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Honzon scroll with Sakyamuni Buddha, Eihei Dogen zenji and Keizan Jokin zenji
eMirror Vol. 11, No. 50 Friday, December 14th, 2007 Edited by Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho
Quotes from teisho are run sequentially in the eMirror
Dogen zenji says,
This universe has many facets such as the ten directions, one direction, this direction, directionality, and the direction of this present moment. "The ten directions" of north, northeast, east, south, southwest, west, northwest, up and down are all around. "One direction" is the direction you are always facing, however you might be turned. "This direction" is the one that you face, whichever direction that might be. "Directionality" here means the possibility of movement, the permissiveness and accommodation of space which is present as the fact of coming and going, the four dignities of sitting, walking, standing, and lying down, the numberless possibilities of motion. "This present moment" is coming and going but in what "direction" is it moving? We cannot find anywhere that the moment comes from because the past is not a place but a dimension of space. We cannot find anywhere that the moment goes to because the future is not a place but a dimension of space. Left and right emerge intimately together with front and back and up and down but the horizontal does not emerge from the vertical. The dimension of movement or duration or time is intimate with the three other dimensions but does not emerge from them. Coming comes, going goes. The direction of this present moment is a coming from nowhere, a going to nowhere, a movement without "to" and "from" at all. The movement of the in breath and out breath, the movement of a fist unfolding into an open hand, the movement of clouds in the sky are all like this.
Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi, beginning teisho 4: "A Whole World" in the the teisho series "Five Fingers, Ten Directions: Commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's text 'Jippo'", presented Monday, May 14, 2001.
Upcoming Events
Fusatsu and the Vow of Samantabhadra Chanting of the Precepts will take place on December 26th. The Vow of Samantabhadra will be chanted on December 19th.
Hermitage The Roshi began a period of hermitage on Tuesday, December 12 th , which will end at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 16 th , when he leads monastics in Acalanatha Sadhana.
Oryoki for General Students On Saturday, December 15th, 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.
Joya (New Year's Celebration) On Monday, December 31st at 10 p.m. until Tuesday, January 1st at 12:00 a.m. we will celebrate Joya or New Year's. Join Zen Master Anzan Hoshin, Ven. Shikai osho and Ven. Jinmyo osho and the monastics of the Northern Mountain Order in ringing in the New Year with 108 recitations of the Mahaprajnaparamita Hridaya sutra mantra. Following the sitting there will be an array of shojin-ryori (Zen vegetarian cuisine) dishes for an informal feast. There is no better way to begin the year. Dana is $25. Please register by sending an email to or telephone the Zen Centre office (613) 562-1568. The Tuesday 6:00 a.m. formal sitting is cancelled.
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 .
Recorded Teisho Schedule
Saturday, December 15th general sitting - Turning the Wheel of the Way: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's "Gyoji: Continuous Practice": "The Work of the Way" (teisho 11 of 44).
Sunday, December 16th formal sitting – SAkN: Questioning the Enigma: "Dukkha Is Bad Space" (teisho 4 of 4).
Monday, December 17th general sitting - Bright Right Through: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's Commentaries on Dogen zenji's "Muchu Setsumu": "Gathered and Released" (teisho 4 of 11).
Tuesday, December 18th formal sitting - Mikkyo-zo: Monastic Jishu: "Jnanasattva" (class 12 of 15).
Saturday, December 22nd general sitting - Turning the Wheel of the Way: Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's "Gyoji: Continuous Practice": "Giving and Receiving Tracelessness" (teisho 12 of 44).
Current Teisho Series During
the 2007 Sogaku-ki O-sesshin in May, Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi 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) Teisho 11: Our True Body is Every Body (December 2, 2007) Teisho 12: "What Can Be Held?" (December 4, 2007) Teisho 13: A Brilliant Sea of Clouds (December 5, 2007) Teisho 14: Act Freely, Without Fabrication (December 6, 2007) Teisho 15: Just Receive It And Bow (December 7, 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) Dharma Talk 3: Spouses and Children (November 22, 2007) Dharma Talk 4: Not yet titled (December 13, 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".
Congratulations Congratulations and deep gassho to Nathan Krahn on being accepted as a general student by the Roshi.
Training Session Michael
Hammond completed a one-week Training Session in his home in Cornwall,
PEI. He sat four rounds each morning and two rounds each evening. Retreats Charles Enman sat a two-day retreat on Sunday and Monday. Graham Mayeda sat a two-day retreat on Monday and Tuesday.
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.
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 the sittings.
Monday Yakuseki: Fried rice with red and yellow bell peppers and Cubanelle peppers, shoyu, sesame oil and chile oil; chile miso soup with shitake, baby cremini, and sliced white mushrooms; stir-fried Shanghai bok choy and Napa cabbage with lime; platter of Chinese vegetarian mock duck, lamb, chicken, and atsuage tofu rectangles, garnished with garlic stems with a dipping sauce of shoyu, sesame oil, and Meyer lemon juice.
Tuesday Yakuseki: Larb moo (minced pork with leeks, toasted rice powder, green chiles, garlic chives, diced red and bell pepper, mirin, ngoc mam, lime) to wrap with romaine lettuce leaves; curry of chicken thighs, eryingi and chanterelle mushrooms, poblano chiles, white onion, ginger, garlic, popped white and black mustard seeds and cumin seeds, hing, tumeric, green chiles, and yogurt; slaw of green cabbage and white onion with Vietnamese roasted chile oil, mayonnaise and lime juice; raita with Lebanese cucumbers and plum tomatoes; white and brown Basmati rice; curry crackers.
Thursday Yakuseki: 14 Mixed grain (Lundberg Farm short-grain brown rice, barley, Korean white and brown rice, gohan, pearled wheat, millet, red and white quinoa, brown and white basmatti, arborio, kasha, and sorgum) seasoned with roasted chilies and butter; curried butternut squash soup with chickpeas; curried kale, sugar snap peas, chunks of red bell pepper and mushrooms mixed with curds (large-curd cottage cheese).
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 Chunen ino: Thank you to the Roshi for the wonderful O-sesshin and the teisho presented, to Shikai osho for direct reminders to practice; to Jinmyo osho for the great meals for the O-sesshin participants, to Mishin tando for year end financials; to Saigyo chiden for organizing samu; to Senbo shuso for archiving work. From Mishin tando: Thank you to the Roshi for Rohatsu O-sesshin and the celebration of Jodo-e on December 8th, for the teisho presented even though he was quite ill with a heavy cold, and for making the transmission of the Teachings possible; to Shikai osho for tasty and inventive O-sesshin refreshments and for baking excellent "Jamaican patties"; to Jinmyo osho for preparing so many delicious meals throughout O-sesshin; to Chunen ino for his Dharma Talk at Shukke Tokudo; to Saigyo chiden and Muryo for looking into what can be done for the washing machine that is very noisy and on its last legs; to Guillaume Albert for assisting with packaging teisho CDs to be mailed to public students. From Saigyo chiden : Thank you to the Roshi for leading the recent Rohatsu O-sesshin even through a severe cold and for more extraordinary teisho in the "Doing Not-Doing, part two" series. Thank you to Shikai osho for a gift of antique bees wax for the monastery workshop. Thank you Jinmyo osho for creating the delicious and nourishing meals for the O-sesshin participants whilst also ill with a heavy cold. Thank you to Jido anagarika for overseeing the care of the third floor fish each week and for designing and building a new recycling box rack for the garbage area. Thank you to Nathan Krahn for offering many hours of samu each week on a variety of projects and to Nathan Comeau for samu to organize the workshop further; to Samantha Drouin, Guillaume Albert, and Sophia Stevenson for archiving samu. Thank you to those students who have helped recently to keep the car parking area free of snow and ice following the recent heavy snows. From Senbo shuso: Thank you to Anzan roshi for Rohatsu o-sesshin and Shukke-Tokudo; to Roshi and Jinmyo osho for the always wonderful food during O-sesshin; to Shikai osho for the transcription of her Dharma Talks for publishing; to Jinmyo osho for editing and sending the eMirror every week; to Chunen ino for a great Dharma Talk and for many demonstrations of kindness; to Mishin tando for delicacies from abroad; to Saigyo chiden for repairing the side door lock, the hot water mixing valve, and the dryer; to Jido anagarika for his work on the fish tanks; to David Clawson for computer work and maintenance. From Charles Enman: I wish to thank Roshi for the extraordinary opportunity for awakening that he has given to so many people through his creation of Dainen-ji. I thank Shikai osho and Jinmyo osho for the daisan I had with them during my recent retreat. I thank Roshi and the Office of the Tenzo for the wonderful meals, so full of rich flavours and textures and so nutritious and kind to the bodymind. I thank my fellow students for their examples of exertion in pursuit of awakening.
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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