July 3rd-4th, 2020 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI- Bukkyo

[Jundo]

Today's Talk is on Master Dogen's "Shobogenzo-Bukkyo"

(text below in this thread)

Please 'sit-a-long' with our MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI, netcast LIVE 8am to noon Japan time Saturday morning (that is New York 7pm to 11pm, Los Angeles 4pm to 8pm (Friday night), London midnight to 4am and Paris 1am to 5am (early Saturday morning)) ... and visible at the following link during those times ...

... and to be visible on the following screen during those times and sit-a-long-able any time thereafter ...

LIVE ZAZENKAI NETCAST IS HERE:

https://youtu.be/GvNr7Grx1Jk

Dharma Talk Audio / Podcast Episode:
LINK TO BE POSTED HERE IN THE COMING DAYS

FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO JOIN TO SIT LIVE WITH A CAMERA, THERE lS A LlNK BELOW AT THE BOTTOM OF THlS POST. JUST CLICK AND JOIN BEFORE START TIME. 'TWO WAY' REQUIRES INDIVIDUALS WITH CAMERAS, BUT ANYONE CAN WATCH LIVE 'ONE WAY' AND SIT-A-LONG VIA THE ABOVE SCREEN. IF JOINING WITH CAMERA, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR MICROPHONE IS MUTED.

'One Way' folks are also welcome to join the Zoom room, just leaving your camera and microphone turned off:

The Sitting Schedule is as follows:

00:00 - 00:50 CEREMONY (HEART SUTRA IN JAPANESE / SANDOKAI IN ENGLISH) & ZAZEN
00:50 - 01:00 KINHIN
01:00 - 01:30 ZAZEN
01:30 - 01:50 KINHIN

01:50 - 02:30 DHARMA TALK & ZAZEN
02:30 - 02:40 KINHIN & HOKEY-POKEY

02:40 - 03:15 ZAZEN
03:15 - 03:30 KINHIN
03:30 - 04:00 METTA CHANT & ZAZEN, VERSE OF ATONEMENT, FOUR VOWS, & CLOSING


Our Zazenkai consists of our chanting the 'Heart Sutra' in Japanese and the 'Identity of Relative and Absolute (Sandokai)' in English (please download our Chant Book at the link below), some full floor prostrations (please follow along with me ... or a simple Gassho can be substituted if you wish), a little talk by me ... and we close with the 'Metta Chant', followed at the end with the 'Verse of Atonement' and 'The Four Vows'. Oh, and lots and lots of Zazen and walkin' Kinhin in between!

Please download and print out the Chants we will recite at the following link (PDF):
HERE IS THE LINK TO THE ENTIRE RETREAT CHANT BOOK INCLUDING THIS WEEK'S FOUR HOUR ZAZENKAI:https://docs.google.com/document/d/e...BTxHsnBOGr/pub



Not everyone realizes that they can join in the Chanting of the Heart Sutra, Identity of Relative & Absolute, Metta Verses, Verse of Atonement and Four Vows (although we ask that you keep your microphone down). Please follow along with the Chant Book, and let your voice ring!

I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU POSITION YOUR ZAFU ON THE FLOOR IN A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE NOT STARING DIRECTLY AT THE COMPUTER SCREEN, BUT CAN GLANCE OVER AND SEE THE SCREEN WHEN NECESSARY. YOUR ZAFU SHOULD ALSO BE IN A POSITION WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE COMPUTER SCREEN WHILE STANDING IN FRONT OF THE ZAFU FOR THE CEREMONIES, AND HAVE ROOM FOR BOWING AND KINHIN.

ALSO, REMEMBER TO SET YOUR COMPUTER (& SCREEN SAVER) SO THAT IT DOES NOT SHUT OFF DURING THE 4 HOURS.

I hope you will join us ... an open Zafu is waiting. When we drop all thought of 'here' 'there' 'now' 'then' ... we are sitting all together!


Gassho, Jundo

SatTodayLAH

PS - There is no "wrong" or "right" in Zazen ... yet here is a little explanation of the "right" times to Bow (A Koan) ...

The other video I mention on Zendo decorum is this one, from our "Always Beginners" video Series:

Sit-a-Long with Jundo: Zazen for Beginners (12) - Basic Zendo Decorum At Home
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...093#post189093

HOW TO JOIN THE ZAZENKAI '2-WAY':

You can join the Zazenkai two-way in the Scheduled Sitting Room using Zoom any one of the following ways:

- Use this direct link: https://zoom.us/j/4834831244
- Open Zoom and join with this meeting id: 483 483 1244
- Go to Treeleaf NOW and select the Scheduled Sitting Room: treeleaf.org/ssr
- If prompted for a password, use: dogen

Notes:

- When you first join, you'll need to choose an audio source (usually you can simply select "Join with Computer Audio" on desktop or "Call using Internet Audio" on mobile).

- You can switch between the "speaker view" (the default view) and "gallery view" (a grid / tic-tac-toe style view):
-- On desktop, click the "gallery view" / "speaker view" toggle button on the top right
-- On mobile, swipe right for "gallery views" -- only 4 participants are shown at a time on mobile, so keep swiping right to go through different groups, swipe left to go back to the "gallery view"

- You can mute, unmute, etc. with the control bar on the bottom of the screen
-- On desktop, hover the mouse over the window and the control bar should pop up
-- On mobile, tap the screen and the control bar should pop up
-- On mobile, so that your own picture does not take up one of the four slots you see, you can tap for the control bar, then tap "... menu" and select "Remove myself from gallery view"

- If you are on a slow Internet connection and are experiencing drop-outs, try turning off video (you can always turn it on for a bit at the beginning and end to say hi and bow to everyone)

[Jundo]

Today's Talk will be on some traditional and modern interpretations of fundamental Buddhist Teachings, as played by Master Dogen with his signature Dharma Jazz in "Shobogenzo-Bukkyo."

============================

The Four Noble Truths are the Truth of the existence of suffering, the Truth that suffering has a cause, the Truth that suffering can cease, and the Truth of the Noble Eightfold Path which brings suffering to an end. Hearing of these and then making them their practice, [book learning Buddhists] free themselves from birth, aging, sickness, and death, and ultimately realize the perfection of nirvana. To make these Truths the basis of one’s training and practice, and then to assert that suffering and its cause are mundane, whereas its cessation and the path to cessation are what is paramount, is an opinion that arises from the perspective of narrow-minded scholars. When the Four Noble Truths are practiced in accord with the Buddha Dharma, the Four Noble Truths are each of “buddhas alone, together with buddhas,” the Four Truths are each “the Dharma abiding in the place of the Dharma,” the Four Noble Truths are all manifestations of Truth. The Four Noble Truths are all Buddha Nature. As a consequence, they go beyond intellectual discussions of such matters as ‘non-arising’ and ‘non-activity’, because the Four Noble Truths are each “completely beyond necessity.”

[Next is] the perfection of nirvana by way of the Twelve Links in the Chain of Dependent Origination. The Twelve Links in the Chain of Dependent Origination are first, ignorance; second, the deliberate actions that derive from that ignorance; third, becoming aware of things; fourth, giving name and form to things; fifth, activating the six senses; sixth, making contact through the senses with what arises; seventh, being stimulated to feeling through one’s senses; eighth, craving; ninth, grasping after; tenth, causing to come into existence; eleventh, giving birth to; and twelfth, aging unto death. In making the Twelve Links in the Chain of Dependent Origination the basis of their practice, [some Buddhists] explore causality in the past, present, and future, and talk in terms of a subject that sees and an object that is seen. Even so, they take up causal relationships one by one and explore them thoroughly through their training, but their doing so is not something that is absolutely essential to the turning of the Dharma Wheel, for it is not absolutely essential to see every link in the causal chain. Keep in mind that, since the darkness of ignorance is inseparable from the One Whole Mind, deliberate acts, becoming aware of things, and so forth, are also inseparable from the One Whole Mind. Since the darkness of ignorance is inseparable from cessation, then deliberate acts, becoming aware of things, and so forth, are also inseparable from cessation. Since the darkness of ignorance is inseparable from nirvana, deliberate acts, becoming aware of things, and so forth, are also inseparable from nirvana. We can speak in this way because what arises is also what ceases. ‘The darkness of ignorance’ is a phrase we use in talking. ‘Becoming aware of things’, ‘giving them name and form’, and so forth, are no different. Keep in mind that the darkness of ignorance, deliberate actions, and so forth, are not different from Seigen Gyōshi’s saying to his disciple Sekitō Kisen, “I have a certain hatchet [which cuts through all delusions and severs all karmic roots] and would give It to you, should you choose to reside on this mountain with me.” The darkness of ignorance, deliberate actions, becoming aware of things, and so forth, are not different from Sekitō’s responding, “At the time when I was sent to you, I received your promise of being allowed to have your Hatchet, Reverend Monk, and so I would like to receive It.”

...

[Next,] there is the vehicle of the bodhisattvas, those who realize fully perfected supreme enlightenment by putting into practice the Teachings concerning the Six Paramitas. This ‘realizing’ of which they speak is beyond anything they do deliberately, beyond their doing nothing, beyond their initiating something, beyond their newly accomplishing something, beyond their having realized It in some
remote past life, beyond what they originally intended to do, beyond anything they are attached to: it is simply their full realization of fully perfected supreme enlightenment.

What we call the Six Paramitas—that is, the six practices that ferry all sentient beings to the Other Shore—are the practice of freely giving wealth and Dharma, the practice of observing the Precepts, the practice of patience, the practice of energetic devotion, the practice of meditation, and the practice of wise discernment. These, all together, constitute supreme enlightenment [dāna-pāramitā, śīla-pāramitā, kṣānti-pāramitā, vīrya-pāramitā, dhyānapāramitā, and prajñā-pāramitā.]. They are beyond any discussion of ‘nothing arising’ or of ‘not deliberately doing anything’. They do not always treat the giving of wealth and Dharma as the first thing or enlightenment as the ultimate thing. It says in the Scriptures, “A keen-witted bodhisattva makes enlightenment the first thing and makes giving the ultimate thing. A slow-witted bodhisattva makes giving the first thing and enlightenment the ultimate thing.” Even so, patience can also be first, as can meditation.

And there will be their manifesting the Thirty-six Paramitas, which is their getting snares from snares. [The Thirty-six Paramitas derive from the manifesting of each of the Six Paramitas within the practice of each one of the Six Paramitas. The Six Paramitas are like six traps for snaring the Truth, each of which produces another six traps, that is, the Thirty-six Paramitas] The word ‘paramita’ means reaching the Other Shore. Even though ‘the Other Shore’ is beyond any semblance or trace of coming or going, one’s arrival fully manifests [its arrival is realized.], for arrival refers to the universe. Do not think that training and practice merely lead you to the Other Shore, for there is training and practice on that Other Shore. Therefore, when we do our training and practice, it is our arrival at the Other Shore, because this training and practice is invariably supplied with the capacity to make the whole universe manifest completely.

...

You need to recognize that what is called Buddha Mind is synonymous with the Buddha’s Eye, as well as with a broken wooden ladle, all thoughts and things, and the three worlds of desire, form, and beyond form [all of reality]. As a consequence, It is also synonymous with the mountains, seas, and nations of the earth, as well as with the sun, moon, and stars. ‘What the Buddha taught’ is another name for everything that arises in nature. What is called ‘outside’ is being right here in this situation. It is what is happening, right here in this situation. The term ‘the genuine Transmission’ means that there is a self within the genuine Transmission because it involves a direct Transmission from a self to a self. It directly Transmits from One Whole Mind to One Whole Mind, for there must be the One Whole Mind in a genuine Transmission. The One Whole Mind that is the Supreme Vehicle is synonymous with soil, stones, sand, and pebbles, and soil, stones, sand, and pebbles are synonymous with the One Whole Mind. Consequently, soil, stones, sand, and pebbles are synonymous with soil, stones, sand, and pebbles. If we speak of the direct Transmission of the One Whole Mind that is the Supreme Vehicle, it needs to be done in this manner.

[Jakuden]

Thank you Jundo! Will be there with bells!

Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday


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[Kyonin]

Thank you Jundo!

I'll see if work and storms allow for me to get on time. If not, I'll sit over the weekend.

Gassho

Kyonin
Sat/LAH

[Sekishi]

Sekishi #sat

[Onkai]

Thank you, Jundo and Jakuden. I will join if I can get to the computer on time. My family is celebrating the Fourth of July a day early, so I may have to sit this one later.

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat/LAH

[Jundo]

Small internet issue. Sit Zazen few minutes while waiting

[Bokugan]

Going to endeavour to sit later with you all. I was hoping to be "live" but the day took me in other directions

Gassho

Ryan
Sat Today

[Jundo]

In our striving to bring peace to the Middle East, our Hokey-Pokey today is in Hebrew ...

https://youtu.be/B6-_Ax883Uo

Alas, I could not find one in Iranian-Farsi! However, I believe this is رقص هوکی-پوکی in English

https://youtu.be/m_JNIg3UTyo

Gassho, Jundo

STLah

[Onkai]

Thank you, Jundo, Jakuden, Sekishi, and everyone. It is wonderful to sit perfectly imperfect zazen. The talk resonated with me. Have a great weekend.

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat/LAH

[Science Abbot]

Thank you, Treeleaf.

In ango and with you one-way on this "perfectly perfect" day.

Gassho,
Mui
Sat/LAH

[Nanrin]

Four hours sure can go by quickly. Talk was fine, even the parts where it allegedly was messed up.

Gassho,

Nanrin

Sat today

[Shokai]

Thank you Jundo for another wonderful teaching which I would summarize as, "Beyond all delusion, Nirvana is already here." We are all tremendously grateful for your Ninth grade drama teacher (Good Night Rhoda Hollindrake wherever you are) And, Jakuden, for another perfect Ino performance, thank you kindly. Good night all, it's a pleasure to sit together. Have an awesome week 'til we meet again next Friday.

gassho, Shokai
stlah

[Doshin]

Doshin
St

[Seikan]

Thank you Jundo, Jakuden, and all for a perfectly imperfect (imperfectly perfect?) Zazenkai. May your spoons remain forever unbroken, but if they do break, may they do so perfectly.

Gassho,
Rob

SatToday


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