October 31th-November 1st, 2014 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI!

[Jundo]

NOTE: BECAUSE WE STARTED 20 MINUTES LATER, KINHIN PERIODS TODAY ARE EACH 10 MINUTES LONG. OTHER SCHEDULE IS THE SAME.

NOTE DAYLIGHT SAVINGS HAS ENDED IN EUROPE, NOT YET IN US & CANADA

Readings for today's Dharma Talk are 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 11pm, to 3am and Paris midnight to 4am (early Saturday morning)) ... and visible at the following link during those times ...

... to be visible at the following link during those times and any time thereafter ...

LIVE ZAZENKAI NETCAST at GOOGLE+ IS HERE:
CLICK ON THE TAB ON LOWER RIGHT FOR 'FULL SCREEN

http://youtu.be/rkZHLgp9Q6g

FOR THOSE NOT ALREADY MEMBERS OF THE CIRCLE WHO WISH TO JOIN TO SIT LIVE WITH A CAMERA, INSTRUCTIONS are posted AT THIS LINK. WE ARE NOW LIMITED TO 10 INDIVIDUALS WITH CAMERAS, BUT ANY NUMBER CAN WATCH LIVE 'ONE WAY' AND SIT-A-LONG VIA THE ABOVE SCREEN. IF JOINING WITH CAMERA, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR MICROPHONE IS MUTED:

The Sitting Schedule is as follows;

00:00 - 00:50 CEREMONY (HEART SUTRA / 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

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' 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):

Chant Book (PDF)

or

Chant Book (SHORT VERSION HTML)

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

[Jundo]

Our Talk this time will be climbing up a passage of Master Dogen's Shobogenzo Hakujushi (the Cypress Tree)

http://scbs.stanford.edu/sztp3/translations/shobogenzo/translations/hakujushi/translation.html

... which centers on the "Cypress Tree In The Garden" Koan of Joshu, found in our Book of Serenity readings this week ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?12870-BOOK-OF-EQUANIMITY-Case-47

Gassho, Jundo

It can be found, with wonderful footnoting by scholar and translator Carl Bielefeldt at the following link. I also reprint below the passage I hope to cover ...

-------------------
Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma
Number 40

The Cypress Tree

...

The great master was once asked by a monk, “What is the intention of the ancestral master’s coming from the west?”
The master said, “The cypress tree at the front of the garden.”
The monk said, “Reverend Preceptor, don’t show a person with an object.”
The master said, “I don’t show a person with an object.”
The monk said, “What is the intention of the ancestral master’s coming from the west?”
The master said, “The cypress tree at the front of the garden.”12


This one public case, though it is said to have originated from Zhaozhou, is in the end something authored by the whole body of the buddhas. Who is “the one in charge”? [NOTE: "the one in charge", commonly used in Chan texts for the true self. ] The principle we should understand here is the point that “the cypress at the front of the garden” is not “an object,” the point that “the intention of the ancestral master’s coming from the west” is not “an object,” the point that “the cypress tree” is not the self; for [it is said,], “Reverend Preceptor don’t show a person with an object”; for [it is said,] “I don’t show a person with an object.” Which “Reverend Preceptor” is impeded by “Reverend Preceptor”? [NOTE: Impeded/Obstructed - Probably to be taken in the sense, “identified,” “defined”; a common usage in Dōgen’s writings.] If he is not impeded, he must be “I.” Which “I” is impeded by “I”? Even if it is impeded, it must be “a person.” Which “object” is not obstructed by the “intention in coming from the west”? For the “object” must inevitably be the “intention in coming from the west.” Nevertheless, the “intention in coming from the west” is not dependent on the “object.” “The intention of the ancestral master’s coming from the west” is not necessarily “the treasury of the eye of the true dharma, the wondrous mind of nirvana.” It is “not the mind”; it is “not the buddha”; it is not “not a thing.”13

[NOTE: According to the Shōbōgenzō monge, the influential commentary attributed to the Sōtō master Menzan Dōhaku 面山道白(1636-1715), the key to this difficult passage is the understanding that the “the intention of the ancestral master” lies precisely in the abandonment of both the “object” (of experience) and the “person” (who experiences). Hence, Dōgen says that the point to be understood is that “the cypress tree” is neither an “object” nor “the self.” To say that the “Venerable Preceptor” is not “impeded” is to say that there is no “person” or “object” apart from him; there is only the “Venerable Preceptor” as “I.” Similarly, to say that, even when “impeded,” the “I” is “a person” is to say that, in the absence of a distinction between “person” and “object,” the person is not separate from this self. ]


[The monk’s] saying here, “what is the intention of the ancestral master’s coming from the west?” is not merely a question; it is not merely that “both people can see the same.” [NOTE: Generally understood to mean that the monk and Zhaozhou share the same view. ] Precisely at the time he asks, he cannot see anyone; how much of himself can he get? [NOTE: generally interpreted to mean that, when the monk asks the question, there is no one to whom it is addressed and no one who is asking it. Though it is possible to read this passage as a criticism of the monk, most interpreters take it as an affirmation of his understanding.] Going further, [we can say,] he is without fault. Therefore, it is “mistake, mistake.” [NOTE: "Mistake" sometimes used in ironic praise—which, given the context, seems the most likely interpretation here. ] Because it is mistake, mistake, it is “taking a mistake as a mistake.” [NOTE: An idiom, found in Chan texts, meaning “to recognize one’s mistake” or “to turn a mistake to one’s advantage.”] Is this not “to accept the hollow and entertain the echo”?14 [NOTE: A Chinese idiomatic expression meaning something like “to take seriously what is vacuous.” Though the connotation is negative, most interpreters take it in a positive sense here; the Shōbōgenzō monge (CKZS 5:232), for example, treats it as the Buddhist vision of all things as empty of their “own natures” ]


Because “the all-pervading spiritual root turns neither toward nor away,” it is “the cypress tree at the front of the garden”: if it is not an “object,” it cannot be a cypress tree; even if it is an object, it is [said,] “I don’t show a person with an object,” and “Reverend Preceptor, don’t show a person with an object.” It is not an old ancestral shrine. [NOTE: The rationale for this seeming non sequitur is not clear. Some interpreters have speculated that it is an allusion to the cypress trees traditionally planted at ancestral shrines in symbolic expression of eternal life; hence, the point is presumably that Zhaozhou’s cypress is not eternal.] Since it is not an old ancestral shrine, he goes on burying. [NOTE: Some interpreters take this to mean that Zhaozhou’s cypress tree is continually “dying” (and “being reborn”) in each moment. ] Since he goes on burying, it is “return my concentrated effort.” [NOTE: generally taken to mean “[The cypress tree] is my concentrated effort” — i.e, the spiritual effort of teaching by the “I” (go 吾) in the statement, “I . . . show a person.” ] Since it is “return my concentrated effort,” it is [said,] “I don’t show a person with an object.” Then what else does he use to “show a person”? It must be “I’m also like this.”15 [NOTE: Dogen's point might be, at least in part, that Zhaozhou’s cypress tree is not a memorial to the Chan ancestor Bodhidharma but what he is using to “bury” (i.e., teach) people.]

* * * * *

[Mp]

I will be there live, thank you Jundo. =)

Gassho
Shingen

[Jishin]

Count me in. 😄

Gassho, Jishin

[Shinzan]

I'll be there, but perhaps not live. It will be trick-or-treat time.
_/\_ Shinzan

[Dosho]

I'll either be handing out candy or taking the kids around the neighborhood for Halloween, so I'll have to sit with the recorded version.

Gassho,
Dosho

[Meishin]

Be there/here at delayed/virtual/actual time.

Gassho
John

[Kyonin]

I'll be there with mokugyo and bell ready!

Gassho,

Kyonin

[Shinyo]

Heart Sutra and mokugyo? Sounds great!

Gassho,
Shinyo

[RichardH]

I'll be helping my son with his "Galactic Overlord" costume and driving him to at a party, so I may come in late or sit Zazenkai on Sunday.

Gassho
Daizan

[Shinyo]

Not sure if I'll make it. I'm waiting to be accepted on Google +. Also, my work schedule changed again.

Gassho,
Shinyo

[Jundo]

Let me mention that, the night before the Zazenkai, our Zendo becomes our neighborhood "Haunted House" for about 30 of my son's school chums and their parents!

(Well, at night, with the wooden rafters, candle light and creeky door ... it makes a good one! ).


Gassho, J

[jeff_u]

I'll be practicing trick-or-treat chauffeur Zazenkai with all of you tomorrow. Sitting later this weekend

Gassho,
-Jeff

[Anshu Bryson]

I'll be there. Hope the G3 (Google+ Gatekeeper Gremlins...!) don't hide the door to the Zendo again this week...!

Gassho,

Bryson

[Dosho]

I'm waiting to be accepted on Google +.

Shinyo,

Did you send either me or Myoku a request as outlined here: http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...E-for-Zazenkai

If you did, my apologies for misplacing it; please send it again.

Gassho,
Dosho