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Zenga of Bodhidharma with kanji "Tokan" (Just Seeing) by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi
eMirror Vol. 12, No. 36 Friday, September 5th, 2008 Edited by Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho
Quotes from teisho are run sequentially in the eMirror
When we recognize something of this exertion, of this activity, that is too vast to be a matter of self and other, then we have an opportunity to go past the strategies through which we try to push and pull ourselves through our lives. We can turn and face this activity, this Life that lives as us, first of all by allowing ourselves to completely be where we are, when we are. Our Great Ancestor Bodhidharma showed his successor Huike how to do this by turning to face the wall in zazen. Other Awakened Ancestors such as Dongshan pointed to it as that which you are but is not just you, pointed to it as a ball of mud, as a tile, a post, as the ungraspability of anything as anything other than the activity of space. Dogen zenji pointed to it also as each and every moment, leaping into and out of itself, and manifest everywhere throughout the day and night. He used the already ancient Zen shingi or monastic standards of stainless deportment as a means for Teachers and students to align themselves with each other to actualize the Way. He presented zazen, chanting, standing, bowing, taking our seats, rising from our seats, bathing, cleaning our bowls, the daily round of our activities as gyoji-dokan, turning the wheel of continuous practice.
Upcoming Events
Fusatsu and the Vow of Samantabhadra Chanting of the Precepts will take place on September 17th. The Vow of Samantabhadra will be chanted on September 10th and 24th.
Hermitage On Wednesday, September 3rd, the Roshi began a period of hermitage which will end at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, September 7th, when he leads monastics in Acalanatha Sadhana.
Saturday Dharma Talks During the 9:30 a.m. general sitting on Saturday, September 6th, Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho will present a Dharma Talk entitled “Practising Clarity”. These Dharma Talks are part of an ongoing series “Every Breath You Take” from the “The Practice of Purity, Verses from the Flower Garland Discourse”, drawn from the Avatamsaka Sutra translated by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi and Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho.
Introduction to Zen Workshop Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho will present the next Introduction to Zen Workshop at Dainen-ji on Saturday, September 6th. For more information please see: http://www.wwzc.org/programs/Introduction_To_Zen_Workshop_Ottawa.htm For information concerning our Long-distance Training Program, please visit this Web Page: http://www.wwzc.org/programs/longDistance.htm.
September Two-day Sesshin The September two-day sesshin will begin at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, September 12th and will end at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 14th. On Saturday, September 13th, associate and general students may attend a sitting held in the Zendo. Arrival time is 9:15 a.m. (in time for First Bell). The sitting ends at 11:30 a.m. Students attending are reminded to remain on the first floor.
Oryoki for General Students On Saturday, September 20th, general students who attend the 6:00 a.m. formal sitting may participate in oryoki practice led by Jinmyo osho. Associate or visiting public students who are in retreat at the monastery on that day may also participate in oryoki. Dana is $10.00. You do not need previous experience of oryoki to attend. For more information or to register please send an email to schedule at wwzc dot org.
Dharma Assembly On September 27th, Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho will lead a Dharma Assembly which will begin at 9:30 a.m. (please arrive by 9:15, in time for first Bell) and will end at 9:10 p.m. Osho will present a Dharma Talk entitled "Splat". Dana is $40.00, which includes two meals: lunch and supper. Participants are asked to bring clothing and shoes appropriate for samu practice. To register, please send an email to schedule at wwzc dot org or leave a message on the office answering machine at 562-1568. Dharma Assemblies are open to all students. The general sitting that would ordinarily take place from 9:30 to 11:40 on Saturday morning will be cancelled due to the Dharma Assembly.
Recorded Teisho Schedule Saturday, September 6th general sitting - "The Dragon in His Waters, The Tiger in Her Mountains, Part Two of Three: Ven. Jinmyo osho's Commentaries on Dogen zenji's "Fukanzazengi" (Dharma Talk 2 of 3).
Sunday, September 7th formal sitting - SAkN: Five Spheres of SAkN: "Practicing Nothing" (teisho 4 of 7).
Monday, September 8th general sitting - Rhythm and Song: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's Commentaries on Donshan's "Hokyo Zanmai": "Shimmer" (teisho 17 of 22).
Tuesday, September 9th formal sitting - Being Between-Being: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's Teachings on practicing throughout the process of death: "The Corpses, the Komyo Shingon, and the Crescent Moon" (teisho 6 of 6).
Thursday, September 11th associate sitting - Before Thinking: Foundations of Zen Practice: "Using It Without Knowing It".
Saturday, September 13th associate sitting - Before Thinking: Foundations of Zen Practice: "Space-Making, Having".
Retreats and Training Sessions Mark Hugo completed a one-week training session for the week of August 35th to 31st in his home in Milton, Ontario. Gillian Higenbottam sat a partial retreat on Saturday. Michael Landay sat a three-day retreat on Satuday, Sunday and Monday. Nathan Comeau sat a two-day retreat on Saturday and Sunday. Roger Clark sat a retreat on Wednesday. Caroline Kadziora is sitting a one-day retreat today (Friday).
To Schedule a Retreat Please email schedule at wwzc dot org to schedule a retreat, even if you have made verbal arrangements with a practice advisor or a Dharma Teacher. Emails sent to that address are routed to all members of the Practice Council who will need this information for the purposes of meal planning, preparing tapes for your retreat and planning samu assignments. Retreats are defined in the following way: Half-day Retreat (you would need to arrive 15 minutes before the actual starting time) Begin at 6:00 a.m., end at noon. Or begin at 9:30 a.m., end at 6:00. Or begin at 3:00 p.m., end at 9:10. Partial Retreat (You would need to arrive 15 minutes before the actual starting time) Begin at 6:00 a.m., end at 6:00 p.m. Or begin at 9:30 a.m., end at 9:10 p.m. Full retreat (you would need to arrive by 5:45) Begin at 6:00 a.m., end at 9:10 p.m. Please remember to bring a change of clothes suitable for samu (caretaking practice). If staying overnight, please remember to bring a sleeping bag, a towel and other such necessities. If you have been diagnosed by a medical doctor as having allergies to specific foods, please contact the tenzo, Jinmyo osho at rengezo at vianet dot ca, a week in advance of your retreat to inform her of dietary restrictions as this affects food purchases and meal planning. The suggested dana for retreats is $40 a day, which covers the basic cost of food and other materials. Donations above this figure are very welcome and all donations are tax deductible. There is also a retreat schedule for public students posted on our Website at: http://www.wwzc.org/Resources/Public.student.retreat.schedule.htm Public Students’ Retreats For retreats to be mentioned in the eMirror, public students are asked to send an email to schedule at wwzc dot org after they sit a retreat mentioning the date of their retreat and whether it is a partial, half-day or full retreat. Please also include the name of the city in which you live. Training Sessions For Students Living in Ottawa: There are a number of options available to associate and general students who wish to practice more intensively, such as sitting a full or partial retreat for one or several days, or extending their practice at home to include two or three rounds. In addition, associate or general students may register for a "training session". This requires making a commitment to a one-week, month-long, or three month period during which they would attend all of the formal sittings at the monastery, morning and evening with the exception of Tuesday evening and Sunday morning (which are reserved for formal students and monastics) while continuing to live at home. The training sessions are intended to allow students to experience what it is like to participate in the monastery’s full schedule. Formal sittings are led by Roshi and include chanting practice and more extensive use of the forms. Students engaging in a training session would also have more opportunities to meet with Dharma Teachers or practice advisors to discuss their practice. At the end of a training session, students would return to their normal schedule. There would be no extra dana involved in practising a training session. With the Undo serving as a dormitory space students can register for periods of residential training at Dainen-ji for anywhere from overnight to several weeks. This involves attending the practice schedule, evening meals, participation in regular soji (cleaning the practice halls) and samu (care-taking). During the days one would go to one’s job or could do extra sitting and study outside of a retreat schedule. The dana for this is $40 a day; work scholarships can also be arranged. To register for a training session or residential training, please send an email to schedule at wwzc dot org or telephone the Zen Centre office at (613) 562-1568 and leave a message. When scheduling a training session, please remember not to include dates that fall within a sesshin or an O-sesshin. For Public Students: This requires making a commitment to a one-week, month-long, or three-month period during which public students sit zazen according to the following schedule: Monday morning: 6:00 a.m. to 7:25 a.m.; Monday evening: 7:30 to 9:10 p.m. Tuesday morning: 6:00 a.m. to 7:25 a.m. Wednesday morning: 6:00 a.m. to 7:25 a.m. Thursday morning: 6:00 a.m. to 7:25 a.m.; Tuesday evening: 7:30 to 9:10 p.m. Friday morning 6:00 a.m. to 7:25 a.m. (Friday is Hossan and there are no scheduled sittings at the monastery, but students are expected to sit at home). Saturday morning: 6:00 a.m. to 7:25 a.m. Sunday morning: 6:00 a.m. to 7:25 a.m. Public students who wish to do a Training Session should send an email to schedule at wwzc dot org to state their intention and specify the duration and schedule of their Training Session. After completing the Training Session, please send an email to Jinmyo osho at rengezo at gmail dot com to confirm that you have fulfilled your commitment and notice of it will be included in the eMirror.
Caretaking Council Funding Each year the Caretaking Council is allocated funds for necessary maintenance and improvements to the monastery and its grounds. Given that the entire income of White Wind Zen Community each year is comparable to the income of one moderately well-paid individual, funding for shissui (caretaking) projects is always well below what is needed. In the past, the monastic Sangha has contributed over 50% of the community's total annual income, have invariably covered the extra costs involved and have also undertaken the majority of the physical work required. Students attending Samu Weekends and a few students who donate time outside of the practice schedule have also helped greatly with this. However, maintenance for this 10,000sq/foot, 135 year-old heritage building is extremely costly and time consuming and work that should be done is not being done through lack of funds. This year is no exception. By August the allotted funds for building maintenance had been depleted by the cost of materials to rebuild the poorly built back porch roof and other urgent work. This meant that we had no more funds for projects in 2008. Two weeks before the August Samu weekend, we had no funds with which to buy materials that would be needed during that work period, until Monastics took it upon themselves to make private contributions to fund the purchase of plywood and insulation so that work in the attic could continue to reduce huge heating bills during the winter months. In addition, there are other projects that should be given attention for which there is no funding. For example, there is water seeping into the basement along the wall on which an electrical panel is mounted which must be taken care of; the flaking paint on several areas of the external brick and stonework must be attended to because not only is it unsightly, but exposure to the elements will lead to further damage; the front porch and side porch roofs need to be re-tiled. In the case of the front porch, not being able to re-tile the roof this year means another few months of water continuing to run into the pillars, slowly rotting them and potentially causing work that will require many thousands of dollars of work in the future. The dana rates (suggested contributions students make) are deliberately kept as low as possible so that everyone can practice and we do not want to raise them unless it is absolutely necessary. But with six monastics contributing over 50 percent of the community's income, help is needed from the rest of the Sangha if we are to afford adequate maintenance for the building. So we ask that students help where they can by participating in samu and/or by making financial contributions towards maintenance projects. Here is a list of some of the smaller expenses required for important projects in the coming months. If you are able to donate in part or whole towards one of these expenses, this would be very much appreciated. If you would like to make a larger donation toward a major improvement to the practice environment please write to us or speak with a monastic in order to discuss this in more detail with the Caretaking Council.
Plastic film and removable caulk for covering and insulating the ground floor windows in the late autumn: $70 New cabinet and counter top for the sink outside the Hatto: $500 New faucet for the Hatto sink: $200 New tap and plumbing to replace the leaking workshop tap: $75 Exterior paint for repairing flaking brick work: $250 Cost to re-tile the front and side porches: $5000
If you would like to make a larger donation toward a major improvement to the practice environment please write to us or speak with a monastic in order to discuss this in more detail with the Caretaking Council. Tax receipts are issued for donations made to the monastery. If you would like to make a donation, you can leave a cheque in the dana box in the office, or you can mail a donation to the monastery, but please write "For building maintenance" in the memo line of the cheque or mark that on the outside of a dana envelope.
Office of the Tenzo Dogen zenji taught that the work of preparing and serving meals was "a matter for realized monks who have the mind of the Way or by senior disciples who have roused the Way-seeking mind." In alignment with this, part of Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's samu for the Community involves personally overseeing the activities of the ancient office of tenzo. Jinmyo Renge osho serves as tenzo and Mishin tando and Saigyo chiden offer assistance as tenzo-anja. The following is a list of meals Served on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, prior to the evening sittings:
Monday Yakuseki Salad of yellow udon noodles and tofu noodles with sesame oil, shoyu, Sichuan dan dan sauce; leeks and slices of large shitake mushrooms in a shoyu broth with Chinese black rice wine and mirin with slivered ginger; stir-fried Shanghai bok choy sum and yu choi (Chinese broccoli); slad of sliced Kirby cucumbers with kkukdugi kimchi (cubed daikon) and lime juice. Tuesday Yakuseki Potato salad (Yukon Gold potatoes with hard cooked eggs, cubed local bacon, browned garlic, bacon fat and extra virgin olive oil, Dijon mustard, whipping cream, lime juice, capers); meat loaf (minced beef, red and sweet onions, cubanelle and red bell peppers, minced garlic, chipotle and adobo, shoyu, Worcestershire sauce, eggs, panko bread crumbs, topped with sweet chile sauce and more panko); roasted field and plum tomato slices with basil; roasted Brussels sprouts. Thursday Yakuseki Lundberg Farms short-grain brown rice mixed with baby green peas; blackened butternut squash rings cooked with chili oil; roasted whole cauliflower stuffed with minced white onion and garlic, covered with sheets of Fruilano cheese, browned under the salamander. mushroom soup (cremini, porcini, shitake mushrooms) with deep-fried tofu, seasoned with rosemary and thyme.
Students attending sittings on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings may make arrangements to join residents for meals prepared by the Office of the Tenzo. Please email schedule at wwzc dot org at least one day in advance; Contribution is $10.
Thank You If you would like to thank someone for a contribution they have made, please feel free to send an email to Jinmyo osho at rengezo at vianet dot ca, but be sure to type "eMirror" in the subject line.
From Jinmyo osho: Thank you to Shikai osho for an industrial-size spool of black thread; to Saigyo chiden and Graham Mayeda for installing a door on the second floor and to Gillian Higenbottam for the hours she spent scraping and painting it to make it useable; to the Chiden and Zenrin for helping me to knock down a wall in the second-floor Osho-ryo. From Chunen ino: Thank you to the Roshi on the series of teisho "Oceans of Realms"; to Shikai osho for emphasizing the importance of finishing things; to Jinmyo osho for wonderful meals and for overseeing the scheduling of activities at Dainen-ji; to Mishin tando for financial budgeting activities; to Saigyo chiden, Muryo and Nathan for significant construction and wiring to prepare a room in the basement to house Dainen-ji's Computer and Network Infrastructure; to Zenrin on how to analyze and debug computer systems; to Carl Anderson for transport of WWZC Archives CDs to a secure offsite location.
From Mishin tando: Thank you to the Roshi and Jinmyo osho for a delicious meat loaf prepared for the Tuesday evening meal; to Chiso anagarika for a donation towards general monastery expenses and building needs; to Nathan Comeau for archiving samu. From Tettsu (Harrow Zazenkai): Thank you to Jinmyo osho for guiding me with great thoroughness and rigour through the Maitri Bhavana practice recently and for some very valuable instruction in basic mindfulness; to everyone involved in the process of regularly sending CD teisho and Dharma Talks - the latest parcel just received and beautifully packed.
Ongoing Samu Request for Assistance, Office of the Treasurer As part of clarifying and streamlining the financial processes of White Wind Zen Community, we would like to have pairs of students rotate to help process dana contributions on a weekly basis. To date, most of this work has been done by Mishin tando with the assistance of one or two other students, but it is time to restructure the system so that the work of the Office of the Treasurer becomes more manageable and more students are helping with this responsibility. If you would be available on Saturdays prior to the General Sitting for about a hour (from 8:15-9:15 a.m.), your help will be appreciated. Please email Mishin at trytel dot com. Training will be provided. No special financial skills are needed other than an eye for detail and accuracy. Archiving Samu Since 2002 the teisho presented by the Roshi and the Dharma Talks given by the Dharma Teachers have been recorded directly onto CD and copies made available to students. Prior to this time all of the recordings were made on cassette tape. Over the last years the monastics, with the help of several students, have worked to transfer the taped material onto CD, not only because cassette tape technology is fast becoming outdated but because the early tape recordings are deteriorating quickly and may soon become unplayable. To lose these teaching would be disastrous. We are presently making direct CD copies of all of the early tapes so that there is a back-up copy available should anything happen to the master tape which makes it unplayable but there is much work to be done. There are still over 100 tapes from the 1980’s and 1990’s that need to be re-mastered, relabeled and copied and this constitutes many hundreds of hours of work. If you are able to commit to a regular weekly schedule of two or three hours samu to continue this vital work, please let us know by writing to tapes at wwzc dot org. Full training will be given. Daily Samu Samu each day to prepare the monastery for the arrival of the students is a very important practice for the monastics. Any help to assist the monks with brightening and clarifying the practice environment is very much appreciated. If you are able to come early before a sitting to do samu, please consult the samu notice board situated between the side entrance doors to find a task which has not been done recently. If you have any questions about the task please ask any monastic.
CDs Available to the Public A selection of CDs of teisho and Dharma Talks is available on our web-site. The page is found at http://wwzc.org/CDWebSales/CDWebSales.htm or follow the link for Dharma Texts and CDs on the home page. Over time more teisho and Dharma Talks from the over 2500 presentations made by the Roshi, Shikai osho and Jinmyo osho will be made available for purchase.
Ongoing Project: "All is Change" Dainen-ji, being a 135-year-old building, is continuously in need of maintenance and the costs associated with this can be astronomical when such things as roof repairs or painting are needed. This is something that we cannot afford to do, yet must do and so the "All is Change" project has been created. The "All is Change" project is very simple. Most of us have a bowl or a jar or some other kind of container that we keep somewhere at home and fill up with loose change because it's too heavy to carry around. Many hundreds of dollars has been collected so far both in loose change and Canadian tire money which has been put towards the building maintenance fund. If anyone would like to contribute to this fund, each penny will be appreciated.
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