Image by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi

 

eMirror Vol. 11, No. 31

Friday, August 3rd, 2007

Edited by Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho

 


Quotes from teisho are run sequentially in the eMirror

 

Dogen says that if one doubts this then -- as Zen practitioners who have had some deep experience as his monastics no doubt had -- then just put aside that this is “your” own doubt and just look at it as a statement. If you can do this then the nonsense of it might become clear to you just through doing that. But that is only so if you are actually practising mindfulness and open attention at the time. As students ask questions in practice interviews, daisan, and dokusan their unstated assumptions and misunderstandings and presumptions can be drawn out and recognized for what they are by practice advisors and Teachers. Often there is a shock of recognition and laughter at the obvious absurdity of self-image and its patterns. However, often people will settle right back into their own absurdity and continue as if that recognition had never occurred. So I think that Dogen’s statement that “question it three or four times and you’ll probably find your way through it” is a bit optimistic.

            But he is right that truly clarifying doubt is not a matter of trying of get rid of it but instead of recognizing the nature of a thought as it actually is through actually practising. Self-image’s thoughts are all an expression of a doubt towards reality, a fundamental wordless refusal, and are constructed through a constriction of attention. All around this feeling of locatedness, this sense of a self, everything is already open as it is. The feeling of a self demonstrates that it is not a self because it is felt, it is known, by something larger than it, by the knowing that it claims to be doing. But the nature of even this delusion of a self is dharmata.

 

-Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi, continuing teisho 6: “Coming Thus As Us” in the series “Essentially Real, commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji’s Hossho: Dharmata”. Presented on Saturday, January 22, 2005.

 

Upcoming Events

 

Fusatsu and the Vow of Samantabhadra

Chanting of the Precepts will take place on August 15th and August  29th. The Vow of Samantabhadra will be chanted on August 8th and 22nd.

 

Hermitage

The Roshi will begin a period of hermitage on Wednesday, August 1st, which will end on Sunday, August 12th, 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, August 4th. 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.  

 

August Two-day Sesshin

The August two-day sesshin will begin at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, August 10th and will end at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 12th. On Saturday, August 111th, 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, August 18th, 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 third samu weekend of 2007 will be taking place on August 25th and 26th. Although the schedule of work for the two days has not yet been finalized we hope to be working on the following projects: the insulation of large portion of the attic floor needs to be completed before winter, the small chimney at the rear of the building (the one not rebuilt) requires scraping and repainting, the front steps require a coat of paint and more work can be done to further improve the grounds. Please pencil these dates into your schedule so that you can attend some or all of the samu weekend and so help to maintain and improve the environment of practice.

 

Hermitage

The Roshi will begin a period of hermitage on August 29th which will end on Sunday, September 2nd, when he leads monastics in Acalanatha Sadhana.

 

Recorded Teisho Schedule

Saturday, August 4th general sitting – This World of Ten Directions: “Receiving It and Offering It” (teisho 8 of 10).

Sunday, August 5th - SAkN: The Anatomy of Awakening: “Living the Body” (teisho 2 of 7).

Monday, August 6th general sitting – Wild Time: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin’s commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji’s Uji: Being Time: Reading of Uji.

Tuesday, August 7th formal sitting – Mikkyo-zo: Monastic Jishu: “Chu-u” (Class 4 of 15).

Thursday, August 9th associate sitting – The Wheel of Becoming: “That Which Speaks” (teisho 2 of 4).

Saturday, August 11th associate sitting – The Wheel of Becoming: “The Six Realms” (teisho 3 of 4).

 


Congratulations

Congratulations and deep gassho to Denise Beaudot on being accepted as an associate student by the Roshi. Denise is a resident of Chelsea, Quebec.

 

Retreats

Bruce Libman 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 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 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.

 

 

Summer Garden Work

During the summer months there is always work to be done in the grounds, including regular watering, weeding, planting, deadheading and tidying. If you can offer some time to help maintain the monastery grounds please contact Saigyo chiden at saigyo@telecomottawa.net or by leaving a message on the office answering machine at 613 562 1568

 


Zenga by Sengai

 

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. Meals served on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings, prior to the sitting:

 

Monday Yakuseki

Egg salad with Chinese celery, scallions, garlic, Dijon, and mayonnaise; warm naan bread; roasted colossal white mushrooms dusted with goat parmesan; roasted plum tomato sections with chopped yellow bell pepper and hot cherry peppers; white onion soup with white wine, garlic chives, shiro miso, and lemongrass.

 

Tuesday Yakuseki

Congee with large sections of baby Korean cabbages, dai gai choy (mustard greens), mung bean sprouts and much slivered ginger and white pepper with gomasio (roasted sesame salt) garnish; roasted chicken legs, thighs, and drumsticks with "bang bang" sauce, served cold; roasted oyster, shitake, and cremini mushrooms with shoyu and sesame oil; baechu kimchi.

 

Thursday Yakuseki

    Halved baked potatoes served with Labneh or Normandy butter; a salad of brussel sprouts and large chunks of onion (roasted with balsamic vinegar) and bocconcini; Slices of age tofu, red bell pepper, cremini mushrooms and porcini mushrooms simmered with San Marsano tomatoes and red wine; a slaw made from thinly sliced fennel, grated gao (jicama) and sunflower seeds.

 

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. (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 Chunen ino, “Thank you to Mishin tando for the herb garden developing on the 3rd floor, to Saigyo chiden for looking after the fish ponds and the monastery garden, to Senbo shuso for archiving work, to Carl Anderson for creating MP3 files for the media site and to John McCaffrey for finding a storage facility for storing CD archives.”

From Mishin tando, "Thank you to the Roshi for making so many books, magazines, and DVDs available for monastics to borrow; to John McCaffrey for locating a reasonably-priced, climate-controlled off-site storage facility for "hermit masters" (a back-up set of masters of the recorded teisho library); to Nathan Comeau for admistrative and cleaning samu."

From Saigyo chiden, “Thank you to Rob McBride and Graham Mayeda for setting up a schedule of regular weekly samu. Thank you to Samantha Drouin, Carys Carrington and Carl Anderson for archiving samu and to Charles Enman and Roger Clark for soji. Thank you to Cindy Teevens, Michael Landay, Neil Porter and Nathan Comeau for samu.”

From Senbo shuso: "Thank you to Roshi for leading Fusatsu every new and full moon; to Roshi and Jinmyo osho for the delicious meals served during the Dharma Assembly, especially for a refreshing gaspacho; to Shikai osho for the frozen fruits and crackers served at refreshment during the Dharma Assembly; to Jinmyo osho for the Dharma Talk 'Dealing With the Demon' and for clarifying the numerous forms which enables us to embody the Way; to Saigyo chiden for his work on multiple maintenance and renovation projects; to Graham Mayeda for regular samu."

From Michael Landay, “Thank you to Jinmyo osho and Shikai osho for encouraging me to sit a longer retreat. Thank you to the Roshi, Jinmyo osho and Mishin tando for ensuring that nourishing and appetizing meals were prepared and ready for myself and other retreatants; to Jido anagarika for setting up the dining hall coffee maker every evening so I could drink fresh coffee in the morning; and to Shikai osho for delightful and surprising refreshments every afternoon. Thank you to the Roshi, the Dharma Teachers and the Practice Advisors for their spoken and unspoken instruction.”

From Samantha Drouin, “Thank you to Jinmyo osho for the rich and entertaining Dharma Talk entitled 'Dealing with the Demon', and specifically for clear examples about following through with the practice.”

From Cindy Teevens, “Thank-you to Roshi for making the teachings, resources, support, and facility available for practice. Thank-you the Practice Council for
insightful instruction, inspiration, and the nourishing, tasty food during
my retreat. Thank-you to Michael Landay for setting an example during my first retreat.”

From Gillian Higenbottam, “Thank you to the Roshi for the surprising colours and forms that regularly appear in the corner of the hatto, from glass eggs and twisty green leaves to huge backbones and colourful flowers. Thank you to the Roshi and Jinmyo osho for planning and preparing the excellent food at the Dharma assembly, the gazpacho was very refreshing on a hot day. Thank you to Chunen ino for leading participants with humour through the meal services. Thank you to Jinmyo osho for the memorable Dharma talk "Dealing with the Demon", for understanding somehow my confused questions, and for always-helpful reminders about forms.”

 

 


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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