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 of Kinhin, closing with the chants of the "Verse of Atonement" and "Four Vows".
Please join in, one and all.
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 friends, who have been working on the place each day. They also need to do a lot of reinforcement to the building itself, which is old and not in the best shape. Here, they are building a few of the tan (platforms covered with tatami mats used for sitting in Japan). The space is small, but should let about 30 people sit at one time.
It is not much more than planks and sawdust now, not much to see, and will take many more weeks until the work is finished. But I hope to be able to show everyone, and be ready to sit, by the end of the year.
Deep bows of gratitude to Mr. Aita and Mr. Ushioda.
________________________
(remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells;
a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended)
We receive aid and support from others, we give to others, we bow in gratitude.
_____________________________
When a patron comes
into the monastery and donates money to hold a feast, the various stewards
should all be consulted; this is the precedent established in monasteries of
old. With regard to the distribution of the merit-making donations, they also
consult together. Do not create a disturbance in the hierarchy by infringing on
anyone's authority.
When the midday meal or
morning gruel has been properly prepared and placed on the table, the cook dons
his kesa, spreads his sitting cloth, faces the sangha hall [where the monks
eat], burns incense and makes nine prostrations. Upon finishing his
prostrations, he sends the food [to the sangha hall]
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)
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 ...
A monk asked, what is the ultimate meaning of the buddhadharma?
The master [Qingyuan] said, "What is the price of Luling rice?"
Or in contemporary terms, "What's the ultimate meaning of the buddhadharma?"
"What's the Dow at today?"
Maybe the ultimate isn't so far from the business of taking care of business
Daido Loori, who left this visible world this week, has this to say about Master Guishan ...
Guishan, [the famous 9th century master, was earlier the cook in a monastery. His then Master] Baizhang placed a pitcher
of water in the middle of the room and said, "If you call this
a pitcher, you're caught up in words and ideas. If you don't
call it a pitcher, you negate the fact. What will you call it?" The
head monastic said, "It can't be called a pair of wooden
sandals." Guishan just kicked over the pitcher. Baizhang appointed
Guishan as abbot of the new monastery.
In Guishan's own teaching, one of his favorite koans was: "A
hundred years from now, I will be reborn as a buffalo at the front gate
of this monastery. On the side of that buffalo will be written 'Monastic
Guishan such and such.' If you call it a buffalo, it's Monastic
Guishan. If you call it Monastic Guishan, it's a buffalo. What
will you call it?" Again, the dualities. If you call it a pitcher,
you miss it. If you say it's not a pitcher, you miss it. If you
call it a buffalo, you miss it. If you say it's not, you miss it.
Our tendency is always to be caught on one side or the other. How do we
go beyond those dualities?
Anzan Hoshin of the White Wind Zen Community continues ...
So at that moment, is it Guishan
or is it a water buffalo? The water buffalo looks at Guishan; Guishan
looks at the water buffalo. There is complete mutuality when the tenzo
brings in the rice, serves the monks, he sees the water buffalo, he sees
Guishan. When the monks look at the tenzo they see the water buffalo and
they see Guishan. The monks see the monk. Mutuality sees mutuality in
the rice.
Ah, who says the ordinary is just ordinary?
_____________________________
Now carefully
calculate: for every grain of rice to be eaten, one grain must be supplied. If
a single grain of rice is divided, then you will have two half-grains of rice.
Three tenths, four tenths; one half, two halves. If you supply two half-grains
of rice, you will make a single whole grain. [You must be able to see clearly how much of a surplus will be created if you add one unit of rice, or whether there will be enough if you take away one unit].
Getting to eat a single
grain of Luling rice enables one to see the monk Guishan; getting to supply a
single grain of Luling rice enables one to see the water buffalo [that Guishan
will become]. The water buffalo eats the monk Guishan, and the monk Guishan
feeds the buffalo. Is my measurement complete or not? Is your calculation
complete or not? If you carefully inspect and exhaustively check [these
matters], your understanding will dawn and become clear. Then, [when you understand these details be prepared to explain them to others according to their capacity to understand. Use ingenuity in your practice; see the buffalo and Guishan as one, not as two, even though temporarily they appear that way. In your day-to-day life, do not forget this even for a moment].
From:Tenzo Kyokun - Instructions for the Cook by Eihei Dogen - Translated by Griffith Foulk [with portion from Uchiyama]
(remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells;
a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended)
This section always reminds me of the old child's riddle:
How do you divide equally 16 apples among 17 people??
Answer: MAKE APPLESAUCE !!
_____________________________
When you return to your
quarters, right away you should close your eyes and clearly envision the number
of individual places in the [sangha] hall; the number of monks in the
individual quarters of retired minor officers, retired senior officers, and the
like; how many individual monks there are in the infirmary, geriatric quarters,
temporary quarters, and so on; the number of wandering monks registered in the
guest quarters; and the number of people in subtemples. After carefully
calculating in this way, if you have the slightest uncertainty, ask the hall
manager in question, or the quarters prefect, quarters chief, or quarters head
seat of the various quarters and eliminate your doubts.
Now carefully
calculate: for every grain of rice to be eaten, one grain must be supplied. If
a single grain of rice is divided, then you will have two half-grains of rice.
Three tenths, four tenths; one half, two halves. If you supply two half-grains
of rice, you will make a single whole grain. [You must be able to see clearly how much of a surplus will be created if you add one unit of rice, or whether there will be enough if you take away one unit].
From:Tenzo Kyokun - Instructions for the Cook by Eihei Dogen - Translated by Griffith Foulk [with portion from Uchiyama]
(remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells;
a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended)
The subject of the nature of a teacher and the teachings has been discussed on our Treeleaf Forum recently ...FORUM LINK (remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells;a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended) To...
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 10 minutes of Kinhin,...
My old buddy from Florida, Sid, sent me the following ... so much of the same cut as Shikantaza, ... so beautifully stated ...A few of the subtle points of Buddhist philosophy and Master Dogen aside, it is a...
I climbed from the bottom to the top of Mount Tsukuba, the famous mountain near Treeleaf (in Tsukuba, Japan) ... sat some Zazen ... then climbed back down again ...A little custom of mine, a climb to no where...
( Dogen's Instructions for the Cook - XVI)A chant heard daily in Zen temples is the "Sandokai", the "Merging of Relative and Absolute", by Sekito Kisen, the 8th Zen Ancestor in China. It includes images such as these, speaking...
( Dogen's Instructions for the Cook - XV)Uchiyama Roshi translates this section in a very nice way ...It is vital that we clarify and harmonize our lives with our work, and not lose sight of either the absolute or...
When Dogen was in China, he heard this verse that we are all still chanting as we are about to put the Kesa on. Vast is the robe of liberation formless robe, field of happiness. I wear the Tathagatha's teaching ...
DUE TO THE NETCAST EQUIPMENT NOT DOING ITS THING ... TODAY IS A RECORDED 'RE-SIT' ... THANK YOU FOR SITTING ANYWAY ...Please join our weekly "Live from Treeleaf" Zazenkai meditation ...We start with 3 floor prostrations (or deep Gassho),...
I received an e-mail with an important topic this past week ...Hello Jundo :)I have been watching your video's on Treeleaf Zendo for a few months. I really enjoy it, I see things with many different points of view,...
... life ... death ... ... showing front, back ... the falling maple leaf ... (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....
( Dogen's Instructions for the Cook - XIV)In another great early work, Fukanzazengi, Dogen writes ...Put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases, and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines...
( Dogen's Instructions for the Cook - XIII)Like wild horses and crazy monkeys. I am going to spend a couple of days with this passage ... taming those horses, calming those monkeys ...(You will hear and see our wild...
Please join our weekly "Live from Treeleaf" Zazenkai meditation ...Tonight is dedicated to John Daido Loori Roshi ... a great teacher to so many, a wonderful heart, a root of the tree of Zen in the West ... who...
( Dogen's Instructions for the Cook - XII )Let's talk about old, long dead guys.They are a tough act to follow. _____________________________ Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:"";...
( Dogen's Instructions for the Cook - XI )Someone in our Sangha made a special request for me to jump back a bit, to a couple of lines I had passed over. He likes the quote ...So, will do!...
This little funny going around the Zen-blogosphere reminded me that I should introduce our newest Zen teacher at Treeleaf .... Tin Tin Sensei (he even looks a little like the cat in the picture) ...Ya see ... unlike you...
Kesa (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....
Please join our OCTOBER MONTHLY 4-hour 'Live from Treeleaf' ZAZENKAI, recorded in "real time" and available at the following links:Part of our Zazenkai was taken over by our new kitten ... and by our son chasing after his new...
( Dogen's Instructions for the Cook - X )Some people are just "naturally Zen" ...... naturally wise, compassionate, tolerant and strong through much of their life ... no matter what it hands them ... ... like my late father, Leon....
( Dogen's Instructions for the Cook - IX )Today's passage makes reference to a famous Koan and story ... Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0pt 5.4pt 0pt...
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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