Results 1 to 19 of 19

Thread: TREELEAF PODCAST

  1. #1

    Exclamation TREELEAF PODCAST

    Hello everyone

    Now that we´re done with the Vimalakirti Sutra series, we continue posting new Treeleaf Podcast episodes in this thread. Please make sure to subscribe here or check in for monthly updates.





    🙏🏼 Sat Today lah
    Last edited by Bion; 05-24-2023 at 07:07 PM.
    Bion
    -------------------------
    When you put Buddha’s activity into practice, only then are you a buddha. When you act like a fool, then you’re a fool. - Sawaki Roshi

  2. #2


    Tairin
    Sat today and lah

  3. #3

    Exclamation Treeleaf Podcast July 2022 Episode

    NEW TREELEAF PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE


    The July 2022 Zazenkai talk episode, on the teaching of 'Dharma Position', is now available
    HERE


    Jundo says:

    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    Today's talk is on a seemingly arcane bit of Buddhist Teachings, positioned well to aid us in living. I posted elsewhere today:

    "Dogen developed the Tendai and Lotus Sutra view of the "Dharma Moment" ("dharma" here meaning something like "event" or "happening" or "phenomenon"), each "fully exerting" as itself. The things and events of this world and our life, from the stars to smallest blade of grass or atom, all the changes and happenings of our life, are each a "Dharma Moment" in its own "Dharma Position" into which all space and time and Buddha pours and "comes to life" as that thing or moment. The result is that (together with the usual Mahayana Buddhist teaching that all the separate "selves" and things and happenings of this world are like dreams that are swept away in a vision of their "emptiness" of separate selfness), the whole of reality is reaffirmed and blossoming as each self and thing and moment ... which is thus each and all made sacred, each thing or moment now known as boundless and complete, as real as real can be, encountered as just the whole of this life and world happening, each timeless yet just this moment of its happening, each Buddha and each a shining jewel in its way that fully contains the "Whole Thing," the "Whole Catastrophe" that is our world.

    In other words, you have had some happenings in this world (now, as in Buddha's time or Dogen's time), some ups and downs, welcome or unwelcome, happy or so sad this week ... each Buddha, each Sacred, each Whole.

    ...

    But ... although each problem in this world can be honored and bowed to as a sacred jewel, whole and complete, just as it is ...

    ... that does not stop us in any way from getting busy to fix the problems that we can, stopping the wars, fighting the diseases, ending poverty, etc. etc. etc.

    We bow to each, honor each, see each as the whole world happening ... then get busy to fix what we can.¨

    Dharma Position is mentioned in the Lotus Sutra, "The Dharmas Dwell in their Dharma Position"(shown in the calligraphy below). It is an important teaching of Japanese Tendai Buddhism, from which Master Dogen first came, and seems to have been cherished by Dogen in his Zen teaching as well. An historian of Tendai (J. Stone) describes it as "meaning that the particular spatiotemporal events constituting a given moment are seen as the total manifestation of nondual reality." A famous Tendai teaching states, "The defilements and samsara, bodhi and nirvana, all [abide] in their inherent dharma position."

    Often, in Buddhism, it is thought that the phenomena of this material world are false, like a dream or mirage, when known in Emptiness. They might be compared to the optical illusion of seeing flowers floating in the Sky. However, Dogen said that the fake flowers in the sky are also real as our dream, a real dream:

    ¨[Those who misunderstand the Buddha's message] say, “the sky originally has no flowers.” How pitiful, that such types know nothing of the occasion, from beginning to end, of the sky flower spoken of by the Tathagata. ... they do not know that the vessel world “abides in its dharma position” because of the dharmas. They hold the view only that the dharmas exist because of the vessel world. (SZTP - Kuge)"

    In Sansuikyo, Dogen writes of mountains and waters, but could also mean any moment or things or happening in the world (Bielefeldt/Tanahashi/Nishijima):

    "These mountains and rivers of the present are the actualization of the word of the ancient Buddhas (are the actualization of the ancient buddha way). Each, abiding in (its own) dharma state (dharma position), completely fulfills its virtues (realizes completeness, each realizing ultimate virtue). Because they are the state prior to the kalpa of emptiness (before the beginning of time, before the sprouting of creation), they are living in the present. Because they are the self before the germination of any subtle sign (even before form arose), they are liberated in their actualization (emancipation realization, they are real liberation)."

    Josho Pat Phelan describes it this way:

    "Dogen taught that each thing, when it is completely and fully what it is, when it "attains its self," it manifests the absolute. ... Dogen’s understanding of dharma position is that it respects the uniqueness and individual characteristics of each thing while, at the same time, recognizing its inherent emptiness, which is the same for everything. Again, sometimes this is referred to as the intersection of the horizontal and vertical or the merging of difference and unity. Horizontal refers to the boundless, empty nature that characterizes all things. Again, this is to experience everything as Buddha, and maybe the way everything is experienced by Buddha. Whereas vertical refers to each thing’s individual features and uniqueness, which is expressed through its particular function. The ideal in Zen is to be able to move freely between these two perspectives. (http://www.chzc.org/pat66.htm)"

    In Moon in a Dewdrop, Kaz Tanahashi states, "The dharma position or state of being itself (hoi) at each moment ... carries entire time."

    In several writings by Dogen, "life/birth" is said to occupy its own Dharma Position, and death occupies its own Dharma Position. For example, in Genjo Koan, Dogen writes, "Life is a position in time; death is also a position in time. This is like winter and spring. We don’t think that winter becomes spring, and we don’t say that spring becomes summer." In a memorial to Dogen's deceased friend and teacher, Myozen, Dogen offered this teaching:

    " Here is a story. An ancient Buddha said, “Our body received birth from the formless, just like conjured shapes and images. The body and consciousness of phantoms originally do not exist. Actions leading to punishment and fortune are both empty, not abiding anywhere.” The teacher Dogen said: Put aside for now receiving birth. What is the meaning of this formlessness? Do you want to hear it? This Dharma abides in its dharma position, and the form of the world constantly abides. This is the principle that only a buddha together with a buddha can thoroughly fathom. ... Eihei-koroku 7-504]"

    Taigen Leighton comments on ...

    "Dogen’s frequent teaching about abiding in, or totally exerting [Gujin - Gu 窮 means “to penetrate thoroughly or completely,” and jin 功 is “to exhaust completely with nothing lacking”], one’s own Dharma position (ho-i), which is the totality of the present circumstances, including the multiplicity of effects of previous causes and conditions ... Dogen often emphasizes ordinary, everyday reality, such as the activities of daily monastic practice, as the locus of awakening and of the sacred, and the importance of not seeking liberation outside of the grounding of immediate everyday circumstances."



    "The Dharmas Dwell in their Dharma Position" [是法住法位] by Ishikawa Sodo, a noted Soto Zen priest of the 19th Century


    🙏🏼 Sat Today lah
    Bion
    -------------------------
    When you put Buddha’s activity into practice, only then are you a buddha. When you act like a fool, then you’re a fool. - Sawaki Roshi

  4. #4

    Exclamation Treeleaf Podcast August 2022 Episode Available

    NEW TREELEAF PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE


    The August 2022 Zazenkai talk episode, on ''Sankon Zazen Setsu: Three Kinds of Zazen Practitioners' by Keizan Zenji, is now available
    HERE

    Jundo says, in the original post :

    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    Our chat this month is on the Three Kinds of Zazen Practitioners by Keizan Jokin Zenji:

    ~~~~~~~~~

    Sankon Zazen Setsu

    The [natural] person whose zazen is of the most profound type has no interest in why the Buddhas appeared in this present world. Such a one doesn't speculate about truths which cannot even be transmitted by the Buddhas and Ancestors. She doesn't doctrinalize about [teachings such as] "all things are the expression of the self" for she is beyond "enlightenment" and "delusion". Since her views never fall into dualistic angles, nothing obstructs her, even when distinctions appear. She just eats when she is hungry. She just sleeps when she is tired.

    The person whose zazen is of a medium type forsakes all things and cuts off all [worldly] relations. Throughout the entire day she is never idle and so every moment of life, every breath, is practice of the Dharma. Or else she might concentrate on a koan, eyes fixed, her view in one place such as the tip of the nose. Considerations of life and death, going and staying, are not seen on her face. The mind of discrimination can never see into the deepest unchanging truth, nor can it understand the Buddhamind. Since there is no dualistic thoughts, she is enlightened. From the far past up to right now, wisdom is always brillliant, clear, shining. The whole universe throughout the ten directions is illuminated suddenly from her brow, all things are seen in detail within her body.

    The person whose zazen is just ordinary [JUNDO: yet anything but ordinary!] views all things [boundlessly] from all sides and frees herself from good and bad conditions. The mind naturally expresses the Actual Nature of all the Buddhas because Buddha rests right where your own feet rest. Thus wrong action does not arise. The hands are held in Reality mudra and do not hold onto any scriptures. The mouth is tightly closed, as if the lips were sealed, and no word of doctrine is spoken. The eyes are neither wide open nor shut. Nothing is ever seen from the point of view of fragmentation and good and evil words are left unheard. The nose [in equanimity] doesn't choose one smell as good, another as bad. The body is not propped up and all delusion is ended. Since delusion does not disturb the mind, [in this equanimity] sorrow and joy both drops away. Shaped just like a wooden carving of the Buddha, both the substance and the form are true. Worldly thoughts might arise [during Zazen] but they do not disturb because the mind is a bright mirror with no trace of shadows.

    The Precepts arise naturally from zazen whether they are the five, eight, the Great Bodhisattva Precepts, the monastic Precepts, the three thousand rules of deportment, the eighty thousand Teachings, or the supreme Dharma of the Buddhas and Awakened Ancestors. No practice whatsover can be measured against zazen.

    Should only one merit be gained from the practice of zazen, it is vaster than the construction of a hundred, a thousand or a limitless number of monasteries. Practice Zazen, just sitting ceaselessly. Doing so we are liberated from birth and death and realise our own hidden Buddhanature.

    In perfect ease go, stay, sit and lie down. Seeing, hearing, understanding and knowing are all the natural display of the Actual Nature. From first to last, mind is mind, beyond any arguments about knowledge and ignorance. Just do zazen with all of who and what you are. Never stray from it or lose it.
    [Anzan & Yasuda Translation, with small adjustments incorporating Masunaga and Kennett]

    ~~~~~~~

    For a few more comments by me, Jundo, on this:

    https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...l=1#post308460
    🙏🏼 Sat Today lah
    Bion
    -------------------------
    When you put Buddha’s activity into practice, only then are you a buddha. When you act like a fool, then you’re a fool. - Sawaki Roshi

  5. #5

    Treeleaf Podcast

    NEW TREELEAF PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE


    The September 2022 Zazenkai talk episode, in Special Celebration and Welcome of the Commencement of our 2022 ANGO & JUKAI Season, is now available HERE


    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    For Today's Talk, to Commence our Jukai & Ango Season .... Redemption, Icchantikas and 'Broken Ladles'

    A Soto Teacher in Australia, Hogen Daido Yamahata, has a little book with some very wise, often truly astonishing quotes (https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/hogen.html) :

    We are born anew only when we accept this actual world which is so miserable, imperfect, and rotten as the most perfect, irreplaceable, and infinite one.
    ...

    I find infinite meaning in hunger and thirst, the shedding of blood and tears, sorrow and joy, birth and death, disease and old age. A world without any problems or suffering or contradictions is as dead as a world made of vinyl and plastics which neither change their forms nor decompose in the ground.
    ...

    As the inevitable product of our ego, we now have wars, tragedies, precision instruments, political strategies, pollutions, multi-national corporations, and so on. This is the human world as it is.

    In such a world we shed our blood and tears, often against our will. In such a world our life is unfolding itself perfectly. Thus we practice the Great Way.
    ...

    I am sure that falling down into the karmic way is also meaningful for our lives. In order to wake up to our ultimate reality, we need first to lose our awareness of it. In order to find our true home, we must first travel the world. If we had continued to live in paradise forever, we would never have recognized the miracle of our life.
    ...

    You attempt to be better. In fact, there is no such thing as "better".
    ...

    I maintain that your present imperfect state is much much better and more full of grace than the perfect state you intend to achieve in the future. Our lives, as we are practising now, are better than anything we will gain in the future. Therefore, you should switch the centre of your being and your whole attention from your dreams of the future, and instead have your awareness on Here Now.
    ...

    I wonder why we are always avoiding and running away from the real purpose of life. I think is because of our anticipatory nature, a dream of something else, something better, than what one already is. This dream arises from our attachment to the ego. So we continue to roam about, motivated by our unconscious fixed idea that we dislike ourselves as we are.
    ...

    Rain or shine, good or bad, hopeful or hopeless, satisfying or unsatisfying; we must give up such poor judgements of ourselves. Please, just sit and sit and sit. Do not have any satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Just do it without any consideration for the effect.

    In traditional Mahayana Buddhism, a great debate occurred about whether there existed human beings who are Icchantika, lacking Buddha Nature, never to become Buddhas, without possibility of redemption. Master Dogen seems not to have subscribed to the idea Dogen, and in fact, may have celebrated our imperfection and the impossibility of redemption as the very place of our perfect liberation and ultimate redemption.

    In Genjo Koan, Dogen writes:

    Those who have great realization of delusion are buddhas; those who are greatly deluded about realization are sentient beings. Further, there are those who continue realizing beyond realization, who are in delusion throughout delusion. ... When dharma does not fill your whole body and mind, you think it is already sufficient. When dharma fills your body and mind, you understand that something is missing. [Tanahashi]
    In a section of Shobogenzo entitled Butsukojoji (Continuous development beyond Buddha)

    Master Koboku [] once said to an assembly of monks, “ ... O good Zen students! What is continuous development beyond Buddha? A single family has one child but he is lacking the six sense organs and missing the seven forms of consciousness. Such persons are called icchantika, beings who lack the seed of Buddha-nature. When they meet Buddha, they kill Buddha; when they meet an Ancestor they kill that Ancestor. Heaven refuses to accept them and even hell provides no gate for them to enter. Do any of you here have any idea of such people?” He went on, “That kind of person is dull-witted, always in a daze, and babbles foolishly in his sleep.”

    [But Dogen comments:] “Lacking six sense organs” means exchanging the pupils with the fruit of the Bodhi tree, the nostrils with hollow bamboo, and the skull with an excrement spatula. What is the principle of “exchanging”? It means a lack of the six sense organs. Since there is a lack of the six sense organs, we can pass through the blacksmith’s furnace as a metal Buddha, emerge from the ocean as a clay Buddha, and rise from the flames as a wooden Buddha.

    [This references a poem by Master Joshu:

    A wood Buddha does not pass through fire

    A golden Buddha does not pass through the furnace

    A clay Buddha does not pass through water

    A true Buddha sits in silence. ]

    What is “missing the seven kinds of consciousness” like? It is like a broken ladle. They kill Buddha when they meet Buddha, because when they meet Buddha they kill Buddha. If they try to enter heaven, heaven will be broken; if they move toward hell, hell is shattered. Whenever they meet someone they smile foolishly; they do nothing but walk around in a [dreamy] daze and talk foolishly in their sleep. This is the principle of “mountains and rivers are unique in themselves, and [the whole body of jewels and stone is smashed into a hundred bits and pieces.]” Reflect quietly on this saying of Zen Master Koboku and do not take it lightly.[NISHIYAMA, adjusted for Tanahashi and Nishijima-Cross]
    Finally, a poem by Dogen on Shakyamuni Buddha's moment of Enlightenment, under the Bodhi Tree, after years of hard practice, torturing the body, seeking extreme meditative states:

    After six years of bitter ascetic practice, He attained awakening in one sitting.

    Glimpsing the ground and arising, how laughable! What is this broken wooden ladle?
    Sat Today lah
    Last edited by Bion; 09-04-2022 at 02:05 PM.
    Bion
    -------------------------
    When you put Buddha’s activity into practice, only then are you a buddha. When you act like a fool, then you’re a fool. - Sawaki Roshi

  6. #6

    Exclamation NEW TREELEAF PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE

    NEW TREELEAF PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE


    The October 2022 Zazenkai talk episode, reflecting on Mirror Mind by Master Menzan from his Jijuyu-Zanmai, is now available HERE



    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    Today we will reflect on the 'Mirror Mind by Master Menzan' ....




    Menzan Zuihō (面山瑞方, 1683-1769) was a Japanese Sōtō Zen scholar and priest during the Tokugawa era. Menzan was the most influential Sōtō Zen writer of his time and his work continue to influence Sōtō Zen scholarship and practice today, especially regarding his interpretations and rediscovery of the works of Dōgen Zenji. Menzan was also involved in lecturing to the public and teaching laymen and laywomen meditation practice. One of his most famous works, the Buddha Samadhi (Jijuyu Zanmai) is addressed to laypeople and focuses on the teachings of Dōgen. We look at his presentation in Jijuyu Zanmai of "Mirror Mind," a lovely presentation of the mind of Zazen.

    ~~~~~~~~~

    Practice-enlightenment beyond unen (thought) and munen (no-thought) can be compared to the function of a mirror. A mirror reflects both beautiful and ugly things without distinguishing them. This is the natural function of a mirror. But the reflection, which may be beautiful or ugly, is not the mirror itself. The reflection is just a shadow of what is in front of the mirror. If you only see the distinction between the good and evil of unen (thought) and think it is your original mind, it is the same as if you were to grasp the reflection in the mirror and think it to be the mirror itself. This is a mistake. This analogy admonishes you not to get caught up in the distraction of thoughts. And yet, if you think that munen (no-thought) is your real mind and become attached to the condition
    of no-thought where neither good nor evil arises, it is the same as thinking that where no reflection exists is the mirror itself, and thus becoming attached to the backside of the mirror. If the mirror reflects nothing, it is the same as if it were a piece of stone or tile, the function of the light of the mirror is lost. This analogy admonishes you not to get caught up in dullness or muki (no good, no evil, no-thought, that which is neither good nor evil, but neutral). As you know, neither the reflection nor the backside of the mirror is the essential function of the mirror which, like that of the light, illuminates itself clearly. You must realize that the Buddha’s wisdom, like a great and perfect mirror, is far beyond the dichotomy of thought and no-thought.

    For example, when you sit in zazen, if your mind does not arise and function, and if you do not see anything, hear anything, or feel any pain or itchiness, you just stagnate in emptiness. On the contrary, if you see or hear something outside and think of it, or feel pain or itchiness, you just stagnate in the distraction caused by the dichotomy of subject and object. Both conditions are limited by delusory thoughts. Therefore, the Third Ancestor (Master Sengcan in the Xinxin Ming) said, “Neither follow after objects, nor dwell in emptiness.” You must study this point closely and understand clearly. Just illuminating color, shape and
    sound, etc., and not adding any discrimination, is the Buddha’s wisdom.

    The analogy of the mirror, however, is not perfect. Generally, we use analogies for making it easier to grasp reality by comparing it to something similar, because we are unable to show reality itself directly. You should understand that analogies are useful as far as they go, but that they do not show reality as a whole. For example, when you are asked what the sun is like by a person who was born blind, you might show him a metal basin to enable him to understand that the shape of the sun is round and say that the sun is like this. The person may hit the basin and say, “Aha! The sun makes a good sound.” You have to be very careful not to misinterpret analogies, or you will go astray. I use the analogy of the mirror just to show the relationship among nenki (arising-mind, thought), munen (no-thought), and the light beyond thought and no-thought. This analogy cannot be applied to the other details, since the mirror and the reflections of either beauty or ugliness are separate, and reflections are caused by the objects in front of the mirror. But, when our mind arises, good, evil, hatred, love whatever, are not separate from our own mind. Nothing comes from outside. The original light and our thoughts are not two. This is why I said that the analogy of the mirror was not perfect.

    ~~~~

    We must closely examine the so-called human mind. The human mind manifests as anger, ignorance, or greed. These three poisonous minds may be divided into good and evil. When they work in evil ways, anger brings about hell, ignorance brings about the realm of animals, and greed brings about the realm of hungry ghosts. ... When the mind does not function, the condition is known as muki (neutral). If you are attached to this condition, you will leave these three worlds or six realms of transmigration, and become a non-Buddhist or a Hinayana practitioner. You will never be able to attain buddhahood. This is because the attitudes of such people are all limited by the emotions and thoughts of illusory mind.

    The one-mind which manifests either as unen (thought) or munen (no-thought: -not good, not evil) must be something which is beyond these conditions. It must be the light which illuminates everywhere and is never clouded. As soon as you become clearly aware of this light, you will be released from the limitation of delusory thoughts, and the Buddha’s wisdom will be realized. This is called nehanmyo--shin (the marvelous mind in Nirvana). This is nothing other than jijuyu--zanmai. Shakyamuni’s six years of sitting, Bodhidharma’s nine years of facing the wall, (Dogen's Teacher) Zen master Tendo-Nyojo' ’s Shikantaza; all are examples of the practice-enlightenment of this samadhi.



    By the way, if you would like more mirror reflections, Tricycle published some of my reflections recently ...

    Mind as Mirror
    The mirror’s light and clarity holds and reflects the shapes of whatever comes.
    By Jundo Cohen

    https://tricycle.org/article/mind-as-mirror-zazen/

    also available here:
    https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...Mind-as-Mirror

    🙏🏼 Sat Today lah
    Bion
    -------------------------
    When you put Buddha’s activity into practice, only then are you a buddha. When you act like a fool, then you’re a fool. - Sawaki Roshi

  7. #7

    Exclamation NEW TREELEAF PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE

    NEW TREELEAF PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE



    The November 2022 Zazenkai talk episode, reflecting on Master Keizan's "Middle Way, Beyond Hope to Attain" and "No Entering, No Emerging Samadhi", is now available HERE


    Jundo says:

    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    Today's Talk is based on two recent essays by me, looking at Master Keizan's take on Shikantaza and Samadhi as presented in his Denkoroku. Here are a few excerpts:

    Keizan's Zazen of the Middle Way, Beyond Hope to Attain
    https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...Hope-to-Attain



    Keizan’s No Entering, No Emerging Samadhi
    https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...erging-Samadhi



    🙏🏼 Sat Today lah
    Bion
    -------------------------
    When you put Buddha’s activity into practice, only then are you a buddha. When you act like a fool, then you’re a fool. - Sawaki Roshi

  8. #8
    Thank you

    gassho

    risho
    -stlah

  9. #9

    Treeleaf Podcast

    NEW TREELEAF PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE


    This month's podcast episode comes from our Rohatsu retreat and it includes all the Dharma talks given during our 'ALWAYS AT HOME'
    Two Day 'ALL ONLINE' ROHATSU, by Revs. Kokuu, Koushi, Nengei, Onkai and Jinkan, on the topic of Menzan Zuiho Osho's "Jijuyu Zanmai". The episode is available HERE
    The talks are also available as standalone videos now on our YouTube channel, HERE


    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    Our Dharma Talks this time will feature Rev. Kokuu and Rev. Jinkan, presenting their first Teachings upon and in celebration of their Dharma Transmission in our Lineage.

    Other Talks will feature our newest ordained priests, Koushi, Onkai and Nengei, as their "debut" offering of a Talk to our Sangha (Please welcome and encourage them.)

    Each priest has their own personality and perspective on life and these Teachings, so it is always rewarding to hear and learn from their individuals insights and ways. Each will present their introduction to the following traditional Teachings, and will reveal this ancient wisdom in connection with our current and complicated life and times today.

    The text which will be the theme of our various Dharma Talks during this retreat will be below (please check back before the Retreat to print a copy)

    ~ ~ ~


    Readings for Talks are based on passages from Menzan Zuiho Osho's Jijuyu-zanmai (自受用三昧 - "The Self-Receiving-Employing Samadhi") Note that while 自受用 literally means "self-receiving-employing," and as a compound, 受用 means something more like "the samadhi of the self enjoying what is received."

    Menzan Zuihō (面山瑞方 1683-1769) was a Japanese Sōtō Zen scholar and abbot of the Zenjo-ji and Kuin-ji temples active during the Tokugawa era. Born in Ueki, Kyushu, Menzan was the most influential Sōtō Zen writer of his time and his work continue to influence Sōtō Zen scholarship and practice today. Menzan's scholarship was part of the Tokugawa movement of returning to original historical sources to revitalize Zen (復古. "fukko" - "return to the old"), especially the works of Dōgen Zenji. Before Menzan the works of Dōgen were not widely studied or put into practice, he helped revitalize the Sōtō school by analyzing and building on Dogen's writings. Menzan used Dōgen to promote a reform of the Sōtō sect, which included reforming the monastic code and meditation practice. Due to Menzan's efforts, Dōgen studies now occupies a central position in Sōtō Zen thought. Menzan wrote to advocate the use of the old Song dynasty monk's hall system, in which monks ate, slept, and meditated in one large monk's hall, rather than in separate rooms as was commonly practiced in Japan at the time. Menzan was the most prolific Sōtō zen scholar, having written over a hundred titles of detailed scholarship on monastic regulations, precepts, ordination, dharma transmission and philology. Menzan was also involved in lecturing to the public and teaching laymen and laywomen meditation practice. One of his most famous works, the Buddha Samadhi (Jijuyu Zanmai) is addressed to laypeople and focuses on the teachings of Dōgen.
    The full text of Menzan's Jijuyu-Zanmai is here (RTF file, Okumura Roshi Translation): https://terebess.hu/zen/JijuyuZanmai.rtf

    Unit 1-3 - Kokuu:

    The teachings of the Tathagata found in the various sutras have been classified as sudden and gradual, provisional and direct. These teachings contain various types of preaching since they were given according to the qualities of the people the Buddha taught. The true enlightenment of the Tathagata is not manifested directly in these sutras, since they are provisional teachings. Although the Buddha expressed his true mind in some Mahayana sutras, in many cases, the true teachings are no longer true because the commentators of those sutras and commentaries interpreted them with their ordinary discriminating minds and intellectual understanding. That is why it is said in ... the Ryógakyó [Lankavatara-sutra] it is said that the Buddha did not speak even one word during the forty-nine years he taught. From this, it should be clear that the true enlightenment of the Tathagata can never be grasped by words or by discrimination, nor by the illusory mind of ordinary human beings.

    When the Buddha was on Mount Ryóju [Vulture Peak] with his one million students, he picked up a flower and blinked, and the Venerable Mahakasyapa smiled. At that time, the Tathagata said to the assembly, "I transmit the shobogenzo nehanmyóshin (the store-house of the true dharma-eye, the incomparable life in Nirvana) to Mahakasyapa." This nehanmyoshin is the Tathagata's true enlightenment which preceeds language, discrimination, and illusory mind. This is also called the Jijuyu-zanmai which has been transmitted for fifty-one generations from [the Buddha] to Bodhidharma in India, down through the Sixth Ancestor, Eno (Huineng) in China, and to Eihei Dógen in Japan. The simultaneous practice-enlightenment of this samadhi is nothing other than kekkafuza (full-lotus sitting) which we practice today. ...

    Tentatively, this samadhi is called zazen [seated Dhyana] ... [but that is because] people who did not understand that what he was practicing was Jijuyu-zanmai [because] the posture of his practice was similar to that of the dhyana of the four stages and samadhi of the eight stages described by the Buddhist scholars of the time. …
    Unit 1-5 - Koushi:

    [S]ome hurry on their way to gain enlightenment by wrestling with koans. Some struggle within themselves, searching for the [ultimate] subject that sees and hears. Some try to rid themselves of their delusory thoughts in order to reach a pleasant place of no-mind, no-thought. Many other methods of practicing zazen were advocated by various teachers in the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties in China. But, it appears that fewer than one in a hundred knew the true samadhi transmitted by the Buddhas and Patriarchs.

    Koan practice started in Song dynasty China. There was no such practice during the time of Bodhidharma or Eno, the Sixth Patriarch. … It was established by and based on the biased ideas of the masters of the Song dynasty. … Searching for the subject that sees and hears is also useless. The harder you look for the subject, the more you will tire of wastefully struggling, since what is seeking and what is being sought cannot be separated. Understand that your eyes cannot see themselves. Arousing the mind to eliminate illusory thoughts is like pouring oil on a fire to extinguish it. The fire will blaze with increased strength. …

    … Those teachers in medieval times (Song dynasty China) thought that we are all deluded and that if we practice zazen, we could gain enlightenment as a result of the power accumulated by zazen practice. They also thought that after gaining enlightenment, there would be no further need to practice zazen. They compared it to a boat which is no longer necessary once the other shore is reached.
    People in the present day often practice zazen in this manner. … They aspire to rid themselves of delusions and to gain enlightenment; to eliminate illusory thoughts and to obtain the truth. This is nothing but creating the karma of acceptance and rejection. Such an attitude is just another form of dualism, in that one escapes from one thing and chases after another. … In the last several hundred years, a great many have adhered to this attitude, both in China and Japan. All mistake a broken piece of tile for gold ...
    Unit 1-7 - Nengei:

    Now I will explain in detail the way to clarify and rely on this samadhi. This is done simply by not clouding the light of your [True] Self. When the light of the [True] Self is clear, you follow neither konchin (dullness) nor sanran (distraction). The Third Patriarch said, "When the cloudless light illuminates itself, there is no need to make mental struggle, there is no waste of energy." This is the vital point of the practice and enlightenment of this samadhi. "The cloudless light illuminates itself" means the light of the Self shines brightly. "Not to make mental struggle" means not to add the illusory mind's discrimination to the reality. When you make mental struggle, the light becomes illusory mind and brightness becomes darkness. If you do not make mental struggle, the darkness itself becomes the Self illumination of the light. ... [Then, for example] it is like the light of the sun or the moon illuminating everything-mountains and rivers, human beings and dogs, etc. equally, without differentiation or evaluation. Also, a mirror reflects everything without bothering to discriminate. …

    Mumyo (fundamental delusion) is called illusory mind. ... It is our discriminating mind which obstinately clings to body, mind, the world, and all things, as being the way we have perceived and recognized them until now. For example, although something good is not always good, we hold stubbornly to what we think is good. Something evil is not always evil, yet we become attached to our own judgement and make it a preconception. Even if you think something is good, others may think it is evil. ... [F]undamentally such judgements merely accord with illusory mind which manifests itself in the form of one's own knowledge, views, and experiences. This is true not only of our judgements about good and evil, but also our views about being and non-being, hatred and love» etc. ... All these differentiations regarding all existence arise from illusory mind. ...

    ... Originally, all beings are outside of illusory mind and are beyond evaluation or differentiation. You must realize this clearly and without any doubt.
    Unit 2-3 - Onkai:

    The one-mind which manifests either as unen (thought) or munen (no-thought-no good, no evil) must be something which is beyond these conditions. It must be the light which illuminates everywhere and is never clouded. As soon as you become clearly aware of this light, you will be released from the limitation of delusory thoughts, and the Buddha's wisdom will be realized. This is called nehanmyo- shin (the marvelous mind in Nirvana). This is nothing other than jijuyu-zanmai. ... Practice-enlightenment beyond unen and munen can be compared to the function of a mirror. A mirror reflects both beautiful and ugly things without distinguishing them. This is the natural function of a mirror. But the reflection, which may be beautiful or ugly, is not the mirror itself. The reflection is just a shadow of what is in front of the mirror.

    … if you think that munen (no-thought) is your real mind and become attached to the condition of no-thought where neither good nor evil arises, it is the same as thinking that where no reflection exists is the mirror itself, and thus becoming attached to the back¬side of the mirror. If the mirror reflects nothing, it is the same as it were a piece of stone or tile, the function of the light of the mirror is lost. This analogy admonishes you not to get caught up in dullness or muki (no good, no evil, no-thought). As you know, neither the reflection nor the backside of the mirror is the essential function of the mirror which, like that of the light, illuminates itself clearly. You must realize that the Buddha's wisdom, like a great and perfect mirror, is far beyond the dichotomy of thought and no-thought. For example, when you sit zazen, if your mind does not arise and function, and if you do not see anything, hear anything, or feel any pain or itchiness, you just stagnate in emptiness. On the contrary, if you see or hear something outside and think of it, or feel [and become attached to] pain or itchiness, you just stagnate in the distraction caused by the dichotomy of subject and object. Both conditions are limited by delusory thoughts. Therefore, the Third Patriarch said, "Neither follow after objects, nor dwell in emptiness.
    Unit 2-5 - Jinkan:

    At this point, we must understand thoroughly that body, mind, and the world (time and space) are all one. Only if illusory mind is dropped off, will body, mind and world not be separate from one another. Fundamentally, there is only one universal dharma world in which all things permeate each other. …

    Therefore, when you emit the original light which is beyond the dimension of thought and illuminate illusory mind, then body, mind, and the world becomes the Vairocana Tathagata. This is the meaning behind the saying, "When the light quietly illuminates the whole universe, ordinary beings, and all other living beings are just one family."

    The original face of body, mind, and the world is beyond any definition derived from thought and discrimination such as being destroyed, not being destroyed, following or transcending the principle of appearance and disappearance, etc..

    For this reason, when everything is clearly illuminated by the light of the Buddha's awareness beyond thought and discrimination, and when body, mind and the world (mountains, rivers, and the great earth) are not considered as existing separately, there is no distinction between inside and outside (subject and object). There is no separation whatever between body, mind, and the world. It is like air mixed with air, or water mixed with water.

    There is an old saying which expresses this same meaning. "If one truly realizes the mind, there is not one inch of extra land on the great earth." We can equally say that if one truly realizes the earth, there will not be an inch of thought in our mind. That is why Shakyamuni, on attaining the Way, said, "The earth, living beings, and non-living-beings and I have all attained the Way at the same time." This also expresses the reality of body, mind, and the world being just one.


    Menzan Zuihō (面山瑞方, 1683–1769)
    Sat Today lah
    Last edited by Bion; 12-10-2022 at 11:50 PM.
    Bion
    -------------------------
    When you put Buddha’s activity into practice, only then are you a buddha. When you act like a fool, then you’re a fool. - Sawaki Roshi

  10. #10
    Thank you Bion!

    Gassho, Shinshi

    SaT-LaH
    空道 心志 Kudo Shinshi
    I am just a priest-in-training, any resemblance between what I post and actual teachings is purely coincidental.
    E84I - JAJ

  11. #11
    Thank you Bion

    Gassho,
    Koushi
    STLaH
    理道弘志 | Ridō Koushi

    Please take this novice priest-in-training's words with a grain of salt.

  12. #12
    Thank you Bion! Is the Trealeaf podcast available on Spotify or is it only on Podbean?

    Gassho, Kiri
    Sat
    希 rare
    理 principle
    (Nikolas)

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Kiri View Post
    Thank you Bion! Is the Trealeaf podcast available on Spotify or is it only on Podbean?

    Gassho, Kiri
    Sat
    Hi Kiri,

    https://open.spotify.com/show/6SHDZV...urce=copy-link

    It is on Spotify also.

    stlh

    Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
    My life is my temple and my practice.

  14. #14
    Hey Meian!

    So this is The Zen of Everything Podcast. Put it doesn't include the Treeleaf Podcast episodes, right? Am I missing something?

    Gassho, Kiri
    希 rare
    理 principle
    (Nikolas)

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Kiri View Post
    Hey Meian!

    So this is The Zen of Everything Podcast. Put it doesn't include the Treeleaf Podcast episodes, right? Am I missing something?

    Gassho, Kiri
    Hi Kiri. It is not yet available on Spotify. It is on Apple Podcasts though..

    Sat today lah
    Bion
    -------------------------
    When you put Buddha’s activity into practice, only then are you a buddha. When you act like a fool, then you’re a fool. - Sawaki Roshi

  16. #16

    Exclamation NEW PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE

    Hello, friends

    A new episode of our Treeleaf Zendo Podcast is now available on all podcasting platforms. This one is an audio recording of an article by Jundo titled "The 'Inner Switch' Of Zazen". You can find this episode HERE or on the podcasting platform you usually use.



    The essay by Jundo, is below:

    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    Maybe thirty years ago, on the third or fourth day of a week long Rohatsu Sesshin at Sojiji, the traditional winter Retreat at Soto-shu's head temple, I was feeling bored, homesick, a bit irritated and my back hurt. I was cold and lonely, tired and distracted, while time was dragging like molasses. Woken up at 4am in the dark and cold, followed by hours staring at a wall, shivering and knees complaining, days still to survive, missing my family and the cat, longing for my warm bed at home ... It would not take Freud to figure out the causes. I was pretty miserable.

    "So," I thought, "I wonder what might happen if I just try to be the opposite?"

    Let me take on the actor's role of being something and somebody else.

    Suddenly, I found that I had a kind of inner switch, one with which I could "pretend" that I was totally at home, content, feeling like there is no other place to be, lovin' it. I simply remembered what all of that good stuff feels like from other times in my life, stored as body memory somewhere deep down, summoned up those sensations and then was actually feeling them. I very much just played the part of being thoroughly fulfilled in the moment, comfortable, centered, peaceful and at rest, energized and right at home ...

    ... AND SUDDENLY I WAS!

    I had entered into the imagined role of "satisfied sitter" like a Shakespearean thespian entering into the heart of Hamlet, actually embodying Hamlet. I recalled what equanimity, fearlessness and joy feel like, from somewhere in my recesses, and I was flooded with each of those too, as true as true can be.

    Then I played with flipping the switch back and forth a bunch of times ... bored ... content ... restless ... comfortable ... distracted ... centered ... sad ... joyous ... resistant ... equanimous ... homesick ... right at home. I even dabbled with bliss and ecstasy, followed by misery and terror. I could go instantly from being one way to the other and back again, like flipping a switch. And in discovering that I had this inner switch, I found that the whole experience was greatly up to me. Suddenly, I was cruising that Sesshin! ... smooth sailing ... 'in the zone.' Oh, it was still cold, and my back still hurt, but even those things were somehow okay.

    The lesson here is that sitting Sesshin is like an empty container, some bland ingredient like Tofu, that can be decorated or flavored as our heart decides. The experience is bad if you make it bad ... it is whole, complete, fulfilling and welcoming if our heart makes it so. Such is the power of the mind. In an instant, that Sesshin was the only place in the whole world, the entire universe, where I would want to be, and there was nothing else to wish for. In fact, so much of all life is like a neutral canvas to which we add our judgments and reactions, coloring it by our feelings. I could have died right there without complaint. It was like finding a button to turn hell into heaven and back again.

    Now, as a Zen fellow, I made some choices about which buttons to push, and how to adjust the settings: I choose equanimity and contentment over feelings of bliss and ecstasy, knowing that those latter states are not someplace I could or would wish to live for long. I choose acceptance of the situation, and the body's pain, rather than trying to change those, knowing that they could not be escaped short of leaving, either the temple or the ordinary world. Deep deep concentrated meditators can go to such realms where physical pain vanishes, but I would find that no more appealing than diving into morphine and life's dead-end. I will save that for my final cancer bed. Much better is to be content and at home in life's little discomforts and pains, letting them be, paying them no nevermind even though not fun.

    There was a "fake it till ya make it" attitude toward some of it, but I really made it. The human mind has such amazing powers when we let it find its wisdom, one reason perhaps that our ancestors were seemingly as happy and content in their short and trying lives as modern folks, and perhaps more so, despite relative physical hardships (dentists but no novocaine!) and material lack that most of us can barely imagine. One aspect of a traditional Zen Sesshin is that we return for a time to living rather like people of the 13th century. That is probably harder for 21st century us to do, given all the media and modern machines, comforts and conveniences that we must leave behind today to enter the monastery gates. 13th century monks did not miss their smart phones and air conditioned homes, not a bit, because nobody had them, or even a dream of them. Studies have shown that we feel more pain today because we expect and demand to be free of pain that much more, and are less tolerant of discomforts than the people of old.

    And here's the kicker, a nice little twist:

    We Soto Zen folks sit Zazen, like Master Dogen taught, with the hope and expectation that eventually "bodymind will drop off." Then everything will be good, and all this sitting will have its pay-off. Meditators of all kinds engage in practice in search of an inner transformation, in which their "little self" with its demands and frustrations, desires and discontents will finally be tamed, and they will know peace and happiness instead. We expect the dropping away and transformation to come first, an effect of sitting, with the good feelings and liberation to follow. It's something like thinking that we must first head to the gym, do the exercise, grow our muscles, and then health and strength will follow.

    But in Zazen, the opposite can also be true.

    Namely, by sitting with a heart emulating the peace, contentment and rest of a Buddha, we actually come to embody Buddha. Because we feel contentment, equanimity, a lack of demands and desires, the "little self" is put out of a job, is tamed and tempered. It truly rests in its struggles, pauses in its running and seeking. Suddenly, as the frictions and demands on the world evaporate, the hard borders of "self" and "the rest of the world" soften and evaporate too. Dropped off is bodymind. It is almost as if, by summoning the feeling within that we already have health and strength, the big muscles begin to grow, then push-ups and bench presses follow, after which we head to the gym.

    It is for this very reason that there is a vital ingredient to Shikantaza "Just Sitting" Zazen, an aspect that, unfortunately, gets left out of so many descriptions and instructions for Zazen which merely emphasize the "sit in a balanced way, breathe naturally, let thoughts go" parts (although those are all vital too.) Also vital is that we sit in radical equanimity, summoning the feeling and conviction deep in the bones that Zazen is a whole and complete doing, a sacred doing. In fact, we sit with the sense that this is a doing of "non-doing" in which Zazen is so complete that there is nothing left undone, nothing more that can be done, nothing more that need be done, but sitting in the time of sitting. As counter-intuitive as it may sound, by calling up the feeling within our hearts that Zazen and all life are truly goalless and complete, all is rendered goalless and complete. Q.E.D.

    Just Sitting, we must believe, is the doing of the Buddha and Ancestors, complete and whole even before it began. If we leave this confidence out (and, unfortunately, many popular Zazen or so-called "Shikantaza" instructions do) we are leaving the fuel out of the rocket. One must sit with the conviction, deep in the bones, that there is not one drop lacking, no other place to be during the time of sitting, no hole in need of filling, just by sitting. In doing so while sitting for a time, even time and measure drop away, all demands drop away, and one truly tastes the rest, satisfaction, wholeness and contentment of a Buddha sitting. The actor playing Buddha becomes Buddha, and realizes that they and all things, people and moments always have so been. Then, getting up from the cushion and back to the complex world, it is time to seek to live accordingly.

    So, I recommend that you find this same inner switch within you, if not during a long Sesshin, then even during your next Zazen sitting. Play with it, see if you can get it to work too. Toggle back and forth. Getting off the cushion, it is an inner switch which I have made use of at every subsequent retreat, not to mention the many other not so fun times of life ... in the cancer hospital with fear, when life went wrong and dreams evaporated, when there was loss. I emphasize again that the trick is not to pretend that the scary or sad times are just blissful, fun or happy. That's a short term solution at best, a fool's comedy, a running from life at worst. It is not a switch that cures all that ails this world, even as we know the world quite differently. But we can find the acceptance, allowing, flowing, non-resisting peace of a Buddha within.

    For it is within you all along.


    Gassho, J

    stlah

    🙏🏼 Sat Today lah
    Bion
    -------------------------
    When you put Buddha’s activity into practice, only then are you a buddha. When you act like a fool, then you’re a fool. - Sawaki Roshi

  17. #17

    TREELEAF PODCAST

    Hello, friends

    Our newest Treeleaf Podcast episode, based on the June monthly zazenkai talk, is now available for streaming on all podcasting platforms. This time around, Jundo tackles the Nyorai Zenshin fascicle of master Dogen's Shobogenzo, in a jazzy performance. You can also listen
    HERE


    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post
    From my book, THE ZEN MASTER'S DANCE: A Guide to Understanding Dōgen and Who You Are in the Universe ...

    https://wisdomexperience.org/product...masters-dance/

    A modern jazz musician like saxophonist John Coltrane, by taking the basic melodies and themes of the standard score, by bending and turning them inside out, changing the beat and going to unchartered places, squeezes amazing sounds and fresh discoveries out of the wellworn original. ... Dōgen does the same in imaginatively re-expressing ancient teachings. Sometimes with Dōgen and Coltrane it is the sound, man, and the hinted implications, more than the straight meaning. People often get tangled in Dōgen’s style because they constantly look for Dōgen’s intellectual and philosophical meaning in every phrase. They shut the book in frustration or think that Dōgen was pulling the wool over people’s eyes. However, although I believe that Dōgen was often trying to impress his listeners with a “hot” set of startling phrases, I don’t think that he was ever just putting on a show. He said what he meant, and meant what he felt. Dōgen was being true to the Buddha’s sound. With Dōgen, we have to learn to feel the music more than to intellectually understand the score.

    It’s not just Coltrane or jazz: Picasso and the other modern visual artists took the concrete image of a table, a human face, or a guitar and, by pulling apart the pieces and reassembling them in unexpected ways, led us to discover new insights into ordinary table-ness, face-icity, and guitar-ism.

    ... Some 700 or so years before these modern folks, Dōgen had the equivalent approach, taking “standard” Mahayana Buddhist teachings, fanciful but traditional Buddhist images, and “samples” of quotes from well-known stories related to his intended topics, tearing them apart, and tossing all back together again, remixing them, in order to discover and uncover new feelings, sounds, implications, visions, and Wisdom, all in what was often pretty wild imagery to start with!

    To me, Master Dōgen was “blowing his Shōbōgenzō-sax”—riffing, rockin’, rollin’, ranting, and roof-raising by expressing-folding-bending-fractalizing-unfolding-straightening-teasing-releasing the “standard tunes” of the sutras and old koans. The untrained ear can’t always make heads nor tails of the complex rhythms, flying notes, wild tempos—maybe sometimes even Dōgen himself could not grab hold of the animal he was creating—but I know that he felt what he meant, and that he knew that the creature he was fashioning had life.
    ~ ~ ~


    SHOBOGENZO NYORAI-ZENSHIN (The Buddha Whole Body):

    ONCE, ON VULTURE PEAK in Rajagraha, Shakyamuni Buddha said to Bhaishajyaraja Bodhisattva Mahasattva [Bodhisattva Medicine King]:

    Bhaishajyaraja, wherever a sutra is expounded, read, chanted, copied,
    or kept, a seven-treasure stupa, tall, wide, and solemn, is erected, but
    do not enshrine the Buddha’s relics in it. The reason is that a stupa
    embodies the Tathagata’s entire body. Make offerings of all sorts of
    flowers, incense, jewels, canopies, banners, music, and chanting verses
    to respect, revere, and admire the stupa. When people see this stupa,
    bow, and make offerings to it, they know that they are closer to
    unsurpassable, complete enlightenment.

    In this way, a sutra is expounded, read, chanted, and copied. A sutra is reality. To build a seven-treasure stupa is to build reality. The stupa’s height and breadth are the scale of reality. A stupa embodies the Tathagata’s entire body means a stupa is the Tathagata’s entire body.

    Thus, expounding, reading, chanting, copying, and so on, are the Tathagata’s entire body. Make offerings of all sorts of flowers, incense, jewels, canopies, banners, music, and chanting verses to respect, revere, and admire the stupa. Or, offer heavenly flowers, heavenly incense, and heavenly canopies, and so on. These are all marks of reality. Or, offer excellent flowers, excellent incense, renowned robes, and renowned garments of the human realm. These are all marks of reality.

    A stupa is erected, but do not enshrine the Buddha’s relics in it: from this we know that a sutra is the relics of the Tathagata, the entire body of the Tathagata.

    There is no greater merit than seeing and hearing golden words uttered by the Buddha. Hurry up and accumulate effort and virtue. When you see people bow and make offerings to the stupa, know that they are closer to unsurpassable, complete enlightenment. When you see the tower, sincerely bow and make offerings to it. Thus, all come closer to unsurpassable, complete enlightenment. Closer to is not come close to or go close to. Unsurpassable, complete enlightenment is all closer to.

    Right now, when you see those who receive, chant, elucidate, and copy a sutra, you are seeing this stupa. Rejoice that all are close to unsurpassable, complete enlightenment.

    This being so, a sutra is the Tathagata’s entire body. To bow to a sutra is to bow to the Tathagata’s entire body. To encounter a sutra is to encounter the Tathagata’s entire body.

    A sutra is the relics of the Tathagata. So, the relics of the Tathagata are a sutra. Even if you know that a sutra is the relics of the Tathagata, if you don’t know that the relics of the Tathagata are a sutra, it is not the buddha way.

    The reality of all things right now is a sutra. Human realms, deva realms, ocean, empty space, this land, and other lands are the reality of all things, a sutra, relics. Hold, chant, elucidate, and copy the relics and unfold enlightenment. This is to follow a sutra.

    There are relics of ancient buddhas, present buddhas, pratyeka-buddhas, wheel-turning kings, and lions [kings of dharma], and there are relics of wooden buddhas and painted buddhas. There are also relics of humans.

    Nowadays, among buddha ancestors in China, there are those who manifest relics while they are alive, and there are many who manifest relics after being cremated. Such relics are all sutras.

    Shakyamuni Buddha said to the assembly, “I practiced the bodhisattva path in my past life. The long life I have achieved by this has not been exhausted. My life span will be doubled in my future life.”

    The relics of eighty-four to [approximately twenty-five bushels] are no other than the Tathagata’s timeless life. How much is the life span of one who practiced the bodhisattva path in the past life beyond the boundary of the billion worlds? This is the Tathagata’s entire body, a sutra.

    Prajna Kuta Bodhisattva said [in the Lotus Sutra], “I see that Shakyamuni Buddha was engaged in difficult and painful practice through innumerable eons, piling up effort, accumulating virtue, and ceaselessly pursuing the bodhisattva path. When I observe the billion worlds, there is not even a poppy seed that is not a place where this bodhisattva gave up his life for the sake of other beings. Thus, he achieved the path of enlightenment.”

    From this I know that the billion worlds are a piece of his compassionate heart, a bit of his boundless realm, the Tathagata’s entire body. It is beyond whether he did or did not give up his life.

    Relics are neither before nor after the Buddha, nor do they stand shoulder to shoulder with the Buddha. Being engaged in difficult and rigorous practice through innumerable eons is the Buddha’s womb and abdomen activities, the Buddha’s skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. This is spoken of as ceaselessly. He makes further effort after attaining buddhahood. He goes further and further, giving guidance to the billion worlds. This is the activity of the Tathagata’s entire body.

    Presented to the assembly of the Yoshimine Temple, Yoshida County,
    Echizen Province, on the fifteenth day, the second month, the second
    year of the Kangen Era [1244].


    ~ ~ ~


    Please DIG this like a beatnik, mannnn ...

    Sat Today lah
    Last edited by Bion; 06-03-2023 at 02:41 PM.
    Bion
    -------------------------
    When you put Buddha’s activity into practice, only then are you a buddha. When you act like a fool, then you’re a fool. - Sawaki Roshi

  18. #18

    Exclamation NEW PODCAST EPISODE AVAILABLE

    Hello, dear sangha,
    A new Treeleaf Podcast episode is now available for streaming on all podcasting platforms. Today's episode is an audio version of Jundo's essay ¨Shikantaza Ipso Facto¨. You can stream the episode directly from HERE . Jundo's original essay can be found HERE



    🙏🏼 Sat Today
    Bion
    -------------------------
    When you put Buddha’s activity into practice, only then are you a buddha. When you act like a fool, then you’re a fool. - Sawaki Roshi

  19. #19
    Hello, all
    a new Treeleaf Sangha Podcast episode is now available for streaming. It is based on the February Zazenkai Dharma talk, which reflects on the meaning of our Dedication of Merit that we recite every week. You can find the podcast on all major podcasting platforms, such as Apple or Spotify or you can listen here directly:

    PODCAST


    Quote Originally Posted by Jundo View Post

    Our Talk today will reflect on the "Ekō" (囘向), or "Dedication of Merit," that accompanies our Heart Sutra recital. We call ours at Treeleaf a "Dedication of our Hopes and Aspirations," and I will explain why. The Soto-shu dictionary defines Ekō this way:

    Sanskrit/Pali = āmanā. To transfer or give away merit (kudoku 功徳), meaning the karmic fruits or beneficial results of one's own good deeds, to another person or being. In Mahayana texts, especially, one finds the idea that a bodhisattva should from the very start dedicate all the merit that results from his/her cultivation of morality, concentration, and wisdom to all living beings. A great many observances in East Asian Buddhism hinge on the ritual production and dedication of merit. Merit is earned or accumulated by chanting sutras and dharanis, mindfully reciting buddha names, circumambulating, making prostrations and offerings to buddhas enshrined on altars, and other good deeds that are either acts of worship of Buddha or acts that spread his teachings. Merit is then spent or given away by formally reciting a verse for the dedication of merit (ekōmon 囘向文) which (1) states how the merit was generated, (2) names the recipient(s) of the merit, and (3) explains the hoped for outcome of the merit transference. In some cases, merit is dedicated to sacred beings such as buddhas and deities as a kind of offering similar to (and usually performed in conjunction with) offerings of food and drink to ancestral spirits. In those cases, the third part of the dedicatory verse is typically a prayer that asks the powerful recipient for some specific benefits in return.

    Our Dedication at Treeleaf entones ...

    DEDICATION (EKO)


    READ BY INO (CHANT LEADER) ONLY:

    Buddha Nature pervades the whole universe, Reality, existing right here now:
    In reciting THE HEART OF THE PERFECTION OF GREAT WISDOM SUTRA
    (and THE IDENTITY OF RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE)
    we dedicate our sincere efforts to:

    • Shakyamuni Buddha Honored One; the Historical Buddha and Teacher,
    and to those ancestral teachers:
    Eihei Dogen Honored One
    Soji Keizan Honored One,
    All successive Honored Ones up until
    Zuigaku Rempo Honored One and
    Gudo Wafu Honored One
    and to all other Honored Ones throughout history, same yet diverse Honored Ones,
    whose names have been forgotten or left unsaid.

    We also dedicate these efforts to the Three Treasures,

    Buddha, Dharma, Sangha,

    To all Awakened Ones and Teachers in all places and times.

    We especially seek tranquility & well being for all creatures now suffering or ill in health.
    May they be serene through all their ills.
    May their lives be at peace and Wisdom pervade the darkness of ignorance.

    We dedicate our hopes and aspirations:
    To all victims of war and violence and natural events
    To the injured and to all families touched by these tragedies
    To the healing of hatred in all countries and among all peoples
    To the wisdom and compassion of our world leaders
    To the peace of the world and harmony of all beings.

    Thus, let the harmful effects of words, thoughts and actions be dispelled
    and Compassion bloom in perpetual spring.
    May we all realize and live the Enlightened Way together:

    EVERYONE CHANTS TOGETHER:

    • All Buddhas throughout space and time
    • All Bodhisattvas-Mahasattvas
    • Maha • Prajna • Paramita •••••••

    (followed by 3x BOWS by EVERYONE)
    For comparison, the Soto-shu English chant book suggests this:

    Having chanted the Heart of Great Perfect Wisdom Sutra, we reverently offer the merit generated thereby to our Great Benefactor and Founder of the Doctrine, the Original Teacher Shakyamuni Buddha [or whatever other figure is currently enshrined as the main object of veneration in the practice place], to the Eminent Ancestor Dogen, to the Great Ancestor Keizan, to the successive generations of buddhas and ancestors who transmitted the flame, to the founding abbot of the monastery, Great Teacher (name), and to the eternal three treasures in the ten directions, that we may repay their compassionate blessings. We further offer it to [all the dharma- protecting devas; to the dharma-protecting saints; to the earth spirit of this place and to the monastery-protecting spirits. What we pray for is peace in the land, harmony among nations, prosperity and longevity for donors throughout the ten directions, tranquility within the monastery, and ample sustenance for the community; may all sentient beings throughout the dharma realm equally perfect omniscience.]

    ... May this merit extend universally to all, so that we together with all beings realize the buddha way.
    You can hear a little of the lovely Eko recital style in Japanese here, from the 3:46 mark following the Heart Sutra/Hannya Shingyo:




    GASSHO
    Sat and lah
    Bion
    -------------------------
    When you put Buddha’s activity into practice, only then are you a buddha. When you act like a fool, then you’re a fool. - Sawaki Roshi

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •