Practical Exercises for Zen Meditation

I am just back from a zazenkai retreat at the Atlanta Soto Zen Center.

Michael Elliston Roshi, abbot of the center and founder of the Silent Thunder (Mokurai) had invited me to teach at this event.

In my presentation of actual exercises to help the practice of Meditation I put emphasis on the 2 following aspects of Zazen:

• Focusing (Thinking of Non Thinking)
• Relaxing (to help focusing) 
  
  

I introduced to my audience a set of physical practices inspired from Traditional Oriental Martial Arts and Medicine. (Tai Chi, Chi Gong, Taoist exercises...) which I have been using  for several years in my own practice.

These exercises are designed to improve :

• Body awareness,
• Breathing,
• Balance,
• Physical Relaxation.

I addressed in particular :

1. How strength and mental energy follow Awareness and Mind. And how the Chinese concept of Chi explains this.
2. How to channel awareness and one's mind to parts or points of the body to tame one's monkey mind.
3. How to practice regular and reverse abdominal breathing to calm the mind.
4. How Tai Chi can actually remove muscular tensions and joint pains during long meditation sessions.

In the next weeks, I will get into the details of my presentation.  Stay in touch ! 

The Last Words of Huineng

As I was sharing with Elliston Roshi my sorrow at the passing of Shimabukuro Hanshi, he suggested I checked what Hui Neng had to say about his own passing, about 1200 years ago. I happened to be reading in Heinrich Dumoulin's “Zen Buddhism, a history – India and China.“ the part about Hui Neng, the 6th Patriarch of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, who was an extremely influential figure of the development of Buddhist Zen in China. 

As he knew his death was coming, Hui Neng addressed his disciples in this way :

" Good bye, all of you. I shall depart from you now. After I am gone, do not weep worldly tears, nor accept condolences, money, and silks from people, do not wear mourning garments, If you did so, it would not accord with the sacred Dharma, nor would you be true disciples of mine. Be the same as you would if I were here. And sit all together in meditation. If you are only peacefully calm and quiet, without motion, without stillness, without birth, without destruction, without coming, without going - this then is the great Way. After I have gone, just practice according to the Dharma in the same way that you did on the days that I was with you. Even though I were still to be in this world, if you went against the teachings, there would be no use in my having stayed here. "

The Cherry Blossom is to flowers, 

what the Samurai is to men.

ZAIKE TOKUDO - You are invited

This Saturday (February 18th) Mike Inmo Dretsch will be ordained in the Zaike Tokudo Ceremony at the Wiregrass Zen Center in Headland, Alabama. Taiun Michael Elliston Roshi of the Silent Thunder Order will be officiating. 

  

 

Zaike Tokudo, literally "remaining at home and attaining the Way", symbolizes and reinforces a life path devoted to practice. It is the penultimate ordination prior to ordination as a novice priest (the first initiate ceremony being Jukai). In essence, Mike will receive official status as a disciple of the Silent Thunder Order under the purview of Taiun Michael Elliston Roshi.

The day will start with a morning of sitting meditation (Zazen) and liturgy. We will break for tea and prepare for the ceremony which will start at 1pm. All of this will be held at the Mokurai Dojo - Wiregrass Soto Zen Center, 610 Mitchell Street, Headland, AL. 

For the last several years Mike has undergone mentorship (with Rev Bobby Kankin Byrd and Rev Harvey Daiho Hilbert out of Texas and New Mexico, and most recently with Taiun Michael Elliston Roshi from Atlanta Soto Zen Center/Silent Thunder Order), academic study (and sewing two rakasu's), and rigorous zazen/shikantanza from various cushions locally and at various locations (El Paso, TX; Las Cruces, NM; and Atlanta, GA).

Mike wants to share this ceremony with all of you, who he is very grateful for having crossed paths with, and without hesitation, consider his Sangha (community) and family.  Without the Sangha, there is no refuge in the Three Jewels. For it is the Sangha that brings about abundant good. Similar to what they tell you in football games... there is no "I" in Sangha :)

If you cannot attend the whole event, feel free to only attend the morning Zazen sessions, or the afternoon Ceremony. After the ceremony we will have a potluck vegetarian style luncheon.

Program of the day : 

0800 – 0830    Breakfast (Bagels, fruit, coffee, and tea)

0830 – 1000    Zazen+Kinhin (2 @ 40/10)

1000 – 1030    Sutra Service

1030 – 1130    Work Practice (prepare for zaike tokudo ceremony)

1130 - 1230    Zazen+Kinhin (2 @ 25/5)

0100 – 0200    Zaike Tokudo Ceremony

0200 -              Potluck