Atonement

By Seido Martin:

We recall specifics and have sincere regret. Everything from petty gossip to the taking of life is seen clearly for what it is. While atonement does not erase responsibility for the consequences of our actions, it cleanses the heart and allows us to return to the land of the living, unburdened and humbly willing to transform habitual patterns based in greed, hate and delusion to generosity, love and clarity.

But something interesting happens as we deepen our awareness of the complete interdependence of self and other. No longer is it so easy to harbor resentment for the injuries done to us and be “at one” with what we have also done to others. If we heal our own wounded parts with compassion, we realize the uselessness of harboring resentment towards those who have harmed us. We are the victims of our own resentment. This frees us up to see that they, like us, also suffer from this human “beginningless” greed, hate and delusion. If we look deeply enough, we are really looking in a mirror at the one who injured us. We are not two. This doesn’t “excuse” any behavior or prohibit response to injustice, but instead reestablishes the capacity to love and act rather than remain blind and stuck. We accept the reality of all that has occurred.

Atonement’s broadest function comes when the separate self drops away and we take responsibility “for it all” — the pollution in the river, the school shooting in the next county, the corruption in the government — you, me, and all suffering beings contained in the entire ungraspable arising of causes and conditions arising as Now. There is no past but what is contained in this moment. From this place, atonement points to the perfection that transcends the limited self. It is complete, whole and leaves nothing out. While this proposition may seem overwhelming at first, it is actually one of the most profoundly freeing actions we can take. To be “at one” with this world as it is readies the heart to care and respond to the suffering before us. While the rational mind cannot grasp the extent of its power, we can taste its liberation right from the start the first time we atone together.

Seido Martin is the Guiding Teacher at Zen West - Empty Field in Eugene, Oregon. She is a dharma friend of Ava Stanton. Check out their website at https://www.emptyfieldzendo.org/ , which is a great resource.

The P'ang Family on Practice/Realization/Vow

From the Sayings of Layman P’ang:

The Layman was sitting in his thatched cottage one day studying the sūtras. "Difficult, difficult," he said; "like trying to scatter ten measures of sesame seed all over a tree." "Easy, easy," Mrs. P’ang said; "like touching your feet to the ground when you get out of bed." "Neither difficult nor easy," Ling Zhao (their daughter) said; "on the hundred grass tips, the great Masters’ meaning."

Note: Layman P’ang (740-808) was a celebrated lay Buddhist in the Chinese Chan (Zen) tradition. He was a successful merchant with a wife, son, and daughter. The family's wealth allowed them to devote their time to study of the Buddhist sutras, in which they all became well-versed. P’ang's daughter Ling Zhao was particularly adept, and sometimes, as in this case, seems more advanced and wise than her parents. After P’ang retired from his profession, he worried about the spiritual dangers of his wealth, so he placed all of his possessions in a boat which he then sunk in a river. The family then led an itinerant lifestyle, wandering about and visiting Buddhist masters and supporting themselves by making and selling bamboo utensils. P’ang studied under, among other masters, Shitou, the author of Harmony of Difference and Equality.

Vowing to Create a Practice Dojo

By: Eihei Dogen

“Even if we don’t have lofty temple buildings, if we practice, the place can be called a dojo of ancient buddhas.” 

“We hear that ancient people practiced on the ground or under a tree.  Such places are sacred forever.  A single person’s continuous practice creates a dojo for many buddhas.”

Commentary by Shohaku Okumura: “We don’t need a formal zazen hall. When we vow to establish a dojo or sangha we should not forget this.”

Peaceful Life (A Poem on Vow)

By: Katagiri Roshi

Being told that it’s impossible,

One believes, in despair, “Is that so?”

Being told that it is possible,

One believes, in excitement, “That’s right.”

But whichever is chosen,

It does not fit one’s heart neatly.

 

Being asked, “What is unfitting?”

I don’t know what it is.

But my heart knows somehow.

I feel an irresistible desire to know.

What a mystery “human” is!

 

As to this mystery:

Clarifying

Knowing how to live

Knowing how to walk with people

Demonstrating and teaching,

This is the Buddha.

 

From my human eyes

I feel it’s really impossible to become a Buddha.

But this “I,” regarding what the Buddha does,

Vows to practice

To aspire

To be resolute,

And tells me, “Yes, I will.”

Just practice right here, now

And achieve continuity

Endlessly

Forever.

This is living in vow.

Herein is one’s peaceful life found.

Two Kinds of Compassion

By: Ken McLeod

If compassion is the wish that others not suffer, one approach, certainly, is to address material and emotional needs—struggles with poverty, hunger, illness, and fear in all of their innumerable combinations, as well as the many ways in which people are treated as less than human. This form of compassion seeks to alleviate suffering and pain as much as possible and takes expression in society as kindness, care, and justice.

To bring an actual end to suffering is another matter entirely. Suffering comes to an end only when a person is so in touch with life that he or she is completely at peace, regardless of physical or emotional circumstances. The wish to help others find that kind of peace is a very different form of compassion.

Bodhicitta evolves out of this second kind of compassion. Bodhicitta, as awakening mind, is the intention to awaken to life in order to help others awaken to life. It is not simply a feeling or an emotion or a sentiment. It has a vertical dimension that runs at right angles to our social conditioning and embraces a knowing, a seeing, into the nature of experience itself. It may grow out of a compassion that sees to alleviate suffering, but it is qualitatively different.

Bodhicitta permeates every aspect of Mahayana teaching and practice. Broadly speaking, it is a quality (many might say it is the quality) that moves us in the direction of awakening.

From: Bodhicitta Explained (Tricycle magazine, Summer 2018)

Real Altruism

By: Norman Fischer

Real altruism isn’t self-sacrifice for the benefit of others, a guilt-driven sense that we should be good, we should be nice, we should be kind. It is the profound recognition that self and others are not fundamentally different, only apparently different. Because of this the range of activity and feeling of bodhicitta is much wider than we would expect. A whole world of altruism and its effects upon up before us. We now see that the only we that we could lover ourselves is by loving others, and the only way that we could truly love others is to love ourselves. The difference between self-love and love of others is very small, once we really understand. Taking this truth into our hearts and actions is truly life changing. And once we open to it, it becomes impossible to go back. It becomes impossible to fool ourselves anymore with selfishness and resentment. To be sure, we will probably have plenty of selfish and resentful feelings, but now we know them for what they are, and they are far less compelling, because we have seen for ourselves how stupid, how childish and blind such feelings actually are.

From: Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong

The Inconceivable Vow

By: Taigen Dan Leighton

A key aspect of Bodhisattva practice is the commitment or dedication to the way of awakening and to carrying out this commitment and practice for the benefit of all. The aspiration to care for and to awaken all beings (in Sanskrit called bodhicitta, literally “enlightening mind”) is considered mysterious and auspicious. This heartfelt care for suffering beings and fundamental questioning into the meaning of our lives arises unaccountably amid the multitude of psychological conditionings in our experience, known and unknown…

Although bodhisattva qualities may unfold over great stretches of time, the initial aspiration of beginners seeking the Way is said to be identical in nature and value to that of an advanced bodhisattva.

From: Faces of Compassion: Classic Bodhisattva Archetypes and Their Modern Expression—An Introduction to Mahayana Buddhism

The Serious Problems of Life Are Never Fully Solved

By C.G. Jung

The serious problems of life are never fully solved. If ever they should appear to be so, it is a sure sign that something has been lost. The meaning and the purpose of a problem seem to lie not in its solution but in our working at it incessantly. This alone preserves us from stultification and petrification.

Finding Out For Yourself

By Charlotte Selver

I don’t want to take away from you your discoveries.  I don’t want to give you pre-chewed knowledge.  I think you have enough of that.  You have to get going yourself.  One thing you probably have noticed—not only in what we say but in what we do in class: that the emphasis is on finding out for yourself.  Not saying, “This is right,” and “This is wrong,” you know.  Not giving instruction as to how to accomplish something, but giving the person an occasion to find out for himself.  This is very basic in our work!  Giving the honor to the person to explore, and not to teach him how things “ought” to be.

Zazen is Not the Same as Meditation

By Rev. Issho Fujita

Meditation practices which emphasize something psychological—thoughts, per­ceptions, feelings, visualizations, intentions, etc.—all direct our attention to cortical-cerebral functions, which I will loosely refer to as “Head.” Most meditation, as we conventionally understand it, is a work that focuses on the Head. In Oriental medicine we find the interesting idea that harmony among the internal organs is of greatest importance. All the issues associ­ated with Head are something merely re­sulting from a lack of harmony among the internal organs, which are the real bases of our life.

Because of our highly developed cor­tical-cerebral function, we tend to equate self-consciousness, the sense of “I,” with the Head—as if the Head is the main char­acter in the play and the body is the ser­vant following orders from the Head. However from the point of view of Oriental medicine this is not only a con­ceit of the Head, but is a total miscon­ception of life. Head is just a small part of the whole of life, and need not hold such a privileged position.

While most meditation tends to focus on the Head, zazen focuses more on the living holistic body-mind framework, al­lowing the Head to exist without giving it any pre-eminence. If the Head is over­functioning, it will give rise to a split and unbalanced life. But in the zazen posture it learns to find its proper place and function within a unified mind-body field. Our living human body is not just a collection of bodily parts, but is an organically inte­grated whole. It is designed in such a way that when one part of the body moves, however subtle the movement may be, it simultaneously causes the whole body to move in accordance with it.

The entire article may be found in the Spring 2002 issue of Insight Journal, a publication of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

One Body

By Zen Master Sokei An

Your body is not bounded by the surface of your skin, you know.  The sun and the moon are your body.  The ocean and rivers are your body.  The whole universe is your body.  The Buddha based his religion upon this Mind, this consciousness.  Sometimes you call it “one-body.”  Then you observe that your mind is as boundless as the sky, and the endless universe, and your present state, this moment is here…that is all.  All the teachings are in your heart, they are inherent, the intrinsic law of your nature.  You cannot find this anywhere outside yourself.

Suzuki Roshi on Sitting

You should not be tilted sideways, backwards, or forwards. You should be sitting straight up as if you were supporting the sky with your head. This is not just form or breathing. It expresses the key point of Buddhism. It is a perfect expression of your Buddha nature. If you want true understanding of Buddhism, you should practice this way. These forms are not a means of obtaining the right state of mind. To take this posture is itself the purpose of our practice. When you have this posture, you have the right state of mind, so there is no need to try to attain some special state.

It Was Like This: You Were Happy

By Jane Hirschfield

It was like this:

you were happy, then you were sad,

then happy again, then not.

It went on.

You were innocent or you were guilty.

Actions were taken, or not.

At times you spoke, at other times you were silent.

Mostly, it seems you were silent—what could you say?

Now it is almost over.

Like a lover, your life bends down and kisses your life.

It does this not in forgiveness—

between you, there is nothing to forgive—

but with the simple nod of a baker at the moment

he sees the bread is finished with transformation.

Eating, too, is a thing now only for others.

It doesn’t matter what they will make of you

or your days: they will be wrong,

they will miss the wrong woman, miss the wrong man,

all the stories they tell will be tales of their own invention.

Your story was this: you were happy, then you were sad,

you slept, you awakened.

Sometimes you ate roasted chestnuts, sometimes persimmons.

Experimenting with Standing in Daily Life

By Charles Brooks, from Reclaiming Vitality and Presence

The reader who is interested in such experimentation may feel like trying it out deliberately …[as we have practiced it].  This is fine if you have the time and patience.  Otherwise, wait for some occasion when you are obliged to stand anyway.  There are bound to be plenty of them.  Perhaps you are waiting in line at the bank or in the supermarket or at some other location.  Instead of allowing your energies to sour into impatience or boredom, you may channel then into experiments like these.  You do exactly what feels agreeable and interesting, merely making the decision to forego your customary inertia and to give yourself, as fully as is practicable, to exploration.  You may explore anything that comes to you.  The only condition is that you give it your respect and time.  If you can explore without hopes or expectations, but with the same kind of care you might give to doodling at the telephone, something will come of it.

Reclaiming the Baby's Awareness

By Charlotte Selver, from Reclaiming Vitality and Presence

I wish you would once in a while look into the eyes of a healthy baby, and would see with what earnestness, interest, great power of concentration—a basic saying yes—such a child has. The child doesn’t yet want anything special; it is equally interested in everything that comes. When the child takes something and looks at it from all sides, or when somebody goes through the room and the child’s while attention follows…that is how we started. And it is also what we can come to—when this natural inner drive for full relating is unearthed and set free.

We wouldn’t be all the time so full of expectations and wishes, but we would be seeing more clearly that any world in which we live can be as astonishing as the world of the baby. And then all things are precious.

Something In Us Can Teach Us

From Charlotte Selver and Charles Brooks, Reclaiming Vitality and Presence:

In Zen they say, “Buddha is in everybody.” That's not a shallow statement. It means something. Buddha is in everybody. Buddha is in you and in you and in you and in you. Buddha is in all of us. That means something in us knows. Something in us can teach us. Something in us can inform us how it wants to be. So that we can feel whether we are coming in touch with another person in such a way that we can be open for the other person, or whether we are not open for the other. We can feel whether we speak the truth or whether we go a little off the truth. We can feel whether we're putting pressure on something or whether we only give our weight to it. We can feel whether we allow our breathing to function as it wants to function or whether we manipulate it. We can feel whether we're dealing with a person and letting the person have his own way of being or whether we manipulate him. And so on and so on. In other words we have the ability within ourselves--if we become more awake--to feel more clearly what our own nature has to tell us. That's the thing that interests me.

We Have Nothing to Teach You

From Charlotte Selver and Charles Brooks, Reclaiming Vitality and Presence:

We have nothing to teach you. We only help you to discover what is already there, inside you. Our method is that there is no method. It is a very sensitive inquiry, a very sensitive discovery which everybody makes for himself through his own experimentation into what we actually become aware of when we begin to use our biological equipment more sensitively, more sensibly. It's not an empty phrase to say, for instance, when something doesn't fit fully into reality that it is nonsense. And this sensing -- this possibility of becoming more alerted in our senses, and using them more fully and more altogether -- this is the content of our work.