November 30th-December 1st Treeleaf Weekly Zazenkai

[Jundo]

REMINDER: PREPARATORY LESSONS (link) have been posted for our 2018 "AT HOME" 2-DAY ROHATSU RETREAT ... SCHEDULED FOR NEXT WEEKEND!

Hello All,

Please 'sit-a-long' with our weekly FRIDAY/SATURDAY 'LIVE FROM TREELEAF' 90 minute ZAZENKAI, netcast from 10am 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 on the following screen during those times and sit-a-long-able any time thereafter ...

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

FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO JOIN TO SIT LIVE WITH A CAMERA, A LINK TO JOIN WILL BE POSTED BELOW IN THIS THREAD ABOUT 15 MINUTES BEFORE START TIME. JUST CLICK AND JOIN. 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::

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

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 join us in the Chanting of the Heart Sutra (although please keep your microphone muted). You can download and print out the Chants we will recite at the following link (PDF):

Chant Book (PDF)

or

Chant Book (SHORT VERSION HTML)

Not everyone realizes that they can join in the Chanting of the Heart Sutra, Verse of Atonement and Four Vows (although we ask that you keep your microphone down). Please follow along with the Chant Book, and let your voice ring!

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

SatTodayLAH

PS - There is no "wrong" or "right" in Zazen ... yet here is a little explanation of the "right" times to Bow (A Koan) ...

The other video I mention on Zendo decorum is this one, from our "Always Beginners" video Series:

Sit-a-Long with Jundo: Zazen for Beginners (12) - Basic Zendo Decorum At Home
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...093#post189093

[Koki]

The months must be longer in Japan...November 39th ?





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[Jundo]

The months must be longer in Japan...November 39th ?

It is a Koan.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Koki]

LOL...and my response was a big SMILE!



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[Doshin]

I will be there with my boots on.

Gassho
Doshin
Stlah

[Meian]

I'll take November 39 ..... the days are moving much faster than I am lately. ;P

Gassho
Kim
St lh

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

[Onkai]

Thank you, Jundo. I will join, two-way, tech allowing.

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat

[Jundo]

I think this is the doorway

https://hangouts.google.com/hangouts...06458&hl=en_GB

[sosen]

Thank you Jundo & everyone, will join one-way

sosen
_()_
st/lah

[Doshin]

Thanks to all

Gassho
Doshin
Stlah

[Jakuden]

Thank you Jundo, Sekishi and everyone! Have a great weekend!

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH

[Nanrin]

It was a joy to sitting with you all this morning.

Gassho,

Maitri

St

[Onkai]

Thank you, everyone. It is always wonderful to practice together. Had a technical issue, but was able to resume. Have a great weekend!

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat

[Sekishi]

Thank you all for coming together to manifest Sangha.
Thank you dear dingle-doogle-dongle for transferring bits and bytes and supporting our practice these past years.

Gassho,
Sekishi
#sat

[sosen]

Thank you Jundo, and everyone, for sharing your practice today.

_()_
sosen
st/lah

[Beakon]

Thank you for sitting with me, O sangha. I was sitting with you dharma brothers and sisters 1-way tonight. There was a car alarm that was set off in the neighborhood while meditating. I was calm that it didn't even bother me There is a Winnipeg restaurant called 'Affinity: Vegetarian' that specializes in selling a vegetarian buffet, the owners and staff are Taoist. I like complimenting their food by saying "this food has good CHI!". They get flattered. One woman who I get along with likes to use a term called "spiritual nutrition". You get spiritual nutrition from doing spiritual activities, in her case going to her Taoist meetups. In our case, we get spiritual nutrition from doing our weekly Zazenkai. I feel MUCH better!

I wasn't ready for 2-way as usual, because dinner time ends around that time. I found that it was very hot in my suite, so I opened some windows to cool off the living room. There have been hotter times when I meditated, which begs the question: Have you ever tried a sweat lodge ceremony?

Sat Today-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay!

[Mp]

Thank you everyone.

Gassho
Shingen

Sat/LAH

[Meian]

My kids and my hyper dog always seem to come alive around 9pm. I'm hoping the noise in my home did not transfer to Zazenkai. :-)

Thank you for a lovely evening of sangha and community practice. I hope to participate in Rohatsu next week.

Bea kon, I have not been in sweat lodges but I do know Medicine Elders who lead them.

Gassho
Kim
St lh

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[Shokai]

Thank you all for your contributions to this zazenkai; that includes the dingle-dangle.
Have a great week.

gassho, Shokai

stlah

[Wabo]

Thank you, everyone. It's a pleasure to practice with you

Gassho, Yan

Sat

[Jundo]

Thank you, Yan. ... from Ukraine, not Russia.

Gassho Jundo

StLah

[Tairin]

The doogle dangle dongle appears to have been a success!

Thank you to the people and technology that helps bring this Sangha together.



Tairin
Sat today and lah

[sjlabat]

Good to see the tech is working
gassho
sean
sat,lah

[Teiro]

Thank you all for sitting with me.

Gassho
Christian

Sat Lah

[Washin]

Thank you Jundo, thank you everyone!

Gassho
Washin
sat

[Seishin]

Sat On Demand, thank you all.

[Kotei]

Thank you everyone.
Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Shinshi]

Thank you everyone!

This exercise meshes with my Ango objective of working with my Anger. Here are my thoughts.

I was watch the tides of my emotions ebb and flow if kind of feels like I have a reservoir or capacity for dealing with stressful events. Once that reservoir gets filled my emotions tend to strike hot and fast. Sometimes the thing that is the last drop, the last straw, the thing that triggers my emotion isn't even that big a deal - it is just that I have no more capacity and emotions flood out of me.

When working with horses there is this notion of emotional fitness. Different horses have different natural levels of emotional fitness. Some can deal with a lot without spooking, some will spook at the drop of a heat (literally!) but the point is that you can train a horse to gain emotional fitness. And for me, one of things that happens for me when I practice is that it helps me to train up my emotional fitness. It seems like my reservoir gets bigger, it takes more to make me overflow. Things like sitting, or nurturing seeds really help to build emotional fitness and provide more space to deal with stressors as they come up.

A couple more observations. One is that I am crazy good at pouring water into to my reservoir that doesn't need to be there. When something happens to me that can trigger other thoughts that add to total pool. And sometimes, particularly with anger, it will often make the problem much worse. Sorry to change metaphors but it is like feed a fire. This exercise has been really helpful in letting get some space to see when that is happening and too intervene is the process.

The last thing I have noted is that things that happen to me sometimes seem to have a emotional resonance to past negative experiences. It is like current emotion produces an harmonic vibe that sets off, or triggers, old issues or problems that maybe were never resolved. Old hurts or emotional wounds that vibrate in sympathy with the current experience. When that happens the old emotions seem to leech into my reservoir as well, once again diminishing my capacity and straining my emotional fitness.

So that are my thoughts today.

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH