June 21st. Recommended Threads

[Jundo]

I encourage looking at these threads, topics and posts today ...

Please sit with our June 16th-17th Treeleaf Weekly Zazenkai ... available right now, never to early or too late, any place and time ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?15384-June-16th-17th-Treeleaf-Weekly-Zazenkai

A new chapter from Okumura Roshi on the "Verse of Atonement/At-One-Ment" ... LIVING by VOW: The Verse of Repentance (Atonement) - pp 53 - 62 (All Chapter 2) ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?15392-LIVING-by-VOW-The-Verse-of-Repentance-%28Atonement%29-pp-53-62-%28All-Chapter-2%29

Seeking Zazen Hangout Host Volunteers - Would You Host A Weekly Zazen Sitting? ... if you are already sitting at home, maybe just turn the camera on ...
Seeking Zazen Hangout Host Volunteers - Would You Host A Weekly Zazen Sitting?

In our Art Circle ... a touch of Kannon, and a little Talk by Daizan ... Avalokiteshvara part 2 ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?15386-Treeleaf-Art-Circle-Avalokiteshvara-part-2

The great debate on Buddhism and Meat ... the historical Buddha too a Middle Way, the Chinese were stricter, the Japanese not so much ... The First Precept and Eating Meat ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?15380-The-First-Precept-and-Eating-Meat

Pull up a Zafu and feel at home ... Getting the most out of community ... some is up to you ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?15389-Getting-the-most-out-of-community

A time to analyze and not to analyze, a time to run from tigers ... Get to know yourself ... a thread about this and that ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?15385-Get-to-know-yourself&p=201087&viewfull=1#post201087

Every day is Mother & Father's Day! ... Happy Fathers Day to All Zen Fathers (and Mothers Too) ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?15390-Happy-Fathers-Day-to-All-Zen-Fathers-%28and-Mothers-Too%29

And DON'T FORGET! ... the experiment continues, and we need you! ... A TREELEAF EXPERIMENT with EVERYONE’S PARTICIPATION REQUESTED: “LAH” (Lend A Hand)

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?15314-A-TREELEAF-EXPERIMENT-with-EVERYONE%C2%92S-PARTICIPATION-REQUESTED-%C2%93LAH%C2%94-%28Lend-A-Hand%29

I am so glad if this place and the practice are benefiting you. If so, you might consider a DONATION to Treeleaf at this LINK, although there is absolutely no need or requirement to do so. Thank you.



A Re-MINDer on SIMPLICITY:

In a Zen Monastery, SILENCE or A FEW WISE WORDS are cherished over MANY WORDS. Thus, I advise folks to restrain the need to speak unless the heart truly calls. If you find yourself posting many times each day, maybe consider what truly needs to be said ... and when it is best just to answer with silence and an inner Gassho.

SILENCE OR A FEW HESITANT WORDS OF FRIENDSHIP AND SUPPORT OFTEN SPEAK MOST PROFOUNDLY. Post when it is truly important to you and needs to be spoken from the warm heart.

(BUT too much silence or shyness can also be excessive ... so take the Middle Way!)

Also, to those who may get lost among the many threads and conversations in our Forum, please think of a monastery made of wood or brick, with 100 monks holding 10,000 conversations in the hallways, kitchen, Abbot's rooms and library (I assume no chatting in the Zendo where people sit Zazen).

Would you need or want to hear or join in all or most conversations? Of course not! You would, at best, pick and choose the conversations relevant and helpful to you.

So here too in our Sangha, NO NEED TO READ EVERY CONVERSATION: Try to note the ones that seem helpful to your Practice or interests, leave the rest. The above threads are a few suggestions.

Oh, and we do ask folks to note that they have SAT ZAZEN THE PREVIOUS DAY BEFORE POSTING IN THE FORUM (please read about that here):

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?12995-Signing-SatToday-Please-Sat-before-Forum-Chat

Gassho, Jundo

SatTodayLAH

[Tai Shi]

Is even the small amount I give Treeleaf an insult because I do not give more? I know it take mula to run a tech Zendo, and all the priests work hard and perhaps are asked to give even more into ordination. So do we as members deserve a pie chart easy enough with today's programs, and even today such programs and knowledge exist?

Tai Shi
std
Gassho

[Jundo]

Is even the small amount I give Treeleaf an insult because I do not give more? I know it take mula to run a tech Zendo, and all the priests work hard and perhaps are asked to give even more into ordination. So do we as members deserve a pie chart easy enough with today's programs, and even today such programs and knowledge exist?

Tai Shi
std
Gassho

Hi Tai Shi

There is absolutely no need to give a donation here and, if there is an economic difficulty, then it may not even be wise. If someone has the resources and wishes to do so, we happily accept. If someone does not have the resources or does not wish too, we receive that too. All just sit together. The Buddha was happy when someone who had nothing else donated a blade of grass or half a broken pot. lid. Sometimes just once presence or a helping hand or word is enough. From Shobogenzo: Bodaisatta-Shishobo (Shohaku Okumura Translation):

The Buddha said, “When a person who practices dana [generosity and giving] comes into an assembly, other
people watch that person with admiration.” We should know that the mind of such a
person quietly reaches others. Even if we offer just one word or a verse of Dharma,
it will become a seed of goodness in this lifetime and other lives to come. Even if we
give something humble—a single penny or a stalk of grass—it will plant a root of
goodness in this and other ages. Dharma can be a material treasure, and a material
treasure can be Dharma. This depends entirely upon the giver’s vow and wish.
Offering his beard, a Chinese emperor harmonized his minister’s mind. Offering
sand, a child gained the throne. These people did not covet rewards from others. They
simply shared what they had according to their ability. To launch a boat or build a
bridge is the practice of dana paramita. When we understand the meaning of dana,
receiving a body and giving up a body are both offerings. Earning a livelihood and
managing a business are nothing other than giving. Trusting flowers to the wind, and
trusting birds to the season may also be the meritorious action of dana. When we give
and when we receive, we should study this principle: Great King Ashoka’s offering of
half a mango to hundreds of monks was a boundless offering. Not only should we urge
ourselves to make offerings, but we must not overlook any opportunity to practice
dana. Because we are blessed with the virtue of offering, we have received our
present lives.

The Buddha said, “One may offer and use one’s own gift; even more, one can pass it
to one’s parents, wife, and children.” Therefore we should know that giving to
ourselves is a kind of offering. To give to parents, wife, and children is also offering.
Whenever we can give up even one speck of dust for the practice of dana we should
quietly rejoice in it. This is because we have already correctly transmitted a virtue of
the buddhas, and because we practice one dharma of a bodhisattva for the first time.
The mind of a sentient being is difficult to change. We begin to transform the mind of
living beings by offering material things, and we resolve to continue to transform them
until they attain the Way. From the beginning we should make use of offering. This is
the reason why the first of the six paramitas is dana-paramita. The vastness or
narrowness of mind can not be measured, and the greatness or smallness of material
things can not be weighed. But there are times when our mind turns things, and there
is offering, in which things turn our mind.
https://terebess.hu/zen/dogen/KS-Bodaisatta.html

Gassho, Jundo

SatTodayLAH

[Tai Shi]

Yes Jundo, what I give is really, really no hardship, and in a Christian sense and a Buddhist moderate way, I give with compassion and a glad heart!~ In point of fact, though this may not be Buddhist, but I know it is my other following, I give with a cheerful heart and in a Jewish sense, I give for my friends.