout started without inviting anyone, but with the live streaming option "on" :P

Anyway, it reminded me the old days of Justin TV :) Have a great weekend, and thank you all again

Gassho

[Yugen]

Thank you all.... just sat the zazenkai a few hours behind you. Gassho Yugen

[Jundo]

Thank you Jundo and all sitters... my guess is that the Hangout started without inviting anyone, but with the live streaming option "on" :P

Anyway, it reminded me the old days of Justin TV :) Have a great weekend, and thank you all again

Gassho

Hi,

Yes, for some reason, it looked like I was signed in properly via Treeleaf Hangout page, but it was my personal account. I will look more closely next time to avoid that.

Gassho, J

[andyZ]

Thank you Jundo, and to everyone who sat and will sit.

[Myozan Kodo]

Hi,
Sat today the recorded version. What a busy Zendo this week!
Gassho
Myozan

[Mp]

Thank you Jundo and everyone who sat ... always nice. :)

Gassho
Michael

[Myoku]

Gassho and thank you everyone!
Myoku

[Rich]

Sat live with the recording. thanks.

[BobSpour]

Many thanks jundo
just sat the recorded version

_/\_
bob

[adrianbkelly]

Thanks everyone!

_/\_

Ade

[Hans]

Hello,

just a quick thank you to all those who sat this weekend's Zazenkai. Your practise is inspiring many people.

All the best and gassho,

Hans Chudo Mongen

[Marek]

Thank you Jundo and all Treeleafers !

gassho1

[Jiken]

Many thanks Jundo and Treeleaf

Gassho,

Daido

P.S. Jundo you mentioned that the Soto tradition is moving away from zazen facing a wall? What is the background behind that?

[Jundo]

Many thanks Jundo and Treeleaf

Gassho,

Daido

P.S. Jundo you mentioned that the Soto tradition is moving away from zazen facing a wall? What is the background behind that?

Hi Daido,

Well, there is a modern and a historical reason. The main modern reason, in America anyway, is the influence of the Harada-Yasutani Lineage (through the Maezumi Roshi Lineage and others) who combine Soto and Rinzai Practices (I joke that they are "SINO's" ... SOTO IN NAME ONLY). They are a small group in Japan, but represent perhaps the largest body of Zen Teachers in America. They face into the room in the Rinzai Way.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Zazen_au_Centre_Europ%C3%A9en_du_Zen_Rinzai.jpg

Traditionally, Soto Zennies would "face the wall". I actually think it is better for less experienced sitters to do so, as it reduces the sensory stimuli, thereby facilitating calming the mind.

http://mettarefuge.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/monk-zazen.jpg?w=360&h=270

Perhaps I should do so more at Treeleaf Tsukuba, but our physical layout does not allow it for the middle section. Also, I believe that the sitters' "looking downward toward the floor" also reduces sensory stimulation, so the effect is about the same. For more experienced sitters, I do not believe that it matters ... and, in fact, we should develop the ability to sit anywhere, however noisy, busy or distracting.

I was surprised when, a couple of years ago, I conducted an unofficial poll among teachers who are members of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association of North America, and found that most of the Soto teachers seemed to be open to sitting either way.

Anyway ... the historical reason may be a mistranslation of Bodhidharma, regarded as the First Patriarch of Ch'an or the Zen tradition, and a writing long attributed to him (The Two Entrances and Four Practices) that used the term in Chinese "biguan/pi-kuan". Historian Heinrich Dumoulin discusses Bodhidharma's wall-contemplation.

"In an ancient text ascribed to Bodhidharma, his way of meditation is characterized by the Chinese word pi-kuan, literally wall-gazing or wall-contemplation. Except for the word pi-kuan, the same passage is found in a Mahayana sutra; it reads: "When one, abandoning the false and embracing the true, in simplicity of thought abides in pi-kuan, one finds that there is neither selfhood nor otherness, that ordinary men (prthagjana) and saints (arya) are of one essence." (Zen Enlightenment, p. 38).

The actual meaning of "wall gazing" may not be a literal "sit while gazing at a wall", but closer to "sit as if a wall seeing". Nobody really knows what the term originally meant however. The great Zen Historian Yanagida Seizan has (ala Shikantaza) interpreted the term to denote a sort of witnessing of the world with the steadfast detachment of a wall in which one “gazes intently at a vibrantly alive śunyatā (emptiness).”

So, whether facing the wall, or away from the wall ... just sit, without thought of in or out.

Gassho, Jundo

[Mp]

Hi Daido,

Well, there is a modern and a historical reason. The main modern reason, in America anyway, is the influence of the Harada-Yasutani Lineage (through the Maezumi Roshi Lineage and others) who combine Soto and Rinzai Practices (I joke that they are "SINO's" ... SOTO IN NAME ONLY). They are a small group in Japan, but represent perhaps the largest body of Zen Teachers in America. They face into the room in the Rinzai Way.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Zazen_au_Centre_Europ%C3%A9en_du_Zen_Rinzai.jpg

Traditionally, Soto Zennies would "face the wall". I actually think it is better for less experienced sitters to do so, as it reduces the sensory stimuli, thereby facilitating calming the mind.

http://mettarefuge.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/monk-zazen.jpg?w=360&h=270

Perhaps I should do so more at Treeleaf Tsukuba, but our physical layout does not allow it for the middle section. Also, I believe that the sitters' "looking downward toward the floor" also reduces sensory stimulation, so the effect is about the same. For more experienced sitters, I do not believe that it matters ... and, in fact, we should develop the ability to sit anywhere, however noisy, busy or distracting.

I was surprised when, a couple of years ago, I conducted an unofficial poll among teachers who are members of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association of North America, and found that most of the Soto teachers seemed to be open to sitting either way.

Anyway ... the historical reason may be a mistranslation of Bodhidharma, regarded as the First Patriarch of Ch'an or the Zen tradition, and a writing long attributed to him (The Two Entrances and Four Practices) that used the term in Chinese "biguan/pi-kuan". Historian Heinrich Dumoulin discusses Bodhidharma's wall-contemplation.

"In an ancient text ascribed to Bodhidharma, his way of meditation is characterized by the Chinese word pi-kuan, literally wall-gazing or wall-contemplation. Except for the word pi-kuan, the same passage is found in a Mahayana sutra; it reads: "When one, abandoning the false and embracing the true, in simplicity of thought abides in pi-kuan, one finds that there is neither selfhood nor otherness, that ordinary men (prthagjana) and saints (arya) are of one essence." (Zen Enlightenment, p. 38).

The actual meaning of "wall gazing" may not be a literal "sit while gazing at a wall", but closer to "sit as if a wall seeing". Nobody really knows what the term originally meant however. The great Zen Historian Yanagida Seizan has (ala Shikantaza) interpreted the term to denote a sort of witnessing of the world with the steadfast detachment of a wall in which one “gazes intently at a vibrantly alive śunyatā (emptiness).”

So, whether facing the wall, or away from the wall ... just sit, without thought of in or out.

Gassho, Jundo

Thank you for this Jundo ... mostly I sit facing the wall as that is the way I have it setup, but I also face out when I just sit in my everyday life. :)

Gassho
Michael

[Jiken]

Interesting. Thanks for the perspective.

Gassho,

Daido

[Myoku]

Interesting. Thanks for the perspective.

Gassho,

Daido

Yes, indeed, thank you Daido for bringing it up and Jundo for the info,
_()_
Myoku