Chanting & Zazen Circle (Mo thru Sa)

[Anchi]

[Nengyoku]

Hello friends,

I have a poem by Rengetsu that I found moving and wished to share.

Inishie wo
tsuki ni towa ruru
kokochi shi te
fushime gachi ni mo
naru koyoi kana.
----------------------
Of bygone days
I feel the moon
asking me...
and cannot help softly
casting down my eyes this night.

Thank you for sitting with me today.

Gassho,
William
SatLAH

[Guest]

Hey all !

Here is the link to access at « I don’t know » by Koun Franz. Good reading !

https://dharmacrafts.com/blogs/news/i-dont-know-koun-franz

Yuki 雪
(Sat today)

[Anchi]

[Ryokudo]

Hey all !

Here is the link to access at « I don’t know » by Koun Franz. Good reading !

https://dharmacrafts.com/blogs/news/i-dont-know-koun-franz

Yuki 雪
(Sat today)

Thank you William

[Guest]

Hello friends,

I have a poem by Rengetsu that I found moving and wished to share.

Inishie wo
tsuki ni towa ruru
kokochi shi te
fushime gachi ni mo
naru koyoi kana.
----------------------
Of bygone days
I feel the moon
asking me...
and cannot help softly
casting down my eyes this night.

Thank you for sitting with me today.

Gassho,
William
SatLAH

I long for your next presence ; I hope to listen this poem read by you.


Yuki 雪
( …and yes, Sat today)

[Ryokudo]

Hello friends,

I have a poem by Rengetsu that I found moving and wished to share.

Inishie wo
tsuki ni towa ruru
kokochi shi te
fushime gachi ni mo
naru koyoi kana.
----------------------
Of bygone days
I feel the moon
asking me...
and cannot help softly
casting down my eyes this night.

Thank you for sitting with me today.

Gassho,
William
SatLAH

Thank you William

[Ryokudo]

Hey All,

Omom sent through a poem called Desiderata last week I has flavours of zen despite not being a "zen text".


Desiderata

GO PLACIDLY amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible,
without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.


By Max Ehrmann © 1927
Original text

We could maybe include it as a reading one day.

Gassho,

Ryokudo

[Seiko]

As we are discussing poetry, I feel moved to give you this old thing _/\_

Hakuin Zenji's Song of Zazen
Hakuin Ekaku 白隠 慧鶴,
January 19, 1686 – January 18, 1769


All beings by nature are Buddha
As ice by nature is water.
Apart from water there is no ice;
Apart from beings, no Buddha.

How sad that people ignore the near
And search for truth afar:
Like someone in the midst of water
Crying out in thist;
Like a child of a wealthy home
Wandering among the poor.

Lost on dark paths of ignorance,
We wander through the six worlds;
From dark path to dark path-
When shall we be freed from birth and death?

For this the zazen of the Mahayana
Deserves the highest praise:
Generosity, patience, self-discipline,
The many paramitas_
All rise within zazen

Even those with proud attainments
Wipe out their old deluded ways.
Where are all the dark paths then?
The pure land itself is near.

Much more, if you dedicate yourself to practice
And confirm your own true nature,
True nature that is no nature.
You are far beyond mere dogma.

Here effect and cause are the same,
The way is neither two nor three,
With form that is no form
Going and coming -never astray
With thought that is no thought
Singing and dancing are the voice of the law.

Boundless and free is the sky of samadhi
Bright the full moon of wisdom,
Truly, is anything missing now
Nirvana is right here before our eyes;
This very place is the lotus land,
This very body, the Buddha.

[Guest]

Hi Seiko,

Your timing is excellent !
Yesterday, we read Hakuin Zenji’s Song of Zazen as translated in Treeleaf Sangha Chant Book.
Today, I wanted to read the Robert Aitken translation, the one you just published in your post.
Thank you for giving us this opportunity!

Yuki 雪
(Sat today)

[Anchi]

[Guest]

Hey all !

Later this week, it would be interesting to chant Hakuin Zenji’s Song of Zazen in Japanese. Here is the Japanese text. The first syllable of the words in capitals are lightly accentuated when chanting so it could rythm the chant.

HAKUIN ZENJI ZAZEN WASAN

shu jo hon RAI HOTO KENA ri
MIZU to ko RINO GOTO KUNI te
MIZU o HANA RETE ko RINA ku
SHUJO ONO HOKA ni HOTO KENA shi
SHUJO o CHIKA KIO SHIRA ZUSHI te
to ku MOTO MURU HAKA NASA yo
TATO EBA MIZU no NAKA ni ITE
KATSU o SAKE BUGA GOTO KUNA ri
cho JANO IE no KOTO NARI te
hin RINI MAYO ONI KOTO NARA zu
ROKU shu rin NENO in nen wa
ONO REGA GUCHI no YAMI JINA ri
YAMI JINI YAMI JIO FUMI SOE te
ITSU ka sho JIO HANA RUBE ki
SORE MAKA en no zen jo wa
sho tan SURU ni AMA RIA ri
FUSE ya JIKA INO SHOHA RAMI tsu
nem BUTSU san ge SHUGYO OTO
o SONO SHINA o ki SHOZE ngyo
o MINA KONO NAKA ni KISU RUNA ri
ICHI ZANO ko o NASU HITO mo
TSUMI shi MURYO ONO TSUMI HORO bu
AKU shu IZU KUNI ARI NUBE ki
jo do SUNA WACHI to KARA zu
KATA JIKE NAKU mo KONO NORI o
HITO TABI MIMI ni FURU RUTO ki
san tan ZUI ki SURU HITO wa
FUKU o URU KOTO KAGI RINA shi
IWA nya MIZU KARA EKO OSHI te
JIKI ni JISHO o SHO SURE ba
JISHO o SUNA WACHI MUSHO ONI te
SUDE ni KERO no HANA RETA ri
in ga ICHI NYONO mon HIRA ke
MUNI MUSA nno MICHI NAO shi
MUSO ONO so o so TOSHI te
YUKU mo KAE RUMO YOSO NARA zu
MUNE nno nen o nen TOSHI te
UTA UMO MAU mo NORI NOKO e
zan MAI MUGE no SORA HIRO ku
SHICHI em myo no TSUKI SAE n
KONO TOKI NANI OKA MOTO MUBE ki
JAKU METSU gen zen SURU YUE ni
to sho SUNA WACHI ren GEKO ku
KONO mi SUNA WACHI HOTO ke na ri


See you soon !

Yuki 雪
(Sat today)

[Seiko]

Both cats sat with us tonight. The well one and the sick one. Both turned up as I began to sign in to Treeleaf, and both stayed quietly to the end of Chanting and Zazen Circle without fighting each other.

Gassho
Seiko
stlah ok

[Guest]

Both cats sat with us tonight. The well one and the sick one. Both turned up as I began to sign in to Treeleaf, and both stayed quietly to the end of Chanting and Zazen Circle without fighting each other.

Gassho
Seiko
stlah ok

Your cats should have the Buddha’s nature, after all !

Yuki 雪
(Sat today)

[Anchi]

Hi everybody !

As we are in the Ango period, I suggest for next week to read if you like .

Meihō Sotetsu: Zazen
Translated by Lucien Stryk & Takashi Ikemoto,

'' Zazen ''

Zen-sitting is the way of perfect tranquillity: inwardly
not a shadow of perception, outwardly not a
shade of difference between phenomena. Identified
with yourself, you no longer think, nor do you seek enlightenment
of the mind or disburdenment of illusions.
You are a flying bird with no mind to twitter, a mountain
unconscious of the others rising araund it.
Zen-sitting has nothing to do with the doctrine of
"teaching, practice, and elucidation" or with the exercise
of "commandrnents, contemplation, and wisdom."
You are like a fish with no particular design of remaining
in the sea. Nor do you bother with sutras or ideas.
To control and pacify the mind is the concern of lesser
men: Sravakas, Pratyeka-Buddhas, and Hinayanists.
Still less can you hold an idea of Buddha and Dharma.
If you attempt to do so, if you train improperly, you
are like one who, intending to voyage west, moves east.
You must not stray.
Also you must guard yourself against the easy conceptions
of good and evil: your sole concern should be
to examine yourself continually, asking who is above
either. You must remember too that the unsullied essence
of life has nothing to do with whether one is
priest or layman, man or woman. Your Buddha-nature,
consummate as the full moon, is represented by your
position as you sit in Zen. The exquisite Way of Buddhas
is not the One or Two, being or non-being. What
diversífies it is the limitations of its students, who can
be divided into three cIasses -- superior, average, inferior.
The superior student is unaware of the coming into
the world of Buddhas or of the transmission of the non-
transmittable by them: he eats when hungry, sleeps
when sleepy. Nor does he regard the world as himself.
Neither is he attached to enlightenment or illusion.
Taking things as they come, he sits in the proper manner,
making no idle distinctions.
The average student discards all business and ignores
the external, giving himself over to self-examination
with every breath. He may probe into a koan, which he
puts mentally on the tip of his nose, finding in this way
that his "original face" (fundamental being) is beyond
life and death, and that the Buddha-nature of all is not
dependent on the discriminating intellect but is the un-
conscious consciousness, the incomprehensible understanding:
in short, that it is clear and distinct for alI
ages and is alone apparent in its entirety throughout
the universe.
The inferior student must disconnect himself from
all that is external, thus liberating himself from the duality
of good and evil. The mind, just as it is, is the
origin of all Buddhas. In zazen his legs are crossed so
that his Buddha-nature will not be led off by evil
thoughts, his hands are linked so that they will not take
up sutras or implements, his mouth is shut so that he
refrains from preaching a word of dharma or uttering
blasphemies, his eyes are half shut so that he does not
distinguish between objects, his ears are closed to the
world so that he will not hear talk of vice and virtue,
his nose is as if dead so that he will not smell good or
bad. Since his body has nothing on which to lean, he is
indifferent to likes and dislikes. He negates neither being
nor non-being. He sits like Buddha on the pedestal,
and though distorted ideas may arise from him, they do
so idly and are ephemeral, constituting no sin, like reflections
in a mirror, leaving no trace.
The five, the eight, the two hundred and fifty commandments,
the three thousand monastic regulations,
the eight hundred duties of the Bodhisattva, the Buddha-
nature and the Bodhisattvahood, and the Wheel of
Dharma -- all are comprised in Zen-sitting and emerge
from it. Of all good works, zazen comes first, for the
merit of only one step into it surpasses that of erecting
a thousand temples. Even a moment of sitting will enable
you to free yourself from life and death, and your
Buddha-nature will appear of itself. Then all you do,
perceive, think becomes part of the miraculous Tathata-
suchness (true nature, thusness).
Let it be thus remembered that tyros and advanced
students, learned and ignorant, all without exception
should practice zazen.


明峰素哲 Meihō Sotetsu (1277-1350)


Deep bows,