TREELEAF ZENDO PODCAST

SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Xin Xin Ming - (I) (ANGO BEGINS!!)

Treeleaf Sangha marks the start of our annual ANGO (90-Day Special Practice Period) and, next week, the start of our JUKAI (Undertaking the Precepts) training ...
Additional information on Ango and Jukai at Treeleaf here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4041 and viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4042
... by a series of sittings with the Xin Xin Ming, the Faith in Mind Verses (信心銘) ... one of the most cherished teachings in Zen/Chan Buddhism ... traditionally said to be the words of the Third Chinese Zen/Chan Patriarch Sengcan 僧璨 (though, even if likely not his words, and written by another fellow just a bit later, wonderful nonetheless).
The Xin Xin Ming presents, straight and true, our trust in the fundamental mind of Zazen ... Zazen on the cushion, and 'Zazen' in its boundless meaning off the cushion as well, in and as our sometimes easy sometimes hard life. Today, sitting before the ugliness and hardship of earthquake wreckage piled high in Japan ... broken homes, broken glass, hearts and lives ... we will sit with the opening words (Translated by Richard B. Clarke):
The Great Way is not difficult
for those not attached to preferences.
When neither love nor hate arises,
all is clear and undisguised.
Separate by the smallest amount, however,
and you are as far from it as heaven is from earth.
No complicated meditation instructions are needed, no intricate practices, just this simple way pointing directly to a still (even amid & as the turmoil and commotion) and illuminated mind of equanimity and wholeness. This is the Buddha mind available to all of us ... as all of us ... all judgments and frictions dropped away, the divisions of 'self vs. others and the world' dropped away ... even amid a world we sometimes do not like, and in the heart of life's struggles and strife.
What's more, this mind can come and go ... sometimes in a day, a single Zazen sitting, just a moment. In my talk, I also mention this poem attributed to Hui-Neng, the 6th Patriarch, pointing to how the Buddha Mind (though beyond coming and going) can come and go ...
Deluded, a buddha is a sentient being;
awakened, a sentient being is a buddha.
ignorant, a buddha is a sentient being;
with wisdom, a sentient being is a buddha.
if the mind is warped, a buddha is a sentient being
if the mind is impartial, a sentient being is a buddha.
when once a warped mind is produced,
buddha is concealed within the sentient being.
if for one instant of thought we become impartial,
then sentient beings are themselves buddha.
We will sit with this Xin Xin Ming over the coming days and weeks ... amid our lives of sometime ease and sometime difficulties, with the people and situations we seek and those we run from, the beautiful and the ugly ... all human judgments, resistance and separations.
What wholeness arises when all judgments and separations are dropped dropped away?
Please undertake the commitments and tasks of ANGO and JUKAI with this same attitude of dropping ... pushing ahead diligently, encountering both that which is easy and pleasing, and that which is hard or resisted ... with an attitude simultaneously transcending easy and hard, pleasing and displeasing. WONDROUS BUDDHA-MIND WILL APPEAR.
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: Just This

I'd like to lay out the one point I wish everyone would get about this Practice-Non-Practice over all others ...
... so easy, yet so hard ... so simple, yet so subtle ... so clear, yet so often misunderstood ...
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: Okesa 4

Please visit the forum thread here!

SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: Doubt & Faith

There are times in this Practice when any of us may feel some powerful doubt. Perhaps a Buddha is beyond each and every doubt ... but some say that even he, at times in his life, was given to some doubt. To doubt is human, and faith or trust might be needed to carry us through.
And there are times in this Practice which are beyond all doubt.
It is sometimes said, 'Great Doubt, Great Awakening'. But I say 'Great Awakening, Great Doubt'. "Great doubt leads to Great Awakening in which the is No Doubt" ... but also "Great Doubt and No Doubt" can come at various times in life, at various moments in a single Zazen sitting ... and truly piercing the meaning of that is Great Awakening!
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: Okesa 3

Visit the forum thread here!

SIT-A-LONG with Taigu: the guru thing

Sorry guys, had to get up and answer because somebody was knocking on my door...Anyway, just my take on gurus.
gassho
Taigu
Please visit the forum thread here!

August 6th, 2011- OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI!

Dear All,
Please 'sit-a-long' with our MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI, netcast LIVE 8am to noon Japan time Saturday morning (that is New York 7pm to 11pm, Los Angeles 4pm to 8pm (Friday night), London midnight to 4am and Paris 1am to 5am (early Saturday morning)) ... and visible at the following link during those times ...
LIVE ZAZENKAI NETCAST at JUSTIN.TV:
REMEMBER TO CLICK ON "FULL SCREEN" VERSION!
Watch live video from treeleafzen on www.justin.tv
But FEAR NOT if not possible for you to join 'live' in your location at those times, as the entire sitting is recorded in 'REAL TIME' and available for full participation 'ON DEMAND' at ANY TIME after that, no different from the 'live' sitting . Just click then on the links below:
THE 'REAL TIME, ANY TIME' recorded version is divided into 3 parts as follows (click on the links) :
00:00 - 00:50 CEREMONY (HEART SUTRA / SANDOKAI IN ENGLISH) & ZAZEN
00:50 - 01:00 KINHIN
01:00 - 01:30 ZAZEN
01:30 - 01:50 KINHIN
ZAZENKAI PART I LINK:
LINK TO BE POSTED HERE AFTER LIVE NETCAST
01:50 - 02:30 DHARMA TALK & ZAZEN
02:30 - 02:40 KINHIN
TALK & ZAZEN PART 2 LINK:
LINK TO BE POSTED HERE AFTER LIVE NETCAST
02:40 - 03:15 ZAZEN
03:15 - 03:30 KINHIN
03:30 - 04:00 METTA CHANT & ZAZEN, VERSE OF ATONEMENT, FOUR VOWS, & CLOSING
ZAZENKAI PART 3 LINK:
LINK TO BE POSTED HERE AFTER LIVE NETCAST
Our Zazenkai consists of our chanting the 'Heart Sutra' and the 'Identity of Relative and Absolute (Sandokai)' in English (please download our Chant Book at the link below), some full floor prostrations (please follow along with me ... or a simple Gassho can be substituted if you wish), a little talk by me ... and we close with the 'Metta Chant', followed at the end with the 'Verse of Atonement' and 'The Four Vows'. Oh, and lots and lots of Zazen and walkin' Kinhin in between!
Please download and print out the Chant Book (PDF) at the following link:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2231
I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU POSITION YOUR ZAFU ON THE FLOOR IN A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE NOT STARING DIRECTLY AT THE COMPUTER SCREEN, BUT CAN GLANCE OVER AND SEE THE SCREEN WHEN NECESSARY. YOUR ZAFU SHOULD ALSO BE IN A POSITION WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE COMPUTER SCREEN WHILE STANDING IN FRONT OF THE ZAFU FOR THE CEREMONIES, AND HAVE ROOM FOR BOWING AND KINHIN.
ALSO, REMEMBER TO SET YOUR COMPUTER (& SCREEN SAVER) SO THAT IT DOES NOT SHUT OFF DURING THE 4 HOURS.
I hope you will join us ... an open Zafu is waiting. When we drop all thought of 'here' 'there' 'now' 'then' ... we are sitting all together!
Gassho, Jundo

SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: HOW TO CLEAN THE KITCHEN

A member of our Sangha asked whether cleaning the kitchen while listening to music is not "Zen" enough. He used to believe that "Zen" (whatever that is) means spending one's every waking moment, morning to night, doing one action at one time with total attention and mindfulness.
Hmmm. Well, there are certainly moments when we practice in such way ... when drinking tea, just drinking tea ... when walking, just walking ... when seeing a sunset, just experiencing/being this. But not every moment need be so.
So, please sometimes clean while listening to music and drinking iced tea too ... or sometimes clean while watching t.v. or phoning a friend.
Please also sometimes clean while not listening to music etc. etc., just being present with the cleaning, one action at one time with total awareness.
Both fine ways to clean ... try each from time to time.
Ya see, some might think that cleaning while doing something else is not being "present in the moment" enough. But when are we not "present right in this moment"?
What makes you think that that cleaning while music listening and thinking about overdue bills to pay or your pesky boyfriend is not your complete present too? Just be present and totally aware of that! It is your instant "in the kitchen listening to 'tunes while thinking about bills and the boyfriend" just this present! How did you want to be more in the present? Why were you rejecting this "kitchen-music-bills-boyfriend" present to try to be somewhere else, perhaps in some other "more present than my present" present?
Oh, I am not saying that it is good to be always multi-tasking, swept up in a mix of activities and busy thoughts. I am just saying that it is lovely and very human to be like that much of our day, perfectly fine and natural. At other times, drop all that ... find simplicity, awareness of this present moment, one action at one time, and just do that! Live each way, each in its proper moment.
There is a time to stop and smell the roses ... there is a time to be totally mindful and "do one thing at one time with total attention" ... and there are times to do ten things at once, and just be totally "present" with that.
This practice is never about "leaving the present to be present with the present" ... but just to be presently present with what the present presents as a gift-wrapped present.
Everything in its proper time. There are times to be in the present experiencing fully just the present, and times to be in the present which is thinking about tomorrow or something that happened last Tuesday. Push none of it away.
Oh, in Zen practice, we come to find a kind of inner switch that we can push to be "IN THE NOW" when appropriate, when we want to be. But it is not a switch to push constantly ... because then the richness of this life can be missed in other ways.
BUT DOES THAT MEAN THAT ONE CAN JUST CLEAN THE KITCHEN ANY OLD WAY ONE WISHES AND IT'S STILL 'ALL GOOD PRACTICE'? ABSOLUTELY NOT! One thing to completely master in cleaning a kitchen the "Zen Way" ... whether just cleaning to clean as the one and only activity in all time and space ... or just cleaning while listening to tunes, drinking tea and chatting on the phone ... is this vital way of being, to wit:
In all cases, clean diligently to attain making the room clean, while simultaneously dropping all thought of "clean vs. dirty" and anything to attain.
Also, even though part of your heart may wish to be on a sunny beach on a tropical island instead of spending one's precious time cleaning a dirty kitchen, simultaneously drop any thought of somewhere else to be or where you need/can be.
Such truly being "one with the moment just as it is" is much more vital to our practice than whether one is listening to tunes, talking on the phone or not ... than being totally focused on the moment.
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!