Anzan roshi

 

eMirror Vol. 11, No. 16

Friday, April 20th, 2007

Edited by Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho

 


Quotes from teisho are run sequentially in the eMirror

 

On hearing the phrase “dropping bodymind” or “falling through the bodymind” many people might assume that this means an inversion of attention in which bodily experience is turned off. But it means the opposite. Just as the “great ease” of realized-practice does not mean “take it easy” but rather continuously release all struggle by letting go of all holding on and “from the beginning all beings are Buddha” means “realize and actualize this now and in each moment”, some people have misunderstood Dogen to have meant the opposite of his intention. Dropping through the bodymind means realizing that there is no inside and outside of the bodymind. There is no one located inside the bodymind perceiving a world out there. The world and the bodymind arise seamlessly together as this moment of experiencing, this radiance of now.

            Dogen is pointing out to his students and to us a clear and open Way to embodying and actualizing the Way through the practice of realization in each moment. He had seen the futility of those who just think and talk about already being Buddhas. In the Tendai school there were many no doubt sincere monks who idled away their days in hongaku hummery but who had no idea how shallow their understanding was. And there were many other insincere monks in the Tendai and Shingon schools who wielded great power and wealth while fully gripped by grasping and the various poisons of conditioned attention and yet called themselves Buddhas.

            Even now there are people who confuse themselves with reading books about “already being Buddha” who just use it as a way to inflate their sense of themselves. Other people attend satsang with Advaita Vedanta gurus who talk about Tat Tvam Asi or “I Am That” and follow the direction to contemplate their sensation of self or “I am” as the transcendent reality. Of course they are simply noticing a sense of localization of attention and congealing it further. Then there are Zen and Tibetan Buddhist Teachers who justify acting as predators of their students as the display of their enlightened Crazy Wisdom.

            Self-image is not just a bad idea and you cannot think your way out of it. You cannot just talk your way out of what you are actually doing moment by moment. The process of self-image has compromised how the capacities of the bodymind function and it must be undone by loosening, opening, and releasing those capacities.

            Knowing when we drink water whether it is hot or cold is not enough. But it can be a place to start. How many people are available enough to drinking water or tea to taste each sip, to feel the flowing over the tongue and the vanishing down the throat? When drinking water, where does the sensation end as it is swallowed into the tubes and sacs? Is the glass still being felt with the fingers and thumb and palm? What of the back of the hand? What is felt there? And the other hand and wrist and forearm and elbow? Where are the feet during all of this? And the colours and forms and sounds of the whole moment of drinking that are all around the drinking?

 

-Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi, continuing teisho 3: “This is the Samadhi of Dharmata,” Sunday, December 5, 2004, in the series “Essentially Real, commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji’s Hossho: Dharmata”

 

Upcoming Events

 

Fusatsu and the Vow of Samantabhadra

Chanting of the Precepts will take place on May 2nd, 16th, and 30th. The Vow of Samantabhadra will be chanted on April 25th, May 9th and May 23rd.

 


Oryoki for General Students

On Saturday, April 21st, 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 Saturday, April 28th, 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. Dana is $40.00, which includes two meals: lunch and supper. Osho will present a Dharma Talk on “Choice”. 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 canceled due to the Dharma Assembly.

 

Hermitage

The Roshi will begin a period of hermitage on Wednesday, May 2nd, which will end at 10:00 a.m. On Sunday, May 6th when he leads monastics in Acalanatha Sadhana.

 

Introduction to Zen Workshop

Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho will present the next Introduction to Zen Workshop at Dainen-ji on Saturday, May 5th. 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.

 

Sogaku-ki O-sesshin

The May Sogaku-ki 7-day O-sesshin will begin on Friday, May 11th at 8:00 p.m. and will end on Friday, May 18th at noon. Roshi will continue the teisho series "Doing Not-Doing: Commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's Shoaku Makusa. Those attending are asked to send their schedules to schedule at wwzc dot org or enter them into the shared calendar as soon as possible.

          During the O-sesshin, there will be two sittings held in the Zendo on Saturday, May 12th that associate and general students may attend: the morning sitting will begin at 9:30 a.m. (please arrive by 9:15 for first bell) and will end at 11:30 a.m.; the afternoon sitting will begin at 3:00 p.m. (please arrive by 2:45 for first bell) and will end at 5:30. Students are reminded to remain on the first floor. The 6:00 a.m. Saturday sitting is canceled.

          Apart from these two sittings held on Saturday, there will be no other sittings during the week of O-sesshin that associate or general students may attend.

 

A Note to Preliminary and Public Students Concerning O-sesshin

During an O-sesshin the schedule is such that there is no time to meet face to face with preliminary students or to reply to email correspondence sent by public students. Public students are asked to send their weekly or bi-weekly practice journals, as these will be reviewed. But unless there is something that needs an immediate reply, you will not receive an email reply until the week following the O-sesshin.

 

Oryoki for General Students

On Saturday, May 19th, 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.

 

Samu Weekend

The next Samu Weekend is scheduled to take place on May 26th and 27th. Please pencil these dates into your calendar so that you will be able to attend some or all these two days of caretaking practice, and help with the maintenance and improvement of Dainen-ji.

 

Hermitage

The Roshi will begin a period of hermitage on Wednesday, May 30th, which will end at 10:00 a.m. On Sunday, June 3rd when he leads monastics in Acalanatha Sadhana.

 

Recorded Teisho Schedule

Saturday April 21st general sitting – This World of Ten Directions: “Depths and Heights” (teisho 1 of 10).

Sunday April 22nd formal sitting - SAkN: Root Cycle 4: Moving in Knowing: “Motion” (Teisho 1 of 5).

Monday, April 23rd general sitting – Without Difficulty: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin’s commentaries on “Xinxin Ming: Words on Trusting Awareness” by Jianzhi Sengcan: “Water Within Water” (teisho 17 of 25).

Tuesday, April 24th formal sitting – Mikkyo-zo: Monastic Jishu: “Offering” (Class 11 of 15).

Thursday, April 26th associate sitting – Four Dhyanas: “Introduction: The Practice of Simpletons” (teisho 1 of 4).

 

Congratulations

Congratulations and deep gassho to Robert Desarmia on being accepted as an associate student by the Roshi. Robert is a resident of Ottawa.

 

Retreats

Vicki Robichaud sat a one-day retreat in her home on Gabriola Island on April 12th. Ceri Behar sat a half-day retreat in his home in Istanbul on April 14th.

 

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 Jinmyo at trytel dot com 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 mentioning the date of their retreat and whether it is a partial, half-day or full retreat.  

 

Email Correspondence

Over the past three weeks Jinmyo osho's computer required upgrading and this required reinstalling all of the software she uses. During this time, she was not able to keep up with the flow of email or editing practice journal drafts written by practice advisors. Her computer is now working properly and we are catching up on the backlog of email correspondence. Our apologies for the inconvenience this has caused.

 

 

Spring Garden work

With the arrival of spring much work needs to be done in the grounds. If you are able to offer any time to assist with garden samu please contact Saigyo chiden at saigyo at telecomottawa dot net. Your help will be appreciated. Thank you.

 


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 prior to the evening sittings on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday:

 

Monday yakuseki:

Conchiglie pasta with petite pois in a garlic butter sauce; vichyssoise with buttermilk, asparagus and Chinese celery with falafel croutons; roasted whole cremini mushrooms with hot smoked paprika and extra virgin olive oil; sliced plum tomatoes and cubanelle peppers with oregano covered with haloomi cheese and roasted.

 

Tuesday Yakuseki

Lundberg Farm short grain brown rice; tomato bisque; polpotonne (Italian sausage meat and minced beef and lamb with onion, garlic, poblano and cubanelle peppers, fennel seeds, sliced black olive, eggs, bread crumbs, parmesan) with a panko crust; roasted whole white mushrooms with cumin.

 

Thursday Yakuseki

Tiny red potatoes and colossal Brussels sprouts dressed with a  leek yellow curry; and garnished with coriander; fennel roasted in coconut milk with dried chiles garnished with fennel fronds; eryingi, shitake, oyster, and cremini mushrooms roasted with Sichuan peppercorns;maka-astsuage tofu topped with korma curry paste; Lebanese cucumbers and plum tomatoes marinated with kkudugi and baechu kimchi.

 

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 jinmyo at trytel dot com. (Owing to the volume of mail I receive, please note that an email sent to me containing a thank you intended for the eMirror should specify that it is to be included. Otherwise I will likely assume that you are just sending me an email, will think, "Thank you very much," and that will be the end of it).

 

From Jinmyo osho, “Thank you to the Roshi and Chunen ino for the many hours they have spent researching fixes for Vista problems and implementation of Linux systems.”

From Mishin tando, “Thank you to the Roshi for reminding me again and again, in many ways, that this moment right now is the moment to exert complete effort in practice…and then to continue opening; to Chunen ino for installing extra memory on my computer; to Senbo shuso for inputting dana entries into the accounting file; to Nathan Comeau for helping to compile several years of PST rebates that WWZC has learned it is eligible for.”

From Nathan Krahn, “I would like to thank the Roshi for providing an effective practice environment, and I would like to thank all of the monastics and Dharma Teachers for the endless patience and compassion I experienced during my stay at the monastery.”


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.

 

Improvements to the Second Floor Washroom

A project that has been on the high priory list for a number of years is the renovation of the second floor washroom. Even though this is the most frequently used washroom in the building it has never had any substantial improvements apart from being painted last year. Work on this washroom, which was scheduled to be taking place late this year or early next year, will again need to be delayed due to the necessity of a urgent roof repair to the west side of the roof. This repair will cost in the region of $13,000 and as this is considerably higher than our available budget we have had to cut back on other important work. Because of this, we have decided to fundraise in order to gather sufficient money to make the improvements to the washroom. The work to be done will include a new sink and cabinet and a new ceiling light, fan and exhaust. This will cost in the region of $1000 to complete. Students are encouraged to donate towards this project so that it can be scheduled some time in the winter and the improved facilities will be available by 2007. Improvements to this room will benefit every student that comes to the monastery for sittings.

Thank you for your generosity to help with this project.

Gassho,

Saigyo chiden, shissui.

 

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. Several hundred dollars has been collected so far both in loose change and Canadian tire money which has been put towards the building maintenance fund. Most of the collected money was spent on materials for the new front path and we have also been able to purchase several new tools which will help greatly with ongoing renovations. If anyone would like to contribute to this fund, each penny will be appreciated.

 

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