SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: ENGAGED ENERGY

[Jundo]

We continue a series of talks on the Buddhist "Paramitas" (Virtues) which aid in our engaged and charitable work in the world. Today ... Verve, Vigor, Energy! ...

In Sanscrit, this is called the Virya Paramita ... which comes from the same root as vim and virile!


And that energy is not only of use for all our social and political efforts to fix this world, clean up our country or town ...


... it is energy for whatever we need to "get er done" in life.


And like all the "Perfections", it recognizes that we are only human, not perfect. Even superman needs to get his rest sometime.


Treeleaf's ENGAGED & CHARITABLE PROJECTS CENTER can be found here, and we hope you will join in our group projects as an aspect of your Practice. This too is Zazen ...

ENGAGED CENTER LINK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8VALDMdI4s

Listen Through our Treeleaf Audio Podcast HERE:
http://treeleaf.podbean.com/e/sit-a-...ngaged-energy/

[Mp]

Awesome talk Jundo, thank you ... I need to clean my garage today! =)

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

[Shugen]

Thank you Jundo. Very timely!

Gassho,

Shugen

#sattoday

[Joyo]

Wu wei---thank you, Jundo. Very timely for me also.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today

[Jinyo]

Thank you Jundo,



Willow/Jinyo

ST

[Jakuden]

Oh, I so needed this kick in the hiney. I am not one to get caught up in self-pity, however I do tend to succumb to the poor-me-I-worked-so-hard-today-I-can't-clean-the-messy-bedroom-now state of mind. Can't get away with anything around here....

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

[Myosha]

Hello,

Thank you for the link.


Gassho
Myosha
sat today

[Kyotai]

Thank you Jundo. I better get going on the kitchen.

Gassho, Kyotai
ST

[Taiyo]

Thank you, Jundo. Time to go to work with Energy!

Gassho,
Andoitz

SatToday

[Kotei]

Thank you, Jundo.

If it's true, that the biggest energy-user in our bodies are digesting food and thoughts (digesting and thinking),
eating 'just enough' (Oryoki) and Zazen (even after raising from the cushion) might save some measurable amount of energy.
(Should also be true for the other kind of energy, not the measurable, physical, but the inner impulse to do things).

Trying to understand, or at least read, things from Eihei Koroku, I came across:

A good time for Zazen.
124. Dharma Hall Discourse
These days are a good time for zazen. If you pass this time [vainly], how can you have full strength? If you have no strength, how can you fully engage and affirm the way? Borrowing energy from this time, we can easily cultivate the way.

Now the spring winds are a whirlwind, and the spring rains have continued [for many days]. Even this smelly skin-bag born from our father and mother cherishes this [time]. How could the bones, flesh, and marrow correctly transmitted by buddha ancestors despise it? Those who despise it truly are beasts.
After a pause Dogen said: In spring, beyond our own efforts, a withered tree returns to life and flowers. For nine years unknown by people, how many times did he cross the desert?


A little later in the same text (162. Dharma Hall Discourse), I found, what Dogen would have done with someone like me (ripped out of the context)... ;-)

... Then Dogen said: We have enough rice and bean gruel for our daily functioning. Even if you clarify the place where you have exerted your energy, I give you thirty blows of the staff.

Gassho,
Kotei having to be more aware of his energy level and usage, sattoday.

[Jika]

I hope your work is indoors, seems to be very hot in Japan this week, a friend reported.

I don't know why, when reading the stories of old, I always imagine the Buddha or Dogen doing whatever they do in pleasant temperature.
Never imagined Dogen sitting with sweat streaming down his face.
[Maybe "smelly skin-bag" is quite literal?]
Is this my imagination, climate/microclimate change, or today's cities with their architecture??

(I find heat always gives me a good excuse to avoid chores... I really get sick sometimes.)

Gassho
Jika
#sattoday

[Kyonin]

Thank you for this teaching.

Gassho,

Kyonin
#SatToday

[Risho]

Thank you Jundo!

Gassho,

Risho
-sattoday

[Tai Shi]

Hi All, yes you all know about my pain, and impolitely I have broken into a thread on cancer to tell you that we think we have a solution, at least it seems to be starting thanks to a great doctor . Well through all of this in spite of pain, my wife has insisted that I keep up with my volunteer work--once a week working in my senior center coffee shop, with the pain and health problems have also been a care caller for someone in need, and teaching creative writing at my senior center. Also I do a little work for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Now through all of this I have had to give up two volunteer jobs at hospitals because they were just too much--I could not push wheel chairs sometimes up to 1/2 mile, and I could not do some physical things or tax my emotions. Like Jundo, I have had to paced myself, and yet my wife and therapist have insisted that I continue through all the high level pain. For me to stop would be sudden, well you know, would be bad for me. Any way, looks like there is a solution for the pain, and I AM grateful I did not stop serving people who have come to depend on me, and I have had to pace myself. By the way my psychiatrist says I am narcissistic and my pain therapist and my regular therapist say I am not--who is right? In any event, I like what I do and I talk a little too much about it. So be it!

Tai Shi
std
Gassho
PS, I was wrong to break into the thread on cancer, and I am sorry!