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
================
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
Beyond Prayer: Finding your spirit everywhere…Part 1
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged affirmations, anxiety, Bodhisattva, breath work, Buddha, Buddhism, challenges, chanting, compassion, contemplation, determination, emptiness, enlightenment, Kazuaki Tanahashi, Lectio Divina, liturgies, Maureen Hall, meditation, mindfulness, prayer, socially engaged Buddhist, Sutra, The 4 Vows, Zazen, Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary on August 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »
There are hundreds of ways a person can begin to open to the spirit within them. In every religion there are prayers, and songs, and dances, and poems, and liturgies that have been created to help their followers find the divinity within them. We have been practicing out loud by chanting and singing, and creating music with percussion, string, and wind instruments or silently, through contemplation, meditation, zazen, introspection, lectio divina, dance, and more. Others have used sweat lodges, art, mind altering drugs, and ancient rituals. But all have been designed to help the individual find that mystical, untouchable, elusive thing within them called life.
Two extraordinary women have recently gifted me two things—one was a book, Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary by Kazuaki Tanahashi, and the other a journal article from Innovation Educativa which she is a co-author of entitled “The power of deep reading and mindful literacy: An innovative approach in contemporary education (Hall, O’Hare, Santavicca & Jones, 2015).” I have been moving between these pieces of writing with joy each presenting me with some fantastic ways to bring my practice into alignment with my life.
Thus I have decided to use these as a jumping off place for creating another workbook for the prison ministry in Florida of which I am one of their volunteers. The prison outreach ministry is sponsored by the Southern Palm Zen Group (Southern Palm Zen Group).
My first thought was what good I could get from the use of these techniques in my life, what I could discover about myself, and how I might even find my “true-self.” And then I read the paragraph below from Kaz’s book and discovered that what I really wanted to do was “understand” what he describes below and thus the workbook was born.
My desire is to be a “socially engaged Buddhist.” My writing this workbook will help me discover new things about myself as I practice the techniques I am sharing, and hopefully, helping others do the same as they use the techniques in their own lives.
So let’s begin this adventure as Kaz did by reciting the four vows for a week as often as possible and wherever we can. Whether we’re sitting in meditation, contemplating the words, or writing them in our journal, whether we’re riding the train, or driving our cars, or making our beds–let’s chant. Chant aloud or silently as the environment allows. Let us not be separate from the words, the thoughts that follow, the sounds of the words, or the feelings and emotions that we feel as we chant. Let’s be one with everything. Let’s be accepting of what comes or does not come, no judgements or criticisms of ourselves, we’re simply chanting! The words are below as we chant them at the Southern Palm Zen Group. You are welcome to use them or use ones that you are familiar with.
In gassho,
Shokai
[1]Hall, M.P., O’Hare, A., Jones L.F., Santavicca, N. (2015) The power of deep reading and mindful literacy: An innovative approach in contemporary education. Innovacion Educative, ISSN: 1665-2673 vol. 15, numero 67
[2]Tanahashi, K. (2015) Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary. Shambhala Publications Inc.: Boston, MA
Read Full Post »