September 6th-7th, 2014 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! ANGO SEASON BEGINS!

**Jundo** · 09-04-2014, 03:48 PM

Please read the following in preparation for our Zazenkai ... These Passages will be the center of today's talk ...

Ango Then and Now ...

What is Ango in our day and time, for householders in the modern West? Is it Ango as the Buddha, Dogen and all the Ancestors Practiced?

The meaning of the Japanese word Ango [安居] (Skt : varsha or varshika; Pali: vassa ) is “tranquil dwelling”. The origin is the “rainy-season retreat” , the period when Buddhist monks in India stopped their travels and outdoor activities for the duration of the rainy season and gathered at some sheltered location to devote themselves to Practice, study and discipline. One practical reason was because the heavy rainfall made traveling and outdoor activities impractical. But it was also a time when the individual monks in Buddha’s time, spending most of the year scattered here and there in small groups or individually, could gather and unite as a community and Practice together. During the rainy season in India, monks traditionally dwelt in a cave or a monastery for three months—from the sixteenth day of the fourth month to the fifteenth day of the seventh month. During this period the monks learned the Buddha's teachings, engaged in meditation and other practices, and repented their harmful behavior and weaknesses. The tradition is said to have begun during the time of Shakyamuni, was brought to China, and in Japan the three-month retreat was first observed in 683. Now it comes to us.

In the time of Master Dogen, Ango was a period of intense Practice mostly (but not exclusively) for monks living in a monastery. In his early years, Dogen’s Teachings emphasized that Zazen and Enlightenment are open to all, monks or householders, male or female, everyone. Later in life however, Dogen found himself chased out of the cosmopolitan capital city by other religious groups, turning to live in a remote and isolated monastery in the snowy mountains of Japan. Although in other writings to his lay students, Dogen continued to emphasize how this Way is open to all, his writings like Shobogenzo were meant to be talks heard primarily by his monks, meant to encourage monks in their monastic life and “keep up morale”, and thus, quite naturally, centered on the importance of Practice in a monastic setting.

But does that mean that Ango is not for householders as well? How has the Practice of Ango evolved as Zen has come to the West, to modern times, and again become open to all, monks or householders, male or female, everyone without distinction?

We will look at a few passages from Master Dogen’s “Shobogenzo-Ango”, written in his jazzy wild way:

Page not found – BDK America

http://www.bdkamerica.org/digital/dBET_T2582_Shobogenzo4_2008.pdf

Promoting Better Understanding of Buddhism

----------

To meet a summer retreat is to meet the buddhas and the patriarchs. To meet a summer retreat is to realize buddha and to realize the state of a patriarch. .... In this “Ninety days makes a summer,” though the measurement of time is a cerebral measurement, it is beyond only one kalpa or ten kalpas, and beyond only a hundred thousand countless kalpas. ... [The summer retreat] has not come here from another place and another time, and it does not originate from just this place and just this time. When we grasp their origins the ninety days come at once. When we grope for their basis the ninety days come at once. The common and the sacred have seen these [ninety days] as their caves and as their very lives, but [the ninety days] have far transcended the states of the common and the sacred.

** a "kalpa" is a vast eon of time measuring billions of years.
…

The World-honored One addresses Bodhisattva Round Realization, the great assemblies of monks, and all living beings:

If you practice the retreat for three months from the beginning of summer, you will abide in the pure state of a bodhisattva, your mind will leave the state of a śrāvaka, and you will be beyond dependence on others. When the day of the retreat arrives, say before the Buddha the following words: “In order that I, bhikṣu/bhikṣuṇī/upāsaka/upāsikā So-and-So, who rides upon the bodhisattva vehicle may perform tranquil practice; that I may harmoniously enter, dwell in, and maintain the pure real form; that I may make the great round realization into my temple; that body and mind may practice the retreat; and that the wisdom whose nature is balance and the peaceful natural state of self may be without hindrances; I now respectfully ask, without relying on the state of a śrāvaka, to practice the three-month retreat together with the Tathāgatas of the ten directions and the great bodhisattvas. By virtue of enacting the great causes of the supreme and fine truth of the bodhisattva, I will not be involved with others.” Good sons! This is called a bodhisattva’s manifestation of the retreat.

** a "śrāvaka" might be called a self-absorbed "armchair Buddhist"

** upāsaka/upāsikā = laymen and laywomen

...

Once when the World-honored One was doing the ninety-day summer retreat somewhere, on the final day, when the ceremony of public repentance was held, Manjushri suddenly appeared in the assembly, whereupon Makakashō asked him, “Where did you do your retreat this summer?” Manjushri replied, “This summer I did the retreat in three other places.” At this, Makakashō assembled the community, intending to have Manjushri expelled by striking the wooden fish. But just as he had raised the hammer to strike the wooden fish, he suddenly saw innumerable Buddhist temples appearing. He could see that there was a Buddha with a Manjushri at each place and a Makakashō at each place, his hand raising a hammer to expel Manjushri, whereupon the World-honored One spoke to Makakashō, saying, “Which Manjushri do you wish to expel
now?” Makakashō was immediately dumbfounded.

[Dogen continued:] Meditation Master Engo, in commenting on this account, once said the following:

If a bell is not struck, it does not ring; if a drum is not struck, it
does not resound. Makakashō had already grasped the essential
function of a summer retreat; Manjushri had rid himself of all duality
by means of his doing his meditation throughout the ten quarters. This
very moment in the story is an excellent one, for it expounds the
functioning of the Buddha’s Teaching. How regrettable to have
missed such a move! As our dear Master Shakyamuni was about to
say, ‘Which of the Manjushris do you wish to expel now?’ just
imagine, what if Makakashō, right off, had given the fish a good
whack! What mass annihilation would he have then created?

[Dogen continued:] Meditation Master Engo added a verse to this commentary of his:

A great elephant does not play about in the narrow path
that a rabbit makes,
And what could a little bird know of a great wild swan
It was just as if Makakashō had created a new way of
putting the Matter whilst staying within the rules
and regulations;
It was just as if Manjushri had grabbed a flying arrow
within his teeth, having already broken the target.
The whole universe is one with Manjushri;
The whole universe is one with Makakashō.
Face-to-face, each is solemn in his authority.
Makakashō raised his hammer, but in which place will he
punish Manjushri?
Manjushri did It with one fine prick of his needle;
Makakashō s ascetic practices rid him of all hindrances

[Dogen continued:]So, the World-honored One’s doing the summer retreat in one place is equivalent to Manjushri’s doing it in three places, and neither is not doing the summer retreat. If someone is not doing the retreat, then such a one is not a Buddha or a bodhisattva. There is no account of any offspring of the Buddhas and Ancestors not doing a summer retreat. You should realize that those who do a summer retreat are offspring of the Buddhas and Ancestors. Doing a summer retreat is the body and mind of the Buddhas and Ancestors. It is the Eye of the Buddhas and Ancestors, the very life of the Buddhas and Ancestors. Those who have not done a summer retreat are not the offspring of the Buddhas and Ancestors: they are neither a Buddha nor an Ancestor. We now have Buddhas and bodhisattvas, be They as humble as clay and wood, as precious as silk and gold, or as wondrous as the seven precious jewels.* All of Them have performed the retreat of sitting in
meditation through the three months of the summer. This is the ancient custom of abiding within, and maintaining, the Treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. In short, those who reside within the house of the Buddhas and Ancestors must, by all means, do the practice of sitting in retreat for the three months of a summer.

A GOOD ANGO TO ALL!!!!

Mp · 09-04-2014, 03:51 PM

Wonderful, I will be there live. =)

Gassho
Shingen

**Daiyo** · 09-04-2014, 05:07 PM

I could join live later (e.g. for the Dharma Talk) and then sit the rest, or sit the entire zazenkai saturday morning (japan evening).

What would be adviceable?

Gassho,
Walter.

**Jundo** · 09-04-2014, 05:12 PM

Originally posted by walter

I could join live later (e.g. for the Dharma Talk) and then sit the rest, or sit the entire zazenkai saturday morning (japan evening).

What would be adviceable?

Gassho,
Walter.

Do as you can, sit as you can. Best to sit all at once, but in parts if needed. There is no difference nor sameness between the live and so-called "recorded" versions.

Gassho, J

**Kyonin** · 09-04-2014, 05:22 PM

I'll be there live!

Gassho,

Kyonin

**Kokuu** · 09-04-2014, 05:38 PM

Wonderful! Shobogenzo Ango inspired me greatly last year and I took to reading it whenever my Ango spirit was flagging.

Due to family weekend commitments I will not be able to sit this until Monday but look forward to it.

Gassho
Kokuu

**Guest** · 09-04-2014, 09:32 PM

I will be there live

**Dosho** · 09-04-2014, 09:54 PM

I will be here!

Gassho,
Dosho

**Kyotai** · 09-05-2014, 02:48 AM

I am available. My son asked to have a bon fire. So I will do that, and arrive late and finish what I missed Sunday. Or perhaps not arrive at all, and finish what I missed Sunday.

Gassho, Shawn

**jeff_u** · 09-05-2014, 04:48 AM

I'll be there.

Gassho,
-Jeff

**Yugen** · 09-05-2014, 01:23 PM

We are celebrating my son's nineteenth birthday tonight; the one night college and work schedules all coincide and we can be together. I won't be able to join you live, but following this Friday I will be joining you throughout Ango.

Deep bows to you for your practice,
Yugen

**Myosha** · 09-05-2014, 01:44 PM

Participating.

Gassho,
Myosha

**RichardH** · 09-05-2014, 01:57 PM

I'll be there/here.

Gassho
Daizan

**Jika** · 09-05-2014, 02:30 PM

Question:
Sometimes people "sign" they have sat the recorded version (by posting so).
For me, doing it (and knowing myself) would usually be enough.
I write too much anyway.

So, out of politeness or Ango commitments, should one generally tell the Sangha one participated in the recorded version?

Thank you.
Gassho,
Danny

September 6th-7th, 2014 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! ANGO SEASON BEGINS!

September 6th-7th, 2014 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! ANGO SEASON BEGINS!

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment