Daily Dharma

Indeed, it is due to our grasping and rejecting
that we do not know the true nature of things.
Live neither in the entanglements of outer things,
nor in ideas or feelings of emptiness.
Be serene and at one with things
and erroneous views will disappear by themselves.

When you try to stop activity to attain quietude,
your very effort fills you with activity.
As long as you remain attached to one extreme or another
you will never know Oneness.
Those who do not live in the Single Way
cannot be free in either activity or quietude,
in assertion or denial.

[... from the HSIN-HSIN MING, Verses on the Faith-Mind by Seng-ts'an Third Zen Patriarch, pg. 6-7]

Ten Guides Along the Path

Last Sunday we had our Annual Membership Meeting at Still Point. After receiving a good report on the State of our Sangha, we received copies of the Still Point Zen Buddhist Temple Chants and Gathas. It includes our foundational Dharma:

• The Three Refuges
• The Four Great Vows
• The Meal Gatha
• The Sutra on Loving Kindness
• Homage of the Buddhas
• The Great Compassion Dharani
• The Maha Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra
• The Way of the Bodhisattva
• Meditation on the Six Paramitas
• Ten Guides Along the Path

After the meeting, the potluck. I sat in a circle with fellow Dharma brothers and sisters enjoying a hearty bowl of bean soup and (as usual) great conversation. A sister asked about the source of Ten Guides Along the Path.

I remembered reading it before and thought I knew the source. It reminded me of a quote I read in an article from the Still Point Newsletter (published by Dharma Rain Zen Center, not our Temple's newsletter) by Ven. Samu Sunim. He cited the source of his quote as the Essay on the King of Samadhi . I previously quoted this in a November 23, 2004 entry.

Although it sounds very similar to Ten Guides Along the Path, I realized after looking at the quote again that I was mistaken. Flipping through Thousand Peaks yesterday, I found the true source—Zen Master Kyong Ho. Through a Google search, I found this great tale which sheds light on who Kyong Ho was as a teacher.

In this tale, Master Kyong Ho is visiting a temple. He listens as the teacher of scriptures delivers a dharma talk on how to be a good monk. The teacher says things like:

• All of you must study hard, learn Buddhism, and so become as big trees, with which great temples are built, and as large bowls, able to hold many things.
• Always keep your minds set on holiness and remain in good company. In this way, you will become great trees and containers of Wisdom.

Here is what Kyong Ho says in response to Man Gong's teacher.:

All of you are monks. You are to be great teachers, freed from the ego; you must live only to serve all people. Desiring to become as a big tree or a great container of Wisdom prevents you from being a true teacher. Big trees have a big use; small trees have a small use. Good and bad bowls both have uses. Nothing is to be discarded. Keep both good and bad friends; this is your responsibility. You must not reject any element; this is Buddhism. My only wish is for you to free yourself from conceptions.

—Zen Master Kyong Ho

We live in a strange time with lots of teachers like Man Gong's teacher of scriptures. Friends tell us to cut "toxic people" out of our lives. In order to find peace, we are often instructed to separate ourselves, isolate ourselves, insulate ourselves against the "bad".

How many people have we discarded? Bad dates, bad mates, bad parents, friends who borrow money but never pay it back, people who can't help but stir up drama and chaos wherever they go, those people we work with. We clutch our purses tighter when we pass homeless people on the street. We judge criminals, addicts, and often people who are simply different than we are (democrats, republicans). We think this is a good thing. Is it? Really?

To be a bodhisattva, we must embrace all beings, everywhere. How do we make the shift from cutting people and things our of our lives like cancer to being people who embrace all beings? We take on the Way of the Bodhisattva no matter what. We take a different approach to those "toxic people". We say:

May all who say bad things about me
Or cause me any other harm,
And those who mock and insult me
Have the fortune to awaken fully!

And we mean it. We really mean it.

Korean Zen Resources

Today I finally added content to the Korean Zen page on this site. Additions include Korean Zen schools and temples in the West, language tools, books and other online resources.

If you know of Korean Zen resources online, let me know and I'll add them to this list.

Daily Dharma

Don't ponder. You don't need to figure everything out. Discursive thinking won't free you from the trap. In meditation, the mind is purified naturally by mindfulness, by wordless bare attention. Habitual deliberation is not necessary to eliminate those things that are keeping you in bondage. All that is necessary is a clear, nonconceptual perception of what they are and how they work. That alone is sufficient to dissolve them. Concepts and reasoning just get in the way. Don't think. See.

[...from the 4th Chapter of Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, pg. 41-42]

Zen Advice

After five nights in paradise, I have returned home to find that most of the snow has melted in metro Detroit (which makes me very, very happy). Although we can't touch the 70°-90° weather in southern Florida and the Caribbean, the fact that this part of the world is getting a little warmer is something to smile about.

While I was on the cruise, I reached out to whoever's reading for some good old fashioned Zen advice. To all of those who offered wisdom, a heartfelt thank you!

On the plane ride home today, I continued to read Mindfulness in Plain English. In Chapter 4 (Attitude), Gunaratana discusses attitudes that are essential to success in practice. He provides a list of eleven attitudes with commentary. The abbreviated list is as follows:

Essential Attitudes for Successful Practice

1. Don't expect anything
2. Don't strain
3. Don't rush
4. Don't cling to anything & don't reject anything
5. Let go
6. Accept everything that arises
7. Be gentle with yourself
8. Investigate yourself
9. View all problems as challenges
10. Don't ponder
11. Don't dwell upon contrasts

These attitudes (in my humble opinion) are equally applicable off the cushion. I will take this list with me into work on Monday along with all of the wonderful Zen advice offered here by my new online friends.

On "Getting Over It"

So I have a lot going on at work. For the past few weeks, I have felt myself wind up all this tension into a big ball in the middle of my chest. I wake up thinking about it. I go to sleep thinking about it. I dream about it.

I've been at sea since Monday on a Royal Caribbean cruise trying not to spend too much time online as it is costing me .50 cents/minute. (Yikes! I'm also disturbed by the fact that I'm forced to pay .50 cents a minute for Internet Explorer v. 3 or 4... Somebody help me...) Instead, I brought a journal with me (the Zen journal I pulled the last Daily Dharma entry from).

I've also been reading Mindfulness in Plain English. Reading that book and writing in this journal a couple of days ago I came to a distinction about everything that is happening at work. I asked myself... "When does one cross the line from observation to judgment?"

My distinction: "When you start making the observation mean something... When it is no longer neutral, but good (or more often bad)."

I let myself get in too deep. I have all of these judgements constructed about my supervisor.

"But they're all true..." says ego.

Deep down somewhere, I know that is not the point. I have watched myself think things like "I've had enough of her," and "I cannot fathom how someone who is so weak with people can think they can be strong in management." But what difference do these thoughts make? They certainly don't change anything in the outside world. They do, however, color my inside world. Now, all of a sudden, the same behavior that might've made me shrug a few months ago makes me frustrated, angry, impatient, disgusted, exasperated. What has changed?

Me. I have. I let ego take over and decide how to handle this situation. I stopped seeing the bigger picture.

That, in a nutshell, is what is so. I need to acknowledge it, get over it, and move out from there. Harboring these feelings... these judgements is getting in the way. I need to figure out how to address my issues without bringing this type of energy into the situation. Any ideas? Anyone?

Daily Dharma

To have right understanding means to view the world exactly as it presents itself to the eye. That means seeing without imposing any preconceived notions upon what you see. There's often the temptation to categorize things too quickly, and to miss what's actually there. Buddhism challenges its students to experience everything with a clear, objective mind-so they may view people and events as they actually are.

[...from Zen: A Personal Journal, pg. 3]

Buddhist Blogs Webring, v. 2.0

As of this morning, I was invited to participate in enough webrings to start one myself. The Buddhist Blogs webring is open and accepting new members. The introduction is posted as follows:

If you blog frequently about any aspect of Buddhism (dharma study, practice within a specific tradition, meditation, rituals, or your Buddhist take on current issues and affairs) join this webring so like-minded Bloggers can find and support your site. This webring is limited to blogs/personal journals only... no commercial sites.

To join, visit the home page and submit your site. I will receive your application, check to make sure you have the webring code on your site, and more than likely add you to the ring (I will automatically deny commercial sites and sites with "mature" content).

I'm preparing to leave for a five-night vacation in the morning, so if you sign up today it is likely that I can approve your site tonight. Otherwise, please be patient... I might not have Internet access again until next weekend (how will I ever survive).

Please send your suggestions if you have ideas on how to improve the webring. I'm borrowing the "Buddhist Blogs" image that I've found on several blogs... I don't know who created the image, so if you know please let me know.

Oceans Apart

Recent conversations with my brother remind me of a relationship I was in for a long time and just couldn't seem to end (even when it was obvious that I should). I wrote this poem about it maybe two years into the journey:

Oceans Apart

She could not love him
though she tried
meeting him like
sand to tide
for though he came
he did retreat
leaving her wet
and incomplete

© 2001

My brother has been dating someone for about two years. He talks about how unhappy he is at least once a month, and I thought he had ended things recently when he broke off their engagement and moved out. Now he's trying to fix the relationship... patch things up... settle.

When your self-esteem is low, when you feel that life has kicked you around, when you're not where you want to be... you are not in the right space to start looking for a lifetime mate. I learned this lesson the hard way. I hope he doesn't fall as hard as I did.

The Fab Five

I have been waiting for this since November! I ordered this book thinking it would arrive on time for my birthday, but no such luck. When I got to work today, I found a box from Amazon.com sitting on my desk. I knew it had arrived. Book Five.

Osamu Tezuka (often referred to as the godfather of Japanese manga comics) created an eight-volume work on the life of Buddha. While not completely accurate (Tezuka sprinkles some characters of his own creation into the story line) the journey of Buddha's life (beginning before his birth) unfolds as art.

These books are totally engrossing. I plan to lose myself in this one for hours when I'm on vacation next week. They are also a good way to introduce Buddha to children. While there is some nudity and mature language, the nudity is National Geographic not Playboy and in my opinion it is impossible to shield children from language (especially these days). So, I have allowed my daughter to read these books. She finds them equally engrossing and the story line provides me with the perfect context to talk about and teach about Buddhism.