Pema Chödrön

Beautiful... Bows to this dynamite lady of the dharma.

- Rin

Zen Poetry with Sungsan

All - 

I really liked this interview from the Zen Mirror blog with Sungsan titled 'Zen and Poetry: a Brief Conversation.'

Enjoy!

- Do'on

Dosho Port's Talk in Ann Arbor

This is part 2 of 5, I loved them all...

Bows,

- Rinsen

Winter Morning Canton

     birdsong

a

 tear flows

down

the 

curve 

of my

cheek

this

 our bow

Japanese Tea Ceremony

Bowling Green State University's Japanese Club is sponsoring a Japanese Tea Ceremony, to be presented by Professor Akiko Kawano Jones on Friday, February 27 at 7:00 pm. The ceremony will take place in the Hiroko Nakamoto Japanese Tea Room, which is located inside the Bryan Gallery in BGSU's Fine Arts Building. A map of campus can be found here; the Fine Arts Center is Building 31 and parking is available very close by in Lot 14/Lot N.

Oh How I Have Loved You

Trusting What Can't Be Taken

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on July 16, 2008.

"Mostly, our mind remains fixed in what's called a dualistic state...which means being trapped, unawaredly in a way of perceiving the universe such that everything is shattered, separate and distinct... In the practice of Zen, there is uncovered another way of perceiving, a way that's not bound by the traps of this and that, or the distinctions of high and low... You have to be willing to drop your images of what God is to be able to really see God's face. As long as you have an image in your mind, your mental construction of what you think that's supposed to be, there's a block. There's a stage at which having an image can be a useful thing. There's a stage at which it becomes a problem and needs to be transcended."

This Drinking Gourd Podcast is available via iTunes or at www.thedrinkinggourd.org For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org. The Toledo Zen Center is a member of the Hermitage Heart Sangha, online at hermitageheart.org.

Ceaseless Prayer

Radiant Brokenness

in the zendo
upright practitioners

cannot see
ego bones
topple
and
crack


dark to the mind
this birth
this truth
this beauty


Gassho,
Do'on

When all Buddhas are Buddhadharma

Blessings,

Do'on

Winter

"When it is cold,

cold finishes

the monk."

           - Dogen

Farm in the Heartland

on an ancient lake bed

hard brown

with winter 

shaggy horses

lie in morning sun

children giggle

stomp around

slam doors

Catch Me If You Can

water flows

generously

over

these 

dishes

and aging hands

the troubled world

too

is here

Resting

Bows,

Do'on

Out of the Dharma Treasury

For you
I put on this dress of winter rain
set a grey cloud on my head
perfumed my body with rising mist

No need to check it in the mirror

Bows,
Do'on

Zen Practice and the Life Cycle of Religious Tradition

Visited by a local University World Religions class, Rinsen
contextualizes Zen practice and awakening within religious Tradition.

"Most religious traditions are founded with the experience or
essential insight of an individual or group of individuals who have
some unique way of perceiving themselves and the world that fits the
society that they find themselves in, in a way that hadn't happened
before."

This Drinking Gourd Podcast is available at www.thedrinkinggourd.org or via iTunes

For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org. The Toledo Zen Center is a member of the Hermitage Heart Sangha, online at hermitageheart.org.

At ZMM

During sesshin 

the girls bunked

 in the cabin

heads to pillows

egg shaped mouths

sucking on

blue velvet night

sure you could say it was snoring

but for me

awake

it was God's kittens

come to unravel the

tightly

bound

Ear

of this heavenly dragon

Bows,

Do'on

Oh Bodhisattvas

Thus I have heard

from the  gentle graze

of a horse's tail.

  

The thaw

of late winter winds

flows in and around

the skin bag

do not brace against it

Love is Breathing

simply stand

Trust

the formless field of benefaction

that you are

Bows,

Do'on

Sheng Yen Items from Susan

Sangha -

A few things to follow up on the conversation from last weeks practice together:

1. I recommend Master Sheng Yen's book, Song of Mind: Wisdom from the Zen Classic Xin Ming, Shambhala, 2004. Xin Ming, the root text, is by Niutou Farong (594-637), who was a disciple of the fourth patriarch of Ch'an, Dayi Daoxim (580-651). Other translations of this root text on the internet are highly unreliable in my view, so I recommend reading Shifu's translation first and last. The book is in the form of a Ch'an retreat for laypeople, and takes the form of responding to and discussing the asked and unasked questions of the retreatant. It is a very enjoyable, and profound, book.

2. Master Sheng Yen's students maintain the Dharma Drum website, where one can find a link to streaming video and audio of the Buddha rememberance practice (Ni'en fo or Buddha name "Amitabha" recitation), where a continous perambulation and recitation of the Buddha name can be watched or joined in. This is done at the death of Ch'an masters as well as widely among Chinese buddhist families wherever they may live. This practice will continue 9 am--9am daily until February 14, when the cremation ceremony is performed. We have little time in our short human life to practice well, may we do our best at all times.

Bows,

Susan Purviance

Zen Forum International

I was browsing the web this morning and found a new Zen internet forum that I thought people might be interested in checking out - it's the Zen Forum International. It looks like the forum is new and doesn't have much posted yet. But I did notice that there is a link to a website on the teachings of Huang Po, who is the subject of Rinsen's next workshop on the ancestors, here.
Gassho,
Simon.

"Meticulous Kindness," Part 4 of 4

Dedicated to the late Chan Master Sheng Yen. There are some photos of the TZC retreat and poem at the end of this, the last one of the series...

Master Sheng Yen's Death Poem:

"Busy with nothing, growing old.
Within emptiness, weeping, laughing.
Intrinsically, there is no I.
Life and Death, thus cast aside."

Superdeformed Sutras

My husband pointed me toward this insanely cute Japanese website, wherein an animated Zen practitioner guides you through reading the Heart Sutra in phonetic Japanese.

If you know your kana well enough, you can follow along with the chanting. If you're not so well-versed (like myself), you can enjoy listening for the words "paramita" and "gate gate paragate."

Tricycle's "The Big Sit"

I thought sangha members might be interested to hear that Tricycle magazine is starting a "Big Sit" - a 90-day "Zen Meditation Challenge." The webpage for the happening is here.
Simon.

Master Sheng Yen

Ven. Master Sheng Yen, founder of the Dharma Drum Mountain Monastery in northern Taiwan, died Tuesday at the age of 78.



Endless Deep Bows...

Encountering the Ancestors: Haung Po

"All Buddhas and all Sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, besides which, nothing exists. This mind, which is without beginning is unborn and indestructable." - Huang Po

On Sunday, Feb 22nd we will hold a special afternoon workshop from 1:30-4:30pm on the zen teachings of Huang Po. Everyone is welcome to join in! There will also be a morning zazenkai from 9-noon for those who wish to sit in preparation for the afternoons study.

On this winter morning

three shaggy horses
lie in the sun

resplendent jewels
embroidered
onto a mantel
of silver white brocade

all are covered

this world freely
rests
in our hearts


2.

The Great Ocean of Perfection

outside
the window
on a
winter afternoon
drip drip drip

Gassho
Do'on