Photograph by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi

 

eMirror Vol. 11, No. 10

Friday, March 9th, 2007

Edited by Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho

 


Quotes from teisho are run sequentially in the eMirror

 

         Dharmata or hossho also became used as a synonym for Buddhata or Bussho, Buddha-nature. That something has Buddha-nature means how that something is as it appears to a Buddha. But it also means that thing or being’s capacity to awaken as a Buddha. Sometimes it is said that insentient beings like stones have Dharma-nature while sentient beings have Buddha-nature. I’m not sure that a stone would agree with this kind of distinction. Perhaps if one really wants to make that distinction one should first ask the stone’s view on the matter. One has to listen closely because stones speak veeeeerrrryyy slooooowwwwlly.

 

-Zen Master Anzan Hoshin, continuing teisho two “What is the Samadhi of Dharmata?” presented Saturday, December 4, 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 March 21st. The Vow of Samantabhadra will be chanted on March 14th and March 28th.

 

Oryoki for General Students

On Saturday, March 10th, 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@wwzc.org.

 

March Two-day Sesshin

The March two-day sesshin will begin at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, March 16th and will end at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 18th.

On Saturday, March 17th, associate and general students may attend a sitting held in the Zendo, which will begin at 9:30 a.m. (please arrive by 9:15 in time for first Bell) and will end at 11:30 a.m.

 

Introduction to Zen Workshop

Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho will present the next Introduction to Zen Workshop at Dainen-ji on Saturday, April 7th. 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 10th general sitting – Sitting Up Straight: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin’s commentaries on Keizan Jokin zenji’s “Zazen Yojinki”: “It’s Just That Simple” (teisho 15 of 17).

Sunday, March 11th formal sitting - SAkN: Root Cycle Three: “The Presumption of Separateness” (teisho 5 of 8).

Monday, March 12th general sitting – Without Difficulty: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin’s commentaries on “Xinxin Ming: Words on Trusting Awareness” by Jianzhi Sengcan: “Wuwei” (teisho 11 of 25).

Tuesday, March 13th formal sitting – Mikkyo-zo: Monastic Jishu: “Three Spaces” (Class 5 of 15).

Thursday, March 15th associate sitting – Eight Awarenesses: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin’s Commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji’s “Hachi Dainin-gaku”: “Having few Desires” (teisho 1 of 8).

Saturday, March 17th associate sitting – Eight Awarenesses: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin’s Commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji’s “Hachi Dainin-gaku”: “Knowing How to be Satisfied” (teisho 2 of 8).

 

White Wind Zen Community Media Site

The following MP3s of teisho from the series “Round and Bright: Commentaries on Koun Ejo zenji’s Komyo Zanmai” have been posted on the Media Site:

 

01 of 24. Reading 01

02 of 24. Reading 02

03 of 24. Teisho 01. Entering the Room

04 of 24. Teisho 02. Nyu-shitsu: No Shit

05 of 24. Teisho 03. No Choice

06 of 24. Teisho 04. Sometimes

07 of 24. Teisho 05. The Practice which Practices All Beings

08 of 24. Teisho 06. The Evening News

09 of 24. Teisho 07. Reverence for Not Knowing

10 of 24. Teisho 08. Feeling is Joy

11 0f 24. Teisho 09. In the Hot Seat           

12 of 24. Teisho 10. The Forge        

13 of 24. Teisho 11. Jewels of Flame         

14 of 24. Teisho 12. The Wind Between the Ears    

15 of 24. Teisho 13. Falling   

16 of 24. Teisho 14. Sun Face, Moon Face  

17 of 24. Teisho 15. The Familiar is Strange, the Strange is Familiar       

18 of 24. Teisho 16. You're Wrong...          

19 of 24. Teisho 17. Wonder  

20 of 24. Teisho 18. Alone    

21 of 24. Teisho 19. Seeds    

22 of 24. Teisho 20. Black Mountain  

23 of 24. Teisho 21. Open Sky        

24 of 24. Teisho 22. Round and Bright        

 

Retreats

Chunen ino sat a one-day retreat on Sunday. Cesar Aloe sat a retreat beginning on Saturday morning and ending on Monday morning following the formal sitting. Gillian Higenbottam began a retreat on Tuesday morning which ended at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Deshi Vicki Robichaud sat a partial retreat in her home on Gabriola Island, B.C., on Thursday.

 

To Schedule a Retreat

Please email schedules@wwzc.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@trytel.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@wwzc.org mentioning the date of their retreat and whether it is a partial, half-day or full retreat.  

 

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

Ziti in a cremini mushroom sauce with finely chopped fennel, thyme, white wine, and Dijon mustard; chickpeas and white beans tossed with sautéed baby bok choy and white onion with sage and rosemary; roasted plum tomatoes with basil; salad of bocconcini with lime and extra virgin olive oil tossed with blanched green beans and dried chiles.

 

Tuesday Yakuseki

Mixed grain (Lundberg Farm short grain brown rice, Korean white and brown short grain sticky rices, barley, gohan); seared thick bone-in pork loin chops, some with curry seasoning and some with tikka tamarind paste, both with toasted cumin and white mustard seeds; leek and cremini mushrooms braised in coconut milk and Red Thai curry with coriander; blanched sugar snap peas and chopped cubanelle and red bell peppers and banana chile dressed with ginger, ngoc mam, mirin, and lime.

 

Thursday Yakuseki

Pasticcio (baked pasta) with a crust of shredded parmesan cheese and panko crumbs; tomato bisque with red wine and puffed tofu; roasted whole large white mushrooms with oregano and dried chiles; sautéed flowering baby bok choy with lime.

 

Monastery Breadbasket

4 rustic whole wheat boules; 6 dozen molasses ginger oatmeal biscuits, old fashioned apple pie; 16 ciabatta.

 

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@wwzc.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@trytel.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 Chunen ino and Jido anagarika for reattaching the enso sho to the outside wall of the monastery after it was torn from its moorings by a high wind on Tuesday evening; thank you to Mishin tando for all of the work she did to provide Sangha members with tax receipts and for sharpening knives prior to food preparation.”

From Mishin tando, “Thank you to Roshi for the practice of Acalanatha Sadhana with monastics when he comes out of Hermitage each month; to Shikai osho for an apple pie with an excellent crust; to Jinmyo osho for reviewing draft replies from practice advisors corresponding with public students; to Chunen ino for looking after monastery computers and the Media Site; to Charles Enman for assisting with morning samu.”

 

 


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@trytel.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@wwzc.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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