TREELEAF ZENDO PODCAST
Episodes
Friday Apr 26, 2013
SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: FINGER WAGGING at SOTO TEACHERS & STUDENTS
Friday Apr 26, 2013
Friday Apr 26, 2013
I would like to criticize some Soto Zen Teachers for how we may be teaching Shikantaza (I know that all the Soto Teachers fully understand what I say. My point is merely whether we are conveying the message clearly enough).
Yes, we teach the importance of sitting in a balanced way, be it in Lotus, Seiza, on a chair or the like. We may show students how to place the mind on the breath, the Hara, how to "return to the posture" or sit boundlessly or some other way. We may tell folks about "opening the hand of thought", letting thoughts and emotions go without getting caught in them. Yes, we emphasize that our way is "Goalless" sitting, or "good for nothing", and that one should leave at the door thoughts of "gaining enlightenment" or some extra-ordinary state ...
... but do we emphasize enough how Extra-Ordinary (beyond all small human weighing of "ordinary or extra-ordinary") Sitting Zazen Truly is? Are we too focused on the mechanics of sitting (as important as such is), and not on the Wondrous Embodiment of Buddha which sitting manifests? Do we teach that a moment of Zazen is Buddha Realized, All Fulfilled, Holy-Wholey-Whole that completes and allows all of life? Are we afraid of sounding too starry eyed about Zazen? Do we point students sufficiently to the Timelessness of sitting for a time, that Zazen is the One and Only Place to Be in that Moment of Sitting, holding all the Sutras? Do we teach that Zazen is a Sacred Complete Act? A Moment of Sitting As Enlightened Sitting, Gainless-Enlightenment-Gained?
Perhaps we are too focused on presenting Zazen as "just sitting" without getting to the heart of sitting as "Just All Reality, Every Mountain and Stone, All the Buddhas and Ancestors Sitting This Sitting"?
Master Dogen, when writing of Zazen, would remind us (this from Zanma-O-Zanmai. It makes my words seem quite understated!):
Now crossing the legs of the human skin, flesh, bones, and marrow, one crosses the legs of the king of samādhis samādhi. The World Honored One always maintains sitting with legs crossed; and to the disciples he correctly transmits sitting with legs crossed; and to the humans and gods he teaches sitting with legs crossed. The mind seal correctly transmitted by the seven buddhas is this.
The Buddha Śākyamuni, sitting with legs crossed under the bodhi tree, passed fifty small kalpas, passed sixty kalpas, passed countless kalpas. Sitting with legs crossed for twenty-one days, sitting cross-legged for one time — this is turning the wheel of the wondrous dharma; this is the buddha’s proselytizing of a lifetime. There is nothing lacking. This is the yellow roll and vermillion roller [that hold all the Sutras and Commentaries]. The buddha seeing the buddha is this time. This is precisely the time when beings attain buddhahood.
He pulls no punches.
And now turning from Teachers to Students, I wag my finger a bit more. So many (most?) who try Shikantaza for a time do not truly understand what it means to be wholly still, to not need to run after the next diversion or teaching or practice or book or entertainment. Or, they misunderstand our "goalless" sitting as some kind of complacency.
My biggest "complaint" about folks?
Most find it so hard to drop the "running here and there, chasing this and that" in life and "Just Sit" in Wholeness, "Just Sit" Buddha. Most are so used to looking for the answers "somewhere over the next hill" that they can't stop running, looking for the "next shiny thing". (Like the eye looking all around for the eye) Thus, they abandon the Practice too soon, running after the next promising thing, and the next. I have spoken about that many times before:
http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...-s-NEXT%21-%21
Oh, some folks "get it", what it truly means to find Stillness amid both life's stillness and motion, Silence that sings as quiet or music or the noise of bombs exploding. But other folks don't "get it", or take it that we are pushing merely complacency, resignation and passivity, which is not the case.
We are not preaching slogans from greeting cards, not tranquilized dullness, not a foresaking of vibrant curiosity and questioning, not prescribing a drug to bring numbness ... but Crystal Clarity and Wholeness.
Rising up from the cushion, whether lighting incense or changing a baby diaper, in the temple or the office, in a forest or the city streets ... we get done what needs to be done, move forward though no place to go. One might then be able to manifest that same Ordinary-Extra-Ordinary Wondrous Embodiment of Buddha, Fully Realized, All Fulfilled, Holy-Wholey-Whole, holding all Timeless-Time & Space, the One and Only Place to Be, a Sacred Act Complete ... in every moment and small action of life.
Please visit the forum thread here!
Monday Oct 29, 2012
Fukanzazengi 8
Monday Oct 29, 2012
Monday Oct 29, 2012
Moreover, remembering the natural sage of Jetavana park, we can [still] see the traces of his six years of upright sitting. We can still hear rumours of the transmitter of the mind-seal at Shaolin, spending nine years facing the wall. The ancient saints were like that already: how could people today fail to practice wholeheartedly?
De plus, alors que nous pensons au sage inné de Jevatna, nous pouvons percevoir les traces de ces six années d'assise. Ainsi de Bodhidharma qui transmit le seceau de l'esprit et resta neuf annees face au mur. Si telle était la conduite des sages d'antan, comment pourrait on aujourdhui ne pas pratiquer corps et âme?
Please visit the forum thread here!
Saturday Jan 14, 2012
Sit-a-Long with Jundo: Zazen for Beginners (Part XXI)
Saturday Jan 14, 2012
Saturday Jan 14, 2012
Folks often ask about how long, and how often, to sit.
What I am about to say may be controversial among some 'Zennies', seen as too "lightweight" by many ... easily misjudged and misunderstood as "breaking the rules" or "not sufficiently serious".
But our way is "goalless, non-attaining" ... the attaining of which is the Greatest Goal! A moment of sitting is a moment of Buddha realized! Certainly, sitting is not (when tasted as suchness) a matter limited by time or space, long or short in place or duration. In a moment of True Sitting, time is still ... even as it keeps flowing!
Our message around here is that "life is our temple". By this I mean that daily seated Zazen "on the Zafu" is indispensible and not to be skipped ... but also that ALL OF LIFE on and off the Zafu is "Zazen" in its wider meaning! Opportunities for 'Zazen' are sitting, standing, running, walking or flying through the air ... chanting sutras or changing diapers ... ALL ZAZEN when known as such. Nonetheless, Even though "all of life is Zazen" ... daily, seated Zazen is indispensible too and must be sat!
Yet ... on a purely practical level ... our Sangha members are generally very busy people, barely time to sit for 30 minutes even once ... let alone twice ... a day. I believe that many folks run from Zazen ... or do not sit daily ... because they simply do not have the time and/or patience. I would rather have folks sitting daily, and consistently, than not at all or only once in awhile.
Actually, there have been many views on the proper length of sitting during the history of Zen. Even Dogen, our Patriarch, while interpreting seated Zazen as sacred and 'Buddha realizing Buddha', also proposed all of life as sacred and 'Buddha realizing Buddha'. Dogen kept a monastic time schedule, with certain periods of Zazen fixed per day ... but, like all things in a monastery, each single sitting was seen as a timeless and complete ritual. In other words, even Dogen did not see Zazen as bound by time, or specifically recommend that one had to sit a set time each day, and saw each instant of sitting as an expression of All-Time and Being.
So then, why "15 minutes" ... and not "1 minute" or "5 minutes" or "5 hours" or "1 second"?
On a practical level, I think our busy working people can find 15 minutes a day, and such is just sufficient time to settle down the mind, release thoughts and emotions, and taste a period of timelessness. Any shorter is TOO SHORT to taste timelessness because ... like a storm or turbulent water, it takes a few minutes to clear and still a bit. In principle, sitting could be a moment or half a moment. However, a few minutes are usually required to allow for making the mental and physical transition from our busy day to this sacred moment ... in order to settle. After all, it takes a little bit of time to taste Timelessness! Also, we needed to pick some number ... so might as well be that (like so many of our arbitrary "traditions" in Buddhism).
So, what is our "Official Recommendation" at Treeleaf Sangha?
A - Committing to sit at least one (1) sitting on the Zafu per day of 15 minutes (more if the person wants, but not required at all. IF YOU ARE NOW SITTING LONGER, AND COMFORTABLE WITH THAT, If SUCH FEELS RIGHT IN ONE'S LIFE ... KEEP AT IT! But, if you are struggling to maintain longer daily sittings, it is fine to shorten your sitting time. It is more important to be consistent in sitting daily for 15 minutes ... and taste Timelessness and Wholeness in one's sitting ... than to sit for 30 minutes but miss many days, or be lost in thoughts of goals and achievement). HOWEVER, sitting only 15 minutes 1 time daily must be combined with several daily moments of "Insta-Zazen!" © (as described in our last talk) ...
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2908
B - Committing to at least one (1) longer sitting of 30 to 45 minutes once per week which, if possible, should be combined with joining in all of our weekly 90 minute Zazenkais.
C - If at all possible, committing to join in at least one (1) four hour Zazenkai at Treeleaf per month.
D - If at all possible, committing to attend one longer residential "Sesshin" per year of from 3 to 7 days.
Now, someone might ask too, "if each moment is all time and space, what is the purpose of an intensive Sesshin?" Well, I often say that, sometimes, we need to practice a bit long and hard, morning to night ... sitting and wrestling with 'me, my self and I' ... all to attain Nothing to Attain! Going to Retreats, Sesshin and such is a powerful facet of this Practice and not to be missed.
So, WELCOME TO "THE 15-Minute Sit"
Please visit the forum thread here!
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Sit-a-Long with Jundo: Zazen for Beginners (Part 10)
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Last time, in our series on Zazen for Beginners (we are all always beginners), I used the analogy of clouds of thoughts and emotions drifting through an open, clear, boundless blue sky.
I said, in Shikantaza “Just Sitting” Zazen, we do not resist the clouds, do not attempt to silence the thoughts and emotions forcefully. Instead, we just return our attention again and again to the clear sky, and allow the clouds to drift out of mind. Be focused on “everything and nothing at all,” just as the sky covers all the world without thought or discrimination.
What is more, I said, we do not think of the clouds as “bad” while the clear sky is “good” … We never say “this cloudy day is not good because there is no blue sky today.” When the sky is blue and empty, let it be so. When the sky is cloudy, our mind filled with thoughts and distractions, let it be so. Drop all judgment of Zazen, and of all of life, as “good vs. bad.” Nonetheless, though we reject nothing as “good” or “bad” Zazen, we do not stay in the clouds. Not at all! We allow the clouds to drift from mind and return our attention again and again to the blue.
In doing so, a surprising thing happens …
Though we do not reject our thoughts and emotions, do not try to change them, suppress them, judge them or push them away… “bad” thoughts will change, will be experienced quite differently, and sometimes fully drop away. To illustrate this process, I will talk about sitting with three common thoughts and emotions that may fill our heads during Zazen or at any moment of life: anger at someone, greed for something, and fear about the future.
Click here to visit this forum thread!
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Sit-a-Long with Taigu: Zazen for Beginners (Part 9)
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Rev. Taigu continues his comments on sitting posture for beginners. (We are always beginners.) He says:
“What I am suggesting is to give the body-mind a direction, namely to sit up but not to do it. If you instruct yourself to sit straight and do it, with a straight spine, all you are going to do is to use a lot of tension and will end up taking a very rigid, military-like position. Once you instruct but drop the doing, the undoing takes place and gets the body-mind free. You cannot do an undoing.”
The nature of not-doing is such that it cannot be controlled. It just happens. A woman giving birth, or a sneeze, are actions on which we have no control whatsoever. The most beautiful things in this world often are pure blossoms of not-doing. So all you can do is to consciously inhibit the habit of sitting straight, what you think is sitting straight. Therefore, let the tensions go and allow the spine to naturally grow and expand. Something like that. I basically want to share with you all is that a certain practice of sitting will make you lock the body-mind, it can be very stiff, very rigid and tense. There is a very natural and flowing way to sit.
Young children and animals can also teach us. In my limited experience, in the last thirty years or so, I met so many people sitting, acting, speaking in a very rigid way. I have been in temples, and zen centers and monasteries where everything was like a boot camp and Zen looked like a military training. Now, I am deeply convinced that it is just not a Japanese cultural aspect, but rather, it has to do with the way people sit. It will take you a lifetime to explore that path, but if you decide to lock you body, it is a quick and easy fix: but it comes at a cost, both physical and psychological.
Again who is sitting, you or Buddha? Allow Buddha to sit you. Let me use a simple metaphor. When you are swimming, you may struggle and fight against water or allow water to carry you, understand that you are water in water. Doing absolutely nothing keeps you at the surface. Zazen is the same. The less you do, the more you allow your true form to manifest itself, the more ease you will experience. I am not suggesting that you should sit with a bent spine, half collapsing on the cushion. I am suggesting that you may achieve the vertical state through a natural dynamic process rather than trying to mimick or copy what you think is sitting with a straight back. I would like also to invite you to explore. Your body is like nobody else’s. A sitting position cannot be corrected from outside: if you move your head an pull your chin in, or if a teacher does…same mistake. You want to hit the target without shooting the arrow. You forget that the path is the goal. If you do so, you just end-gain, as Herrigel describes this process in archery. The student is aware that “drawing the bow is a means to an end and I cannot lose sight of this connection” to which the Zen master replies the more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed.
Click here to visit this forum thread!
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Sit-a-Long with Jundo: Zazen for Beginners (Part 8)
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
We continue our video series on how to do Zazen, and how to allow the thoughts and emotions that appear during Zazen to drift from mind.
I often use the analogy of clouds (of thought and emotions) drifting in and out of a clear, blue spacious sky (a mind open and clear of thoughts).Our mind in Zazen may be compared to the sky; We are open, clear, spacious, boundless, like the clear blue sky… Our attention is focused on everything and nothing in particular, just as the sky covers all the world without discrimination… Thoughts, like clouds, often come and go.
Clouds drift in and out, that is natural. However, we bring our attention again and again (10,000 times and 10,000 times again) to the open, blue sky between, allowing the clouds of thought to drift away. More clouds will come, and so we repeat the process endlessly, once more and once more bringing our attention back to the blue sky… to the open spaces between thoughts.
However, this is important to bear in mind:
We do not try to “silence the thoughts forcefully” in Skikantaza. It is more that we allow the thoughts that naturally drift into mind to naturally drift out of mind, much as clouds naturally drift in and out of a clear blue sky. In this way, return again and again to the open, clear blue sky.Although we seek to appreciate the blue, open sky between the clouds, we do not resent or despise the clouds of thought that drift through our mind. We are not disturbed by them, we do not actively chase them out, neither do we welcome them, focus on them, play with them or stir them up. We allow them to pass, and return our focus once more to the quiet blue. 10,000 times and 10,000 times again.
As in the real sky, both blue expanse and clouds are at home there. We should reject neither, not think the blue somehow “truer” than the clouds. In fact, some days will be very cloudy, some days totally blue … both are fine. We never say “this cloudy day is not good because there is no blue sky today.” When the sky is blue and empty, let it be so. When the sky is cloudy, our mind filled with thoughts, let it be so. You see, even when hidden by clouds, the blue is there all along. Both the blue sky and the clouds are the sky … do not seek to break up the sky by rejecting any part of it. (In other words, do not think one good and the other bad). WE DO NOT SEEK TO BREAK UP OR RESIST ANY PART OF THE SKY, CLOUDS OR BLUE… It is all the unbroken sky.
Nonetheless, though we reject neither, we allow the clouds to drift from mind and return our attention again and again to the blue. Throughout, we are awake, aware and alert, conscious and present… we are not in some mysterious or extreme state. Nor are we dull, feeling lifeless or listless, for we should feel as illuminated, vibrant, boundless and all encompassing as the open sky itself.
The clouds of thought and the clear blue are not two, are simultaneously functioning and whole … a single sky. This is our way in ‘Just Sitting’ Shikantaza Zazen. When you see the clouds, be as if you are thereby seeing the clouds as blue. When you see the blue, you may also see the blue as clouds. In fact, as you advance in this practice, you will find that the blue sky illuminates, shines through the clouds… and we can come to experience both together… both thoughts and silence… as one.
Master Dogen called that “thinking not thinking,” or “non-thinking.”
Visit this thread on the forum
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Sit-a-Long with Jundo: Zazen for Beginners (Part 7)
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
It is important to understand from the very outset of beginning practice that Shikantaza (“Just Sitting”) Zazen is a radical, to-the-marrow, dropping of all need to attain, all “running after.” And we work very very diligently to attain this “non-attaining!“ Last time, I compared it to a foot race in which we keep on pushing forward for our whole lives, but knowing that each step-by-step of the race itself is perfectly “just running.“ No destination to “get to”… the trip itself is the destination.
Why is this philosophy of Shikantaza so unique and vital to understand?
Because in our lives, we are morning-to-night chasing after things, rarely still … whether it is dreams and goals, food on the table, fame and fortune, praise, possessions, whatever we think will “finally” make us happy and content in life, complete (once we get there, if we get there). Like a dog chasing its tail.
How rarely are we truly still, at rest and at peace, right here.
It may be the same in our spiritual practice, if we are always searching for something, someone, or some truth distant or just out of reach. It may be “Enlightenment”, “the Buddha” or some other Power or “secret to life” that seems so far away.
The Practice of Shikantaza may be unique in being, unlike most other ways of seeking, a radical stopping of the search, a true union with life “just-as-it-is,” dropping all need for looking “beyond” so to make life complete here and now.
Yet, far from being mere resignation, a half-satisfied complacency or lazy “giving up,” Shikantaza is, instead, finding what we are longing for by allowing all just to be. Life is complete when one allows life to be complete. All things are perfectly just what they are if we see them as such. The hard borders and friction between our self and the world fall away.
By stopping the search, something precious is truly found!
We discover stillness and peace, not by running after stillness and peace, but by being truly still and at rest. To do this, we sit on our Zafu cushion, dropping from mind all judgments of the world, all resistance… all thought that life “should be” or “had better be” some other way than just as we find it all. In this way, we find the sitting of Zazen (and all of Practice) to be a perfect act, the one place to be and the one thing to do in the universe at that moment. When we are sitting, we do not think that we “should be” someplace else, or that there is a better way to spend our time. Instead, we find each moment of sitting complete, with not one thing to add or take away from the moment.
We discover stillness even amid the activity of life, peace without regard to whether all around is chaos! Even though we are still, we keep living and moving forward!
Thus, we find that what we have been searching for here all along.
(Now that I have explained a bit about the philosophy of diligently sitting to attain “non-attaining” and to achieve “nothing to achieve”, I will talk in our next episode about about what should be going on “inside the head” and with one’s thoughts during Shikantaza Zazen.)
To View this forum topic click here.
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Sit-a-Long with Taigu: Zazen for Beginners (Part 6)
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Rev. Taigu offers a few more perspectives on the “sitting” of “just sitting.” He says:
Sitting on a cushion is what we normally do. The actual flexibility of this cushion called a zafu makes it possible to position it at an angle which makes sitting much more comfortable. A zafu is a very personal item and one should search around to find the right thickness for the cushion. When putting hands together to form the zazen mudra, we usually put the left hand on top of the right, palms up and thumbs very lightly touching. If you are not using a koromo, which is a black robe with huge sleeves, then you may use a towel and put it on your lap to support the mudra.
Visit this thread on the forum!