Last Friday, for Zazenkai, Jundo had a talk prepared as usual, but the barn swallows had other plans. As they went about their business, their chatter increasingly loud, Jundo handed them the microphone and welcomed their impromptu Dharma talk. So we all sat, spread across the entire world, each facing our own wall, bombarded by the singing of the barn swallows in Tsukuba. They were loud and energetic and some would say even annoying after a while. But, the experience reinforced an old conviction: when we sit together, across space and time, we are never separate, never far away, never disconnected or alone. At least 17 people, on different continents, different time zones, different environments, were sitting in stillness, but the swallows were the same for all of us. When we got up, we'd experienced the same thing (though, admittedly, whatever sensations or thoughts the swallow's chatter might've produced were unique to each of us). As a matter of fact, I invite you to sit with us and experience it for yourselves, if you missed last zazenkai.
The presence of the swallows somehow reminded me of master Dogen's Genjokoan:
"A bird flies through its sky, and no matter how far it flies, the sky is without end. At the same time, the fish and the bird have never left their water or their sky. When their need is large their use will be large. When the need is small their use is thus small. Thereby, each of them totally uses its full range in each moment, and each of them wholly brings its realm to vibrant activity."
In the commentary he makes on Genjokoan in 'The Zen Master's Dance', Jundo says: "...life is a field of opportunity, [ ] it is up to us to make something of it. Of course, we are not totally free to do and be what we want, no more than a fish can leave the water or a bird can fly without the air. Nonetheless, where and how the bird or fish travel within their given medium, and with what grace and energy, is largely up to them. Thus, practice never stops because the features and variety of our lives never stop, so we practice right here where we are".
That strikes me as a timely encouragement, both for our zazen practice and for life in general, since sometimes we sit with pain, with distractions, with a cloudy mind, with a broken heart, in the middle of a war or in the most beautiful room and sometimes we feel something is insufficient, inadequate, not proper etc... Maybe like the swallows flying above our guests' heads in the Tsukuba Zendo, their piercing singing blasting through my device's speakers or my numb legs causing me to sweat and want to get up from zazen before the bell rings. But, we "practice right here where we are". The same goes for every day life. We are not always dealt the best hand, nor does the wind always blow in our favour, but how we function in those difficult situations creates our life. That is our flying in that corner of our barn in that moment and we can choose to make it a graceful and energetic flying or we can act like a fish out of water or a bird without air under its wings. I am sure the swallows had visited bigger places and that Jundo and the Zendo guests were an annoyance for the little birds as well, yet they fully brought to life their swallow activity right then and there and boy, did they make an impact!
I wonder if any of you remembers a situation where you were a barn swallow, responding energetically and gracefully to what was right in front of you, using it fully... Would you share?
Please excuse the length of this post and please take whatever I have written here as merely my own thoughts and observations. I am but a novice monk, hoping that through sharing we learn together.
gassho
sat and lah
The presence of the swallows somehow reminded me of master Dogen's Genjokoan:
"A bird flies through its sky, and no matter how far it flies, the sky is without end. At the same time, the fish and the bird have never left their water or their sky. When their need is large their use will be large. When the need is small their use is thus small. Thereby, each of them totally uses its full range in each moment, and each of them wholly brings its realm to vibrant activity."
In the commentary he makes on Genjokoan in 'The Zen Master's Dance', Jundo says: "...life is a field of opportunity, [ ] it is up to us to make something of it. Of course, we are not totally free to do and be what we want, no more than a fish can leave the water or a bird can fly without the air. Nonetheless, where and how the bird or fish travel within their given medium, and with what grace and energy, is largely up to them. Thus, practice never stops because the features and variety of our lives never stop, so we practice right here where we are".
That strikes me as a timely encouragement, both for our zazen practice and for life in general, since sometimes we sit with pain, with distractions, with a cloudy mind, with a broken heart, in the middle of a war or in the most beautiful room and sometimes we feel something is insufficient, inadequate, not proper etc... Maybe like the swallows flying above our guests' heads in the Tsukuba Zendo, their piercing singing blasting through my device's speakers or my numb legs causing me to sweat and want to get up from zazen before the bell rings. But, we "practice right here where we are". The same goes for every day life. We are not always dealt the best hand, nor does the wind always blow in our favour, but how we function in those difficult situations creates our life. That is our flying in that corner of our barn in that moment and we can choose to make it a graceful and energetic flying or we can act like a fish out of water or a bird without air under its wings. I am sure the swallows had visited bigger places and that Jundo and the Zendo guests were an annoyance for the little birds as well, yet they fully brought to life their swallow activity right then and there and boy, did they make an impact!
I wonder if any of you remembers a situation where you were a barn swallow, responding energetically and gracefully to what was right in front of you, using it fully... Would you share?
Please excuse the length of this post and please take whatever I have written here as merely my own thoughts and observations. I am but a novice monk, hoping that through sharing we learn together.
gassho
sat and lah
) 
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