Dear friends, The essay below was written by one of our Zen students “behind the fence.” He has been a long time student and friend of mine. I hope you will be enlightened by Jakuho’s writing, passion, and understanding of the teachings of Zen Buddhism. I hope, as well, that you will take his sage advice in the last paragraph it could change your life forever.
In gassho, Shokai
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I am reading from the book you sent me, titled, “What is Zen?.” My simple answer is that Zen is Zen Buddhism, an Asian religion now practiced all over the world. Broadly, there are three forms of Buddhism: Theravada, which emphasizes the earliest scriptures that seems be mostly about individual liberation; Mahayana Buddhism, which emphasizes compassion and social concern as much or more than individual liberation; and Vajrayana Buddhism (the Buddhism of Tibet), which adds detailed, esoteric, ritualistic practices.
Zazen is very much a physical practice: the body is never an insignificant detail, as if meditation were a matter of mind and spirit apart from body. Why do we walk so slowly during kinhin? So slow that I often feel I will lose my balance? The point is to pay close attention to body, breath, and mind when you are walking just as when you are sitting.
Can you tell when a person is “more spiritually developed”? Does it show? I guess I have just defined an enlightened person as someone with wisdom and a good heart. Wisdom in Zen means the capacity to see that “form is emptiness, emptiness is form,” as the Heart Sutra teaches. What would this “wisdom ad good heart” look like? Probably like the spiritual qualities that all our great traditions have always prized: humility, kindness love, patience, forgiveness, understanding.
The important thing about the teaching of rebirth, the part that seems true and that matters a great deal is that life continues. That is, there is more to our lives than the little span of time between birth and death. The teaching of rebirth tells us that our life and death are significant beyond their appearances, more significant than we know.
To most Zen students, at first the teachings might seem odd or nonsensical though also at the same time intriguing, because you sense that there is something to them, but after you have practiced and studied a while, they do make sense, and you can discuss and think about them reasonably. Our lives include many paradoxical and contradictory elements. Things are usually not just one way, they are many ways at once.
How will Zen practice affect my family relationship? My work relationships? The effectiveness of your practice will show up at home. I believe and have seen much corroborating evidence, that Zen practice makes you a better husband or wife, father, or mother. It makes you more attuned emotionally, kinder, more patient, more caring and loving, more able to be present, even when the going gets tough, even when you have an impulse not to be.
Why does Zen have such a close connection to various art forms, like haiku and flower arranging, for example? As Zen developed in China, it co-evolved with Taoism and the Chinese arts, most notably calligraphy, painting, and poetry. Zen priests always wrote poetry and did calligraphy. Some experts claim that in the West, art depicts the external, while in Asia, art evokes the inner sense of things, their spirit or soul.
Doshin, I am finishing this book. There is much work to do about the tremendous suffering in this world: poverty, social injustice, war, environmental destruction. Isn’t it selfish to spend a lot of time just sitting and staring at the wall without helping anybody else? Thank you for sending me this book and for your compassion, kindness, and love.
In gassho, Jakuho
After watching the news this morning and seeing all the “un-peace” going on in the world I decided to add another chapter to my blog on peace. As I looked around my office, I could see my two little doggies sound asleep in their beds with visions of supper soon to appear. Suddenly Bubbles the barker heard the sound of the cat in the other room using the kitty liter and up she jumped barking and trying to run to where she heard the noise. My peace and hers had been interrupted with the simple sound of a cat in the other room. Has some simple thing, or words, or newscast interrupted your peace today? Mine has and I’m writing a series on peace! Yikes…
I am one of the luckiest people on the earth. My neighbor is Benjamin B. Ferencz the last living prosecutor from the Nuremberg war crimes trials and I have a copy of a book that he co-authored with Ken Keys, Jr. the author of The Hundredth Monkey entitled PlanetHood The Key to Your Survival and Prosperity written in 1988.
and can open your mind to great ideas and solutions for a situation that you are dealing with.
There are many variations of the prayers that the Buddhist communities use before they eat to bless their food. This is the one we use at the Southern Palm Zen Group. I like it a lot as it is simple and to the point.
