Anger is incredibly debilitating. We come into practice searching, wanting to take care of our questions and doubts. But we carry into our practice all the baggage that has prevented our life from unfolding harmoniously. The baggage is our entangled conglomeration of ideas and positions that have worked together to cause our suffering. It is the deep-seated conditioning that has stifled us and impinged on the lives of others.
We cover the inherent perfection that is originally there with our self-created notion of separateness. When somebody get ahead of us in the dokusan line or moves ahead of us in their practice, we feel that we lose ground, and we get angry. But if we understand that there is no distinction between the two of us, we immediately return to accord with reality, and there is no anger. Yasutani Roshi said that in getting angry we actually break all three dimensions of the precepts - the literal, the compassionate, and the one-mind.
- John Daido Loori in The Heart of Being
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A little late out the gate, but it I've been meaning to write something about Rohatsu.
Our Rohatsu Sesshin was a city based event, where you arrived every morning for the first block of zazen, stayed all day, then went home after the last. Aside from having to tackle the traffic and deal with your domestic and conjugal duties, one also had (well...) to master moving in and out of the great silence in order to obtain a quality cappuccino from the local cafe. This on top of the usual dokusan and leaders meetings and you quickly learn to either settle quickly or not at all.
I suppose having subjected myself to several retreats over the recent months paid off, because, for some reason, and perhaps the coffee did have something to do with it, I found myself in a joyous, open and playful space, a happy place that almost became a concern. I'm a young and relatively inexperienced practitioner, but I'm experienced enough to know that being cocky is one way to fall flat on your face.
I continued to sit with what was, respected the space I was rewarded with possibly the most enjoyable sesshin I've had the pleasure of participating in. My Jiki roll was more a delight than duty and I moved easily between the great emptiness and the empty forms that define it.
Now a great empty space, now the myriad forms of the Christmas period. "May we retain this mind and extend it throughout the world."
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It seems sort of strange that within practice some things are holy and some aren't. There's a saying about "when you're cold burn the Buddha." Yet when you go to the bathroom you hang your rakusu up with total respect. How do we decide what is the right attitude?
First of all, keep in mind what Master Dogen said about this: "Those who regard the mundane as a hindrance to practice only understand that in the mundane nothing is sacred; they have not yet understood that in sacredness nothing is mundane." Once you understand sacredness, you understand that it reaches everywhere. But, also keep in mind that teachers, in teaching, respond to specific situations; to particular time, place, and position. A monk asked Zhaozhou, "Does a dog have Buddha nature?" Zhaozhou said, "No." Another monk came and asked Zhaozhou the same question. Zhaozhou said, "Yes." Zhaozhou expressed the truth in both situations. The teacher who burned the wooden buddha statue and was warming his butt next to the fire was responding to people who had become attached to liturgy and iconography. They thought that the form was the reality. In this country, at this time, everybody is ready to burn buddhas. We need to learn to bow to the buddha. We need to learn to respect the inanimate. We need to see that the teachings are everywhere. It's a very different lesson. When we reach a point when liturgy and form are second nature to us, and we are tightly wrapped up in them, then we'll start burning buddhas, rakasus, and robes.
- John Daido Loori in Bringing the Sacred to Life
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When you consider mind as one of the organs of perception, the concept of reality expands beyond the boundaries usually accepted in the West. The object of mind is thought; mind, thought, and consciousness thus create a reality. The thought of hitting someone is just as much an action as physically hitting, or expressing the desire to hit, someone. And just as speech and action produce karma, so do our thoughts.
- John Daido Loori in Bringing the Sacred to Life
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Zen to be fully and authentically Zen, it has to be religious. Stripped of being religious, Zen loses its heart and soul. Zen is a way of salvation and liberation, not merely one of healing, relaxation, peace and quiet. Zen is marvelous and profound, but it is utterly demanding and challenging. Zen calls for a radical self-emptying, and it is also a radical challenge to religions - "Kill the Buddha if you meet him/her on the way!"
- Ama Samy in The Way of Zen
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