Dear Treeleaf friends,
Jundo reminded me of a practise recently, which some of you might find helpful or even inspiring.
I am talking about Gathas. A former Treeleaf member had a wonderful way with Gathas and managed to remind us of their beauty and usefulness time and again through her own heartfelt compositions.
Since she left a few years ago, the whole topic has had less of a limelight spot, which is why Ango might be a good time to at least remind us of this aspect of our practise.
But what are Gathas?
Traditionally Gathas would literally refer to pre-Mahayana "hymns", "songs" or "verses".
In a Buddhist context, pithy excerpts of Sutra passages would also be called Gathas, but later on Chinese Buddhists luckily started the trend of calling some of their own compositions Gathas as well.
Gathas are usually just a few lines long and are composed in a way that makes them relatively easy to remember.
So writing a Gatha is not about putting loads of fancy words into written form, but rather to create something that can act as a gentle and poetic reminder of what is happening right NOW….the NOW can refer to particular times that the Gathas are pointing to.
Obviously a meal Gatha (as included in our beautiful Oryoki ceremony) makes most sense when chanted during the time of actually having a meal.
You can use traditional Gathas, or create Gathas yourself.
As long as your Gatha expression comes from the heart and is actually useful to you and your practise, not a lot can go wrong. After all, all is equally an expression of Buddha nature, and as such qualifies to be made the topic of a Gatha
Gathas can be wonderful "anchors" of the here and now and can also act as mindfulness lifebelts in the busy schedule of a modern individual's multitask existence.
A traditional Gatha example relating to using the bathroom is the following (this version is one from the Nebraska Zen center):
Bathing the body
Vowing with all beings
To purify body and mind
Cleansing without and within
Another Gatha example is related to the opening of Sutras (from the Village Zendo in Manhattan):
Gatha on Opening the Sutra
The Dharma, incomparably profound and infinitely subtle,
Is rarely encountered, even in millions of ages.
Now we see it, hear it, receive and maintain it.
May we completely realize the Tathagata's true meaning.
Why not give it a go yourself one of these days? How about a traffic jam Gatha? We find Buddha everywhere!
Please share your Gathas with us, so that we can all realise the Buddha Way together!
Gassho,
Hans Chudo Mongen
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Originally Posted by Daitetsu
) although my Plan B goaless goal is to create enough time between feeling anger and reacting to it. This "gatha" is fast and somehow makes the feeling of anger laughable 
Thank you, excellent reminder. 