March 4th-5th, 2016 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI!

[Jundo]

PLEASE PRINT OUT THE PORTION OF SHOBOGENZO-KOKU (SPACE) BY MASTER DOGEN, POSTED BELOW.

(Also please recall that we have begun to chant the Heart Sutra in Japanese for each monthly Zazenkai) ...

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8CP_xp0lMc

EVENT PAGE:

https://plus.google.com/events/c5e2kus6j2fudg2nfogoqh3evmk

Dharma talk audio / podcast episode:

http://treeleaf.podbean.com/e/march-2016-zazenkai-talk-shobogenzo-koku-space-%E8%99%9A%E7%A9%BA/b

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 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

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' in Japanese 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]

Shobogenzo - Kokū (Space - 虚空) by Master Dogen


Because “this place is where something ineffable exists,” it is through the realization of these words that Buddhist patriarchs are caused to be. And because the realization of these words of Buddhist patriarchs passes naturally from rightful successor to rightful successor, the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow, realized as “a whole body,” are “hanging in space.” This space is beyond such categories as the twenty kinds of space [such as inside, outside, over, below, etc.]. In general, how could space be limited to only twenty kinds of space. There are eighty-four thousand kinds of space, and there may be countless more besides.

Zen Master Shakkyō Ezō of Bushū asks Zen Master Seidō Chizō, “Do you understand how to grasp space?”
Seidō says, “I understand how to grasp it.”
The master says, “How do you grasp it?”
Seidō clutches at space with his hand.
The master says, “You do not understand how to grasp space.”
Seidō says, “How do you grasp it, brother?” The master grabs Seidō’s nostrils and pulls them.
Groaning with pain, Seidō says, “It is very brutal to yank a person’s nostrils, but I have directly been able to get free.”
The master says, “Directly grabbing hold like this, you should have got it from the beginning.”

Shakkyō’s words “Do you understand how to grasp space?” ask “Are you too ‘the thoroughly realized body as hands and eyes’?” … “Seidō clutches at space with his hand”: this is merely understanding of how to ride a tiger’s head; it is not yet understanding of how to grab the tiger’s tail. Shakkyō says, “You do not understand how to grasp space.” Not only has Seidō failed to understand how to grasp it; he has never realized space even in a dream. And although he is like this, [Shakkyō] does not want to describe for him that which is profound and eternal [so] Shakkyō grabs Seidō’s nostrils and pulls them. Now, let us learn in practice that Shakkyō has put his body into Seidō’s nostrils. … Seidō groans with pain and says, “It is very brutal to yank a person’s nostrils, but I have directly been able to get free.” Previously he has thought about meeting another, but suddenly he has been able to meet himself. At the same time, to taint the self is not permissible: the self must be practiced. Shakkyō says, “Directly grabbing hold like this, you should have got it from the beginning.” I do not deny that “grabbing hold by the state like this has got it from the beginning.”

…

Even a good player at grasping space needs to research the interior and exterior of space, needs to research the deadening and vitalization of space, and needs to know the lightness and weight of space. We should maintain and rely upon [the teaching] that the effort in pursuit of the truth, the establishment of the mind, the practice and experience, and the assertions and questions of buddhas and of patriarchs are just the grasping of space.

…

Archpriest Ryō of Seizan Mountain in Kōshū once goes to practice in Baso’s order.
Patriarch [Baso] asks him, “What sutra do you lecture on?”
The master replies, “The Heart Sutra.”
The patriarch says, “With what do you lecture?”
The master says, “I lecture with mind.”
The patriarch says, “[They say] mind is like a leading actor, the will is like a supporting actor, and the six kinds of consciousness are the accompanying cast: how are these able to lecture on the sutra?”
The master says, “If mind is unable to give the lecture, space is hardly able to give the lecture, is it?”
The patriarch says, “Space itself is indeed able to give the lecture.”
The master swings his sleeves and retires.
The patriarch calls to him, “Archpriest!”
The master turns his head.
The patriarch says, “From birth to old age, it is just this.” …

Thus, every Buddhist patriarch is a sutra lecturer. And sutra lecturing is inevitably in space. Without space, it is impossible to lecture on even a single sutra. Whether lectures are delivered on the mind as a sutra or delivered on the body as a sutra, they are always delivered through the medium of space. Thinking is realized, and not thinking is realized, through the medium of space. The development of tutored wisdom and the development of untutored wisdom, the development of innate intelligence and the
development of learned intelligence: each is in space. The act of becoming a buddha and the act of becoming a patriarch, likewise, must be in space.

…

The seventh patriarch, Venerable Vasumitra, says: “The mind is the same as the concrete world of space, and it reveals the reality that is coterminous with space. When we are able to experience space, there is no right and nothing wrong.” The mutual encounter and mutual realization in the moment of the present between a person facing a wall and the wall facing the person; the mind as fences and walls; and the mind as a withered tree: these are just “the concrete world of space.” To those who can be saved by this body, [buddhas] manifest at once this body and preach for them the Dharma; this is “to reveal the reality that is coterminous with space.” To those who can be saved by another body, [buddhas] manifest at once another body and preach for them the Dharma; this is “to reveal the reality that is coterminous with space.” Being used by the twelve hours, and being in control of the twelve hours, are both “the time when we are able to experience space.” A big stone being big and a small stone being small is “no right and nothing wrong.” We solely investigate for the present, as the right Dharma-eye treasury and the fine mind of nirvana, space like this.



Shōbōgenzō Kokū
Preached to the assembly at Daibutsuji in Etsu-u
on the sixth day of the third lunar month
in the third year of Kangen (1245)

http://www.bdk.or.jp/pdf/bdk/digitaldl/dBET_T2582_Shobogenzo4_2008.pdf

[Mp]

Thank you Jundo ... I will be sitting with the recording, as I will be heading down to Victoria tomorrow (Friday) to my grannies memorial and sprinkling of her ashes over her favorite spot that her and my grandfather used to go.

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

[Jundo]

[Byokan]

Thank you Jundo ... I will be sitting with the recording, as I will be heading down to Victoria tomorrow (Friday) to my grannies memorial and sprinkling of her ashes over her favorite spot that her and my grandfather used to go.

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

Oh lovely, Shingen, we will be with you there.

Gassho
Byōkan
sat today

[Jika]

The whole body is like a mouth hanging in empty space.
Not questioning the winds from east, west, south, or north,
Equally all of them, speaking of prajñā:
Ding-dong-a-ling ding-dong.

However, may there be a peaceful wind on your grandparents' favourite spot when you go there, Shingen.

Deep bows
Jika
#sattoday

[Doshin]

I will participate one way or two way depending on seating.

Shingen, it will be different because you are always with us when I participate I know you are still there as is so often said around here. It is great that you will be present as your grandmother returns to the place she enjoyed.

Gassho
Doshin
Sattoday

[Shinzan]

How sweet, Shingen. May she and all beings enjoy the freedom of the wind under our wings.
I'll be sitting one way. _/st\_ Shinzan

[Doshin]

Shinzan, glad to see you back and hope all is better.

Gassho
Doshin
Sattoday

[Kyonin]

Hello!

I'll be there live with bells ready

Gassho,

Kyonin

[Onkai]

Hi! I will try to be there two-way.

Gassho,
Onkai
SatToday

[Kyotai]

Kyotai
Sat today

[Sekishi]

Working late tonight, but I hope to make at least part of Zazenkai two-way (if there are seats).

Gassho,
Sekishi

#SatToday

[RichardH]

I'll be sitting the first portion tonight after work, and the rest over the weekend. Looking foward to the talk.

Deep bows
Daizan
Sat today

[Jakuden]

Thank you Jundo ... I will be sitting with the recording, as I will be heading down to Victoria tomorrow (Friday) to my grannies memorial and sprinkling of her ashes over her favorite spot that her and my grandfather used to go.

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

Will be thinking of you today Shingen .

Trying to get out of work in time to get home and sit this tonight, although it will be one-way as my daughter will probably come home from her middle school dance toward the end and will want to tell me about all the drama!

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday