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Thread: July 3rd-4th, 2015 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI!

  1. #1

    July 3rd-4th, 2015 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI!

    The readings for today's Talk from Master Dogen's Shobogenzo-Kokyo (The Ancient Mirror) will be posted immediately below in this thread.

    Please 'sit-a-long' with our MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI, netcast LIVE 8am to noon Japan time Saturday morning (that is New York 7pm to 11pm, Los Angeles 4pm to 8pm (Friday night), London midnight to 4am and Paris 1am to 4am (early Saturday morning)) ... and visible at the following link during those times ...

    ... to be visible on the below screen during those times and any time thereafter ...

    LIVE ZAZENKAI NETCAST at GOOGLE+ IS HERE:
    CLICK ON THE TAB ON LOWER RIGHT FOR 'FULL SCREEN




    FOR THOSE NOT ALREADY MEMBERS OF THE CIRCLE WHO WISH TO JOIN TO SIT LIVE WITH A CAMERA, INSTRUCTIONS are posted AT THIS LINK. WE ARE NOW LIMITED TO 10 INDIVIDUALS WITH CAMERAS, BUT ANY NUMBER CAN WATCH LIVE 'ONE WAY' AND SIT-A-LONG VIA THE ABOVE SCREEN. IF JOINING WITH CAMERA, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR MICROPHONE IS MUTED:

    The Sitting Schedule is as follows:

    00:00 - 00:50 CEREMONY (HEART SUTRA / SANDOKAI IN ENGLISH) & ZAZEN
    00:50 - 01:00 KINHIN
    01:00 - 01:30 ZAZEN
    01:30 - 01:50 KINHIN

    01:50 - 02:30 DHARMA TALK & ZAZEN
    02:30 - 02:40 KINHIN

    02:40 - 03:15 ZAZEN
    03:15 - 03:30 KINHIN
    03:30 - 04:00 METTA CHANT & ZAZEN, VERSE OF ATONEMENT, FOUR VOWS, & CLOSING



    Our Zazenkai consists of our chanting the 'Heart Sutra' and the 'Identity of Relative and Absolute (Sandokai)' in English (please download our Chant Book at the link below), some full floor prostrations (please follow along with me ... or a simple Gassho can be substituted if you wish), a little talk by me ... and we close with the 'Metta Chant', followed at the end with the 'Verse of Atonement' and 'The Four Vows'. Oh, and lots and lots of Zazen and walkin' Kinhin in between!

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

    Chant Book (PDF)

    or

    Chant Book (SHORT VERSION HTML)

    I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU POSITION YOUR ZAFU ON THE FLOOR IN A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE NOT STARING DIRECTLY AT THE COMPUTER SCREEN, BUT CAN GLANCE OVER AND SEE THE SCREEN WHEN NECESSARY. YOUR ZAFU SHOULD ALSO BE IN A POSITION WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE COMPUTER SCREEN WHILE STANDING IN FRONT OF THE ZAFU FOR THE CEREMONIES, AND HAVE ROOM FOR BOWING AND KINHIN.

    ALSO, REMEMBER TO SET YOUR COMPUTER (& SCREEN SAVER) SO THAT IT DOES NOT SHUT OFF DURING THE 4 HOURS.


    I hope you will join us ... an open Zafu is waiting. When we drop all thought of 'here' 'there' 'now' 'then' ... we are sitting all together!


    Gassho, Jundo
    Last edited by Jundo; 07-04-2015 at 12:39 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  2. #2
    FOR TODAY's TALK:

    Soto Zen Teacher Kokyo Henkel explains the "basics" of Mirror Awareness very nicely …

    The true nature of mind is mirror-like awareness, always just reflecting what’s happening, whether we notice this or not. It never shuts off or stops functioning, even when we’re completely engrossed in conceptual thinking or strong emotions. A mirror just receives whatever object is placed before it, neutrally and naturally. It has no opinions about the object. The mirror doesn’t prefer red over blue, it doesn’t discriminate among these things, and yet it doesn’t block them out, reject them, or alter them in any way. It is just open receptivity, without adding any commentary. … All these qualities of the mirror are also qualities of the nature of mind, the naturally present open awareness of Buddha-Nature.

    … During zazen we can open to this receptive mirror awareness. If we try to look directly at it, try to grasp the mirror, we won’t be able to; we will only get to see our ideas of it reflected in it. Therefore the practice is, rather than trying to see the mirror, simply to be the mirror. If we try to be the mirror and also try to figure out what the mirror is, then such figuring is simply reflections on the mirror. It seems quite challenging to just reflect like a mirror, since we are so accustomed to discriminating, preferring, assessing, and getting caught up in the objects placed before us. Though it is challenging, it is also very simple, almost too simple for us to accept.

    One of the wonderful things about this mirror is that it isn’t just functioning during zazen while we are on our cushion. We take the mirror wherever we go, we can’t leave home without it. It’s always available, even in the busiest, most chaotic situ*ations. We always have the opportunity to step back, turn around and recognize the mirror in the background.

    http://sweepingzen.com/mirror-awareness-the-true-host/


    Many old stories and phrases on Mirrormind.

    The Platform Sutra tells of a competition of poems solicited by the 5th Ancestor Hung-jen in the search for a successor, His student Shen-hsiu wrote …

    The body is the Bodhi tree
    The mind a bright mirror stand
    Cleanse it with daily diligence
    See to it that no dust adheres

    This was topped, the legend goes, by this offering of the illiterate Hui-neng, soon to be the 6th Ancestor …

    Bodhi originally is no tree
    Nor the mirror a stand
    Buddha-nature is always pure and clear
    Whence can the dust come?

    Master Dogen comments, clearing things up …

    Throughout the universe in the ten directions, does there remain one speck of dust that is not the mirror? On the mirror itself, does there remain one speck of dust that is not the mirror? Remember, the whole universe is not lands of dust and so it is the face of the eternal mirror

    Remember, the eternal mirror under discussion now has a time of being polished, a time before being polished, and [a time] after being polished, but it is wholly the eternal mirror. … Before being polished the eternal mirror is not dull. Even if [people] call it black, it can never be dull


    That is Master Dogen, in Shobogenzo-Kokyo (The Ancient Mirror), where he sheds light on several old mirror stories in his Dogeny way (Nishijima-Cross Translation):
    https://www.bdkamerica.org/digital/d...enzo1_2009.pdf

    He begins his dancing non-reflections with this story …

    The master [Geyāśata] says:
    The great round mirror of the buddhas
    Has no flaws or blurs, within or without.
    [We] two people are able to see the same.
    [Our] minds, and [our] eyes, are completely alike


    Dogen polishes our understanding …

    Saying that this mirror “has no blurs on the inside or the outside” neither describes an inside that depends on an outside, nor an outside blurred by an inside. There being no face or back, [nor] “two individuals” are able to see the same. Minds, and eyes, are alike. “Likeness” describes “a human being”meeting “a human being.” In regard to images within, they have mind and eyes, and they are able to see the same. In regard to images without, they have mind and eyes, and they are able to see the same. Object and subject which are manifest before us now are like each other within and like eachother without—they are neither I nor anyone else.

    ---

    In the order of Zen Master Nangaku Daie a monk asks, “If a mirror is cast into an image, to what place does its luster return?”
    The master says, “Venerable monk, to what place have the features you had before you became a monk departed?”
    The monk says, “After the transformation, why does it not shine like a mirror?”
    The master says, “Even though it is not shining like a mirror, it cannot delude others one bit.

    Dogen illuminates …

    Just this moment is miscellaneous bits of utter delusion, in hundred thousand myriads of shining mirror reflections.

    ---

    Great Master Seppō Shinkaku on one occasion preaches to the assembly, “If you want to understand this matter,
    my concrete state is like one face of the eternal mirror. [When] a foreigner comes, a foreigner appears. [When] a Chinese person comes, a Chinese person appears.”
    Then Gensha steps out and asks, “If suddenly a clear mirror comes along, what then?”
    The master says, “The foreigner and the Chinese person both become invisible.”
    Gensha says, “I am not like that.”
    Seppō says, “How is it in your case? … If suddenly a clear mirror comes along, how will it be then?”
    Gensha says, “Smashed into hundreds of bits and pieces!”

    Dogen shines on …

    [B]... “one face” means[the mirror’s] borders have been eliminated forever and it is utterly beyond inside and outside; it is the self as a pearl spinning in a bowl. … To Seppō’s present words “The foreigner and the Chinese person both become invisible,”he might add, “and the mirror itself also becomes invisible.” … “ut why, when I have just asked you to give me back a concrete fragment, did you give me back a clear mirror?”

    … To insist that even when “the foreigner and the Chinese person are both invisible,” the mirror will remain, is to be blind to appearance and to be remiss with regard to coming.


    ---

    PLEASE LOOK INTO and OUT OF THE MIRROR!
    WHO ARE YOU?
    Last edited by Jundo; 07-03-2015 at 05:02 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  3. #3
    Mp
    Guest
    Thank you Jundo, I will be there live. =)

    Gassho
    Shingen

    #sattoday

  4. #4
    I'll be there/here live.

    Gassho
    Daizan

    sat today

  5. #5
    Hi guys.

    I don't know if I'll be able to make it live on time. If I don't, I'll sit this one over the weekend.

    Gassho,

    Kyonin
    Hondō Kyōnin
    奔道 協忍

  6. #6
    I'll be there, but perhaps not live, if my camera is still not working.
    _/\_ Shinzan
    sattoday

  7. #7
    Treeleaf Priest / Engineer Sekishi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Virginia, USA
    See you all soon.

    Gassho,
    Sekishi
    #sattoday
    Sekishi | 石志 | He/him | Better with a grain of salt, but best ignored entirely.

  8. #8
    I'll be there with bells on.

    Gassho,
    Dosho

    Sat today

  9. #9
    Joyo
    Guest
    Thank you for the reading, Jundo. I will try to make it for the last couple of hours.

    Gassho,
    Joyo
    sat today

  10. #10
    I don't think I can do four hours on my data modem without going over the limit, but I will sit at least with the beginning of the video tomorrow...

    Gassho
    Sierra
    SatToday

  11. #11
    At the airport, just about to head off to Japan, so will miss today's sit. Week after next, I'll be at Jundo's and will see you all from there!

    Gassho,
    Anshu

    -sat today-

  12. #12
    Mp
    Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Anshu Bryson View Post
    At the airport, just about to head off to Japan, so will miss today's sit. Week after next, I'll be at Jundo's and will see you all from there!

    Gassho,
    Anshu

    -sat today-
    Way cool Anshu! Give Jundo a hug from all of us! =)

    Gassho
    Shingen

    #sattoday

  13. #13
    Member Getchi's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    Between Sea and Sky, Australia.
    Ill be there, One Way please.

    If I drop out, ill just reconnect.

    Gassho,
    Geoff.

    AboutToSitToday.
    Nothing to do? Why not Sit?

  14. #14
    Participating.




    Gassho
    Myosha sat today
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  15. #15
    Joyo
    Guest
    I am sorry I had to leave early. It was an opportunity to practice the mirror as my kids were refusing to go to bed and my dog was acting wild so I had to go and help get things under control.

    Thank you everyone, thank you Jundo for the excellent talk.

    Gassho,
    Joyo
    sat today

  16. #16
    Thanks to all...whom I see as a projection of my screen as well as an image of myself...mirrored of course.

    Gassho,
    Dosho

  17. #17
    Great weekend to all!


    Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

  18. #18
    Treeleaf Priest / Engineer Sekishi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Virginia, USA
    Thank you all for practicing together. So good to sit together. Have a great weekend.
    Gassho,
    Sekishi
    #sattoday
    Sekishi | 石志 | He/him | Better with a grain of salt, but best ignored entirely.

  19. #19
    Member Getchi's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    Between Sea and Sky, Australia.
    Great, thankyou everyone!

    Good luck with the recital Jundo!

    Gassho,
    Geoff.
    Sat2day.
    Nothing to do? Why not Sit?

  20. #20
    Great to sit with you alll...have a great weekend

    Gassho
    #sat

    Enviado desde mi XT1008 mediante Tapatalk
    Thank you for your practice

  21. #21
    Mp
    Guest
    Thank you Jundo for a lovely talk ... to all of you for sitting and practicing together. Have a wonderful weekend. =)

    Gassho
    Shingen

    #sattoday

  22. #22
    Treeleaf Priest / Engineer Sekishi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Virginia, USA
    So I had a song from my childhood running through my head throughout the talk today. Given the Buddhist connection to "Shangri-La" aka Shambhala I thought I'd post it.

    1,000,000 apologies. Trigger warning: early 70's earworms and Burt Bacharach!



    I'm so sorry... I'll just let myself out.

    Gassho,
    Sekishi
    #hummedtoday
    Sekishi | 石志 | He/him | Better with a grain of salt, but best ignored entirely.

  23. #23
    Mp
    Guest
    Jundo ... I think Bodhi heard you about fluffy up the zafu, you can see hi doing it after zazen and before kihin at around 3:14 ... too funny. =)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...jOGLTw#t=11631

    Gassho
    Shingen

    #sattoday
    Last edited by Mp; 07-04-2015 at 05:23 AM.

  24. #24
    Thanks to all.


    Gassho
    Myosha sat today
    "Recognize suffering, remove suffering." - Shakyamuni Buddha when asked, "Uhm . . .what?"

  25. #25
    Metta to all.
    If our minds are the same, you must be all very confused now.

    I'll go water flowers, so we all feel better, shall I?

    Thank you.
    Gassho,
    Danny
    #sattoday

  26. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by Sekishi View Post
    So I had a song from my childhood running through my head throughout the talk today. Given the Buddhist connection to "Shangri-La" aka Shambhala I thought I'd post it.

    1,000,000 apologies. Trigger warning: early 70's earworms and Burt Bacharach!



    I'm so sorry... I'll just let myself out.

    Gassho,
    Sekishi
    #hummedtoday
    I believe this cracks the mirror.

    Gassho, J

    SatToday
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  27. #27
    Thanks to Jundo and all

    Gassho
    Meishin
    sat today

  28. #28
    Sitting this now.

    Gassho,
    Matt

  29. #29
    Sat with this tonight, confused a bit about some of the talk, but usually that means I am trying too hard and complicate things. Still a wonderful experience.
    Gassho
    Sierra
    SatToday

  30. #30
    Thank you all for sitting.

    Gassho,

    Kyonin
    #SatToday
    Hondō Kyōnin
    奔道 協忍

  31. #31
    Quote Originally Posted by Sierra529 View Post
    Sat with this tonight, confused a bit about some of the talk, but usually that means I am trying too hard and complicate things. Still a wonderful experience.
    Gassho
    Sierra
    SatToday
    Hah! If folks are not confused about some of the talk, then this is not Zen and folks are already enlightened, so nothing more to do ... would the last one out please shut the lights and close the door.

    Zen is confusing! Rather, people are already "confused" with delusion ... so Zen is "unconfusingly confusing"? That's why we mumble stuff like ...

    What is the sound of one hand clapping?

    Just don't know.

    Why did Bodhidharma come to China? The tree in the garden.

    Gassho, J

    SatToday
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  32. #32
    Thank you dear Sangha!
    Thank you for a wonderful talk Jundo

    Gassho
    Lisa
    sat today

  33. #33
    Quote Originally Posted by Sierra529 View Post
    Sat with this tonight, confused a bit about some of the talk, but usually that means I am trying too hard and complicate things. Still a wonderful experience.
    Gassho
    Sierra
    SatToday
    And by the way, ask some question if something is confusing. It help all of us to face these questions.

    Gassho, J

    SatToday
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

  34. #34
    Reflecting on this again now (pun intended) as it has been mentioned in other threads. This concept does sink into the bones after awhile... although it was difficult to understand completely at first, somehow being the mirror always quickly puts things into perspective when the mind is turbulent. Areas where the mirror needs to be polished come clear, but then, what speck of dust is not the mirror? Thank you.

    Gassho,
    Sierra
    SatToday

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