Treeleaf Zen

Treeleaf Zen

Saturday November 7, 2009

Please join our NOVEMBER 4-Hour 'LIVE' ZAZENKAI NETCAST!


This month's sitting and ceremony is dedicated to a friend whose son is leaving for service in Afghanistan ... and to all such families ...

Please join our NOVEMBER MONTHLY 4-hour 'Live from Treeleaf' ZAZENKAI, recorded in "real time" and available at the following links:

The recording is divided into 2 parts as follows (click on the blue link) :

00:00 - 00:50 CEREMONY (HEART SUTRA / SANDOKAI) & ZAZEN
00:50 - 01:00 KINHIN
01:00 - 01:40 ZAZEN
01:40 - 01:50 KINHIN

ZAZENKAI PART I

01:50 - 02:30 DHARMA TALK & ZAZEN
02:30 - 02:40 KINHIN
02:40 - 03:20 ZAZEN
03:20 - 03:30 KINHIN
03:30 - 04:00 METTA CHANT & ZAZEN, VERSE OF ATONEMENT, FOUR VOWS, & CLOSING

Remember, when we drop all thought of 'here' 'there' 'now' and 'then' ... we are sitting all together!

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'.

Please download and print out the Chant Book (PDF) at the following link:


Please join in, one and all.


I 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.

ALSO, REMEMBER TO SET YOUR COMPUTER (& SCREEN SAVER) SO THAT IT DOES NOT SHUT OFF DURING THE 4 HOURS.



Gassho, Jundo


Friday November 6, 2009

One, seven, three, five --

( Dogen's Instructions for the Cook - XXII)

Master Dogen continues his story of the Yuwang Monastery cook.

(I have added capitalized notes inspired by Uchiyama Roshi's comments) ...

I again asked the cook: "You are venerable in years; why don't you sit in meditation to pursue the way or contemplate the words of the ancients? It is troublesome being cook; all you do is labor. What good is that?" The cook laughed and said, "My good man from a foreign country, you do not yet understand pursuit of the way and do not yet know about written words [of the ancients]."

IF ONE THINKS THAT ZAZEN IS JUST SITTING AROUND, ONE TRULY DOES NOT UNDERSTAND ZAZEN IN ITS WIDEST MEANING. THE TENZO MEANS THAT DOGEN DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THE TRUE MEANING OF PRACTICE (THROUGH LABOR AND ALL OF LIFE) NOR THE TRUE MEANING OF THE BUDDHIST TEACHINGS.

When I heard him speak in this manner, I suddenly felt ashamed and taken aback. I asked him, "What are written words? What is the practice of the way?" The cook said, ["Keep asking and penetrate this question and then you will be someone who understands"]

IN OTHER WORDS, WHEN YOU FINALLY FIGURE OUT THIS QUESTION, YOU WILL TRULY UNDERSTAND PRACTICE AND THE TEACHINGS AND "YOU".

At the time, I did not understand. The cook said, "If you still don't understand, come to Yuwang Mountain at some other time, in the future. On that occasion we can discuss the principle of written words." Having spoken thus, the cook got up and said, "It is late in the day and I am in a hurry, so I am going back now."

In the seventh month of the same year, I registered at Tiantong [Monastery]. While I was there, that [Yuwang] cook came to meet me and said, "At the end of the summer retreat I retired as cook and am now returning to my home village. I happened to hear a disciple say that you were here; how could I not come to meet you?"

I jumped for joy and was very grateful. In the ensuing conversation that I had with him I brought up the [matter he had touched on aboard the ship concerning the practice and study of words]. The cook said, "The study of written words is to understand the purpose of written words. Exertion in pursuit of the way requires an affirmation of the purpose of pursuing the way." I asked him, "What are written words?" The cook answered, "One, two, three, four, five." I also asked, "What is pursuit of the way?" He said, "In the whole world, it can never be hidden."

UCHIYAMA ROSHI COMMENTS:, "THERE IS NOTHING IN THE WHOLE WORLD THAT IS HIDDEN" ... MEANING THAT THE TRUTH OF LIFE MANIFESTS ITSELF IN ALL PLACES AND IN ALL THINGS, JUST AS THEY ARE. WHEN THE TENZO COUNTS TO FIVE, HE IMPLIES THAT "EVERYTHING" IS THE ANSWER; HERE HE SAYS THAT EVERYTHING IN OUR LIVES IS PRACTICE.


Although there was a great variety of other things that we discussed, I will not record them at this point. The little I know about written words and understand about pursuing the way is due to the great kindness of that cook. I told my late teacher Myôzen about the things that I have just related here, and he was very happy to hear of them.

Later I saw a verse that {the poet and Zen Master] Xuedou wrote to instruct the monks:

[One, seven, three, five --

The truth you search for cannot be grasped.

As night advances, a bright moon

illuminates the whole ocean;

The dragon's jewels are found in every wave.

Looking for the moon, it is here,

in this wave, in the next.]

THE TRUTH IS EVERYWHERE IF WE CAN SEE, AND EVEN IF WE CANNOT.

What that cook said some years before and what Xuedou expresses in this verse clearly coincide. More and more I understand that the cook was a true man of the way. But in the past what I saw of written words was one, two, three, four, five. Today what I see of written words is also six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

UCHIYAMA ROSHI COMMENTS: "6,7,8,9 and 10. THAT IS, THOUGH THE PHENOMENA WE ENCOUNTER BEFORE AND AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT ARE THE SAME, THE FUNCTION COMPLETELY CHANGES"

From: Tenzo Kyokun - Instructions for the Cook by Eihei Dogen - Translated by Griffith Foulk [with portion from Uchiyama and Anzan Hoshin]




(remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells;
a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended)


To subscribe to "Treeleaf Zen" click here.

Thursday November 5, 2009

Second Life ... LIVE November 14 @ 5 PM SLT (PDT)


(there is no video today ... )

Well, I just had the pleasure of visiting a Meditation Hall with 1,300 members, from all Buddhist traditions ... some of whom are pirates, golden fairies, meditating dogs, flying dragons and .... the imagination is the only limit! It is called "Kannonji", and is located in that weird wonderful and wild realm known as Second Life!


I will have the honor of giving a talk there, and leading Zazen  "LIVE" (?!?!) on Saturday, Nov. 14 @ 5 PM SLT (PDT ... Pacific Daylight Time).

Click Here to visit Kannonji in Second Life
(although requires viewer software install)

Today, Adam (or "Caspian", as he is know there), one of the founders of Kannonji, showed me the ropes (actually, he showed me such basic stuff as how not to walk into walls, how to put on clothes and sit down! All important skills in any life). He also was kind enough to buy me some Soto Zen robes to wear (perhaps a little fancy for my taste ... but lovely nonetheless. He helped me purchase a body which, I must say, has 6-pack abs under all those robes! I guess that is why they call "Second Life" a fantasy world!!)

Here is my avatar ... 


second life jundo.jpg

Anyway, I hope you can make it to Kannonji ... but if not, I may be able to post a recording of the talk here.

Here is a video tour of Kannonji  ... it looks like something out of the Lotus Sutra ...




I am new to "Second Life" ... so new, that my big achievement this week will be to try to move my avatar without falling down the stairs. I have no judgment about the experience yet based on my short few hours there, but the community seems very welcoming ... and it is a fascinating lesson in how we create a world from the mind.

I will say that my talk next week (not to give the drama away :blush: ) will probably be something along the lines of "Second Life is magical and wondrous and fantastic ... but so is First Life when we learn to see it as such ... and also please drop into "No Life" ("No Death" either) ... because that's where the real action is". :PP:


Wednesday November 4, 2009

If not me, who? If not now, when?

( Dogen's Instructions for the Cook - XXI)


In the following section, Master Dogen recounts his encounters in China with two old Tenzo  ...


The stories speak for themselves today ... so I'll let them ...


(I'll have a little to say about the last lines tomorrow)

_____________________________

When this mountain monk [I, Dôgen] was at Tiantong Monastery, the position [of cook] was held by cook Yong, of the same province [as the monastery]. Once, after the midday meal I was passing through the east corridor on my way to the Chaoran room [where my teacher Myôzen was being nursed] when I saw the cook in front of the buddha hall airing mushrooms. He carried a bamboo staff in his hand, but had no hat on his head. The sun was hot, the ground tiles were hot, and sweat streamed over him as he worked diligently to dry the mushrooms. He was suffering a bit. With his backbone bent like a bow and his shaggy eyebrows, he resembled a crane.

I approached and asked the cook his dharma age. He said, "Sixty-eight years." I said, "Why do you not employ postulants or laborers?" He said, "They are not me." I said, "Venerable sir, your attitude is indeed proper, but the sun is so hot; why are you doing this [now]?" The cook said, "What time should I wait for?" I took my leave, but as I walked along the corridor, I began to realize how important an opportunity this position affords.

Again, in the fifth month of the sixteenth year of the Jiading era [1223], I was on the ship at Qingyuan. While I was talking with the Japanese captain, there was an old monk who arrived. He was about sixty years old. He came directly onto the ship and inquired of the Japanese passengers if he could buy Japanese mushrooms. I invited him to drink tea and asked where he was from. He was the cook of the monastery on Mount Ayuwang. He said, "I come from Sichuan, but I left my home village forty years ago. This year I am sixty-one years old. In the past I have trained in quite a few different monasteries. In recent years, I stayed for a while with Guyun. I was able to register at Yuwang [monastery], but for some time I felt out of place. At the end of the summer retreat last year, however, I was appointed cook of that monastery. Tomorrow is the fifth day [feast], but the entire menu does not yet include a single delicacy. I need to cook noodle soup, but still have no mushrooms, and thus have made a special trip here to try to buy mushrooms to offer to the monks of the ten directions.

I asked him, "What time did you leave there?" The cook replied, "After the midday meal (i.e., the last meal of the day)." I inquired, "How long is the road from Yuwang to here?" He said, "Thirty-four or thirty-five li." I asked, "When will you return to the monastery?" He said, "If I can buy the mushrooms now, I will set off right after that." I said, "Today I did not expect to meet you and have a conversation on this ship. It is most fortunate, is it not, to form this karmic bond? Dôgen [I] will treat the cook Zen master [you] to a meal." The cook said, "It is impossible. If I do not oversee the preparations for tomorrow's meal offering, it will not turn out well." I said, "Are there not co-workers in the monastery who understand the meals? What will be deficient if only one officer, the cook, is not present?" The cook said, "I took up this position in my later years; it is this old man's pursuit of the way. How could I hand it over to others? Besides, when I came I did not ask to stay away overnight."

I again asked the cook: "You are venerable in years; why don't you sit in meditation to pursue the way or contemplate the words of the ancients? It is troublesome being cook; all you do is labor. What good is that?" The cook laughed and said, "My good man from a foreign country, you do not yet understand pursuit of the way and do not yet know about written words." When I heard him speak in this manner, I suddenly felt ashamed and taken aback. I asked him, "What are written words? What is the practice of the way?" The cook said, "If you do not slip up and pass by the place you ask about, how could you not be a man?" At the time, I did not understand. The cook said, "If you still don't understand, come to Yuwang Mountain at some other time, in the future. On that occasion we can discuss the principle of written words." Having spoken thus, the cook got up and said, "It is late in the day and I am in a hurry, so I am going back now."

From: Tenzo Kyokun - Instructions for the Cook by Eihei Dogen - Translated by Griffith Foulk




(remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells;
a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended)


To subscribe to "Treeleaf Zen" click here.

Tuesday November 3, 2009

Self Responsibility

( Dogen's Instructions for the Cook - XX)


This is a chance to talk about Buddhist practice and personal (or "self") responsibility. The world and our self are not two, meaning that we can do a lot to repair this world starting by looking and changing within our self.

Also, it is important to realize this life & world as perfectly "just what is" ... and we accept it all, are at one with it all, reject none of it ...

However, we must simultaneously seek to free our "self" of greed, anger and ignorance, freeing our "self" of its "self", dropping all that away.

All at once. If one merely says "all is perfect" and, thus, there is no need to practice ... one is foolish.

Dirty teeth, clean teeth ... each perfectly what they are, as they are, dirty teeth precisely dirty, each a jewel in its own way. ..................... Yet, brush brush brush each day!

This is true for our little life, and for this whole world ... all the weeds and flowers, each natural in its way ... yet constantly pull those weeds, nurture the flowers as one can.

You may recall the famous poetry slam in the "Platform Sutra of the 6th Patriarch". It is said that Shenxiu lost the contest with these lines ...

The body is a Bodhi [Perfect Wisdom] tree,
the mind a standing mirror bright.
At all times polish it diligently,
and let no dust alight.

and that Huineng won the day with this little diddy ...

Bodhi is no tree,
nor is the mind a standing mirror bright.
Since all is originally empty,
where does the dust alight?

But, really, it is not that Shenxiu was wrong (in fact, their Master, Hongren, praised each in its way) and both are truly right at once ... both two sides of a complete view.


_____________________________

Throughout the day, as you prepare the meals, do not pass the time in vain. If your preparations are true, then your movements and activities will naturally become the deeds of nurturing the womb of the sage. The way to put the great assembly at ease is to step back and transform yourself.

It has been a long time now since the name "buddha-dharma" came to be heard in our country, Japan. However, our predecessors did not record, and the former worthies did not teach, anything about the proper procedure for monks' meals, and they never even dreamed of the rite of making nine prostrations before the monks' meals. People in this country say that the way in which the monks eat and the way in which monasteries prepare food are just like the feeding methods of [domestic] birds and beasts. This is truly pathetic, truly deplorable. How could it be?

From: Tenzo Kyokun - Instructions for the Cook by Eihei Dogen - Translated by Griffith Foulk




(remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells;
a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended)


To subscribe to "Treeleaf Zen" click here.

Monday November 2, 2009

'MONDAYS with TAIGU' - simplicity

simplicity, please ... (remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells;a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended) To subscribe to "Treeleaf Zen" click here....

Saturday October 31, 2009

Join our Weekly 'SATURDAY LIVE FROM TREELEAF' Real-Time Zen Meditation

Please join our weekly "Live from Treeleaf" Zazenkai meditation ...We start with 3 floor prostrations (or deep Gassho), then chant the Heart Sutra in ENGLISH (see below), then sit about 40 minutes of Zazen, then 5 minutes or so...

Friday October 30, 2009

Treeleaf Japan's New/Old Zen Hall - Under Construction

Construction has begun on converting an old wooden building at Treeleaf in Tsukuba into a hall for sitting Zazen.I cannot post a sitting today, so offer this short tribute to the carpenter (Mr. Aita) and architect (Mr. Ushioda), good...

Thursday October 29, 2009

Making Merit, Making Bows

( Dogen's Instructions for the Cook - XIX).... all things intra-penetrating  ...  We receive aid and support from others, we give to others, we bow in gratitude._____________________________ Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table...

Wednesday October 28, 2009

Guishan or the Buffalo?

( Dogen's Instructions for the Cook - XVIII)The ordinary is the most wondrous, all things intra-penetrating yet just as they are ...Dosho Port (on his blog, wild fox zen) has a wonderful rephrase of the reference to Luling rice...

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About Treeleaf Zen

Jundo Cohen is a Soto Zen Priest and founder and teacher of the Treeleaf Zendo--a Zen sangha (community) located in Tsukuba, Japan. Jundo was ordained in 2002 and subsequently received Dharma Transmission from Master Gudo Wafu Nishijima. He is a member of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and American Zen Teachers Association . His blog, Treeleaf Zen, was designed specifically for Zen practitioners who cannot easily commute to a Zen Center due to health concerns, living in remote areas, or childcare and family needs.

On Treeleaf Zen, Jundo provides Zazen sittings, guided meditation, retreats, discussion, interaction with a teacher, and all other activities of a Zen Buddhist sangha, all fully online. Members now sit in over 20 countries. The focus is Shikantaza "Just Sitting" Zazen, as instructed by the 13th Century Japanese Master, Eihei Dogen.

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