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

**Jundo** · 08-31-2023, 01:29 AM

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 ...

**Jundo** · 08-31-2023, 01:29 AM

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 ...

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

... 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! ...

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

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

**Jundo** · 08-31-2023, 03:04 AM

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxs0--0BMp0

**Dall** · 08-31-2023, 07:55 PM

Thank you. 🙏

Gassho,
Dall
stlah

**Risho** · 09-01-2023, 02:18 PM

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

**Kyonin** · 09-01-2023, 06:48 PM

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

**Derrell** · 09-01-2023, 07:32 PM

Looking forward to practicing zazen with everyone today.

Gasssho,
Derrell

**Geika** · 09-01-2023, 10:56 PM

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

Happy New Ango Year

stlah

**Kotei** · 09-02-2023, 03:08 AM

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

Deep bows,
Kotei sat/lah today.

**Geika** · 09-02-2023, 03:13 AM

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

stlah

**JasonC** · 09-02-2023, 03:14 AM

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

Gassho,

Jason

Stlah

**Seikan** · 09-02-2023, 03:23 AM

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-

**Bion** · 09-02-2023, 03:54 AM

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

[emoji1374] Sat

**DGF** · 09-02-2023, 08:57 AM

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

Gassho
Diana
Satlah

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

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

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