Blogma

Discerning light in the dark and dark in the light. This is the season where we can especially appreciate this way of living beyond opposites of light and dark, good and bad. We might think of them as an either/or proposition, but when we are free to the true balance of light and dark, it’s actually proportionate, a subtle slide, an infusion, one into the other. The coming of dawn in this winter moment of many-layered cloudiness is slow and barely discernible for a while. But there is a moment that comes when we can readily proclaim, “It’s dawn!” The frog in the rill beside the path mutters gently in the dim light of early morning. The progression is subtle, but sure.

This season of light in the darkness celebrates the whole subtle progression into birth…into the precious holiness of life. The sacred moment, the silent, the miraculous. Tonight, please light a candle, if you haven’t already, to express and affirm the commitment to the light of your life. What unseen forces bring you here to steady practice and bright awareness? Even if the mind does not seem bright all the time, that’s okay. Light and darkness are a pair, like the foot before and the foot behind in walking. The vow to awaken carries us……faith in the Way carries us. Participating in the cacophonies of life, the lights of connection and wholeheartedness surely leads us to awakening into Buddha mind. Buddha mind is innate, outside of and beyond words, we need only to glimpse and meet our moment face to face. Blessed solstice.

The precepts.

Beyond precept study, reflection, and discussion, we emphasize the practice of zazen to clarify the precepts. Why?

The precepts are about living in integrity, harmoniously, in tune. But what are we tuning with? We are tuning with respect to our deeper nature.

What is our deeper nature? It is like a river. On the surface, there may be white water, eddies, obstacles, snags, times of fluidity and others of stagnation – yet below, the river has a clear, steady direction.

Our deeper nature goes with the flow. Going with the flow does not always look like the path of least resistance along the surface. Sometimes there are snags and white water on the horizon. But fighting the current is always burdensome and unproductive. As we sensitize and open, we awaken to the true situation in the river, and all it contains.

The precepts are about not opposing reality. Our personal reality, and reality around us – each in equal measure. Zazen is about being real, and reality has a direction.

May every obstacle further clarify this direction.

‘If you spend your whole life not leaving the monastery, not talking for ten years or for five years, no-one will be able to call you a mute. Do not wonder whether not-talking might be vacuous. Entry is one monastery. Getting out is one monastery. The way of the birds is one monastery. The entire Universe is one monastery.’ -Eihei Dogen

Monday begins SJZC’s annual Rohatsu Sesshin, the most practiced Zen Sesshin around the world. Sesshin is a practice, a container, and a state of mind.

The state of mind of sesshin recognizes the monastery of the moment – be it an oryoki set, a flock of birds, or the entire universe.

The container of sesshin designs today, and tomorrow, such that we are more likely to recognize the monastery of the moment.

The practice of sesshin is is the intention to recognize the monastery of the moment.

Although in sesshin we emphasize ‘not talking’. Ultimately this ‘not talking’ is not about the mouth. It is about what we are. When what we are is the monastery of the moment, there may be both talking and not talking. Even ‘a mute’ can say far too much…

Have a nice week!!

Conditions are always changing. The larger cycles of war and political disruption, marked by three poisons, don’t seem to change, though. Greed, hostility, and ignorance are as innate in the human condition as is generosity, compassion, and awake awareness. It’s up to us, our choice, what we practice and cultivate, what we take refuge in, what we return to moment by moment.

Equanimity, one of the Four Immeasurables, is the very way of the Bodhisattva. It’s immeasurable for me if I remember that I have choices. I can ask, “How can I live into these changing conditions with openness and wisdom? with caring, intelligence, creativity?” What are the possibilities? Right now, many of us may be in dread about the election results. This mood is part of our inner condition, difficult and painful. If we can find no flexibility, no potential for learning from it, for staying connected, for creatively responding, then this dread can lead to despair, which in turn limits our energy for meeting conditions with a whole heart.

The situation is always complex, and open. We may or may not be able to influence larger circumstances or the actions of others directly, but we can keep a bead on responding thoughtfully ourselves and refraining from adding to the collective suffering. Skillful, direct action at times is clear and compelling. But not always. But we can always, if aware, return to the immediacy of this breath, to our vow to be of benefit. Then we can think more clearly about what we can do right here. The act of refuge looms large – remembering to take refuge and to offer it to others in effective ways. We can choose not to be at the mercy of our reactivity. We can choose not to cut off from a larger view that helps us to see more clearly and be more patient, creative and kind.  “Holding steady in a high wind”, is a useful image to guide our choices in difficult times.

Jizo Bohisattva, also known as Kishitagarba, is the Bodhisattva of Great Vow. Jizo embodies the energy of vow or intention that each of us has the capacity the to access.

What is your spiritual vow? To awaken? To love? To resolve the fear in your heart? To serve?

Are you living that vow? Is how you spend you time in line with that vow? Do your thoughts, words and actions support the the cultivation of your heart’s  deepest aspiration?

Join us next Sunday for our Jizo Ceremony. In it we will activate our vow energy and reorient ourselves towards what really matters in this life.

Please take good care
Shinei