Blogma

When you begin to practice Zen, you may notice more frequently that you drift off into both thinking and daydreaming more than you’d realized, even in the midst of your daily routines. If these routines are long established and/or humdrum, the mind has lots of incentive to tune out what’s here and now and slip into imagined realities. How much of our mental planning and fantasizing is a variety of dream states? A Zen practice includes noticing when the mind begins to troll through worries, plans, regrets, resentments.

These mental narratives can create or feed suffering states.  On the other hand, they may help us to address situations that need more attention and suggest creative solutions. It’s all in how we wake up to and use our awareness. Bringing greater awareness to dream states helps us to claim more of our mental life for benefit rather than disturbance and harm. We are always living a dream. Our practice is to realize the fundamental dream nature of all phenomena.

Chan Master Yunmen taught: You have the one thing that matters, each and every one of you! Its great function manifests without the slightest effort on your part. What is the one thing that matters? One thing. He doesn’t put a name to it, but tells us what it does, which is, it functions in a way that nothing else does. What is the one thing that is always functioning, without effort on your part? A question like this could trap you into endless intellectual speculation, which doesn’t help or satisfy, though you may need to do it for a while. When our habit of thinking runs down, what then? How can we realize the actual meaning of this life? If the one thing that really matters is always functioning, then we can look to any moment of our experience for what he’s pointing to here. We find the one thing that matters in this very moment. We just need to look.

The Buddha taught the Middle Way and explicated its meaning. The middle way reminds us to notice when we are caught in some fixed dogma and misunderstand the import of actual conditions. The Middle Way teaching reminds us to get caught neither in the search for happiness through the pleasure of the senses, nor to turn away entirely to a path of self-denial or mortification. Both extremes lead to countless difficulties and deny the complexities of living as a precious, conscious being in a complex world.

Yes, the pleasure of the senses is part of the sweetness at the bottom of the pie of our life. But it’s momentary and changes according to the other ingredients. Truthfully, we are continually faced with a great variety of provisions, the various tastes of daily life. Our experience calls us to free ourselves from unwholesome habits and explore freshly more nuanced responses. What are the “tastes” that are being served up today? How do they nourish awakening? Even the bitter? Even the salty? Even the bland? It’s up to us and whether we are willing to receive the nourishment of our ordinary life and to trust it as the best dish to nourish awakening.

We hear so much about practicing with breath, counting the breath, following the breath. It’s not uncommon especially when we first take up Zen practice to hear these words with half a heart, partial attention. We can easily be breathing half-heartedly while the other half is thinking about breathing…. or thinking about a million other things. But there’s a discovery to be made here, which is why it’s so emphasized and worth exploring. That’s the wonder of whole, entire, all-in breathing.

What happens to our practice when we actually pay whole-hearted attention to the breath. Attention. Attention. Attention. This very practice we’re talking about here is not a consolation prize. It’s the grand prize. Ready for the taking. Start with the exhale. Not forced, not exaggerated, not straining in any fiber of your being.  But just your natural exhale, where it all falls out.

Similar to the exhale we naturally experience when we’re so relieved, whew, all the way out, no more holding or holding back. Breathing out and then, just when you need it, the inhale flows effortlessly in. The breath is a birthright. Breath is the key to wholehearted presence. Even when you’re not aware of it, it functions. Rather like a vow. The breath is the great vow we share with all living beings.

Happy New Year! Always a new day to awaken to Bodhi mind. What flows here and now is one life in service to all beings. Our inheritance from a long line of ancestors, ancient and current, inspires us and points out the Way. They have offered us many methods to clear our minds and hearts of  the miseries of dissatisfaction, restlessness and affliction. We inherit their message to realize our larger self that extends to every corner of the universe and includes all that is. The Buddha said, “Be a lamp unto yourself. Work for your liberation with diligence.”

On Tuesday night we are celebrating the New Year together. How? At SJZC zazen comes first and then we ring the big bell 108 times. Each of us takes a turn ringing the bell, we all contribute our practice to the sangha jewel. You might wonder what the number 108 signifies? Well…

3 poisons (greed, hostility, ignorance of our true nature)  X
6 senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste, and mind)     X
3 times (past, present, future)   X
2 internally generated or externally occurring.

3 x 6 x 3 x 2 = 108

Tolling the Bell of Mindfulness expresses our Bodhisattva vow as our first act of the new year.  Each time the bell resounds we atone for our past harmful actions and a vow for the liberation of all suffering beings is released. It reverberates, resonating throughout the troubled world of samsara. Please join us for this ceremony which begins at 9:30pm this coming Tuesday night.