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Photograph by Ven. Saigyo Cross chiden
eMirror Vol. 12, No. 10 Friday, March 7th, 2008 Edited by Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho
Quotes from teisho are run sequentially in the eMirror
Now we will turn to Dogen zenji's text Jippo once more.
The eye that contains the whole world of ten directions is an open eye, the eye of the monk Gautama, Sakyamuni Buddha's name. The term monk used here is "shramon" or in Sanskrit "sramana", a novice monk. The implication here is that to realize this you must exert yourself on the Way and realize what Sakyamuni has realized. Then Dogen says, "It is ‘I have the Eye of Utter Reality.'" Shobogenzo. This phrase comes from Sakyamuni Buddha's statement in the Daibonten-o-monbutsu-ketsugi-kyo, (Sutra of Questions and Answers between Mahabrahman and the Buddha), "I hold the Treasury of the Eye of True Utter Reality, the luminous Awareness beyond reference point. This I Transmit to Mahakasyapa." And then Dogen says, "It can be transmitted to anyone, but it is still the eye of that monk Gautama." Dogen took out the name Mahakasyapa and put in "anyone". So we could put in the name "Gerry" or "Shojin" or "Gus" or "Kitsune" or "Shikai". The point is that it is still Gautama's eye, and that whoever receives the Transmission of Utter Reality understands what the Buddha understood. When you allow whatever recognitions open for you to open past you and your usual understandings, then you will see what I mean.
Upcoming Events
Fusatsu and the Vow of Samantabhadra Chanting of the Precepts will take place on March 19th. The Vow of Samantabhadra will be chanted on March 12th and March 26th.
March Two-day Sesshin The March two-day sesshin will begin at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, March 7th and will end at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 9th. On Saturday March 8th, 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, March 15th, 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.
Keizan-ki March 21st is the memorial for Keizan Jokin zenji.
Dharma Assembly On Saturday, March 22nd, Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho will lead a Dharma Assembly entitled "the Dragon in His Waters, the Tiger in Her Mountains" 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. 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. Introduction to Zen Workshop Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho will present the next Introduction to Zen Workshop at Dainen-ji on Saturday, April 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.
Recorded Teisho Schedule Saturday, March 8th associate sittings - Immo: Suchness: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's Immo: "People of Suchness" (teisho 8 of 18). Monday, March 10th general sitting - The Landscape of Reality: "The Practice of Wonder" (teisho 4 of 12). Tuesday, March 11th formal sitting - Being Between-Being: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's Teachings on practicing throughout the process of death: "Full Moon Fades" (teisho 1 of 5). Saturday, March 15th general sitting - Turning the Wheel of the Way: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's "Gyoji: Continuous Practice": "Body of Joy" (teisho 20 of 44).
Current Dharma Talk On Thursday, March 6th, Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho presented the 14th Dharma Talk in the series "Every Breath You Take".
Retreats and Training Sessions Andrew Campbell began a retreat at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, February 29th, which ended at 9:00 a.m. Sunday. John McCaffrey began a retreat at 7:30 p.m. on Friday which ended on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. Senbo shuso sat a one-day retreat on Tuesday. Curtis Cheslock sat a half-day retreat on Tuesday. Isshin sat a one-day retreat on Thursday.
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.
Address Updates for Charitable Tax Receipts Tax receipts for dana contributions made between January-December 2007 will be ready before the end of February. If you have moved in the past year, or are not certain that we have your current address on file, please email your address information to me at mishin at trytel dot com. Thank you to the Sangha for your generosity with dana contribution. - Gassho, Mishin tando, treasurer.
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 meals were prepared on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, prior to evening sittings:
Monday Yakuseki Very thick potage of leek and potato with white wine and thyme; roasted hedgehog and oyster mushrooms; roasted meinjin (gluten protein), Korean cabbage, dai gai choy, and white onion with Dijon mustard; fried green tomatoes with dried chiles.
Tuesday Yakuseki Oyster and quartered large white mushrooms, Spanish onion and white onion, red bell peppers sauteed with smoked paprika; fennel soup; stir-fried Shanghai bok choy sum; pea-meal crusted cured pork loin roasts; sixteen mixed grains (Lundberg Farms short-grain brown rice, Korean white sticky rice, Thai white sticky rice, Korean brown sticky rice, Thai brown sticky rice, Chinese long grain rice, gohan, arborio rice, barley, pearled wheat, toasted kasha, millet, red and white quinoa, basmati brown and white long-grain rice).
Thursday Yakuseki Chana daal (thick chickpea and red lentil daal); Thai jasmine rice with coriander leaves and deep-fried lentils as garnish; roasted quartered plum tomatoes with tandoori seasonings; salad of blanched Mexican asparagus dressed with Balkan yogurt, Indian lime pickle, and Meyer lemon juice.
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.
Anzan roshi at the 2nd floor Kaisando window, photograph by Ven. Saigyo Chiden
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 Roshi: My thanks to Saigyo chiden for his efforts with the snow. From Jinmyo osho: Thank you to Chunen ino for installing Ubuntu on three laptops and for finding wireless devices for them; to Mishin tando for the many hours she has spent over the past few weeks preparing tax receipts for Sangha; to Isshin for tea from San Francisco and dana. From Mishin tando: Thank you to the Roshi for making an assortment of news and science magazines available to residents; to Shikai osho for helping stuff envelopes for the tax receipt mailings; to Jinmyo osho for leading the monthly Introduction to Zen workshops; to Nathan Comeau for shovelling snow and assisting with administrative samu. From Saigyo chiden: Thank you to the Roshi for the laughter that echoes from the Kaisando during Dokusan each morning and which spilled forth whilst admiring the enormous mounds of snow that fill the front garden. Thank you to the Roshi and Jinmyo osho for the most wonderful thick potage of leek and potato served for residents on Monday and for so many other delightful dishes each week. Thank you Shikai osho for a delicious lunch and for excellent coffee. To Chunen Ino and Senbo shuso for regular snow shovelling to keep the monastery drive and paths clear and to Mishin tando for ensuring public students receive mailing of teisho and Dharma Talks. Thank you Muryo for transferring old VHS tapes of Dainen-ji onto DVD and for work to write a history of the renovations at the monastery. Thank you to Neil Porter for work to varnish the new trim on the main stairs and to Curtis Cheslock and Sophia Stevenson for snow shovelling. From Chiso anagarika: Thank you to Roshi for "Doing not Doing" teisho series commentaries on Ehei Dogen zenji's "Kyojukaimon" and Fusatsu; to Shikai osho for "Every Breath you Take" comments on "The Practice of Purity"; to Jinmyo osho for "The Dragon in his Waters, The Tiger in Her Mountains: commentaries on Ehei Dogen zenji's "Fukazazengi"; to Chunen ino for "Don't Waste your Time" senior Dharma talk. Thank you to all involved in the taping, copying, label writing organizing and mailing these CD's. The whole process embodies the Teachings. As a long-distance student it means a lot to have such access to them and I appreciate the effort that makes all this possible and I am very thankful.
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 in 2007, was again delayed due to the necessity of a urgent roof repair to the west side of the roof. This repair 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 fund raise 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 spring and the improved facilities will be available in early 2008. 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. 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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