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Image by Rev. Mudo Slota anagarika
eMirror Vol. 11, No. 46 Friday, November 16th, 2007 Edited by Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho Quotes from teisho are run sequentially in the eMirror
So, with that as background, let's return to Jippo:
This universe, these ten directions, these numberless sounds and forms and experiences are all a Field of Awake Awareness. It is called in Sanskrit Saha or "Endurance" because the wheel of birth and death turns quickly and grinds beings to dust inexorably after only a few days or a few decades. As well as birth leading inevitably to death with perhaps old age and illness in between there are wars, there is poverty, there is greed and lust and the lowest common denominator of understanding and behaviours dictating what laws and regulations our societies need to have. There is pandering and coercion and deception and whinging and whining and loathing. And yet, even so, there arose in this world a Buddha. This world of ten directions is a place in which it was possible for him to Wake Up to a freedom so vast that it cannot be contained by the wheel of birth and death. The nirvana of the Buddha, being without reference point as the context in which all other contexts and contents come and go, can be uncovered even in such a world. And not only by Sakyamuni Buddha but hundreds of his direct disciples such as Mahakasyapa. And not only those people of two thousand and several hundred years past but ever since then people have been opening to Openness, and many hundreds of thousands and more have realized and become indivisible from Openness.
- Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi, continuing teisho 3: "Fields of Awakening" in the the teisho series "Five Fingers, Ten Directions: Commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's text 'Jippo'", presented Sunday, May 13, 2001.
Upcoming Events
Fusatsu and the Vow of Samantabhadra Chanting of the Precepts will take place on November 21st. The Vow of Samantabhadra will be chanted on November November 28th.
Oryoki for General Students On Saturday, November 17th, 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 final samu weekend of 2007 will be taking place on November 24th and 25th. There will be a variety of projects taking place over the weekend and although the schedule is not yet finalized the tasks are likely to include; winterizing the building, including installing plastic film on many windows and improving insulation in severals areas; completing the insulation of large portion of the attic floor; tidying the grounds; installing the new Shuryo shelving built during the last samu weekend. Please make every effort to attend some or all of this weekend. Your help in maintaining and improving the monastery benefits a great number of people in countless ways. To register, please send an email to saigyo at telecomottawa dot net or telephone the Zen Centre office to leave a message at 613-562-1568.
Introduction to Zen Workshop Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho will present the next Introduction to Zen Workshop at Dainen-ji on Saturday, January 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.
Zen Classes Chunen ino will be visiting Brookfield High School to present the first of two Zen classes on November 20th. These classes are by invitation from the Continuing Education Department of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.
Shikai osho and Chunen ino presented an introduction to mindfulness practice at Cyrville Community Centre on Sunday, October 4th. This presentation was made by request from the City of Ottawa.
Recorded Teisho Schedule Saturday, November 17th general sitting - Turning the Wheel of the Way: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's "Gyoji: Continuous Practice": "Yaoshan's Chan" (teisho 9 of 44).
Sunday, November 18th formal sitting – SAkN: Questioning the Enigma: “To Be and Not To Be” (teisho 2 of 4).
Monday, November 19th general sitting - Bright Right Through: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's Commentaries on Dogen zenji's "Muchu Setsumu": “Transparency” (teisho 1 of 11).
Tuesday, November 20th formal sitting - Mikkyo-zo: Monastic Jishu: "Jnanasattva" (class 12 of 15).
White Wind Zen Community Website Updates A Dharma Talk presented by Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho entitled "Every Breath You Take" has been posted on the Website. The direct link is: http://www.wwzc.org/dharmaTalks/Home-EveryBreathYouTake.htm
A Dharma Talk presented by Ven. Chunen ino entitled "It's Worse Than you Realize, but Better Than You Think" on the subject of the Four Noble Truths has been posted on the Website. The direct link is: http://www.wwzc.org/ItsWorseThanYouRealize.htm
Current Teisho Series
During the 2007 Sogaku-ki O-sesshin in May, Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi began a new series of teisho entitled "Doing Not-Doing part two: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's Commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's Kyojukaimon and Fusatsu". The following teisho have been presented so far: Reading of "Kyojukaimon" and "Daruma Isshin-kai" (May 16th, 2007) Teisho 1: It's "Inconceivable Luminosity" (May 17th, 2007) Teisho 2: The Eyes of All Beings (June 16th, 2007) Teisho 3: Unbroken (August 11th, 2007) Teisho 4: The Brahmajala (September 8th, 2007) Teisho 5: The Precept of the Life of Buddha (October 6, 2007) Teisho 6: The Gate of Liberation Stands Open (October 7, 2007) Teisho 7: The Three Wheels Are Traceless (October 8, 2007) Teisho 8: Something is Needed (October 9, 2007) Teisho 9: Nothing to be Deluded About (October 11, 2007) Teisho 10: All Things Are Truth (November 10, 2007)
Current Dharma Talks
In October 2007, Ven. Shikai Zuiko osho began presenting the series "Every Breath You Take: Comments on 'The Practice of Purity' at Thursday evening associate sittings. These are comments on Book Eleven of the Avatamsaka Sutra, translated by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi and Ven. Shikai osho. Reading of "The Practice of Purity" (October 18, 2007) Reading continued (October 25, 2007) Dharma Talk 1: At Home (November 1, 2007) Dharma Talk 2: Parents (November 8, 2007)
On October 27, 2007, Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho led a Dharma Assembly during which she presented a Dharma Talk entitled "The Dragon in His Waters, the Tiger in Her Mountains", Part One of Three. Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho's Commentaries on Dogen zenji's "Fukanzazengi".
Retreats
Jennifer Comeau began a one-week retreat on Monday. Isshin sat a one-day retreat in her home on Gabriola Island on Thursday. Denise Murphy sat a partial retreat in her home in Scarborough on November 10, 2007. Francois Fournier began a retreat this morning (Friday) which will end at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday.
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.
Samu Weekend The final samu weekend of 2007 will be taking place on November 24th and 25th. There will be a variety of projects taking place over the weekend and although the schedule is not yet finalized the tasks are likely to include; winterizing the building, including installing plastic film on many windows and improving insulation in severals areas; completing the insulation of large portion of the attic floor; tidying the grounds; installing the new Shuryo shelving built during the last samu weekend. Please make every effort to attend some or all of this weekend. Your help in maintaining and improving the monastery benefits a great number of people in countless ways.
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 evenings, prior to sittings:
Monday Yakuseki Casarecce (Piemontese rolled pasta) in a white wine, butter, and garlic sauce with porcini and oyster mushrooms, thyme, and Greek sage; large white mushrooms roasted with a sauce of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes with oregano and basil, topped with panko bread crumbs; salad of blanched sugar snap peas and green beans with diced cubanelle and red bell peppers and cubes of Fruilano and aged mozarella cheeses and gherkins, dressed with extra virgin olive oil and lime.
Tuesday Yakuseki Wo sun (Chinese lettuce stem) ovals in a soup with Thai red curry paste, mirin, ngoc mam, and lime; dai gai choy (mustard greens) stir-fried with popped white and black mustard and cumin seeds; chicken thighs roasted with Jamaican Jerk sauce; whole chicken legs roasted with shawarma spices; sixteen mixed grains (in order of quantities: gohan, Lundberg Farm short-grain brown rice, barley, Korean white sticky rice, Korean brown sticky rice, Thai rice, Chinese rice, arborio rice, sorghum, white quinoa, red quinoa, toasted kasha, pearled wheat, millet, basmati brown rice, wild rice); slaw of celery root and fennel dressed with extra virgin olive oil, lime. and Indian hot pickled lime.
Thursday Yakuseki Chana masala with black chickpeas (chana kala), green cabbage, red and green bell peppers and cubanelle peppers, tiny cremini mushrooms, cubed atsuage tofu with a base of pureed and reduced Spanish onions, green chiles, elephant garlic, coriander stems, and ginger, and seasoned with popped black mustard seeds and cumin seeds, cayenne, cardomom, garam masala, hing, and turmeric; blackened cauliflower florets; stir-fried purple Swiss chard and diced plum tomatoes seasoned with lime, curry, and garlic; salad of mung bean sprouts with a red chile and garlic dressing; Thai jasmine rice; fresh coriander leaves.
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 Anzan roshi: My thanks to Mishin tando for arranging for participation in the One Laptop Per Child program for myself, Jinmyo osho, Chunen ino, and herself.
From Jinmyo osho: Thank you to John McCaffrey for transcription; to Michael Landay for photographs. From Chunen ino: Thank you to the Roshi for “The Development of Buddhist Psychology” series of classes; to Shikai osho for her Dharma Talk; to Jinmyo osho for overseeing scheduling at Dainen-ji; to Mishin tando for administration; to Saigyo chiden for researching shelving options for archiving and to Senbo shuso for financial administration, to Carl Anderson for Media Site work. From Mishin tando: Thank you to the Roshi the intensive and fun practice of sesshin, for presentation of thousands of teisho and Dharma Talks over the past decades, and for translation of so many Dharma texts originally presented centuries ago; to Saigyo chiden for searching for a used Ikea "Durome" CD cabinet to house the growing teisho archives collection; to Senbo shuso for weekly assistance with bookkeeping. From Saigyo chiden: Thank you to the Roshi and Jinmyo osho for exceptionally detailed and rich training offered to me in the post of Tenzo-anja (assistant to the Tenzo). Thank you to Jinmyo osho for the careful storage of a large amount of material gathered over the years to use in making robes for the Roshi and monastics. Thank you to Nathan Krahn for drawing a floor plan of a potential future renovation to aid design and for picking up supplies for the samu weekend; to Cesar Aloe for offering regular weekly samu. From Senbo shuso: Thank you to Roshi for the November two-day sesshin; to Shikai osho for the Dharma Talk "Parents"; to Jinmyo osho for preparing super on Sunday evening following the sesshin; to Chunen ino for inquiring about and testing spam solutions; to Mishin tando for delicious macadamia nuts brought back from Kenya. From Michael Landay: First of all, I thank the Roshi for dedicating his life to helping others to open to Openness. Through him, I have a priceless opportunity to practise this. And I realise I am far from fully appreciating the debt of gratitude I owe him. I thank the Dharma teachers and practice advisors of the White Wind Zen Community, for likewise dedicating themselves to helping students see the habitual contractions of usual mind, and to open around them. Thanks to you, I have walked in the zendo and felt the cold of the air on my skin and the floor beneath my feet. Students are very fortunate to have so much instruction available. I thank all the monastics and students for continually creating and caring for the practice environment at Dainen-ji. Finally, many thanks to Peggy once again for her generosity in sharing food, living space, office facilities, and cats, and for providing a second home for me in Ottawa. Her example helps me in many ways. I sincerely hope to be able to return and practise at Dainen-ji next year.
Ongoing
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.
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. 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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