November 4th-5th, 2016 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour ZAZENKAI! NAMASTE INDIA!

[Jundo]

To Commence My Month-long Travels & Pilgrimage to India, Today's Talk Satsangs the Bhagavad-gītā (and various Zen Teachings on India) (text below)

Please note that Daylight Savings has already changed in Europe, Mexico, Brazil

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 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=heyZQBMzXG8

Dharma talk audio / podcast episode:

http://treeleaf.podbean.com/e/november-2016-zazenkai-talk-namaste-india/

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]

Readings on the Bhagavad-gītā (and various Zen Teachings on India)

From Bhagavad Gita Chapter VI Communion Through Meditation

The Blessed Lord [Khrishna] said:

1. It is the man who performs his duties without dependence on the fruits that deserves to be called a Sannyasin (renouncer) and a Yogin, not the one who keeps no fire or avoids works. ...

3. For one who desires to ascend the path leading to the heights of spiritual communion (Yoga), detached work is the means. For one who has ascended it, quiescence is verily the means.

--

4. When one ceases to be attached to sense objects and to one's actions, then that one, who has thus abandoned all subtle hankerings and self-centred objectives, is said to have ascended the heights of spiritual communion (Yoga).

--

5. One should uplift one's lower self by the higher self. One should not depress or downgrade one's self. For the self verily is both the friend and the foe of the self.

6. To him who has subdued the lower self by the higher self, the self acts like a friend. But to him who has lost his higher self by the dominance of the lower one. the self functions as the enemy, always hostile to him.
--

7. In one who has conquered his mind, the Self remains steady and unperturbed in the experience of the pairs of opposites like heat and cold, pleasure and pain, honour and dishonour.


8. A Yogin whose spirit has attained contentment through knowledge and experience, who is unperturbed, who has subdued his senses, to whom a lump of earth and a bar of gold are alike - such a Yogi is said to have attained steadfastness in spiritual communion.

9. Specially noteworthy in excellence is he who is even-minded in his outlook on friend and foe, on comrade and stranger, on the neutral, on the ally, on the good, and even on the evil ones.

--

10. Let a Yogin constantly practise spiritual communion, residing alone in a solitary spot, desireless, possessionless, and disciplined in body and mind.

11-12. At a clean spot, which is neither too high nor too low, a seat should be made with Kusha grass, spread over with a skin and a cloth. Firmly seated on it, the Yogi should practise spiritual communion, with mind concentrated and with the working of the imaginative faculty and the senses under control, for self-purification.

13-14. Holding the body, head and neck erect, motionless and firm, gazing at the tip of the nose and not round about, fearless, serene, restrained in mind, and established in the vow of continence, he should sit in spiritual communion with Me, looking upon Me as his highest and most precious end.

15. With the mind restrained from going outward to objects and always uniting with the Supreme in spiritual communion, the Yogi attains to Peace, which is the summit of bliss and enduring establishment in My state.

--

16. O Arjuna! Success in Yoga is not for those who eat too much, nor for those who eat too little. It is not also for those given to too much sleeping, nor to those who keep vigil too long.

17. For one who is temperate in food and recreation, who is detached and self-restrained in work, who is regulated in sleep and in vigil - Yoga brings about the cessation of the travail of Samsara.

--

18. When the disciplined mind is able to remain established in the Atman alone, when it is free from longing for all objects of desire - then is it spoken of as having attained to spiritual communion.

19. The flame of a lamp sheltered from wind does not flicker. This is the comparison used to describe a Yogi's mind that is well under control and united with the Atman.

--

20. That state in which the Chitta (mind stuff), with its movements restrained by the practice of Yoga, finds rest; in which is experienced the joy of the Spirit born of the higher mind intuiting the Spirit.

21. In which he (the Yogin) experiences that endless bliss which is beyond the ken of the senses but is intuited by the purified intellect; wherein established, one does not waver from the Truth.

22. Having obtained which no other gain is considered as greater; remaining in which one is not shaken even by the heaviest of afflictions, ...

28. Thus, ever engaged in making the mind steadfast in spiritual communion and having all the impurities of the mind effaced thereby, the Yogin easily experiences the infinite Bliss of contact with Brahman.

--

29. The man of spiritual insight, established in same-sightedness, sees the Self as residing in all beings and all beings as resting in the Self.

30. He who sees Me in all beings, and all beings in Me - to him I am never lost, nor he to Me.

31. Established in the unity of all existence, a Yogin who serves Me present in all beings, verily abides in Me, whatever be his mode of life.

--

32. O Arjuna! In My view that Yogi is the best who, out of a sense of identity with others on account of the perception of the same Atman in all, feels their joy and suffering as his own.

-----

37. What, O Krishna, is the fate of a man who. though endowed with a firm faith, is not steadfast in his practices owing to distractions, and therefore fails to reach spiritual perfection? ...

The Blessed Lord said:...

41. The fallen Yogi goes (after death) to the spheres of the righteous, and after having lived there for unnumbered years, is reborn in this world in a pure and prosperous family.

42. Or he is re-born in a family of men full of wisdom and spirituality. Re-birth under such conditions is passing hard to get in this world.

43. There, O scion of the clan of Kurus! he will regain the spiritual discernment of his previous birth, and then he will strive harder than ever for perfection.

http://scriptures.ru/bh_g_eng.htm

Koans

A monk asked Hsiang Lin, “What is the meaning of the Patriarch's [Bodhdharma's] coming from the West?
Hsiang Lin said, “Sitting for a long time becomes tiresome.”

...

A monk asked, “What does it mean, ‘Bodhidharma came from the west’?”
Chao-chou said, “The oak tree in the front yard.”

...

A monk said, “I will not ask about the various Buddhist doctrines. But what is the meaning of ‘Bodhidharma came from the west?’”
Chao-chou said, “The cow has given birth. Take good care of it.”

...

Master Dogen in Shobogenzo Hensan ...

The master says, “Bodhidharma did not come to the Eastern
Lands; the Second Patriarch did not go to India in the west.”

Master Dogen in Fukanzazengi ...

In general, in our world and others, in both India and China, all equally hold the buddha-seal. While each lineage expresses its own style, they are all simply devoted to sitting, totally blocked in resolute stability. Although they say that there are ten thousand distinctions and a thousand variations, they just wholeheartedly engage the way in zazen. Why leave behind the seat in your own home to wander in vain through the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep, you stumble past what is directly in front of you.

Master Dogen in Shobogenzo Gyoji ...

Even after the Futsū era of the Liang dynasty there were some who went to India.
What was the use of that? It was the most extreme stupidity. Led by bad karma,
they wandered astray through foreign lands. With every step they were proceeding
along the wrong path of insulting the Dharma; with every step they
were fleeing from their father’s homeland. What was to be gained by their
going to India? Only hardship and privation in the mountains and the waters.
They did not study the principle that the Western Heavens had come to the
east and they did not clarify the eastward advance of the Buddha-Dharma,
and so they uselessly lost their way in India. They have reputations as seekers
of the Buddha-Dharma but they did not have any will to the truth with
which to pursue the Buddha-Dharma, and so they did not meet a true teacher
even in India. They only met fruit lessly with teachers of sutras and teachers
of commentaries. The reason is that they did not have the right state of mind
with which to pursue the right Dharma, and so—even though authentic teachers
were still present in India—those [wanderers] did not get their hands upon
the authentic Dharma. Some who went to India claimed to have met true teachers
there [but] no mention was ever heard of who those teachers were. If they
had met true teachers, they would naturally name some names. There was no
[meeting] and so there has been no naming.

* * *

[Mp]

Wonderful Jundo, I will be there live! =)

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

[Kyonin]

Hi Jundo!

I'll be there live with my instruments ready

Gassho and Namasté!

Kyonin

[Jakuden]

I may have to sit this one later as we have family coming in from out of town.
Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jundo]

Just to mention that I have posted readings for today's Talk above in this thread ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14865-November-4th-5th-2016-OUR-MONTHLY-4-hour-ZAZENKAI%21-NAMASTE-INDIA%21&p=188912&viewfull=1#post188912

Gassho, J

SatToday

[Marie]

Wonderful! Thank you Jundo.
I'll be there live one-way.

Gassho,
Marie
Sattoday

[Sekishi]

See you all soon.

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Onkai]

Thank you, Jundo! I will be there live, two-way, tech permitting. Otherwise I will sit with the zazenkai later this weekend.

Gassho,
Onkai
SatToday

[RichardH]

I'll have to join in a bit late and make it up over the weekend, goings on at home. Don't want to miss the Bhagavad Gita.
Gassho
Daizan
Sat today

[Amelia]

I haven't been able to join for a while because of a new work schedule, so I will join later. Gassho

Sat today

[Sekishi]

Something has come up, so I will be a little late, but will join during a kinhin.

Gassho,
Sekishi

#sattoday

[Mp]

Hello everyone,

Here is the event link for todays zazenkai: https://hangouts.google.com/hangouts...ab4mdq762uknie

Gassho
Shingen

s@today

[Myosha]

Participating "one-way"


Gassho
Myosha
sat today

[RichardH]

This sorry excuse for a sramana is having a bowl of cornflakes and crawling into bed. Much love to all. Goodnight dear sangha

Gassho
Daizan

sat today