eMirror Vol. 12, No. 27

Friday, July 4th, 2008

Friday, July 4th, 2008

Edited by Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho

 


 

 

Quotes from teisho are run sequentially in the eMirror

 

To show us this, Dogen zenji continues his commentary on Changsha's phrases.

 

            "The whole world of ten directions fills your body." An eyelid is actually luminosity. When the eyelid opens, there is this "filling". The filling of the eyes with seeing is the whole world of ten directions.

 

            The activities of seeing and hearing, of opening and closing the eyes, are always filling the ten directions as the ten directions. The colours and forms of the world are not just inside or outside of the body or the eye. The colours and forms seen with the eyes are not just seen by the eyes; they are seeing. There is no one looking out through the eyes at a world. There is a world of eyes and colours and forms and seeing without any self that is the agent of actions at all. Seeing is an expression of the intimacy that is beyond any kind of relationship between a self and its others, between this and that, between inside and outside. Hearing expresses this. Tasting expresses this.

            This is what the Dharma is always expressing, this is the sound that the turning of the Dharma Wheel makes.

 

-Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi, continuing teisho 8: "Sleeping Together on the Same Floor" in the the teisho series "Five Fingers, Ten Directions: Commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's text 'Jippo'", presented Saturday, August 11th, 2001.

 

Upcoming Events

 

Fusatsu and the Vow of Samantabhadra

Chanting of the Precepts will take place on July 16th and July 30th.  The Vow of Samantabhadra will be chanted on July 9th and July 23rd.

 

Saturday Dharma Talks

During the 9:30 a.m. general sitting on Saturday, July 5th, Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho will present a Dharma Talk, “When Entering a Hall“. The next, “When Setting Out a Place to Sit”, is scheduled for Saturday, July 12. 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.

 

Hermitage

On Wednesday, July 2nd,  the Roshi began a period of hermitage which will end on Sunday, July 6th at 10:00 a.m. 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, July 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.  

 

Yaza

Yaza (all night sitting) will take place on Saturday, July 12th from 10 p.m. until Sunday July 13th at 8 a.m. Zen Master Anzan Hoshin will lead the Yaza. Students attending should arrive by first bell at 9:45 p.m. A light breakfast will be served before the end of the Yaza. All students are welcome to attend. Please register soon as is seating will be limited. The suggested dana contribution for Yaza is $25.00. To register, please send an email to schedule at wwzc dot org or leave a message on the Zen Centre office answering machine at 562-1568.

 

Oryoki

On Saturday, July 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.

 

Hermitage

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

 

Next Samu weekend

 

The third samu weekend of the year will be taking place on the 23rd and 24th of August. Please pencil these dates into your calender so that you will be able to attend some or all of the weekend and in doing so help to maintain and improve the practice environment of Dainen-ji.

 

July-December 2008 Practice Calendar

The July-December 2008 Practice Calendar has been posted on the "Resources" Page of the White Wind Zen Community Website:

(http://www.wwzc.org/resource.htm) in PDF format.

The direct link to download the Calendar is:

http://wwzc.org/documents/2008-2.pdf

 

Recorded Teisho Schedule

Sunday, July 5th formal sitting: SAkN: Dimensions of Space: "Space is not a Space" (teisho 6 of 8).

Monday, July 6th general sitting - Rhythm and Song: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's Commentaries on Donshan's "Hokyo Zanmai": "True Centre" (teisho 8 of 22).

Tuesday, July 7st formal sitting: Being Between-Being: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's Commentaries on practicing throughout the process of death: "Rebirths" (teisho 5 of 6).

Thursday, July 9th associate sitting - Before Thinking: Foundations of Zen Practice: "Beyond Convenience".

 

Retreats and Training Sessions

Isshin sat one-day retreats in her home on Gabriola Island on Friday, June 27th and on Thursday, July 3rd. Paul Kadziora sat a one-day retreat on Friday. Nathan Comeau began a three day retreat on Friday morning which ended following the formal sitting on Monday morning. Michael Landay began a retreat on Monday which will end on Sunday. Michael Hammond, visiting from P.E.I., began a retreat on Wednesday afternoon which will end on Thursday evening. Zenrin began a retreat on Wednesday afternoon which will end on Friday evening.

 

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.

 

Summer Garden Samu

During the summer, help is always appreciated to tend the grounds. Amongst other work required, the cedar hedge needs to be trimmed and after the recent heavy rainfalls there are a lot of weeds to keep on top of over the coming weeks. If anyone can spare time to assist with the upkeep of the gardens please contact Saigyo chiden at saigyoattelecomottawadotnet or leave a message on the office answer machine at 613 562 1568. Even offering 30 minutes after a morning a sitting would be most helpful. Thank you. 

 

Plants for the Grounds

If anyone would like to make a donation of any of the following plants for the grounds of the monastery, this would be much appreciated.

Low growing evergreens: Junipers or Yew family, which will tolerate semi shade conditions.

Barrenwort (Epimedium): a low growing ground cover for the shade.

Jack-in-the-pulpit: For the wild flower shade garden.

Trillium: For the wild flower shade garden.

Wintergreen: Low growing shade tolerant groundcover.

Dutchman's Pipe: Excellent climbing vine for the front porch.

Climbing Hydrangea: For the east wall to replace the Boston Ivy which died this year.

 


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 served on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, prior to the evening sittings.

 

Monday Yakuseki

Ziti pasta and yuba (soymilk skin) knots in a shoyu based soup with tiny cremini mushrooms, dai gai choy andslivered ginger; roasted Brussels sprouts with Sichuan peppercorns and extra virgin olive oil;  slaw of grated celery root with mayonnaise, lime juice, and roasted chile oil.

 

Tuesday Yakuseki

Chili (white onions, garlic, toasted cumin seeds, red and yellow bell peppers, sweet red peppers, cubanelle peppers, red wine, green and red chiles, chipotle and adobo, San Marzano tomatoes, passata (strained tomatoes), oregano, dried chiles, minced beef and pork); seven mixed grains (Lundberg Farms short-grain rice, gohan, Arborio rice, Thai sticky white rice, Thai long-grain white rice, Sona Masoori rice, Korean Bae Ah Mi rice); roasted large white mushrooms with sweet chile barbecue sauce; salad of chopped Napa cabbage with lime, extra virgin olive oil and celery seeds.

 

Thursday Yakuseki

Roasted bite-sized chunks of fingerling potatoes mixed with eleven kinds of grain (Chinese organic short-grain brown rice, Lundberg Farms short-grain brown rice, Korean white and brown sticky rice, Thai white and brown sticky rice, Thai red rice, Chinese long-grain white rice, barley, Arborio rice, and black quinoa); a soup made with blended and whole chickpeas, lightly seasoned with garam masala, cumin, red chili flakes and chopped coriander; sauteed Shanghai bokchoy and dai gai choy drizzled with lime juice; kkukdugi.

Baking and refreshment by Shikai osho
1 dozen zatar topped flat buns; 2 large loaves wheat bread; fresh lemon creamy pudding with strawberries, toasted almonds, cottage cheese, cream cheese, whipped cream and lemon mint; 2 dozen crumpets; 2 buttermilk loaves

 

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 Shikai osho: Thank you to Chunen ino for the surprise of interesting beverages; Mishin tando for ongoing attention to financial matters; Saigyo chiden for help installing a new aquarium filter; Senbo shuso for his work on images for the calendar and for a trip to buy the filter; Jennifer Comeau for perfect sandals and to her friend for lending a DVD series.

From Jinmyo osho: Thank you to Zenrin for locating a computer I could purchase that would work well with Linux Ubuntu, for configuring my email so that it would sync between two computers in different locations, and for transferring all of my documents and other files from one machine to the other (all very complex and time consuming, but it works perfectly).

From Chunen ino: Thank you to the Roshi and Jinmyo osho for wonderful
nourishing meals at Dainen-ji, to Shikai osho for several explanations and reminders on how to practice, to Mishin tando for maintaining and completing accounting documents to KPMG, Saigyo chiden for arranging for and meeting the stove technician, to Senbo shuso for doing the layout of the practice calendar, to Zenrin for setting up Jinmyo osho's computer.

From Mishin tando: Thank you to the Roshi and Jinmyo osho for the beautifully designed and delicious evening meals prepared for residents and retreatants every week; to Shikai osho for planting numerous small herb gardens around the building; to Saigyo chiden for continuous work to maintain and improve the grounds around the monastery; to Senbo shuso for designing and laying out the new Practice Calendar and for regular work to input dana information; to Jennifer Comeau for dana processing; to Nathan Comeau for archiving samu.

From Saigyo chiden: Thank you to Guillaume Albert for work to organize the pantry, Sophia Stevenson for samu in the grounds to tidy and weed and to Carys Carrington for archiving work. Thank you to Neil Porter, Charles Enman and Graham Mayeda for regular samu. Thank you to those students who arrive early before a sitting to help prepare the practice halls. Thank you to Michael Hammond for a gift of incense and attractive stones for the monastery.

From Senbo shuso: Thank you to the Roshi for Fusatsu and for showing unequaled compassion; to Shikai osho for captivating and humorous Dharma Talks; to Jinmyo osho for daisan; to Chunen ino, Mishin tando, and Saigyo chiden for their relentless dedication.

 


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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