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"Mu", digital sho by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi
eMirror Vol. 11, No. 40 Friday, October 5th 2007 Edited by Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho
Quotes from teisho are run sequentially in the eMirror
The mind does not have layers that can be peeled away. Even if it did, where would you put them? The mind does not have a core because, although it presences as apples, it is not an apple. If Knowing had a core that could be separated from anything else then it would not be Knowing but only another known. Apples are it, a fist is it, an eyebrow is it, a post, a postman, a letter, a word. And it is not something that can be known through concentrating on a phrase like "everything is empty" or "Awareness is the Only Condition", "this world of ten directions is a single bright jewel" "the Original Face" or "Mu." If you focus on a koan its place in your practice becomes out of focus and blurred into just another content. The wado or "root word" of a koan is to be used to show the open field of ten directions that it is rooted within. It is a content used to indicate context. Dogen zenji's term Naked Awareness speaks of your exposure to the intimate reality of your actual nature and also of Awareness being nakedly evident everywhere as everything. Speaking of peeled or raw Knowing allows him to continue the metaphor to speak of luminosity as its "bone and marrow." The ten directions are all luminosity, illuminated by Naked Awareness.
- Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi, continuing teiso 2: "Naked Awareness" in the the teisho series "Five Fingers, Ten Directions: Commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's text 'Jippo'", presented Saturday, April 14, 2001.
Upcoming Events
Fusatsu and the Vow of Samantabhadra Chanting of the Precepts will take place on October 10th and October 24th. The Vow of Samantabhadra will be chanted on October 17th, and 31st.
Daruma-ki O-sesshin The 7-day Daruma-ki O-sesshin will begin at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, October 5th and will end at noon on Friday, the 12th of October. Deshi and monastics are reminded to send in their schedules as soon as is possible. During the week of the O-sesshin there will be two sittings that associate and general students may attend: Saturday, October 6th , beginning at 9:30 a.m. (please arrive by 9:15 for first bell), ending at 11:30. Saturday, October 6th , beginning at 3:00 p.m. (please arrive by 2:45 for first bell), ending at 5:30. Students attending either of these sittings are reminded to remain on the first floor.
A Note to Preliminary and Public Students Concerning O-sesshin During a 7-day 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 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, October 20th , 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 The next Dharma Assembly will be led by Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho and will take place on October 27 th. The Dharma Assembly 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 613-562-1568. 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.
Hermitage The Roshi will begin a period of hermitage on Wednesday, October 31st , which will end on Sunday, November 4th 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, November 3rd. 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, October 6th associate sittings - Immo: Suchness: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's Immo: "Radiant Suchness" (teisho 3 of 18).
Saturday, October 13th general sitting - Turning the Wheel of the Way: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's "Gyoji: Continuous Practice": "If Parshva Doesn't Inspire You" (teisho 6 of 44).
Retreats Deshi Vicki Robichaud sat a one-day retreat on Thursday in her home on Gabriola Island. Samantha Drouin sat a one-day retreat on Saturday. Neil Porter sat a half-day retreat on Monday. Nathan Krahn sat a two-day retreat on Tuesday and Wednesday.
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 and Short Residential Training Periods for Associate and General Students 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.
Autumn Garden Work As the summer turns to Autumn, help will be appreciated to keep the grounds of the monastery tidy. If you can offer some time for this please contact Saigyo chiden at saigyo at telecomottawa dot net or by leaving a message on the office answering machine at 613 562 1568
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 Eryingi, tiny cremini, and chanterelle mushrooms in a yellow Thai curry with caramelized onion, slivered ginger, mirin, ngoc mam, lime; roasted chopped fennel in coconut milk with fennel seeds and fronds; baby yellow zucchini, cubanelle peppers, yellow and orange bell peppers, poblano peppers, mung bean sprouts, red bird chiles with dried tofu and red kidney beans in a coconut milk Thai curry; Thai jasmine rice with coriander.
Tuesday Yakuseki Smoked turkey and wedges of Korean cabbage braised in stock and white wine, Dijon, and thyme with chickpeas; roasted whole small onions with balsamic vinegar; seared colossal shitake caps with spears of yellow and orange bell peppers, cubanelle peppers, and Anaheim chiles; roasted tomatoes with haloomi cheese and jalapeno; Fourteen Mixed grains (Lundberg Farms short-grain brown rice, pearled barley, pearled wheat, sorghum, Korean white and brown sticky rice, millet, kasha, Indian barley, red and white quinoa, gohan, wild rice, corn).
Thursday Yakuseki Udon noodles tossed with a curry (base of blended onion, garlic, ginger, and green chilies which was cooked through before adding onions that had been seasoned with turmeric and caramelized and chopped plum tomatoes; Balkan yogurt was stirred into the sauce along with popped mustard seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cayenne, a small amount of garam masala and curry spices) of sliced shitake and eryingi mushrooms, quartered cremini mushrooms, chickpeas and pigeon peas, garnished with coriander; seared asparagus with lime; small carnival "paint pot" squashes, topped and cooped, roasted with chile oil and sesame oil.
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 Jinmyo osho, "Thank you to Mishin tando for tending to many, many administrative tasks prior to leaving Dainen-ji on a work-related trip to Kenya following the O-sesshin. From Saigyo chiden, "Thank you to Shikai osho for making an excellent wild grape sorbet from the grapes growing on the monastery vine. To Gillian Higenbottam and Michael Landay for samu in the grounds and to Neil Porter for completing the repairs to the front porch pillars. Thank you to Carys Carrington, Guillaume Albert, Sophia Stevenson, Nathan Comeau and Samantha Drouin for archiving samu. Thank you to Jennifer Comeau for transcription." From Senbo shuso: "Thank you to the Roshi and Jinmyo osho for food shopping, menu design, and kitchen work; to Shikai osho for delicious wild grape jelly; to Chunen ino for the Dharma Talk "It's Worse Than You Realize, but Not As Bad As You Think"; to Saigyo chiden for organizing the different cleaning clothes that are used throughout the monastery; to Sophia Stevenson for archiving samu." From Francois Fourner, Thank you to Jinmyo osho, to Saigyo chiden and to Chunen ino for their constant reminders to " Keep it Simple" during my retreat last weekend. Thank you as well to Shikai osho for the delightfully creative refreshments. From Jennifer Comeau, "Thank you to all of the residents for rearranging their schedules to support my retreats. Thank you to Roshi for dedicating his life to making the practice of Zen available and for the beautiful practice environment of Dainen-ji. Thank you to Roshi for creating and training the office of the Tenzo that produces meals that delight and awaken the senses and provide energy to practice. Thank you to Shikai osho for Daisan, for not letting me hide, for repeatedly clearing up misunderstandings and for creative and satisfying refreshments. Thank you to Jinmyo osho for Daisan, for meals and for information regarding vegetarian food. Thank you to Chunen ino for a clear, bright and concise Dharma talk: "It's Worse Than You Realize But Better Than You Think. Thank you to Mishin tando for preparing and delivering meals. Thank you to Saigyo chiden for maintaining Dainen-ji, for overseeing samu and funny practice interviews." From Sean Moreland, "Thank you to Jinmyo Osho for vivid, penetrating and humorous practice instruction during Daisan and for instruction on home practice. Thank you to the Roshi and all of the monastics for making this great practice available to all, and for their tireless embodiment of the teachings. Thank you to all the monastics and students who help to maintain the beautiful practice environment of Dainen-Ji."
Comings and Goings Mishin tando will be in Kenya co-leading a work-related project from Saturday, October 13th until Sunday, October 28th. Deshi Vicki Robichaud, traveling from B.C., will be arriving at Dainen-ji on Saturday, October 6th and will be leaving on Sunday, the 14th . Deshi David Clawson, traveling from New York, will arrive at Dainen-ji on October 4th and will leave on the 19th. Deshi Jinen will be traveling from Nova Scotia to Dainen-ji on October 5th and will be leaving on the 11th .
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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