TREELEAF ZENDO PODCAST

RETREAT!! RETREAT!! 2010

Our Annual 'AT HOME' Two Day 'ALL ONLINE' ROHATSU (Buddha's Enlightenment Day) RETREAT IS COMING UP ... to be LIVE NETCAST on the weekend of December 4 and 5, 2010.
This Retreat celebrates the 'official' closure of our ANGO (100 day Special Practice Season) at Treeleaf, is a part of current preparations for our JUKAI (Undertaking the Precepts) Ceremony in January, and marks ROHATSU ... the traditional holiday in Japan celebrating the time of the Buddha's Enlightenment.
I will also soon be posting LINKS TO A SERIES OF 'SIT-A-LONG' TALKS WHICH SHOULD BE LISTENED TO before the Retreat. They cover such hot topics as "How to Oryoki" "How to Bow" "How to Go To The Bathroom during a Retreat" (Really) and many others.
TODAY'S SIT-A-LONG LOOKS AT THIS QUESTION: If there is 'nothing to attain' in Zazen ... why sit an intensive retreat at all??
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Space

Space...Gap or stretch? something out there or just plain close? Something we are part of or something we travel and walk through? Dogen, a simple man in medieval Japan, loved space. He wrote a whole collection of talks about it. Dogen made it very clear: we are space and as such we may experience space. Sitting with its moving boundaries and constant shivering-shifting is space itself. Carving a Buddha out of wood or stone? A Buddha made of naked hands, a Buddha of flesh is what Dogen was all about. Eloquent space. Silent dharma talk. gassho to all Taigu
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LEVITATION!

Someone asked me today during our Zazenkai if FOLKS IN ZAZEN CAN LEVITATE.
Well, I am open minded about such things, but I have never seen so in person. The only photos I have seen look either like they have been photoshopped, or there is something wrong with the photo (such as the dark background and sleeves in these photos which surely hide a platform) ...
 
... or the person is "bouncing" more than flying ...
 
I have had sensations like levitating off the ground during long Zazen, great lightness and motion, but that turned out not to be so when I looked down. Oh, the mind can play tricks during Zazen.
HOWEVER ... I KNOW THAT LEVITATION EXISTS IN ZAZEN, FOR SURE! REAL LEVITATION IS ALWAYS IN ZAZEN ... FLYING EVERY WHERE AT ONCE!
Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows at this link. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended.
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Buddhanomics: Live Small

It is hard for any of us to remember in this consumer driven world, but there is a wonderful freedom in living simple, living small.
The psychologist Abraham Maslow said that man really needs just a few things for peace and happiness ... a certain amount of food and a healthy environment, shelter and physical safety, the love and friendship of others. Beyond that, anything else might be seen as a luxury! What is more, we can be prisoners of "things" if we crave them to excess, hang our happiness on them, run after them, hoard them, cling to them. Thus, we should learn the freedom of a Zen monk, who finds the whole universe in a small, nearly empty room ... who has few possessions, and is not very much attached to even those.
It is hard to do these days for most of us in the west (me too), but there is great good in not running after or being tied to material things.
Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows at this link. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended.
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Each Time, New

When Dogen was in China he wrote this:
Break open a single particle and all the sutras grow clear: the great merit-wheel of the dharma turns as a whole. The womb of a donkey gives birth to the noble horse Each time you look, you'll see it new.
Mysteriously, the skin-bag is the Buddha field. Even a failure, imperfect, raw, half-baked, crooked, call-it-whatever, everytime it will shine, both different and the same. This endless practice shows that impermanence is the body of Buddhas. Nothing you can do about it. If you want Heaven, Amida-land outside here and now, as it is, outside of the womb of this donkey...How can it be?
gassho
Taigu
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Buddhanomics: The Things That Are Free

I hear from folks every day touched by the bad economy ... jobs lost, houses foreclosed, marriages under stress, people in crisis. These are hard times for so many.
Over the coming weeks, I will offer a series of talks on what Buddhism has to teach about the economics of "hard times". Some of it will cover big topics that impact the whole system, with our consumerism, materialism and wasted resources. The future is at stake! But some of it is small, and right at home.
Today, we will start with a really simple lesson. In fact, it is so true, so wise, so often said ... that it sounds like a greeting card, a bumper sticker, a fortune cookie. But it is TRUE AS TRUE CAN BE:
THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE --ARE-- FREE!
When the bank's repossessing the car, when hopes and dreams go up in smoke, when we have a leaky roof over our head on a rainy day, it good to appreciate the rain!
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Even As

"EVEN AS" ... an ordinary phrase that one hears used a lot around here:
Drop all thought of "this and that" ... even as we live in a world of "this and that" ...Drop all thought of anything to achieve ... even as we keep moving forward to get things done ...
Drop all thought of anyplace to go ... even as we have places to go and people to see.
Drop all thought of "time" ... even as we watch the clock.
 

 
This even as sounds so ordinary ... even as nothing is ordinary!
Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows at this link. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended.
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The Compass of Zazen

A frequent visitor to our Sangha gifted us with a lovely post ... on Zazen and choices ... on "sitting with" questions ...
Zazen is compass-ionate
Yes, folks, indeed it is.
Take what is tumultuous, sit it down in zazen Like a true compass, zazen points And in that pointing, all directions thereby are known
Take what is submerged, sit it down in zazen Like a bubble of air, tugging toward ‘up’ No amount of being rolled around by life’s undertow Can mask the fact ‘Up’ is ‘up’
zazen, if not now, in this lifetime, then when?
I do not feel that Zazen will always allow us to know the "one correct choice" to make at a life crossroads, the "one right answer" to every life problem. But it sure will point us in the right direction of good answers and choices ... toward more helpful, healthful, more peaceful, wise and compassionate choices free of anger, greed, selfishness. The silence and open space of Zazen allows our heart a moment of calm in which to settle on a course, free of self destructive impulses and biases.
Visit the forum thread here!