TREELEAF ZENDO PODCAST
Episodes
Wednesday May 20, 2020
Wednesday May 20, 2020
Our Zazenkai is in Special Celebration and Welcome of the Commencement of our 2019 ANGO & JUKAI Season
Today's Talk will reflect on "ANGO: NOW & THEN" - What is Ango in our day and time, for householders in the modern West? Is it Ango as the Buddha, Dogen and all the Ancestors Practiced?
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:Sept 6th-7th, 2019 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - COMMENCING JUKAI & ANGO! »
Wednesday Sep 30, 2015
September 2015 Talk - Make Room for the Misfits!
Wednesday Sep 30, 2015
Wednesday Sep 30, 2015
When SweepingZen asked for a talk on International Blasphemy Rights Day (September 30th), I joked that I do that with most of my posts!
A nice thing about Buddhists is that we rarely kill, burn at the stake
or imprison our critics, dissenters, heretics and the doctrinally
different (although we have our scattered extremists too, the same as
any religion). We are pretty non-violent, but even we aren’t totally
immune from forbidding and punishing blasphemy and unwelcome voices.
Keep room in Zen Buddhism for the misfits, square pegs, tradition
breakers and “original non-thinkers” on the edges. Learn to distinguish
the con artists, shysters, abusers and predators from those who have
simply walked their own path, attended the “monastery of hard knocks”,
are doing something good even if not how you would do it. Having “set standards” and “required training paths”
is useful and generally necessary for helping to assure substance,
experience, dedication and ethics in our teachers. Someone can do a lot
of harm when falling down in those things, like an untrained doctor or a
drunken lawyer. However, keep room for exceptions and “special cases”
too. Look at who the priest has become, not so much only how she or he
got there.
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:INTERNATIONAL BLASPHEMY DAY: Make Room for the Misfits! »
Tuesday Apr 17, 2012
Treeleaf 'Shukke Tokudo' Ordination Ceremony: THIS SUNDAY
Tuesday Apr 17, 2012
Tuesday Apr 17, 2012
This Sunday, our Sangha will welcome new novice priests through the ritual of Shukke Tokudo Ordination. As is typical of our Sangha, the ceremony will be conducted simultaneously in three places around the world ... dropping all thought of here and there, now and then ... with the Preceptor (Jundo Cohen) in Japan, and our Ordainees in Austin, Texas and New York. (We also will welcome one additional new novice priest, Myozan of Dublin, Ireland, who was recently Ordained by Rev. Taigu).
If you would like to witness the ceremony, and join in our celebration, the netcast will be seen at this link ...
http://www.justin.tv/treeleafzen
... at the following times on APRIL 22nd ...
11pm Japan time Sunday evening (that is New York 10am, Los Angeles 7am Sunday morning, London 3pm and Paris 4pm Sunday afternoon) ...
... for about an hour or so.
Here's a bit more about it ...
Please visit the forum thread here!
Thursday Sep 08, 2011
SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (II)
Thursday Sep 08, 2011
Thursday Sep 08, 2011
Last year I spoke about the little girl that my wife and I have been trying to adopt from China for five years to no avail, caught in red tape and creeping bureaucracy. She is just a name to us, a shadow, an empty child's room that has gathered dust. Our little son always asks for his absent sister, year after year. Now, after much pushing through obstacles, wrangling with regulations, negotiating, simple waiting (there are so many families in like position, and we did not want to push ahead of others, so waited our turn like everyone else), procedures and endless forms, this year's earthquake and adventures, adoption and immigration lawyers and legal fees to fix the tangled legal snafu, there is a good chance (too soon to be sure yet) that she will come to us by the end of this year!! :)
If all goes forward (we'll see), 51 year old me is gonna be daddy to a 1 year old!
Some things in life are WORTH PROTESTING FOR, SHOUTING FOR, FIGHTING FOR ... WITHOUT VIOLENCE OR ANGER, OF COURSE! Be it a wrong to right, a war to stop, an injustice to prevent, a disease to cure ... it is okay to take to the streets (like those monks in Burma did), fight the good fight ... if peacefully.
Yet today's passage from the Xin Xin Ming tells us:
If you wish to see the truth
then hold no opinions for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind.
When the deep meaning of things is not understood
the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
Having no opinions, no for or against ... yet standing up for what's right? Sounds like a great contradiction! These need not be in the least! Opinions with equanimity, pushing forward with no place to get, protest hand-in-hand with total acceptance!
Seen with a Buddha's eye ... there is no contradiction at all.
Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows at this link. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 15 to 35 minutes is recommended.
Please visit the forum thread here!
Friday Apr 01, 2011
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT Welcome Genpo Roshi, New Abbot at Treeleaf!
Friday Apr 01, 2011
Friday Apr 01, 2011
I have a BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG announcement to make:
Let's extend a warm welcome to ...
DENNIS 'GENPO' MERZEL ROSHI
as our
NEW ABBOT OF TREELEAF SANGHA!!!
(and GOODBYE TAIGU!! You broke Jundo's heart ... )
NOTICE: NEW SANGHA FEES EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY!
Visit the Forum Thread here!