Sept. 1st-2nd, 2023 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Commencing JUKAI & ANGO!

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  • Jundo
    Treeleaf Founder and Priest
    • Apr 2006
    • 40096

    Sept. 1st-2nd, 2023 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI - Commencing JUKAI & ANGO!


    Our Zazenkai is in Special Celebration and Welcome of the
    Commencement of our 2023 ANGO & JUKAI Season!


    As we continue our series on
    e78fbee68890e585ace6a188-genjocc84kocc84an-kanji-logo-1.jpg
    Genjo Koan
    ,
    'Realizing the Truth Right Here,'

    ... and the lessons for Jukai and Ango found therein.

    (text below)



    Dear All,

    Please sit our Monthly 4-Hour Treeleaf 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 also sitable any time thereafter:


    However, "one way" live sitters are encouraged to come into the Zoom sitting, and just leave the camera and microphone turned off: Join live (with or without a camera & microphone) on Zoom at: TREELEAF Now OR at DIRECT ZOOM LINK, password (if needed): dogen

    Dharma Talk Audio / Podcast Episode:
    Hello, Sangha Our Treeleaf Zendo Podcast begins a new series of talks, this time on master Dogen´s Genjo Koan, based on the modernized translation of the fascicle by our very own Jundo, found in his book ¨The Zen Master's Dance (https://wisdomexperience.org/product/the-zen-masters-dance/)¨ The first episode in the series,


    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 RITUAL

    02:40 - 03:15 ZAZEN
    03:15 - 03:30 KINHIN
    03:30 - 04:00 METTA CHANT & ZAZEN, VERSE OF ATONEMENT, FOUR VOWS, & CLOSING
    ATTENTION: Everyone, when rising for Kinhin or Ceremonies after Zazen, get up slowly, don't rush, hold something stable, you won't be "late," so TAKE YOUR TIME! Make sure you are careful getting up!

    Gassho, Jundo

    STLah


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


    Chant Book is here for those who wish to join in: CHANT BOOK LINK

    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

    I also recommend a little Talk on why small rituals and procedures are so cherished in the Zendo:

    SIT-A-LONG with Jundo: Small Things in the Zendo

    A little talk about small customs and rituals in the Zendo (such as straightening our slippers, not taking a short cut across the room, keeping our hands a certain way), and why those are elements of practice. It applies mostly when sitting in a formal group, like our weekly Treeleaf Zazenkai, but it is good to incorporate the

    Last edited by Bion; 08-31-2023, 05:11 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE
  • Jundo
    Treeleaf Founder and Priest
    • Apr 2006
    • 40096

    #2
    The text for our talk today, the third in a monthly series, is based on my modernized translation of the Genjo Koan, from my book ...

    THE ZEN MASTER’S DANCE
    A Guide to Understanding Dōgen and Who You Are in the Universe

    https://wisdomexperience.org/product...masters-dance/

    Other translations of of the Genjo can be found here for comparison: (LINK)

    This time, we will be looking at these passages in light of our Jukai (Undertaking the Precepts) and Ango (Peaceful Abiding) Season ...

    ~ ~ ~

    When you first seek the Buddha’s truth, you imagine you
    are far away from its locale. However, Buddha’s truth is
    already correctly transmitted right here; realizing so, you
    are immediately your original self.

    When you sail in a boat and look out at the shore, you
    might feel that the shore is moving. But when you turn
    your eyes toward the boat, you may then feel that the boat
    is moving. In the same way, if you observe the myriad
    things of the world with confused ideas of body and mind
    you might assume that your mind and nature are enduring
    and stand separate from things. But when you intimately
    practice and turn within, it will become clear that nothing
    at all has a fixed, individual self.

    In another part of Shobogenzo, Zenki (the "Whole Works"), Dogen writes this ...

    Life can be compared to a time when a person is sailing a
    boat. On this boat, you are working the sail, you manage
    the rudder, you are handling the pole. At the same time,
    the boat is carrying you, and there is no “you” to sail without
    the boat. By your sailing of the boat, this boat is made
    to be a boat. Please study and understand profoundly just
    this instant of the present. Understand this fully. At this
    very instant, everything is nothing other than the world of
    the boat. The sky, the water, and the shore have all become
    this time of the boat, which is very different from what
    this time would be if there were no boat. Thus, life is what
    you make of it, and you are what life is making of you.
    While you are sailing in the boat, your body and mind,
    self and environment, are all essential pivot points of the
    boat; and the entire earth and all of space are all essential
    pivot points of the boat. That is to say,
    life is the self, and the self is life.

    Until this moment, maybe you thought that you were a single, independent, sometimes lonely, isolated, frustrated being living apart from the rest of life. Maybe you felt like a lone sailor struggling on a boat, fighting the wind and ocean currents, with the shore moving swiftly by. But in zazen, that separation melts in such a way that sailor and sea and shore and sail and wind, and the other sailors and vessels and lands to the horizon and beyond, prove to be a single whole, and all flow as the true nature of the sea that was our nature all along.

    Firewood turns to ash and it does not turn to firewood again.
    But do not think that the ash is the future and the firewood
    is past. Rather, ash is wholly ash with nothing remaining,
    and the firewood is just firewood with nothing more. You
    should understand that firewood abides in the phenomenal
    expression and wholeness of firewood, which fully includes
    its own past and future yet is independent of all past and
    future. Ash abides in the phenomenal expression and wholeness
    of ash, which fully includes its own past and future too.


    We come to experience each moment of life as wholly what it is—a fully contained and actualized instant without comparison to any other moments of life. Of course, we live in a world of time, of before and after, past, present, and future. But we can come to see each instant as just that instant, its own fully contained moment of time that stands as its own shining jewel.

    Just as firewood does not turn to firewood again after it is
    ash, do not think of returning to birth after death.

    What is true about fire is true about aging and death. Let us leave aside the mystery of what may or may not follow after death. Rather, let us just come to experience life wholly as the time of life, and when death comes, we experience it simply as the moment of death. Likewise, aging is just the time of aging, health the time of health, sickness the time of sickness.

    We will continue about birth and death next time ...

    Last edited by Jundo; 08-31-2023, 02:03 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

    Comment

    • Jundo
      Treeleaf Founder and Priest
      • Apr 2006
      • 40096

      #3
      As this is Ango, we must dance the Tango ...

      ... and while I could not find an Ango Tango, I did find this Zen inspired dance instructor who seems to teach Tango as spiritual practice ...


      ... so we will dance Ango Zen Tango today.

      Now, I know nothing of this fellow, so this is in no way any recommendation or endorsement of Zen Tango de Oscar Wright. But this is what I found out:

      I am an American tango teacher who lives in Rome …I am originally from Austin, Texas where for many years I was a businessman and entrepreneur. In 1997 I did a crazy thing; I followed my dream and moved to Florence, Italy which had been my dream. ... I now live in Rome where I teach tango using Zen concepts and Jungian psychology …it is my passion ...

      ... Another very important element is inspiration and application of Japanese aesthetics to tango. In particular Ikebana flower arranging and Haiku poetry. But drawing inspiration as well from the tea ceremony, Zen Archery, Miyabi (Grace, Beauty, Simplicity) Shibumi, (simple, subtle beauty but with complex textures) The powerful application of STILLNESS during the act of dancing tango ...

      https://zentango.wordpress.com/about/
      And, apparently, it also helps build one's confidence in dating! ...


      Gancho Gassho, J

      Gancho, also known as Enganche, is a Tango move in which one dancer wraps their leg around the other ...

      tango-ganchos.jpg
      Last edited by Jundo; 08-31-2023, 03:21 AM.
      ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

      Comment

      • Jundo
        Treeleaf Founder and Priest
        • Apr 2006
        • 40096

        #4
        Oh, and apparently, we will be bailando con la cancion ... OLVIDO de Roberto Goyeneche ... a song on accepting the ephemerality, the ups and downs in life ... aka equanimity and Dukkha ...

        S
        i pensara alguna vez en lo que fui
        No tendría ni la fuerza de vivir,
        Pero yo sé, que hay que olvidar
        Y olvido, sin protestar.
        En la negra caravana de dolor
        De los hombres que perdieron el hogar,
        Sin blasfemar, sin un rencor
        Voy solo, con mi canción.

        Nadie pregunta
        Lo que he sido en el pasado,
        Si fui rico, si fui honrado
        Si hubo sedas en mi cuna.
        A nadie importa
        Quién soy yo, de dónde vengo,
        Y si alguno se me acerca
        Me pregunta cuánto tengo.

        Miran los trapos
        Que delatan mi pobreza de hoy,
        Y en esos trapos lee la gente
        Cuánto valgo y quién soy.
        Pero no importa...
        Para mí que lo he vivido,
        Yo sé todo lo que he sido
        Lo que nunca más, seré.

        Es por eso que mi boca no dirá
        El secreto de un pasado que perdí,
        Fui un gran señor, creo en un Dios
        Que a veces, me niega el pan.
        Y en la oscura caravana de dolor
        De los hombres que perdieron el hogar,
        Sin blasfemar, sin un rencor
        Voy solo, con mi canción.
        ... which roughly translates as ...

        If I ever thought of what I was
        I wouldn't even have the strength to live,
        But I know, that it is necessary to forget
        And I forget, without protest.
        In the black caravan of pain
        Of men who lost their homes,
        Without blasphemy, without a rancor.
        I go alone, with my song.

        No one asks
        What I have been in the past,
        If I was rich, if I was honored
        If there were silks in my cradle.
        No one cares
        Who I am, where I come from,
        And if anyone approaches me
        Asks me how much I have.

        They look at the rags
        That give away my poverty today,
        And in those rags people read
        How much I'm worth and who I am.
        But it doesn't matter...
        For I have lived it,
        I know all that I have been
        What I'll never be again.

        That's why my mouth won't tell
        The secret of a past I lost,
        I was a great lord, I believe in a God
        Who sometimes, denies me bread.
        And in the dark caravan of pain
        Of men who lost their homes,
        Without blasphemy, without a grudge
        I go alone, with my song.
        Last edited by Jundo; 08-31-2023, 03:26 AM.
        ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

        Comment

        • Dall
          Member
          • Oct 2022
          • 16

          #5
          Thank you. 🙏

          Gassho,
          Dall
          stlah

          Comment

          • Risho
            Member
            • May 2010
            • 3179

            #6
            Looking forward to Ango! I don't know what brought me here, but I'm grateful to share this practice with you all.

            Gassho

            Risho
            -stlah
            Email: risho.treeleaf@gmail.com

            Comment

            • Kyonin
              Treeleaf Priest / Engineer
              • Oct 2010
              • 6745

              #7
              Che Jundo, muchas gracias!

              (Che is the way in Argentina to call someone's attention. Like ね、in Japanese.)

              I'll be there.

              Gassho,

              Kyonin
              Sat/LAH
              Hondō Kyōnin
              奔道 協忍

              Comment

              • Derrell
                Member
                • Jun 2023
                • 19

                #8
                Looking forward to practicing zazen with everyone today.

                Gasssho,
                Derrell

                Comment

                • Geika
                  Treeleaf Unsui
                  • Jan 2010
                  • 4981

                  #9
                  I will be joining live with YouTube today, since today I will have to be doing some samu simultaneously.

                  Happy New Ango Year

                  stlah
                  求道芸化 Kyūdō Geika
                  I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.

                  Comment

                  • Kotei
                    Treeleaf Unsui
                    • Mar 2015
                    • 4122

                    #10
                    Thank you for sitting together, everyone.
                    A good Ango to all of us.

                    Deep bows,
                    Kotei sat/lah today.
                    義道 冴庭 / Gidō Kotei.

                    Comment

                    • Geika
                      Treeleaf Unsui
                      • Jan 2010
                      • 4981

                      #11
                      Thank you all. You accompanied my fixing-the-car samu well

                      stlah
                      求道芸化 Kyūdō Geika
                      I am just a priest-in-training, please do not take anything I say as a teaching.

                      Comment

                      • JasonC
                        Member
                        • Jul 2016
                        • 50

                        #12
                        Thank you for the dance and apologies for any toes I may have stepped on.

                        Gassho,

                        Jason

                        Stlah

                        Comment

                        • Seikan
                          Member
                          • Apr 2020
                          • 712

                          #13
                          It was wonderful to practice with you all once again! The Ango Tango was a lovely change of pace too...

                          Now off to continue Ango-ing with you all.

                          Gassho,
                          Seikan

                          -sat and tangoed today-
                          聖簡 Seikan (Sacred Simplicity)

                          Comment

                          • Bion
                            Treeleaf Unsui
                            • Aug 2020
                            • 4338

                            #14
                            Lovely, everyone! Every single time we get together to practice it is a joy. Have a good Ango!

                            [emoji1374] Sat
                            "Stepping back with open hands, is thoroughly comprehending life and death. Immediately you can sparkle and respond to the world." - Hongzhi

                            Comment

                            • DGF
                              Member
                              • Feb 2022
                              • 118

                              #15
                              Thank you! i will sit the zazenkai after work on-demand.

                              Gassho
                              Diana
                              Satlah

                              Comment

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