September 24-25th Treeleaf Weekly Zazenkai - "Not Open, Not Closed" Zazenkai

[Rousei]

Thank you everyone, todays talk was especially interesting!

Sorry I had to dash from first Zazen sit a minute early, area leader came over to talk to me about the Lion Dance I'm about to go participate in! But I came back quickly straight into Kinhin. The Tea House afterwards was also really enjoyable. It's always a pleasure to hear other people talk about their practice or life experiences.

Gassho
Mark
ST

[Kiri]

Thank you Jundo, Jakuden and everyone else! It was nice practicing with you!

Many of you will probably know the famous quote from Carl Sagan: "The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself."

Gassho, Nikolas
Sat/Lah

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[Anchi]

[Sekiyuu]

Thanks for sitting, everyone!

When you sit, the universe is sitting on itself!


Sekiyuu
Sat Today

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[Kaishin]

Thank you, all

[Seiko]

Thank you everyone.

Gassho, Seiko, stlah

[Tairin]

Thank you everyone. I sat with you this morning.


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Jakuden]

Thank you Jundo, Jakuden and everyone else! It was nice practicing with you!

Many of you will probably know the famous quote from Carl Sagan: "The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself."

Gassho, Nikolas
Sat/Lah

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Oooooh, I forgot about that! I was a pretty big Carl Sagan fan, and somewhere in the back of my brain I knew that whenever Jundo talked about us being the universe looking at itself it reminded me of something, and now I know what it was.

Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday/Lent a little hand

[Kotei]

Thank you everyone!

Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Tai Shi]

Thank you others for allowing me practice in one way 1/2 time.
Gassho
sat/ lah


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[Sekishi]

Many of you will probably know the famous quote from Carl Sagan: "The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself."

Apologies in advance - I have a thing for this quote...

A month or two ago my son had an upset stomach and took some Pepto-bismol. He said something to me like, "You know, bismuth cannot form in most stars, only red-giants that eventually go super-nova. Through massive explosions our upset stomachs are calmed."

But, one of my favorite deliveries of this line comes from the character Delenn on Babylon 5.

> The molecules of your body are the same molecules . . . that burn inside the stars themselves. We are star stuff. We are the Universe, made manifest, trying to figure itself out.
>> ~ Delenn, Babylon 5, _A Distant Star_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhD0hbGEDSU

A while back I really got into exploring this expression of "being starstuff". In particular the word "stuff" really strikes me - so non-specific and simple. Another word for "dharmas", or for the "red dust" of some of the old Zen stories.

But, I found that there is an older usage of the term in this context. This one by science author H. Gordon Garbedian in 1929:

> We are made of the same stuff as the stars, so when we study astronomy we are in a way only investigating our remote ancestry and our place in the universe of star stuff. Our very bodies consist of the same chemical elements found in the most distant nebulae, and our activities are guided by the same universal rules.
>> ~H. Gordon Garbedian, 1929 August 11, New York Times, Section: New York Times Magazine, _The Star Stuff That Is Man_ by H. Gordon Garbedian, Quote Page SM1.


But, it is possible that he in turn borrowed it from Albert Durrant Watson who used it in a way even more aligned with "dharmas" or "skanhas" in 1918:

> Thus we come to see that if our bodies are made of star-stuff, and there is nothing else, says the spectroscope, to make them of—the loftier qualities of our being are just as necessarily constituents of that universal substance out of which are made, "Whatever gods there be."
> We are made of universal and divine ingredients, and the study of the stars will not let us escape a wholesome and final knowledge of the fact.
>> ~Albert Durrant Watson, The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Volume 12, Number 3, _Astronomy: A Cultural Avocation by Albert Durrant Watson (Retiring President’s Address_, Annual Meeting, January 29, 1918


Perhaps there are older formulations. I do not know. But how lovely it can be when science, astronomy, philosophy, and religion find the common ground of truth. Right here in the world of the red dust - starstuff.

Deep bows,
Sekishi

[Sekishi]

Apologies for yet another post, but during the talk all I could hear in my head was a sample (original from Cowboy Bebop) used in an old lofi hiphop track "The Eye of Truth" from the Driver album _Bumps_:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haL29Hnhfac

> Know this Swimming Bird: This blue eye perceives all things conjoined. The past, the future, and the present. Everything flows and all is connected. This eye is not merely seeing reality. It is touching the truth. Open the eye of truth... There is nothing to fear.
>> Laughing Bull, _Cowboy Bebop_

Ok, enough with the quotes. Enjoy your day, conjoined with all things, different but not separate, at one - not two, starstuff walking and talking - head nodding.

Deep bows,
Sekishi
#sat

[Jakuden]

Apologies in advance - I have a thing for this quote...

A month or two ago my son had an upset stomach and took some Pepto-bismol. He said something to me like, "You know, bismuth cannot form in most stars, only red-giants that eventually go super-nova. Through massive explosions our upset stomachs are calmed."

But, one of my favorite deliveries of this line comes from the character Delenn on Babylon 5.

> The molecules of your body are the same molecules . . . that burn inside the stars themselves. We are star stuff. We are the Universe, made manifest, trying to figure itself out.
>> ~ Delenn, Babylon 5, _A Distant Star_

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhD0hbGEDSU

A while back I really got into exploring this expression of "being starstuff". In particular the word "stuff" really strikes me - so non-specific and simple. Another word for "dharmas", or for the "red dust" of some of the old Zen stories.

But, I found that there is an older usage of the term in this context. This one by science author H. Gordon Garbedian in 1929:

> We are made of the same stuff as the stars, so when we study astronomy we are in a way only investigating our remote ancestry and our place in the universe of star stuff. Our very bodies consist of the same chemical elements found in the most distant nebulae, and our activities are guided by the same universal rules.
>> ~H. Gordon Garbedian, 1929 August 11, New York Times, Section: New York Times Magazine, _The Star Stuff That Is Man_ by H. Gordon Garbedian, Quote Page SM1.


But, it is possible that he in turn borrowed it from Albert Durrant Watson who used it in a way even more aligned with "dharmas" or "skanhas" in 1918:

> Thus we come to see that if our bodies are made of star-stuff, and there is nothing else, says the spectroscope, to make them of—the loftier qualities of our being are just as necessarily constituents of that universal substance out of which are made, "Whatever gods there be."
> We are made of universal and divine ingredients, and the study of the stars will not let us escape a wholesome and final knowledge of the fact.
>> ~Albert Durrant Watson, The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Volume 12, Number 3, _Astronomy: A Cultural Avocation by Albert Durrant Watson (Retiring President’s Address_, Annual Meeting, January 29, 1918


Perhaps there are older formulations. I do not know. But how lovely it can be when science, astronomy, philosophy, and religion find the common ground of truth. Right here in the world of the red dust - starstuff.

Deep bows,
Sekishi

[Risho]

Thank you all!

Gassho

Risho
-stlah

[Tai Shi]

One [emoji3516] last entry. When that star ⭐️ goes super nova, I want to live on a planet where I can see it, not close enough to get burned up in my next life, In my next world [emoji289].
Gassho
sat/ lah


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