Chants/Foundational Texts
Meditation on Metta (From Darlene Cohen’s 49 Day Ceremony, 2011)
May I be well, loving and peaceful.
May all beings be well, loving and peaceful.
May I be at ease in my body, feeling the ground beneath
my seat and feet, letting my back be long and straight,
enjoying breath as it rises and falls and rises.
May I know and be intimate with body mind, whatever its
feeling or mood, calm or agitated, tired or energetic,
irritated or friendly. Breathing in and out, in and out,
aware, moment by moment, of the risings and passings.
May I be attentive and gentle toward my own discomfort and suffering.
May I be attentive and grateful for my own joy and well-being.
May I move toward others freely and with openness.
May I receive others with sympathy and understanding.
May I move toward the suffering of others
with peaceful and attentive confidence.
May I recall the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Kwan Yin; her
1,000 hands, her instant readiness for action, each
hand with an eye in it, the instinctive knowing what to do.
May I continually cultivate the ground of peace
for myself and others and persist, mindful and
dedicated to this work, independent of results.
May I know that my peace and the world's peace are not separate;
that our peace in the world is a result of our work for justice.
May all beings be well, happy, and peaceful.
I offer the benefit of my practice to:
Verse of the Robe
Great robe of liberation,
Field far beyond form and emptiness,
Wearing the Thatagatha’s teachings,
Saving all beings.
Harmony of Difference and Equality (Shitou Xiqian)
The mind of the great sage of India is intimately transmitted from west to east.
While human faculties are sharp or dull; the way has no northern or southern ancestors.
The spiritual source shines clear in the light; the branching streams flow on in the dark.
Grasping at things is surely delusion; according with sameness is still not enlightenment.
All objects of the senses interact and yet do not.
Interacting brings involvement. Otherwise each keeps its place.
Sights vary in quality and form; sounds differ as pleasing or harsh.
Refined and common speech come together in the dark; clear and murky phrases are distinguished in the light.
The four elements return to their natures just a child turns to its mother.
Fire heats, wind moves; water wets, earth is solid.
Eye and sights, ear and sounds; nose and smells, tongue and tastes;
Thus with each and every thing; depending on these roots the leaves spread forth.
Trunk and branches share the essence; revered and common, each has its speech.
In the light there is darkness; but don’t take it as darkness;
In the dark there is light; but don’t see it as light.
Light and dark oppose one another like the front and back foot in walking.
Each of the myriad things has its merit; expressed according to function and place.
Phenomena exist; box and lid fit; principle responds; arrow points meet.
Hearing the words, understand the meaning; don’t set up standards of your own.
If you don’t understand the way right before you, how will you know the path as you walk?
Progress is not a matter of far or near, but if you are confused, mountains and rivers block your way.
I respectfully urge you who study the mystery, do not pass your days and nights in vain.
Four Great Vows
Beings are numberless, I vow to save them.
Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them.
Dharma gates our countless, I vow to enter them.
Buddha’s way is unsurpassable, I vow to embody it.
Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo
Chant 7 times, starting relatively slow and then increasing pace throughout
Kan ze on
Na mu butsu
Yo butsu u in
Yo butsu u en
Bup po so en
Jo raku ga jo
Cho nen kan ze on
Bo nen kan ze on
Nen nen ju shin ki
Nen nen fu ri shin
Eko:
May all beings manifest through the Three Treasures their luminous mirror of wisdom. Having chanted the Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo for protecting life, we dedicate its merit to the benefit and well-being of:_________________
And to the benefit of all beings. May they all accomplish Buddha’s Way.
Purification
Chant 3 times
All my ancient, twisted karma,
From beginningless greed, hate and delusion.
Born through body, speech and mind,
I now fully avow.
Refuges (Pali)
Buddham saranam gacchami
Dhammam saranam gacchami
Sangham saranam gacchami
Dutiyampi buddham saranam gacchami
Dutiyampi dhammam saranam gacchami
Dutiyampi sangham saranam gacchami
Tatiyampi buddham saranam gacchami
Tatiyampi dhammam saranam gacchami
Tatiyampi sangham saranam gacchami
Refuges
I take refuge in Buddha.
Before all beings,
immersing body and mind
deeply in the Way
awakening true mind.
I take refuge in Dharma.
Before all beings,
entering the merciful ocean
of Buddha’s Way.
I take refuge in Sangha.
Before all beings,
bringing harmony to everyone,
free from hindrance.
Great Wisdom Beyond Wisdom Heart Sutra
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deeply prajna paramita, saw clearly that all five skandas are empty and thus relieved all suffering.
Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness, emptiness does not differ from form. Form itself is emptiness. Emptiness itself is form. Sensation, perception, formation and consciousness are also like this.
Shariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness. They do not arise nor cease, are not defiled nor pure, do not increase nor decrease.
It follows, with emptiness, that there is no form, no sensation, no perception, no formation, no consciousness; no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no sight, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind; no realm of sight…no realm of mind-consciousness; no ignorance nor extinction of ignorance…no old age and death nor extinction of old age and death; no suffering, no causation, no cessation, no path; no knowledge and no attainment.
With nothing to attain, the bodhisattva relies on prajna paramita, and the mind has no hindraces. Without any hindrances, no fears exist. Far beyond every inverted view one dwells in nirvana.
In the three worlds all Buddhas depend on prajna paramita, thereby attaining unsurpassed, complete, perfect englightenment.
Therefore know the Prajna Paramita Mantra is the great transcendent mantra, is the great bright mantra, is the supreme mantra, is the incomparable mantra, which removes all suffering and is true, not false.
Thus proclaim the Prajna Paramita Mantra, proclaim the mantra that says
Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha!
Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage (Shitou Xiqian)
I've built a grass hut where there's nothing of value.
After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap.
When it was completed, fresh weeds appeared.
Now it's been lived in - covered by weeds.
The person in the hut lives here calmly,
Not stuck to inside, outside, or in between.
Places worldly people live, he doesn't live.
Realms worldly people love, he doesn't love.
Though the hut is small, it includes the entire world.
In ten square feet, an old man illumines forms and their nature.
A Great Vehicle bodhisattva trusts without doubt.
The middling or lowly can't help wondering;
Will this hut perish or not?
Perishable or not, the original master is present,
not dwelling south or north, east or west.
Firmly based on steadiness, it can't be surpassed.
A shining window below the green pines --
Jade palaces or vermilion towers can't compare with it.
Just sitting with head covered, all things are at rest.
Thus, this mountain monk doesn't understand at all.
Living here he no longer works to get free.
Who would proudly arrange seats, trying to entice guests?
Turn around the light to shine within, then just return.
The vast inconceivable source can't be faced or turned away from.
Meet the ancestral teachers, be familiar with their instruction,
Bind grasses to build a hut, and don't give up.
Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely.
Open your hands and walk, innocent.
Thousands of words, myriad interpretations,
Are only to free you from obstructions.
If you want to know the undying person in the hut,
Don't separate from this skin bag here and now.
Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi (Donghsan Liangjie)
The teaching of thusness has been intimately communicated by buddhas and ancestors. Now you have it, so keep it well.
Filling a silver bowl with snow, hiding a heron in the moonlight -
Taken as similar they're not the same; when you mix them, you know where they are.
The meaning is not in the words, yet it responds to the inquiring impulse.
Move and you are trapped; miss and you fall into doubt and vacillation.
Turning away and touching are both wrong, for it is like a massive fire.
Just to depict it in literary form is to stain it with defilement.
It is bright just at midnight, it doesn't appear at dawn.
It acts as a guide for beings, its use removes all pains.
Although it is not fabricated, it is not without speech.
It is like facing a jewel mirror; form and image behold each other –
You are not it, in truth it is you.
Like a babe in the world, in five aspects complete;
It does not go or come, nor rise nor stand.
"Baba wawa" – is there anything said or not?
Ultimately it does not apprehend anything because its speech is not yet correct.
It is like the six lines of the illumination hexagram: relative and ultimate interact -
Piled up, they make three, the complete transformation makes five.
It is like the taste of the five-flavored herb, like a diamond thunderbolt.
Subtly included within the true, inquiry and response come up together.
Communing with the source, travel the pathways, embrace the territory and treasure the road.
Respecting this is fortunate; do not neglect it.
Naturally real yet inconceivable, it is not within the province of delusion or enlightenment.
With causal conditions, time and season, quiescently it shines bright.
In its fineness it fits into spacelessness, in its greatness it is utterly beyond location.
A hairsbreadth's deviation will fail to accord with the proper attunement.
Now there are sudden and gradual in which teachings and approaches arise. Once basic approaches are distinguished, then there are guiding rules.
But even though the basis is reached and the approach comprehended, true eternity still flows.
Outwardly still while inwardly moving, like a tethered colt, a trapped rat -
The ancient sages pitied them and bestowed upon them the teaching.
According to their delusions, they called black as white;
When erroneous imaginations cease, the acquiescent mind realizes itself.
If you want to conform to the ancient way, please observe the sages of former times.
When about to fulfill the way of buddhahood, one gazed at a tree for ten eons,
Like a battle-scarred tiger, like a horse with shanks gone gray.
Because there is the common, there are jewel pedestals, fine clothing;
Because there is the startlingly different, there are house cat and cow.
Yi with his archer's skill could hit a target at a hundred paces.
But when arrow-points meet head on, what has this to do with the power of skill?
When the wooden man begins to sing, the stone woman gets up dancing;
It’s not within reach of feeling or discrimination – how could it admit of consideration in thought?
Ministers serve their lords, children obey their parents;
Not obeying is not filial and not serving is no help.
Practice secretly, working within, like a fool, like an idiot.
Just to continue in this way is called the host within the host.
Fukanzazengi (Eihei Dogen)
The way is basically perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The dharma-vehicle is free and untrammeled. What need is there for concentrated effort? Indeed, the whole body is far beyond the world's dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from one, right where one is. What is the use of going off here and there to practice?
And yet, if there is the slightest discrepancy, the way is as distant as heaven from earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion. Suppose one gains pride of understanding and inflates one's own enlightenment, glimpsing the wisdom that runs through all things, attaining the way and clarifying the mind, raising an aspiration to escalade the very sky. One is making the initial, partial excursions about the frontiers but is still somewhat deficient in the vital way of total emancipation.
Need I mention the Buddha, who was possessed of inborn knowledge? The influence of his six years of upright sitting is noticeable still. Or Bodhidharma's transmission of the mind-seal? The fame of his nine years of wall-sitting is celebrated to this day. Since this was the case with the saints of old, how can we today dispense with negotiation of the way?
You should therefore cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate your self. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will be manifest. If you want to attain suchness, you should practice suchness without delay.
For sanzen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately. Cast aside all involvements and cease all affairs. Do not think good or bad. Do not administer pros and cons. Cease all the movements of the conscious mind, the gauging of all thought and views. Have no designs on becoming a buddha. Sanzen has nothing whatever to do with sitting or lying down.
At the site of your regular sitting, spread out thick matting and place a cushion above it. Sit either in the full-lotus or half-lotus position. In the full-lotus position, you first place your right foot on your left thigh and your left foot on your right thigh. In the half-lotus, you simply press your left foot against your right thigh. You should have your robes and belt loosely bound and arranged in order. Then place your right hand on your left leg and your left palm (facing upward) on your right palm, thumb-tips touching. Thus sit upright in correct bodily posture, neither inclining to the left nor to the right, neither leaning forward nor backward. Be sure your ears are on a plane with your shoulders and your nose in line with your navel. Place your tongue against the front roof of your mouth, with teeth and lips both shut. Your eyes should always remain open, and you should breathe gently through your nose. Once you have adjusted your posture, take a deep breath, inhale and exhale, rock your body right and left and settle into a steady, immovable sitting position. Think of not-thinking. How do you think of not-thinking? Nonthinking. This in itself is the essential art of zazen.
The zazen I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the dharma-gate of repose and bliss, the practice-realization of totally culminated enlightenment. It is the manifestation of ultimate reality. Traps and snares can never reach it. Once its heart is grasped, you are like a dragon gaining the water, like a tiger taking to the mountains. For you must know that just there (in zazen) the right dharma is manifesting itself and that from the first dullness and distraction are struck aside.
When you arise from sitting, move slowly and quietly, calmly and deliberately. Do not rise suddenly or abruptly. In surveying the past, we find that transcendence of both unenlightenment and enlightenment, and dying while either sitting or standing, have all depended entirely on the strength of zazen.
In addition, the bringing about of enlightenment by the opportunity provided by a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet, and the effecting of realization with the aid of a hossu, a fist, a staff, or a shout cannot be fully understood by discriminative thinking. Indeed, it cannot be fully known by the practicing or realizing of supernatural powers either. It must be deportment beyond hearing and seeing - is it not a principle that is prior to knowledge and perceptions?
This being the case, intelligence or lack of it does not matter, between the dull and the sharp-witted there is no distinction. If you concentrate your effort single-mindedly, that in itself is negotiating the way. Practice-realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward in practice is a matter of everydayness.
In general, this world and other worlds as well, both in India and China equally hold the buddha-seal; and over all prevails the character of this school, which is simply devotion to sitting, total engagement in immovable sitting. Although it is said that there are as many minds as there are persons, still they all negotiate the way solely in zazen. Why leave behind the seat that exists in your home and go aimlessly off to the dusty realms of other lands? If you make one misstep you go astray from the way directly before you.
You have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form. Do not use your time in vain. You are maintaining the essential working of the buddha way. Who would take wasteful delight in the spark from the flintstone? Besides, form and substance are like the dew on the grass, destiny like the dart of lightning - emptied in an instant, vanished in a flash.
Please, honored followers of Zen. Long accustomed to groping for the elephant, do not be suspicious of the true dragon. Devote your energies to a way that directly indicates the absolute. Revere the person of complete attainment who is beyond all human agency. Gain accord with the enlightenment of the buddhas; succeed to the legitimate lineage of the ancestors' samadhi. Constantly perform in such a manner and you are assured of being a person such as they. Your treasurestore will open of itself, and you will use it at will.
Short Meal Chant
Earth, water, air and fire combined to make this food.
Numberless beings have died and labored that we may eat.
May we be nourished, that we may nourish life.