Dear Everyone,
Master Dogen tells us that his trip to China took a month on a leaky boat, plagued by sickness and storm ...
Me ... I'll be flying economy on a 777 from Tokyo to Guangzhou, probably plagued by nothing more than tight leg room and a bad movie. :roll:
On Monday, December 5th, after sitting our Treeleaf 'Rohatsu' Retreat, I will be heading off to China. My wife and son will follow the next week. Our main objective is to fetch our new daughter, age 1 ... a girl who our family has been waiting for about 5 years and thought sometimes would never come ...
http://www.treeleaf.org/sit-a-long/with ... child.html
Yeah!
During the first week, though, I will be on pilgrimage to some famous Zen sites ... and I hope to take you all along with me as much as the internet will allow. I just received word (thanks to Andy Ferguson ... more about him later) that I will be able to stay and sit some Zazen for a day or two in the guest quarters of NANHUA CHAN-SI, the temple where the 6th Patriarch (Master Hui-Neng, of the Platform/Altar Sutra) is said to have spend most of his later life and died ...
http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Jan/52722.htm
... and still home to what is reported to be his mummified remains, sitting Zazen through the centuries ...
I will also visit other temples associated with Masters Hui-neng, Yummen and 'ol Bodhidharma ... such as:
Guangxiao Temple, said visited by Bodhidharma and where Master Hui-neng was Ordained (but only many many years after becoming the '6th Patriarch' as a lay person) ... It is also the place where the famous Hui-neng Koan is said to have taken place .. not the flag nor the wind, but the mind that is moving ...
Hualin Temple, said to have been built my Master Bodhidharma when he first set foot in China ...
... and more!
Then, my wife, son and I will be on to a two week adventure of meeting our new daughter in neighboring Guangxi Provence, getting settled and acquainted ... and working through mountains of remaining red tape and Chinese/America/Japanese government procedures for the adoption! I hope to take my Treeleaf family along on that adventure too! Hopefully, if all goes as it is expected, we will all be back in Japan by December 24th, in time to celebrate the New Year as a family!
Internet access will be sporadic, and I will stay away from the computer when on Retreat. Also, Youtube and Justin.tv may be blocked in China. However, I intend to post as and when I can, blog in this thread most days, post photos ... and (if some alternative to Youtube) video too.
Please get your bags packed to come along! My wife and I met as exchange students in Beijing back in the 80's (she from Japan, me from America), and so it is a kind of turn of the circle for us. Mina still speaks good Chinese, but mine is mangled and rusty as an old bucket. What's more, they speak Cantonese down there, and not Mandarin ... but we will get by!
Also, thanks to Shohei, Mongen and Fugen, our SATURDAY ZAZENKAI's will continue during my travels ... so be there and sit square!
Also remember these words of Dogen, from the Fukanzazengi ...
In our world and others, in both India and China, all equally hold the buddha-seal. While each lineage expresses its own style, they are all simply devoted to sitting, totally sitting in resolute stability. Although they say that there are ten thousand distinctions and a thousand variations, they just wholeheartedly engage the way in zazen. Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep you stumble past what is directly in front of you.
Gassho, Jundo
Master Dogen tells us that his trip to China took a month on a leaky boat, plagued by sickness and storm ...
Me ... I'll be flying economy on a 777 from Tokyo to Guangzhou, probably plagued by nothing more than tight leg room and a bad movie. :roll:
On Monday, December 5th, after sitting our Treeleaf 'Rohatsu' Retreat, I will be heading off to China. My wife and son will follow the next week. Our main objective is to fetch our new daughter, age 1 ... a girl who our family has been waiting for about 5 years and thought sometimes would never come ...
http://www.treeleaf.org/sit-a-long/with ... child.html
Yeah!
During the first week, though, I will be on pilgrimage to some famous Zen sites ... and I hope to take you all along with me as much as the internet will allow. I just received word (thanks to Andy Ferguson ... more about him later) that I will be able to stay and sit some Zazen for a day or two in the guest quarters of NANHUA CHAN-SI, the temple where the 6th Patriarch (Master Hui-Neng, of the Platform/Altar Sutra) is said to have spend most of his later life and died ...
http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Jan/52722.htm
... and still home to what is reported to be his mummified remains, sitting Zazen through the centuries ...
I will also visit other temples associated with Masters Hui-neng, Yummen and 'ol Bodhidharma ... such as:
Guangxiao Temple, said visited by Bodhidharma and where Master Hui-neng was Ordained (but only many many years after becoming the '6th Patriarch' as a lay person) ... It is also the place where the famous Hui-neng Koan is said to have taken place .. not the flag nor the wind, but the mind that is moving ...
Hualin Temple, said to have been built my Master Bodhidharma when he first set foot in China ...
... and more!
Then, my wife, son and I will be on to a two week adventure of meeting our new daughter in neighboring Guangxi Provence, getting settled and acquainted ... and working through mountains of remaining red tape and Chinese/America/Japanese government procedures for the adoption! I hope to take my Treeleaf family along on that adventure too! Hopefully, if all goes as it is expected, we will all be back in Japan by December 24th, in time to celebrate the New Year as a family!
Internet access will be sporadic, and I will stay away from the computer when on Retreat. Also, Youtube and Justin.tv may be blocked in China. However, I intend to post as and when I can, blog in this thread most days, post photos ... and (if some alternative to Youtube) video too.
Please get your bags packed to come along! My wife and I met as exchange students in Beijing back in the 80's (she from Japan, me from America), and so it is a kind of turn of the circle for us. Mina still speaks good Chinese, but mine is mangled and rusty as an old bucket. What's more, they speak Cantonese down there, and not Mandarin ... but we will get by!
Also, thanks to Shohei, Mongen and Fugen, our SATURDAY ZAZENKAI's will continue during my travels ... so be there and sit square!
Also remember these words of Dogen, from the Fukanzazengi ...
In our world and others, in both India and China, all equally hold the buddha-seal. While each lineage expresses its own style, they are all simply devoted to sitting, totally sitting in resolute stability. Although they say that there are ten thousand distinctions and a thousand variations, they just wholeheartedly engage the way in zazen. Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep you stumble past what is directly in front of you.
Gassho, Jundo
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