Blogma

The Sangha jewel is the third of the Three Treasures, along with Buddha and Dharma, that functions to support awakening altogether to the richness of life on this particular path. We need each other, we sit zazen together, we maintain the building and grounds, work together to offer a full and rounded schedule of opportunities for practice. At SJZC we celebrate this and emphasize how to recognize the community as a precious jewel. Each of us embodies this collective vow. Each of us adds our practice, our energy and particular gifts in very practical ways.

Serving the sangha by attending to tasks, large and small, is part of a complete practice. We develop keen mindfulness at the Center during our service work (samu), and this tends to support a habit of valuing all of our tasks, whether we’re at SJZC or home or work or in our neighborhood.

Many of you are already maintaining the altars, the flowers, the garden, program planning, fundraising, housekeeping, IT, sweeping the walkways – there’s a long list. If you haven’t signed up for something already you can do so by letting our shuso, Zen’etsu, know of your interest. They can get you connected to a job that fits your availability. The sangha benefits from everyone pitching in and over time learning what is involved in offering this precious practice to those coming along.

There are many teachings in the Zen Buddhist tradition. Taking up any one as a way of life will access them all, guiding us in the direction of wisdom and kindness. Dogen’s Eight Awakenings of Great Beings is an example of these. In eight brief prompts he reminds us how to bring the rich supports of Dharma awareness into our ordinary, daily way of living, attuning to current conditions. They’re wonderful reminders that keep us on track. Here they are:

·      The first awakening is having few desires.
·      The second awakening is knowing how much is enough.
·      The third awakening is enjoying serenity.
·      The fourth awakening is diligent effort.
·      The fifth awakening is not neglecting mindfulness.
·      The sixth awakening is practicing meditation.
·      The seventh awakening is cultivating wisdom.
·      The eighth awakening is not engaging in hollow discussions.

We are ending our morning service these days with the Song of Lovingkindness which goes like this:

May you dwell in the heart.
May you be free from suffering.
May you be healed.
May you be at peace.

This is accompanied by a drum beat that sounds like a human heartbeat.

Anything we do regularly infuses us with its healing spirit. During the day, any day and especially during days that bring a lot of challenge or worry, you can bring to mind this wonderful song. Singing it can return you to the practice of lovingkindness. Kindness is not an emotion so much as a grounding from which to act. We practice with it. It colors our choices. Knowing that if you’re greatly stirred up, you’re more liable to act from knee-jerk reactivity that causes harm or regret. No matter what the spirit of reactivity prompts you to do, you always have a choice in how to respond. The kindness practice of metta as expressed in this song, is medicine for any case of suffering.

Daily life is direct and immediate. Media sources are not. It’s so important to remember this as we aim to be responsible citizens and keep up with what’s unfolding in the public sphere.

Reading the news on-line can catapult us into a swirl of anxiety, mental confusion and stress. Anxiety arises when we don’t have access to our immediate ground. The media version of facts, alternative facts, disinformation is a dense collective trance that is difficult to awaken from. What is real? What is true? Any source we consult from afar is hearsay.

Our own direct experience is our ground. When we have no direct experience, we are prone to listen to a cacophony of others’ views. Their versions are to them real. But not the same as true.

What is true?  What are your trusted sources?  Even with these, it’s recommended that we maintain a “don’t know mind.” Provisional. A question. The Way of the Bodhisattva does not depend on doctored images. Dharma is not hearsay, not someone else’s opinion. Not even our own opinion, our own view. Dharma continuously steers us back to the ground of the present moment, temporary and local, directly accessible. This is where we encounter the current of conditions and where we are personally called to take action in response.

Our daily practice keeps us grounded in just this. Even though we may feel pulled in many directions and be captured by our grief for the world, the more we can appreciate the blessing of direct and open awareness right here, the freer we are to serve what is true and to stay in alignment with the actual. Direct awareness, grounded in ethical precepts, helps us steer the Middle Way path of patience, clarity and kindness, no matter what the conditions are calling for.

“Then, Bāhiya, you should train yourself thus: In reference to the seen, there will be only the seen. In reference to the heard, only the heard. In reference to the sensed, only the sensed. In reference to the cognized, only the cognized. That is how you should train yourself. When for you there will be only the seen in reference to the seen, only the heard in reference to the heard, only the sensed in reference to the sensed, only the cognized in reference to the cognized, then, Bāhiya, there is no you in connection with that. When there is no you in connection with that, there is no you there. When there is no you there, you are neither here nor yonder nor between the two. This, just this, is the end of stress.”

Bāhiya Sutta, Pali Canon 

The liberating truth of Anatta is the recognition that there is no fixed self. There is no ‘me’ that continues through time, that needs to be maintained, manicured, and protected. This is a radical realization that can bring about a great letting go and revolutionize our entire way of thinking, feeling, and being. Every form, thought, and feeling that appears is simply a temporary manifestation of the one flowing body that we are and does not belong to anyone. In actuality, there is no one. These appearances are not ours, there is no one in charge. We are an unfixed, ever-changing possibility with no solidity to be found. This teaching can initially be scary to reckon with because we have based our entire lives on the fixed identity, the permanent person we believe ourselves to be. However, when we begin to feel the implications of not needing to maintain an identity, great relief can dawn.

This and all dharma truths are pointers for each of us to investigate in our moment to moment lived experience. The Buddha often said ‘ehipassiko” which is a Pali word that means “come and see for yourself.” The Buddha’s teachings will not be liberating unless we directly touch them ourselves. Annata (no-self) is something for each of us to verify. Is it true that ‘I’ do not exist in the way I have been taught I do? Can I find an ‘I’ in my direct experience? Can I find a boundary to this presence? Without my story, who am I? Who is it that thinks, feels, sees, tastes, touches, and hears?

Meditation helps us to look and see for ourselves. Without a meditation practice, it is difficult to investigate direct reality. Instead, we find ourselves continually circling in thought. In order to clarify the deeper dharma truths, we must learn to still the mind and focus on the direct raw experience. It is in this full intimacy with that which is below thought that we can enter the living truth that liberates.

Stepping out into the early freshness this morning was so much like the bell ringing to begin zazen a little while later. Any moment, every moment brings with it its own freshness, its own call to be right here.  All things proclaim the dharma.

We need only notice. The world naturally calls to us, reminds us, here, this. In kinhin, we emerge into the zendo garden where the flowers, leaves, grasses wave at us in the breeze, scenting the air. Immediately whatever filled the attention inside is instantly gone with the wind outside. Each step, just this step.

This view is balm to us in a time of great uncertainty and conflict in the world, near and far. Keeping our hearts open, regularly taking refuge in the clear bright immediacy of this step helps us to be able to say, “How can I help?” as we meet the garden of troubles and the confusion of worldly demands. Helps us to remember the enormity of every emerging moment with all of the resources from our wisdom practice in the zendo and the many gardens of just this step.