TREELEAF ZENDO PODCAST

February 2016 Zazenkai Talk (SPECIAL "NEHAN-E" 4-hour ZAZENKAI!)

WELCOME to our Memorial & Celebration of NEHAN-E, (Pari-Nirvana) the traditional day to mark the historical Buddha's death and passing from this visible world. This is also a day for each of us to remember in our homes those family and friends who have gone before. As well, we particularly mark the passing of Nishijima Gudo Wafu and Rempo Niwa Zenji ...
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:February 6th, 2016 - SPECIAL "NEHAN-E" 4-hour ZAZENKAI! »

January 2016 SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: TOTALLY ENGAGED

As this is just the New Year, it is a good time to stir the pot at Treeleaf's ENGAGED & CHARITABLE PROJECTS CENTER ...
We want to activate the place, and believe that it should be front and center in our Practice right with Zazen ... in fact, charity and volunteer activities --are-- Zazen "off the cushion."
Every couple of weeks or so, we will be presenting projects that anybody can ... should ... dig into, and we would like to make this a Community Team Effort! There will be many options available, something for anybody, even folks who have mobility or other health issues. There are always ways to reach out wherever you find yourself, always someone who you can help a bit no matter how much you are struggling in your own life (maybe just pick up a phone or computer and reach out to someone else who is also housebound, for example).
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: TOTALLY ENGAGED »

January 2016 Zazenkai Talk (Welcome to the New Year)

To open this New Year, our reading will be the prologue to Master Dogen's Bendowa (On the Endeavor of the Way, Kaz Tanahashi Translation), written in 1231, one of the first pieces on Zen Practice written by Master Dogen following his return to Japan from China:www.lionsroar.com/just-wholeheartedly-sit
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:January 1st-2nd, 2016 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! WELCOME THE NEW YEAR! »

SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Rohatsu, Retreat and Family

This week we celebrate ROHATSU, remembering the Enlightenment of the Buddha who sat under the Bodhi Tree, realizing the end of his long search as he saw the light of the Morning Star. If you cannot travel to a Rohatsu Retreat, we invite you to sit in "retreat" just where you are, with our Treeleaf Sangha Annual 'ALWAYS AT HOME' Two Day 'ALL ONLINE' ROHATSU RETREAT, to be live netcast this coming Saturday and Sunday (or available for sitting any later time when you can arrange).
The two days will include Zazen sitting, Kinhin, Chanting, Zazen sitting, Oryoki, Zazen sitting, Bowing, Talks, 'Samu' Work Practice, and More Zazen Sitting, as in any Soto Zen Retreat, all in celebration of the Buddha's days of Zazen and Enlightenment. Folks will be sitting with us from places as far and wide as Sweden, Mexico, the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Japan, Indonesia, the Ukraine and other places ... all together as a Community, forgetting distance. The retreat is designed to be sat in any time zone around the world through a combination of 'live-live' and 'live though recorded' segments, and one may still join the Retreat and sit-a-long at ANY AND ALL TIME after, by the real time recorded version (no different from the original!). For further details, please have a look here.
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Rohatsu, Retreat and Family »

November 2015 Zazenkai Talk (The Verse of Atonement, The Four Vows & Others)

For this talk, we will reflect on some of the Verses, Vows and Dedications
we are heard to Chant around here for each Zazenkai and at other times.  For further reading on these and other Chants, I highly recommend
"Living by Vow: A Practical Introduction to Eight Essential Zen Chants
and Texts, by Shohaku Okumura, Wisdom Publications, 2012."Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:November 6th-7th, 2015 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! »

October 2015 Zazenkai Dharma Talk (Wild Ways of the Precepts in Japan)

Reading: "Wild Ways of the Precepts in Japan"
It is not known if the precepts in sixteen articles resulted from
Dogen’s own innovation or if he borrowed this group from another source.
[Dogen, in a writing describing the ordination ceremony for his
priests] states that the ordination ceremony described therein is
exactly the same as the one conducted by [Dogen's Teacher in China]
Ju-ching in 1225 when he administered the precepts to Dogen. The
reliability of that assertion, however, seems doubtful. [from "Dogen and the Precepts" by Prof. Steven Heine]
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:October 2nd-3rd, 2015 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! »

September 2015 Talk - Make Room for the Misfits!

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! »

September 2015 Zazenkai Dharma Talk (Ango Season Begins)

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?
The meaning of the Japanese word Ango [安居] (Skt : varsha or varshika; Pali: vassa ) is “tranquil dwelling”. The origin is the “rainy-season retreat” , the period when Buddhist monks in India stopped their travels and outdoor activities for the duration of the rainy season and gathered at some sheltered location to devote themselves to Practice, study and discipline. One practical reason was because the heavy rainfall made traveling and outdoor activities impractical. But it was also a time when the individual monks in Buddha’s time, spending most of the year scattered here and there in small groups or individually, could gather and unite as a community and Practice together. During the rainy season in India, monks traditionally dwelt in a cave or a monastery for three months—from the sixteenth day of the fourth month to the fifteenth day of the seventh month. During this period the monks learned the Buddha's teachings, engaged in meditation and other practices, and repented their harmful behavior and weaknesses. The tradition is said to have begun during the time of Shakyamuni, was brought to China, and in Japan the three-month retreat was first observed in 683. Now it comes to us.
Further reading and discussion for this talk are available on the Treeleaf forum:
September 4th-5th, 2015 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! ANGO SEASON BEGINS! »