TREELEAF ZENDO PODCAST

SIT-A-LONG with Taigu: Fresh wisdom

Don't become a living clutter, a collection of piled up items.
Practice is meant to free you out.
When freedom is, wisdom blooms.
I don't get wisdom from quotes, books, or experiences.
from this moment,as is, it comes.
And often it doesn't.
And I could not care less.
Do you want to be like a pretty dead dry fish
of just alive, fish in the sea, sea in the fish, sea-fish boundlessly here?
We don't need insight.
We don't need whaou moments.
When they happen, let them happen. They will soon vanish.
In just being, no insight:
the seen and seing are one.
Please visit the forum thread here!

SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming -(XV)- Ultimate Finality

We close this series on Master Seng-ts'an's XIN XIN MING ... FAITH IN MIND ... a simple, but subtle recipe ...
止動無動 Consider movement stationary and the stationary in motion,
動止無止 both movement and rest disappear.
兩既不成 When such dualities cease to exist
一何有爾 Oneness itself cannot exist.
究竟窮極 To this ultimate finality
不存軌則 no law or description applies.
契心平等 For the unified mind in accord with the Way
所作倶息 all self-centered straining ceases.
狐疑盡淨 Doubts and irresolution's vanish
正信調直 and life in true faith is possible.
一切不留 With a single stroke we are freed from bondage;
無可記憶 nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing.
虚明自照 All is empty, clear, self-illuminating,
不勞心力 with no exertion of the mind's power.
非思量處 Here thought, feeling, knowledge, and imagination
識情難測 are of no value.
眞如法界 In this world of Suchness
無他無自 there is neither self nor other-than-self
要急相應 To come directly into harmony with this reality
唯言不二 just simply say when doubt arises, 'Not two.'
不二皆同 In this 'no two' nothing is separate,
無不包容 nothing excluded.
十方智者 No matter when or where,
皆入此宗 enlightenment means entering this truth.
宗非促延 And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space;
一念萬年 in it a single thought is ten thousand years.
無在不在 Emptiness here, Emptiness there,
十方目前 but the infinite universe stands always before your eyes.
極小同大 Infinitely large and infinitely small;
忘絶境界 no difference, for definitions have vanished
極大同小
不見邊表 and no boundaries are seen.
有即是無 So too with Being
無即是有 and non-Being.
若不如此 Don't waste time in doubts and arguments
必不相守 that have nothing to do with this.
一即一切 One thing, all things:
一切即一 move among and intermingle, without distinction.
但能如是 To live in this realization
何慮不畢 is to be without anxiety about non-perfection.
信心不二 To live in this faith is the road to non-duality,
不二信心 Because the non-dual is one with the trusting mind.
言語道斷 Words! The Way is beyond language,
非去來今 for in it there is
.......................... no yesterday
.......................... no tomorrow
.......................... no today.
... taking us back to the start ...
至道無難 The Great Way is not difficult
唯嫌揀擇 for those who have no preferences.
但莫憎愛 When love and hate are both absent
洞然明白 everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Today's talk is a little longer than usual, as it was part of our monthly Zazenkai at Treeleaf. Please note that there is no video in one portion due to "technical non-problems".
Please visit the forum thread here!

SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: WHOLLY HOLY WHOLE

I came across a discussion on the internet this week about "how to Shikantaza" ... and much good and solid advice was given. Some folks follow the breath, some "Just Sit" in boundless spaciousness, some advised this or that on the posture and letting thoughts go. All wise and good, and talk of posture, focus and such are all a necessary setting of the stage.
However, in my view (and that is all it is, and hopefully a viewless view too) SOMETHING VITAL WAS LACKING AND LEFT OUT OF THE CONVERSATION, something without which Zazen is perhaps left incomplete and lacking ...
... TO WIT, THAT NOTHING IS EVER LACKING, EVER MISSING, EVER INCOMPLETE, EVER NOT FULLY HELD AND FULLY REALIZED IN A MOMENT OF ZAZEN! A moment of sitting is THE BUDDHA, THE PURE LAND, NIRVANA ATTAINED! Each instant of Zazen is the only act, the only place to be, in and holding all time and space in that moment!
The meaning of that may confuse some folks ... but those who don't get it JUST DON'T GET IT (in my view and viewless anyway)!
What don't they get?
That to realize that one is never, from the outset, in need of change is an earthshaking CHANGE! There is absolutely nothing about you and the universe (not two) to add or take away, and tasting that there is "nothing to add" is an vital addition! Just Sitting to-the-marrow, radically dropping all goals, judgments, dropping all desire to get somewhere and attain a realization ... gets one somewhere, and a revolutionary realization! Truly understanding that everything is completely beyond need for change is a complete change, and finding that there was never a place to get to is finally getting somewhere.
Posture, breath, not grabbing onto or stirring up thoughts, living by the Precepts ... all are vital to our Way. Yet, neither are they sufficient. Zazen is not some "method", some "process" or "recipe". There is no "method" for there is "no goal" or destination!
Why?
By sitting the Wholly Holy Whole without need for change ... there is thus the most radical change of no longer wishing for change or needing change amid the every changing changeless ... thereby Shikantaza is the perfect medicine for the dis-ease and dis-satisfaction of Dukkha.
SHIKANTAZA MUST BE SAT AS THE ONE AND ONLY PRACTICE NEEDED AND ALL COMPLETED. In fact, rising from the cushion, all of life's acts ... the most mundane ... can thus be encountered as each and all Whole and Sacred too. Likewise, daily chanting, bowing or praying are each "Shikantaza" when encountered as Wholly Holy Whole. In fact, Zazen itself ... though never less than complete ... is not enough, and all of life and ethical living is our place of practice and realization! Not one piece of life is left out as 'Shikantaza' seen for such. Yet ... we sit Shikantaza seated Zazen each day as our way is to sit.
Fail to emphasize this point(in my view, and that is all it is ... hopefully viewless too) and one is just teaching meditation, milk toast, perhaps a kind of shikantaza ... but not SHIKANTAZA!
A bit more to hammer this home:
Please visit the forum thread here!

SIT-A-LONG with Taigu: the sound of a bell

In the very begining of Shobogenzo, Dogen quotes a famous poem of Nyojo, his teacher:
My late master, the eternal buddha, says:
Whole body like a mouth, hanging in space;
Not asking if the wind is east, west, south, or north,
For all others equally, it speaks prajñā.
Chin ten ton ryan chin ten ton.
Free, careless, empty, the bell and the sound cannot be broken in two. Is the bell just a bell? Isn't the bell bigger, much larger? How large, how big is it? And where are you in the picture?
Please visit the forum thread here!

SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming -(XIV)- Child Comes Home

Our little daughter has come home from the hospital today, after we might have lost her just a week ago. HURRAH! HORRAY!! Mom and Dad are AS HAPPY AS HAPPY CAN BE!
Yet, just as a few days ago when things were dark and we were so sad, we still do not push any of life away, including happiness ...
... And neither do we run toward the days like this, clutching at happiness. Such is True Happiness, Equanimity and Contentment!
Equanimity does not mean that one should be emotionless! One can have one's DHARMA CAKE AND EAT IT TOO! Last time I wrote ...
Life is sometimes sickness and sometimes health. I know that human beings prefer only the healthy days ... but Buddhas have no such preferences.
However, that does not mean a Buddha can't enjoy a good celebration and the happy times too!   One can be glad and joyous AND STILL BE wonderously, simultaneously not desirous at all, open to whatever life next brings! Strange, this Buddhist Wisdom, isn't it?
If the eye never sleeps,
all dreams will naturally cease.
If the mind makes no discriminations,
the ten thousand things are as they are, of single essence.
To understand the mystery of this One-essence
is to be release from all entanglements.
When all things are seen equally
the timeless Self-essence is reached.
No comparisons or analogies are possible
in this causeless, relationless state.
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!

SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming-(XIII)-Child in Hospital

Our daughter has been in hospital all this week very sick, with Sepsis (a major infection of the blood) compounded by influenza. The sepsis is responding very well to treatment, but it is serious because of her age and she is still a very sick little girl. She's had a spinal tap and been poked and prodded. However, things are stable, looking up from a couple of days ago, the doctors sound very optimistic now, and she is in very good hands here in the pediatrics ward. Here's GASSHO to all nurses, doctors and health care workers EVERYWHERE!

My wife takes the night shift to stay with her, and I take part of the day. We have little rest this week, we are both worried. Our son Leon is sick at home too. There is nothing about the situation to like, and so much potentially to lose. Our heads sometimes fill with worst case scenarios. (The expense mounts too, as we do not have any insurance yet for our daughter just come to Japan ... one more worry in this modern age). If this is but a dream, it seems like a very bad one. Yet, especially at such times, the Xin Xin Ming counsels this ...


Rest and unrest derive from illusion;
with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.
All dualities come from ignorant inference.
They are like dreams of flowers in the air:
foolish to try to grasp them.
Gain and loss, right and wrong:
such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.


It sounds like something far removed from reality ... yet it is Reality, as True as True ... and precisely at hard times like this, the power of this Buddhist Way manifests! All is at Rest right in the heart of exhaustion, there is Peace shining through life's sharp pieces. There is nothing possible to lose, never the least separation, not even 'life and death' ... even as hearts are broken and there is so much to lose in this life!

All At Once As One.

I mean the following with all I have. It may sound a little cold and unemotional to some, but in its flesh is the worry and heartache of a father with a sick child, and at its center is the beating Heart of Kannon ...

Life is sometimes sickness and sometimes health. I know that human beings prefer only the healthy days ... but Buddhas have no such preferences.

The Buddha left us this, the Most Powerful Teaching ...

... That there is never any loss possible, no place distant for our loved one to go, something wondrous that transcends sickness and health, birth and death ... no broken pieces ever in need of repair from the start. The dualities arise from ignorance, and all is a dream-flower in the sky. Dropped away, and all is Whole in an Instant.


I know it hard to feel so, especially on the most difficult days ... but it is so.


One can be anxious and worried as a parent can and must be ... and wonderously, simultaneously, not disturbed at all, not fearful in the least. Strange, this Buddhist Wisdom, isn't it?

Today's sitting is silent, no more words need be spoken. Just sitting in the hospital room with our sick child. We sit here too, Zazen is sitting anywhere.

Thank you for all who have sent Metta and good feelings, and done much sitting this week. It is so good to have the company of kind friends at hard times. I am so glad to be part of this Sangha.

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!

SIT-A-LONG with Taigu: Fukanzazengi 4

Upon investigation, the truth is all around: how could it rely on practice and experience? The vehicle of the fundamental exists of itself, what is the point of trying?
Alors que nous la recherchons, la voie-vérité pénètre originellement toutes choses.Comment dépendrait-elle de la pratique et de la réalisation ? Le véhicule de la Loi existe de lui-même, a quoi bon y consacrer tant d’efforts ?
Please visit the forum thread here!

SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Dogen - A Love Supreme

Really gettin' DOGEN'S WILD SOUND is a lot like gettin' THIS WILD SOUND ...
(Please give a listen, and keep it playing while you read the rest of this post)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ds-sc_PJck&feature=player_embedded
I've described Dogen as a JHANA JAZZ MAN-POET, riffing and free expressing-reexpressing-bending-straightening-unbinding-releasing the 'standard tunes' of the Sutras and Koans. The untrained ear can't make head or tail of it, complex rhythms, notes flying, wild tempo ...
Above is what John Coltrane did-undid-diddled-redid, for example, with "MY FAVORITE THINGS", that really "squaresville" (though lovely in its own way) tune that you may recall being chirped by Julie Andrews in THE SOUND OF MUSIC (a great story)! For that reason, a familiarity with the original 'standards' of the American songbook helps a lot in getting where Coltrane was coming from and going to here. Likewise, a good grounding in traditional Buddhist, Mahayana and Zen philosophy and perspectives is vital to getting what Dogen is up to. But Dogen, Master of the WordJazz expression of the Wordless, then takes off bending and re-enlivening those "standard tunes" in ways felt in the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. Dogen, for example, frequently re-wild-ed and bent up passages from the already wild and bent Lotus Sutra into something even more bent-iferous and wild-acios!   Sometimes with Dogen, one can make out clearly the "original melody" he is working with ... a Sutra passage, a Poem, an Old Koan ... and sometimes barely so, for it is not always the "point" he is trying to make through reasoned words, but "the sound, man, the feeling of the music". Dogen and Coltrane make their own musical expression the same but different from the 'standards' that the playful playing is playing upon ... expressing Timeless Old Truths in ways never expressed before ... making Timeless New Truths in the process ... but one also should not forget that that "standard" tune is in there too, and keeps popping up as the theme
The Shobogenzo, for example, is a rather thick and thorny maze to most readers. But once Dogen's basic ways of expression are understood, one can read the entirety with a bit more ease ... though never easy, mind you, as Dogen (like Coltrane) may often have sometimes let the notes and feeling lead him where they would, and may not have been always himself quite sure where the music was taking him -- or what he himself "meant"! Nonetheless, each certainly knew what he "meant" cause of the meaning of the feelings felt!
Below is a passage I read in today's talk from Shobogenzo Bussho, where Dogen is jumping off from some basic Buddhist and Mahayana Teachings and standard Phrases to express the nature of Buddha nature. As part of the Soto Zen Text Project, Prof. Carl Bielefeldt offers some background on a few of these old phrases:
“Sentient beings” (ujō 有情); “the multitude of beings” (gunjō 群生); “multitude of types” (gunrui 群類) [are each terms in Mahayana Buddhism] regularly used as synonyms for “living beings.”
“Initial being” (shi’u 始有); “original being” (hon’u 本有); “marvelous being” (myō’u 妙有); “conditioned being” (en’u 縁有); “deluded being” (mō’u 妄有) [are a] series of terms expressing modes of existence discussed in Buddhist thought. The first, “initial being,” while not itself particularly common, is here contrasted with the familiar “original being,” a term used to express the fundamental reality from which the phenomenal world emerges. The expression “marvelous being” is probably best known in the phrase “true emptiness and marvelous being” (shinkū myō’u 眞空妙有), where it expresses the ultimate emptiness of phenomena. The term “conditioned being” suggests that which exists as a result of conditions — i.e., the conditioned dharmas of dependent origination (engi 縁起; pratīya-samutpāda); “deluded being” suggests that which exists as a result of deluded thoughts — i.e., the false objects of our misguided discrimination (funbetsu 分別; vikalpa).
“Mind and object, nature and attribute” (shin kyō shō sō 心境性相): Two standard pairs in Buddhist thought: the mind, or thought (citta), and the objects of thought or of the senses (viṣaya, ālambana); and the nature, or essence (svabhāva), of a thing, and its attributes, or characteristics (lakṣana).
“A hundred pieces” (hyaku zassui 百雜碎): A common [Zen] idiom for the multiplicity of phenomena.
“One strip of iron” (ichijō tetsu 一條鐵): A common [Zen] idiom for the unity of phenomena, as in the saying, “one strip of iron for ten thousand li (wanli yitiao tie 萬里一條鐵).
“Raising a fist” (nen kentō 拈拳頭): The raising of the fist is a common [Zen] gesture expressing what is beyond language and discrimination.


And here is how Dogen plays jumping off from such a foundation ... expressing the profound unity and intimacy of we individual, sometimes deluded Being(s) and All Being and Buddha nature ...
The Buddha Śākyamuni said [in the Mahā-parinirvāṇa-sūtra], “All living beings in their entirety have the buddha nature. The tathāgata always abides, without any change.” ...
What is the essential point of the World Honored One’s [the Buddha's] saying, “All living beings in their entirety have the buddha nature”? ... One speaks of “living beings,” or “sentient beings,” or “the multitude of beings,” or “the multitude of types.” The phrase “entirety of being” refers to “living beings,” “the multitude of beings.” That is, the “entirety of being” is the buddha nature; “one entirety” of the “entirety of being” is called “living beings.” At this very moment, the interior and exterior of living beings is the “entirety of being” of the buddha nature. ...
We should realize that the “being” that is here made the “entirety of being” by the buddha nature is not the being of being and non-being. The “entirety of being” is the word of the buddha, the tongue of the buddha, the eyes of the buddhas and ancestors, the nose of the patch-robed monk. Furthermore, the term “entirety of being” is not initial being, not original being, not marvelous being; how much less is it conditioned being or deluded being. ...
... The buddha nature is always the “entirety of being”; for the “entirety of being” is the buddha nature. The “entirety of being” is not “a hundred pieces”; the “entirety of being” is not “one strip of iron.” Since it is “raising a fist,” it is not large or small. Given that we are calling it “buddha nature,” it should not be of equal stature with the nobles; it should not be made of equal stature with the buddha nature.
A Love Supreme!
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!