Photograph by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi

 

eMirror Vol. 11, No. 8

Friday, February 23rd, 2007

Edited by Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho

 


Quotes from teisho are run sequentially in the eMirror

 

And now Dogen says that, “Those without such innate wisdom must study and practice yet more diligently.” But then he negates the previous two sentences in order to redefine “natural wisdom”. He says,

Yet there is really no one who is without natural wisdom. We each must follow the teaching of the sutras or masters until we come to fruition of the Buddha Way, the truth of Awake Awareness. Know that we enter the samadhi of dharmata through meeting the sutras or meeting a Master. To enter and receive samadhi as dharmata is what is called natural wisdom. Thus, we obtain ancient wisdom and the three types of knowledge. This is the authentic transmission of complete and utter Awakening. We learn natural wisdom by meeting natural wisdom. We receive the authentic transmission of untutored wisdom and natural wisdom by meeting untutored wisdom and natural wisdom. If we do not possess natural wisdom, even if we meet sutras or masters we will not be able to hear of or experience dharmata.

        Natural wisdom is awakened to itself by meeting itself in the Teachings, studying them deeply with and through the bodymind. Although there is transmission between teacher and student, what is received is what one already is. Before transmission a Buddha was a Buddha that was not awake. After transmission one is a Buddha that awakens other Buddhas. None of the Buddhas could ever have become Buddhas if they had not already been Buddhas. Naturally.

        Please, this evening, enjoy yourselves.

 

-Zen Master Anzan Hoshin, concluding teisho 1: “Meeting Natural Wisdom” presented Friday, December 3, 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 February 28th and March 21st. The Vow of Samantabhadra will be chanted on March 7th, March 14th and March 28th.

 

Samu Weekend

The first samu weekend of 2007 is scheduled to take place on the 24th and 25th of February. Work over these two days will include the continuation of the project to improve the insulation in the west side of the attic and also insulating the ceiling of the workshop. We shall also work to find other areas of the building which can use extra insulation, expandable foam sealer, caulking or draft stop in an effort to minimize heat loss and thus help reduce our extremely high heating costs. Please keep this weekend clear in your calendar so that you will be able to attend some or all of the two days of work practice. Students may register by sending an email to schedule@wwzc.org or by telephoning the Zen Centre office at 613-562-1568.

 

Hermitage

The Roshi will begin a period of hermitage on Wednesday, February 28th which will end on Sunday, March 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, March 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.

 

Introduction to Zen Workshop in Harrow, England

On Saturday, March 3rd at 2:00 p.m., Ven. Saigyo chiden will be presenting an Introduction to Zen workshop at the Harrow Zazenkai. The Zazenkai is located at Flat 3, 4 Stuart Avenue, South Harrow, Middlesex, England HA2 9BB. For more information about the workshop or to register, please telephone Frank Tettsu Woods at 0208-422-9757 or send an email to info@wwzc.org. There is a suggested contribution of 10 pounds to register for the workshop.

 

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.

 

Zen Classes

Chunen ino and Saigyo chiden visited Brookfield High School on Wednesday, February 21, for the first of two Zen classes. Three students had registered. They will be given a tour of Dainen-ji, as well as the opportunity to practice zazen and kinhin,  for the second class next week. These classes are by invitation from the Continuing Education Department of the Ottawa Carleton District School Board.

 

Recorded Teisho Schedule

Monday, February 26th general sitting – Without Difficulty: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin’s commentaries on “Xinxin Ming: Words on Trusting Awareness” by Jianzhi Sengcan: “Straying? Dimming? Sinking? Rotting? Flowering?” (teisho 9 of 25).

Tuesday, February 27th formal sitting – Mikkyo-zo: Monastic Jishu: “Reibon” (Class 3 of 15).

Thursday, March 1st associate sitting – This World of Ten Directions: “Receiving It and Offering It” (teisho 9 of 10).

Saturday, March 3rd general sitting – Sitting Up Straight: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin’s commentaries on Keizan Jokin zenji’s “Zazen Yojinki”: “Incomparable” (teisho 14 of 17).

 

Teisho Presented During the Nehan O-sesshin

Continuing the Teisho Series “Doing Not-Doing: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's Commentaries on Eihei Dogen Zenji's ‘Shoaku Makusa’ and the Three Pure Precepts”:

 

Teisho 7: Good (February 10, 2007)

Teisho 8: The Goods (February 11, 2007)

Teisho 9: Wha? (February 12, 2007)

Teisho 10: This Is Good (February 13, 2007)

Teisho 11: Not-Doing is the Sincere Practice of Natural Clarity (February 14, 2007)

Teisho 12: Master Bird’s Nest (February 15, 2007)

 

White Wind Zen Community Media Site

The following MP3s of teisho have been posted on the Media Site:

 

Vines Entwined. Commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's "Katto: Entwining Vines"

 

01 of 07. Reading of the text "Katto"

02 of 07. Teisho 01. The Treasure House

03 of 07. Teisho 02. Entanglements

04 of 07. Teisho 03. Gourds

05 of 07. Teisho 04. The First Ancestor

06 of 07. Teisho 05. The Bloodline of the Buddhas

07 of 07. Teisho 06. The Entwining Vines of Katto: Vines Entwined

 

Joya: The Time of Our Lives

Joya: The Time of Our Lives

 

Horizons of Experience

01 of 01. Teisho 01. Horizons of Experience

 

Birth, Old Age, Sickness and Death

01 of 01. Teisho 01. Birth, Old Age, Sickness and Death

 

Wild Time. Commentaries of Eihei Dogen zenji's "Uji - Being Time"

01 of 13. Reading of Uji - Being Time

02 of 13. Teisho 01. Now and Then

03 of 13. Teisho 02. The Totality of Time

04 of 13. Teisho 02. The Totality of Time (cont.)

05 of 13. Teisho 03. The Absolute Moment

06 of 13. Teisho 04. Tumbling

07 of 13. Teisho 05. Wild

08 of 13. Teisho 06. Drunk and Walled In

09 of 13. Teisho 07. Shining Forth

10 of 13. Teisho 08. Arising Attains Itself

11 of 13. Teisho 09. There's No Mistaking It

12 of 13. Teisho 10. Stonehead and Sore Knees

13 of 13. Teisho 11. Going Forth

 

 

Retreats

After attending a portion of the Nehan O-sesshin, deshi Jinen, visiting from Wolfville, Nova Scotia, began a retreat on Friday afternoon which ended at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday. Neil Porter sat a partial retreat on Friday. Jennifer Comeau sat a two-day retreat on Saturday and Sunday. Samantha Drouin sat a one-day retreat on Saturday. Nathan Comeau sat a retreat beginning on Saturday morning and ending following the formal sitting on Monday morning. Andrew Campbell sat partial retreats on Saturday and Sunday in his home in St. George, Ontario. Deshi Vicki Robichaud sat a partial retreat on Wednesday in her home on Gabriola Island. Dan Moulton sat half day retreats on Friday and Monday in his home in Val Caron, Ontario. Neil Porter is sitting a partial retreat at Dainen-ji today.

 

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.  

 

Address Updates for Charitable Tax Receipts

Charitable tax receipts for all dana contributions made during 2006 will be ready before the end of the month. If you have moved in the past year, or are not sure that we have your current address on file, please email your updated address to Mishin tando at Mishin@trytel.com so that your tax receipt can be correctly addressed. Thank you to all monastics and lay students for generosity in your dana offerings.

- 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. The following is a list of meals served prior to the evening sittings on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

 

Monday yakuseki

Cantonese wide yellow noodles with leeks, sliced cremini and eryingi mushrooms in a Singaporean-style curry garnished with peanuts; sugar snap peas and green beans in a basil and chile sauce; fennel roasted in coconut milk; salad of English and Lebanese cucumbers with Napa cabbage, kkukduji kimchi (cubed daikon) and slivered ginger.

 

Tuesday Yakuseki

Sirloin tip and blade roasts braised in vegetable juices and red wine with mire poix, garlic, and ginger; the braising liquid strained; stir-fried bok choy with bonito and lime juice; roasted green and red plum tomatoes, cubanelle peppers, red bell pepper, and jalapeno in extra virgin olive oil; mixed grain (Lundberg Farm short grain brown rice, Korean white and brown sticky rice, Chinese long grain white rice, barley) with garlic.

 

Thursday Yakuseki

Ziti with curry sauce (made from a base of slowly cooked onion, tomato, cardamom, turmeric, cumin, cayenne, cracked pepper and kosher salt) to which chickpeas, roasted onion and fresh coriander was added; a frittata made with chunks of seared red bell pepper, cubanelle and poblano peppers and chopped scallions; roasted Tandoori cremini and oyster mushrooms; sautéed Shanghai bokchoy and dai gai choy.

 

Monastery Breadbasket

8 baguette type loaves; 2 Pain de Pepin; 8 dozen soft molasses cookies; 10 apple butterscotch puddings; 6 dozen crispy oatcakes; 2 loaves white “24 hour” 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@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 Muryo for creating an inventory of oryoki supplies; to Jido anagarika for purchasing a wind-up radio for our power blackout kit.”

From Chunen ino, “Thank you to the Roshi for the wonderful teachings presented during the Nehan O-sesshin, to Shikai osho on how to quickly cut through discursiveness and density, to Jinmyo osho for many significant adjustments and refinements to my practice.”

From Mishin tando, “Thank you to the Roshi and Jinmyo osho for designing and preparing evening meals for residents, which are always a nourishing and beautiful treat for the senses; to Shikai osho for sewing a batch of dish cloths; to Jane Brown and Ian Hepburn for dana processing.”

 

 


 

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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