August 12th-13th, 2016 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI!

[Hoko]

I just watched it. It was very meaningful to me. Believe it or not the dog poop "joke" was a Dharma arrow to my prajña eye.

My sister in law spends a lot of time trying to put her Christian newsletters in my begging bowl. Recently she's taken to telling my sons that I am going to go to hell because of Zen Buddhism. My ten year old was crying hysterically about this to my wife and now does not want to stay with his aunt because she proselytizes so much. My thirteen year old also is irritated with her because she tells him "evolution is a lie" and "Darwin is in hell". This conflicts with his scientific approach to life so he becomes annoyed.

To complicate it further when I express my feelings to my wife she says that her sister deeply believes that it is her Christian duty to save others and therefore her efforts to preach to my kids are actually an expression of her love for them.

So now I have dog poop in my bowl too. What else can I do but take a moment to be grateful and then go wash my bowl?

I am grateful to the Buddha for his teachings. I am grateful to Jundo for his dharma talk. I am grateful for my sister in law. I am grateful for my kids. I am grateful for my wife.

Sojun Mel Weitzman of the Berkley Zen Center said "hell is just another place to practice". I am grateful for this quote!!

So I say "thank you" for all of it. Now I will go wash my bowl and practice non-attachment.

Gassho
-K2
#SatToday

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[Amelia]

K2,

I know how you feel. How does one argue with circular logic? You can't. I was at a cousin's wedding last weekend, and there was a lot of proselytizing, calling marriages with half-brothers and half-sisters the product of a life of sin, and an urging to find Christ at the end of every toast. What can I do but raise my glass? They deeply feel they are doing their best. To quote Norman Fischer, "Shouldn't everyone get to feel that what they are doing is the best?"

I really love that one: "Hell is just another place to practice." I'm keeping it, thanks!

Sat today, gassho

[Jundo]

K2,

I know how you feel. How does one argue with circular logic? You can't. I was at a cousin's wedding last weekend, and there was a lot of proselytizing, calling marriages with half-brothers and half-sisters the product of a life of sin, and an urging to find Christ at the end of every toast. What can I do but raise my glass? They deeply feel they are doing their best. To quote Norman Fischer, "Shouldn't everyone get to feel that what they are doing is the best?"

I really love that one: "Hell is just another place to practice." I'm keeping it, thanks!

Sat today, gassho

Buddhism has always existed around other religions (even other sects of Buddhism!) that exhibited varying degrees of aggressive proselytizing, even open hostility. (You may notice that it no longer truly exists as it did in India, given the power of centuries of Muslim invasions and Hinduism. In Japan, the Shintoists tried to destroy or weaken Buddhism in the 19th century and almost succeeded. In China, the Daoists and Confucianists were often hostile (in Korea too), and the Communists turned temples into warehouses, and the monks into pig farmers).

Wedding toasts ain't nothing!

Many times Buddhism found ways to find common ground, even merge with or incorporate aspects of all of the above. For example, Japanese Soto Zen and all other Japanese Buddhist schools are filled with countless symbols, sacred persons and legends and some practices derived from or directly Shinto, Confucianism, Daoism and Hinduism! You can't shake a stick without hitting an India god or a Confucian flavor of temple life. Most Buddhist temples I know have a Shinto Shrine or two somewhere on the premises. Most ordinary Japanese consider themselves both Shinto and Buddhist, and really don't consider the matter much at all (they say Shinto for weddings, Buddhism for the funerals ... and not much in between).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinbutsu-sh%C5%ABg%C5%8D

Furthermore, as we have discusses many times around here ... many folks can find common ground between Zen, Buddhism, Shikantaza and Christianity, Judaism, Atheism ... Depends on the person and the attitude.

When this topic comes up, I say that one can practice Zen Buddhism while also a Republican, Democrat or apolitical, Baseball fan or football fan or no sports fan at all, Catholic, Jewish or Muslim, Atheist or Agnostic. I would say that, so long as it is a belief system that avoids hate, violence, excess greed and such (e.g., a "Zen Buddhist Nazi" will go a dark way), all can mix.

Also, Some forms of Christianity and Judaism or other belief may be practiced in ways that shut out or are incompatible with other systems such as Buddhism (due to the problem of rejection and exclusivism on the other side ... "Jesus is the only way, meditation is evil" etc. ... not on the "Zen" side), but not all Christians and Jews practice in such ways. Some ways of practicing Christianity and Judaism are quite compatible and harmonious with Zen Practice.

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showt...l=1#post179963

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Matt]

Will be sitting this tonight.

Gassho,
Matt

[Sekishi]

Hi all,

I just wanted to let folks know that the podcast link has been updated (it originally linked to last-month's episode).

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Washin]

Sat this one today. Thank you everyone.

Gassho
Washin

[Jyukatsu]

Just finished sitting this : Thank you all and especially Jundo, a great talk; yes, how lucky we are
Gassho,
Marina
Sat Today