July 3rd-4th, 2015 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI!

[Jundo]

The readings for today's Talk from Master Dogen's Shobogenzo-Kokyo (The Ancient Mirror) will be posted immediately 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 midnight to 4am and Paris 1am to 4am (early Saturday morning)) ... and visible at the following link during those times ...

... to be visible on the below screen during those times and any time thereafter ...

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1CxvjOGLTw

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]

FOR TODAY's TALK:

Soto Zen Teacher Kokyo Henkel explains the "basics" of Mirror Awareness very nicely …

The true nature of mind is mirror-like awareness, always just reflecting what’s happening, whether we notice this or not. It never shuts off or stops functioning, even when we’re completely engrossed in conceptual thinking or strong emotions. A mirror just receives whatever object is placed before it, neutrally and naturally. It has no opinions about the object. The mirror doesn’t prefer red over blue, it doesn’t discriminate among these things, and yet it doesn’t block them out, reject them, or alter them in any way. It is just open receptivity, without adding any commentary. … All these qualities of the mirror are also qualities of the nature of mind, the naturally present open awareness of Buddha-Nature.

… During zazen we can open to this receptive mirror awareness. If we try to look directly at it, try to grasp the mirror, we won’t be able to; we will only get to see our ideas of it reflected in it. Therefore the practice is, rather than trying to see the mirror, simply to be the mirror. If we try to be the mirror and also try to figure out what the mirror is, then such figuring is simply reflections on the mirror. It seems quite challenging to just reflect like a mirror, since we are so accustomed to discriminating, preferring, assessing, and getting caught up in the objects placed before us. Though it is challenging, it is also very simple, almost too simple for us to accept.

One of the wonderful things about this mirror is that it isn’t just functioning during zazen while we are on our cushion. We take the mirror wherever we go, we can’t leave home without it. It’s always available, even in the busiest, most chaotic situ*ations. We always have the opportunity to step back, turn around and recognize the mirror in the background.
http://sweepingzen.com/mirror-awareness-the-true-host/

Many old stories and phrases on Mirrormind.

The Platform Sutra tells of a competition of poems solicited by the 5th Ancestor Hung-jen in the search for a successor, His student Shen-hsiu wrote …

The body is the Bodhi tree
The mind a bright mirror stand
Cleanse it with daily diligence
See to it that no dust adheres

This was topped, the legend goes, by this offering of the illiterate Hui-neng, soon to be the 6th Ancestor …

Bodhi originally is no tree
Nor the mirror a stand
Buddha-nature is always pure and clear
Whence can the dust come?

Master Dogen comments, clearing things up …

Throughout the universe in the ten directions, does there remain one speck of dust that is not the mirror? On the mirror itself, does there remain one speck of dust that is not the mirror? Remember, the whole universe is not lands of dust and so it is the face of the eternal mirror
…
Remember, the eternal mirror under discussion now has a time of being polished, a time before being polished, and [a time] after being polished, but it is wholly the eternal mirror. … Before being polished the eternal mirror is not dull. Even if [people] call it black, it can never be dull

That is Master Dogen, in Shobogenzo-Kokyo (The Ancient Mirror), where he sheds light on several old mirror stories in his Dogeny way (Nishijima-Cross Translation):

https://www.bdkamerica.org/digital/dBET_T2582_Shobogenzo1_2009.pdf

He begins his dancing non-reflections with this story …

The master [Geyāśata] says:
The great round mirror of the buddhas
Has no flaws or blurs, within or without.
[We] two people are able to see the same.
[Our] minds, and [our] eyes, are completely alike

Dogen polishes our understanding …

Saying that this mirror “has no blurs on the inside or the outside” neither describes an inside that depends on an outside, nor an outside blurred by an inside. There being no face or back, [nor] “two individuals” are able to see the same. Minds, and eyes, are alike. “Likeness” describes “a human being”meeting “a human being.” In regard to images within, they have mind and eyes, and they are able to see the same. In regard to images without, they have mind and eyes, and they are able to see the same. Object and subject which are manifest before us now are like each other within and like eachother without—they are neither I nor anyone else.

---

In the order of Zen Master Nangaku Daie a monk asks, “If a mirror is cast into an image, to what place does its luster return?”
The master says, “Venerable monk, to what place have the features you had before you became a monk departed?”
The monk says, “After the transformation, why does it not shine like a mirror?”
The master says, “Even though it is not shining like a mirror, it cannot delude others one bit.

Dogen illuminates …

Just this moment is miscellaneous bits of utter delusion, in hundred thousand myriads of shining mirror reflections.

---

Great Master Seppō Shinkaku on one occasion preaches to the assembly, “If you want to understand this matter,
my concrete state is like one face of the eternal mirror. [When] a foreigner comes, a foreigner appears. [When] a Chinese person comes, a Chinese person appears.”
Then Gensha steps out and asks, “If suddenly a clear mirror comes along, what then?”
The master says, “The foreigner and the Chinese person both become invisible.”
Gensha says, “I am not like that.”
Seppō says, “How is it in your case? … If suddenly a clear mirror comes along, how will it be then?”
Gensha says, “Smashed into hundreds of bits and pieces!”

Dogen shines on …

[B]... “one face” means[the mirror’s] borders have been eliminated forever and it is utterly beyond inside and outside; it is the self as a pearl spinning in a bowl. … To Seppō’s present words “The foreigner and the Chinese person both become invisible,”he might add, “and the mirror itself also becomes invisible.” … “ut why, when I have just asked you to give me back a concrete fragment, did you give me back a clear mirror?”

… To insist that even when “the foreigner and the Chinese person are both invisible,” the mirror will remain, is to be blind to appearance and to be remiss with regard to coming.

---

PLEASE LOOK INTO and OUT OF THE MIRROR!
WHO ARE YOU?

[Mp]

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

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

[RichardH]

I'll be there/here live.

Gassho
Daizan

sat today

[Kyonin]

Hi guys.

I don't know if I'll be able to make it live on time. If I don't, I'll sit this one over the weekend.

Gassho,

Kyonin

[Shinzan]

I'll be there, but perhaps not live, if my camera is still not working.
_/\_ Shinzan
sattoday

[Sekishi]

See you all soon.

Gassho,
Sekishi
#sattoday

[Dosho]

I'll be there with bells on.

Gassho,
Dosho

Sat today

[Joyo]

Thank you for the reading, Jundo. I will try to make it for the last couple of hours.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today

[Jakuden]

I don't think I can do four hours on my data modem without going over the limit, but I will sit at least with the beginning of the video tomorrow...

Gassho
Sierra
SatToday

[Anshu Bryson]

At the airport, just about to head off to Japan, so will miss today's sit. Week after next, I'll be at Jundo's and will see you all from there!

Gassho,
Anshu

-sat today-

[Mp]

At the airport, just about to head off to Japan, so will miss today's sit. Week after next, I'll be at Jundo's and will see you all from there!

Gassho,
Anshu

-sat today-

Way cool Anshu! Give Jundo a hug from all of us! =)

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

[Getchi]

Ill be there, One Way please.

If I drop out, ill just reconnect.

Gassho,
Geoff.

AboutToSitToday.

[Myosha]

Participating.




Gassho
Myosha sat today

[Joyo]

I am sorry I had to leave early. It was an opportunity to practice the mirror as my kids were refusing to go to bed and my dog was acting wild so I had to go and help get things under control.

Thank you everyone, thank you Jundo for the excellent talk.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today