Sept 30th-Oct 1st Treeleaf Weekly Zazenkai

[Kyosei]

Sat with an allergy attack... but all is well.

Thank you Sangha

Gassho

Marcos

#SatToday

[Sekishi]

Thank you all so much for coming together to practice, moment by moment.

Deep bows,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Onkai]

Thank you, everyone. It's always wonderful to sit together (and dance together). I lost my technical connection briefly, but we're still connected. Have a good weekend!

Gassho,
Onkai
SatToday

[Myosha]

Thanks to all.


Gassho
Myosha
sat today

[Byokan]

Thank you dear Sangha.

Gassho
Byōkan
sat today

[Jakuden]

Thank you everyone. I will also research how to help refugees this week.

Gassho,
Jakuden
SatToday

[Kyosei]

Jundo,

That "Mount Sumedai" (I don't know if heared well the name, sorry) you mentioned is the same "Mount Sumeru" which is found in some buddhist stories and legends?

Can you explain a bit more on how can one be the "center of the world", the 8 directions, the Four Noble Truths, while everything else are too?

Gassho

Marcos

#SatToday

[Tanjin]

Thanks everyone for sitting with me!

Gassho,
Jimmy
Sattoday

[Jundo]

Jundo,

That "Mount Sumedai" (I don't know if heared well the name, sorry) you mentioned is the same "Mount Sumeru" which is found in some buddhist stories and legends?

Can you explain a bit more on how can one be the "center of the world", the 8 directions, the Four Noble Truths, while everything else are too?

Gassho

Marcos

#SatToday

Hi Marcos,

Yes, Mt. Sumeru (or Meru) is the traditional center of the cosmos in old Buddhist beliefs. Here is a short article telling a little about when such traditional beliefs met modern geography and cosmology ... Barbara from 'About Buddhism' summarizes a fantastic book chapter on the story by historian of Buddism Donald Lopez.

Faced with this foreign challenge, to some priests and teachers defending Mount Meru was tantamount to defending the Buddha himself. Elaborate models were constructed and calculations made to "prove" astronomical phenomena were better explained by Buddhist theories than by western science. And of course some fell back on the argument that Mount Meru existed, but only the enlightened could see it.

In most of Asia the Mount Meru controversy continued until late in the 19th century, when Asian astronomers came to see for themselves that the earth was round, and educated Asians accepted the scientific view.

http://buddhism.about.com/od/buddhis.../mountmeru.htm

Well, you can sit and find out for your"self" what is meant. I might just say that, in Indra's Net (and actually many modern cosmologists have come to share the view) there is no point in the universe with better claim than any other to being the "center". Another way to say it is that any place, and all places, are the center ... (Some people take Copernicus' model to mean that our place in the universe is unimportant and small in a vast cosmos, but it can also mean that every place in the universe is each its own center, and equally an expression of the precious whole) ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?13449-Buddhism-science&p=154059&viewfull=1#post154059

... all interconnected and interflowing ala Indra's Net ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14764-Responsibility-and-Ownership&p=186498&highlight=indra%27s+thich#post186498

... and reality all one beyond one, so whole that there can be no "Suffering" nor a "Path" of the Four Noble Truths (as the Heart Sutra teaches "No cause or end to suffering ... no path no wisdom and no gain") ... no separate thief and something to steal, no two people to kill and be killed (nonetheless, there are, so let us end war and hunger and poverty) ...

... all arising and centered in a moment of sitting in Zazen.

Now, that be said, it is Saturday, time to take my daughter to the playground. That is the center of my universe too.

Gassho, J

SatToday

PS - "Shumidan" is the central altar in a Zen or other Buddhist temple that is modeled on Mt. Sumeru"

https://nyoho.com/tag/altar/

Here is Eiheiji ...

[Kyosei]

Thank you Jundo!

Gassho

Marcos

#SatToday

[Kotei]

Thank you all.

I am with some Syrian refugees since last Ango. Showing the ropes, talking about local 'rules', helping with bureaucracy, being there.
Local situation got a little better, as they are in better organized places now.
But as you could imagine, still very bad and still lots of fear and bullying from the locals :-(.

Gassho,
Kotei sattoday

[Kyotai]

Thank you everyone. Will be finishing zazenkai later this afternoon.

Gassho, Kyotai

ST

[Gokai]

Thank You very much everyone.
I Just Sat and danced with all of You and the last zazenkai recording.
I wish You all peace and a great weekend.
Lets try to find how to help refugees.
Gassho, David
Sattoday

[Kyonin]

Thank you all who danced and all who will dance.

May all sentient beings be free of suffering... by our compassionate acts.

Gassho,

Kyonin
#SatToday

[Jika]

Thank you all.

Gassho
Jika
#sattoday