There is a plan...

I often read articles, blogs or books about Zen or Buddhism written by very knowledgeable people. They hold PhD.s in Religious studies; some can speak Chinese and Japanese, decipher the Tun Huang Manuscripts or read ancient Tibetan or Dogen's Japanese. They are scholars of all horizons and / or certified Dharma transmitted Zen Masters...

 

What they write is usually deep - and complicated. So quite a few other brilliant and sometimes vindictive persons enjoy arguing with them, and all we have is lots of bickering and arguing between experts or enlightened people. 

But is this really the point ? And what is really the point ? Is it to be right, or is it to be happy ?

Originally, there is this nagging frustration or insatisfaction - the human condition. And Buddhism is about overcoming it. There are different ways to achieve this, but originally, this is what it is all about.

There is no speaking about form, emptiness, the 3 poisons or the 4 Noble truth to someone whose child just died. 

There is a plan. 

There is a design for each and everyone of us. 

You look at nature : 

Bird flies somewhere,

Picks up a seed,

Shits the seed out,

Plant grows.

Bird's got a job,

Shit's got a job,

Seed's got a job,

And you've got a job too.

(Quote from Cold Mountain - the Movie, not the Zen poems...)

Rainy Night in Fukakusa

Drifting pitifully in the whirlwind of birth and death,
As if wandering in a dream,
In the midst of illusion I awaken to the true path;
There is one more matter I must not neglect,
But I need not bother now,
As I listen to the sound of the evening rain
Falling on the roof of my temple retreat
In the deep grass of Fukakusa.
 

Eihei Dōgen (1200 - 1253)

Fukakusa was the name of a secluded village to the south of medieval Kyoto. It literally means "deep grass".

 

Zazen to the end of the year

Last night we sat for 4 hours to celebrate the end of the year. This was part of a joint effort of different members of the Mokurai - Silent Thunder Order - founded by Michael Elliston Roshi, Abbott of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center.

Wherever they were, members of the Sangha sat in Zazen til the end of the year, then celebrated. As there are different time zones, it lasted a while I suppose. 

Our program was simple : we sat 3 for sessions of 25 minutes each, with 5 minutes kinhin (walking meditation) in between from 8:20 til 9:45 pm. Then we took a short break for tea and cookies. 

After that, we sat back, facing the center of the dojo, and read the   

 

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IPPYAKUHACHI-HOMYOMON

108 Gates of Dharma - Illumination of Master Dogen. Actually, I read part of the introduction to it, and then every minute, each one of the other participants read part of the 108 stanza. As there were 3 of them, each read 36 stanza - well actually, the last one read 37, because there are 109 stanza to the 108 gates... Every minute I would ring the bell, and the stanza would be read, living us one minute to consider its meaning. 

Finally I read the conclusion of Master Dogen's text. 

It was Midnight ! The locals having burnt all of their fireworks between 9:00 and 10:30 pm, it was rather quiet, and we enjoyed Cookies Bubbly and Company !

Picture by Carl Rippe

Happy New Year in Buddha ! 

Lineage & Legacy of the Silent Thunder Order

 

The Sangha of the Silent Thunder Order traces its origin to Master Eihei Dogen, founder of Soto Zen in 13th-Century Japan. A few generations later Master Keizan popularized Dogen Zen throughout Japan. Dogen is often called the "father" of Soto Zen in Japan, while Keizan is called its "mother." We have chosen cloud, or "un" in Japanese, as the family name for members of our Order, after the dharma name his teacher gave to Elliston Roshi : Taiun, meaning "Great Cloud." 

Our lineage founder, Zengaku Soyu Matsuoka Roshi, was born in 1912 and died in 1997. He came to the United States in 1939, when he was just 27 years old. He said his mother told him, "go die in America." He was tireless in propagating Soto Zen to Americans, first on the West Coast and later in the Midwest, and one of the first to promote the practice of Zen meditation for westerners. Sensei, as he asked his student to call him, was a student and friend of Daisetz Suzuki, the famous scholar who popularized Rinzai Zen in the West. 

A black-belt in Judo, he was very active in the martial arts, adviser to the Chicago Police Department Kyokushinkai Karate Association and National Karate Association, promoting the practice of zazen.

By the 1960s when Elliston Roshi - founder of the Order - first met him, Matsuoka Roshi had established the Chicago Zen Buddhist Temple, where he conducted his lay ordination...

Read the Full Article - with a slide show - about our Silent Thunder Order Lineage and Legacy.

Hojo Tokimune - 1

Hojo Tokimune (北条 時宗, 1251 - 1284) was 23 when the Mongols tried to invade Japan in 1274 for the first time. They tried again in 1281. In both occasions, the invaders were repelled. This was the first time they were vanquished. So these were dramatic times for Japan. Tokimune had to take hard decisions and numerous people died under his command - but Japan stayed free, and this was the beginning of the end for the Mongol empire who had never before been vanquished.  

Tokimune apparently was afraid of his own fearfulness and to fight it practiced Zen under Master Bukko Kokushi (仏光国師) - also known as Mugaku Sogen and Wuxue Zuyuan (Chinese). Tokimune founded the Enkakuji Temple in Kamakura in 1282 to honor those who had died during the Invasions.

When Tokimune died, Bukko said he had been a bodhisattva, looked at people's welfare, betrayed no signs of joy or anger and studied Zen so that he reached enlightenment.

Tokimune's widow Kakusan-ni founded Tokei-Ji in 1285 after her husband’s death. She dedicated it to her him and made it a refuge for abused women. She is also known as the Nun Shido who when the Abbott of Engakuji challenged her about her ability to comment on a Classic of Zen, drew her 10 inch blade Tanto and answered him : "I am a woman of the warrior line and I should only declare our teaching when really face to face with a drawn sword. What book should I need?'

       These events and guys were almost contemporary with Master Dogen (1200 - 1253) - founder of Soto Zen in Japan. They were living very difficult times and facing very significant challenges. These guys had responsibilities and guts. Still, they were practicing Zen, for they were finding in It the strength and determination they needed to be up to these lethal challenges. 

...

       Some have the impression that Zen - and/or any spiritual endeavour - are a way to escape reality. Actually a number of us come to it to find "peace of mind". There is nothing wrong about that. 

       In a similar way, lots of us came to Martial Arts to learn self defense. Again, nothing wrong about this. But after a few years (20, 30) you really can't keep practicing with the only goal of becoming a better meaner fighter. If at 50 you feel the need to go Saturday night to a Country bar to pick a fight in order to test your abilities, you are missing something - notwithstanding the fact that you will eventually get your ass kicked - if not this time, then the next... Martial Arts really are about fighting the real enemy inside us.

       Same for Zen. We get to it for various reasons. Usually the need to find a place where we're at peace. Sitting will give us that. But if we keep practicing with the only intent to escape the tumults of the world, we are missing the point. Zen is not about escaping. Zen is about being here, in the middle of the mess, crawling under a floor to find a water leak and not finding it, helping a loved one going through disease, cooking for your kids, or deciding how to organize your troops in order to minimize the number of dead soldiers when repelling the invader. 

Joseph Campbell coined a beautiful description of what Zen is about : "Joyful participation in the Sorrows of the World"

Now one last point...

       Even if you practice Martial Arts to become a better person, you should train to always be ready to answer a challenge, to be ready to fight and actually not lose. If you do not have this spirit, you are not practicing Martial Arts. 

       In the same way, in Zen "joyful participation in the sorrows of the World" is achieved through sitting. You may decide your time is better spent trying to help others than "selfishly" sit in Lotus; and immerse yourself in noble and useful endeavors to make a difference in your environment. But if you don't sit, this is not Zen.

Nobody said it would be easy.

the thickness of a hair.

In “ The essence of Okinawan Karate-do, Page 14, Shoshin Nagamine writes :

"Karate is self training in perfection, a means whereby a man may obtain that expertise in which there is not the thickness of a hair between a man and his deed. It is a training in efficiency, It is a training in self reliance."

In his Fukanzazengi (Eihei Koroku translation by Leighton and Okumura) Master Dogen writes

"And yet, if there is a hairbreadth of deviation, it is like the gap between Heaven and Earth, if the least like or dislike arises, the mind is lost in confusion"

In the "Hsin Hsin Ming" ("Trust in Mind") a poem from the 6th century China when Zen or Ch’an was beginning to emerge as a separate tradition, the Chinese Ancestor Seng-ts’an, or Kanshi Sosan writes :

"The Great Way is not difficult, for those who have no preferences. When freed from grasping and aversion, it reveals itself clearly and undisguised. A hair’s breadth difference, and heaven and earth are set apart. If you want it to appear, have no opinions for or against. The duality of like and dislike is the disease of the mind."

Coincidence ? I doubt it. At the end of his book, Shoshin Nagamine writes again :

I have pursued the study of Karate in an attempt to bring karate and Zen together as one.This has been a life-long effort, and one that can never be fully realized by anyone person.

Zen Masters often have written about or for Martial Arts, but less Martial Art Masters wrote about Zen.

One thing that attracted me so much to Zen is its Practical aspect. Zen is something you TRAIN in. There is nothing wrong about trying to understand some aspects of it, however, if this is your only practice, you might as well go home, you won't do anything good for yourself. But this is not clear from the outside. I believe most people consider Zen as a very intellectual and possibly bizarre philosophical or religious system. This is at least how they look at it in France.

The records we have from Martial Art Masters seldom go back more than 150 years. These masters were not living in the dark ages, but in a preindustrial age and their world was not too different from ours.

For this reason, I believe their words are easier to understand than those of people writing from 800 years or more ago. In any case, they will be easier to understand for students of Martial Arts. I know of no anthology of what Budo Masters had to say about Zen. I believe such a collection could be helpful.

So I decided to devote some time to research what Budo masters wrote about Zen. If you have information to share on this subject, or on a methodology I could follow, your help will be welcomed.

Pain and Meditation

About 6 years ago I visited a Buddhist temple in the vicinity of Fort Walton Beach. The monks were from Thailand. They were very friendly and showed us around the temple. Then the Abbot invited to sit with them and ask questions about Buddhism.
I remember asking him the proper way to meditate. As he described the Lotus or Semi lotus position, I explained to him that my left knee and hip being damaged, I could not even think of the Lotus, and the 1/2 lotus would be extremely painful to me.
His answer was to not pay attention to the pain which would eventually go away.

I listened for a while after that, because he was interesting and friendly. But I left disappointed, knowing that I was not going to even try it.

If you start sitting at 13 or 16 as or Thich Nhat Hanh did, chances are that you can easily go past the pain of the Lotus position, because your joints and even bones are more flexible than they will be 20 years down the road. You never experienced the type of pain that occurs in a 50 years old knee damaged by 2 motorcycles and one martial art incidents.

If pain becomes so intense that it clutters the mind, sitting is useless, you are loosing your time.

Lately, I realized that I was able to sit in the Burmese position. I was surprised, as I never thought my knees would agree to this. It could be that after 2 years of sitting in Seiza my hips and knees became slightly more flexible. When I sit, there is a slight discomfort that disappears after 4 to 5 minutes. So in essence, I forget the pain. 3 years ago, I could not have done this. It is the result of 2 years of (almost) painless sitting in Seiza position.

It is just like in Tai Chi : the notion of "No Pain, No Gain" does not apply. If you hurt, your body is telling you something is wrong.

Pay attention to pain. A little pain will probably subside after a few minutes of sitting in any position. If it does not, then change positipon.

If you try at all cost to forget the pain, you won't be able to focus, and may hurt your joints beyond any possible repair. You are losing your time and damaging your body. And it is the only one you have to practice with.

UJI

I was just wondering...

Did Dogen really think when he wrote Shobogenzo, that 8 centuries down the road we would still try to understand what he was trying to say to some not so bright 13th century Japanese farmers ?

Come on, think about it !

When he wrote about the Moon being reflected in a dew drop, do you think he had any idea and could have had any understanding that one day men would FLY up there to take a walk and come back ?

How would you try to explain quantum mechanics and special relativity theory to him. It hardly makes sense to us in the 21st century. How could he understand them in the 13th ?

And you want us to understand UJI ???

How about going back to sit on our cushion ???

How can we change Humankind ?

Below is my own translation from French of an extract of “Zen and daily life” (Zen et vie quotidienne) by Master Taisen Deshimaru. I do not know that this book exists in English.

It provides an explanation of Karma, a concept I have been struggling with for quite a while... Karma as the flame that burns the wood. The wood burns and turns into ashes, but the Wood does not see the ashes, or knows nothing about them, and the ashes know nothing about the wood. What stays its the fire...

This is also an obvious reference to Genjokoan of Master Dogen.

One of the most simple explanation I heard of Yin and Yang is the analogy to a burning candle : the wax is Yin, the flame is Yang. Without wax, there can be no flame; without a flame, the wax is useless.

When the whole wax is burnt, the flame dies, but it might have set another candle in fire. Is this the same flame, or another flame ?

…

To believe in reincarnation and wish it, or not to believe in it and fear it, these are two erroneous attitudes. In Buddihsm, the 2 aspects are correlated. On one hand, the Buddha repelled all idea of transmigration, and on the other hand, certain texts affirm its reality. In fact, if we want to go beyond the world of transmigration, and beyond ethics, we need to understand the reason for this transmigration. During Zazen, we can understand the cause that provokes transmigration, reach the state of satori and realize this through our whole body and our spirit.

If one cuts all attachment, the substance of transmigration all of a sudden vanishes. And if there is no numen, there is nothing left to cut ! No more fear of death, no attachment to life, no attachment to the ego, no desire to keep on living: the subject is not attached to the ego anymore and the thought of transmigration is not necessary anymore. The burnt wood turns into ashes : it is a progressive transformation of the wood, while the fire keeps going. Karma is perpetuated through the prolongation of our thoughts, our words, our acts.

It is the flame of karma, while the ego is transformed like the wood is burnt. Wood turns into ashes, but wood cannot see the ashes, and the ashes neither can see the wood. There is no numen. By the practice of Zazen and Hishiryo consciousness, you can understand this difficult philosophy. But it is useless to try to get an intellectual understanding of it.