PRACTICE REMINDERS
Morning Sitting
Join Us for Morning Sitting in Silence
Welcome
Just a few notes: Please mute yourself when you enter. The sitting will start with 3 bells and will end with one bell. When you sign-in, turn your video on and bow after the three starting bells. During the sitting, you do not need to keep your video on. When 30 minutes is up, turn your video on and bow when you hear the ending bell.
Time: Apr 17, 2023 06:30 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Every day, until Apr 21, 2023, 5 occurrence(s)
Apr 17, 2023 06:30 AM
Apr 18, 2023 06:30 AM
Apr 19, 2023 06:30 AM
Apr 20, 2023 06:30 AM
Apr 21, 2023 06:30 AM
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/
Passcode: 726535
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/
Passcode: 726535
On Becoming a Monk by Lao Heshang Kaihu
Please click on the link.
For anyone contemplating becoming a contemplative monk –
MONK REVISION (3)
The Heart Sutra
For those in the 90 + 2 Retreat – please read this Sutra at least one time. Thank you.
THE MAHA PRAJNA PARAMITA HRIDAYA SUTRA
(The Heart Sutra)
Avalokiteshvara bodhisattva when practicing deeply the prajna paramita perceived that all five skandas are empty and was saved from all suffering and distress.
O Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness; emptiness does not differ from form, that which is form is emptiness; that which is emptiness, form. The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, consciousness.
O Shariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness; they do not appear, nor disappear, are not tainted not pure, do not increase nor decrease.
Therefore in emptiness, no form, no feelings, no perceptions, no impulses, no consciousness, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no color, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind; no realm of eyes and so forth until no realm or mind consciousness; no ignorance and also no extinction of it, and so forth until no old age and death and also no extinction of them; no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path, no cognition, also no attainment.
With nothing to attain the bodhisattvas depends on prajna paramita and the mind is no hindrance. Without any hindrance no fears exist; far apart from every perverted view the bodhisattva dwells in nirvana.
In the three worlds all Buddhas depend on prajna paramita and attain unsurpassed complete perfect enlightenment.
Therefore know the prajna paramita is the great transcendent mantra, is the great bright mantra, is the utmost mantra, is the supreme mantra, which is able to relieve all suffering and is true, not false.
So proclaim the prajna paramita mantra, proclaim the mantra that says:
“GATE GATE, PARAGATE, PARASAMGATE BODHI! SVAHA!”
May we with all beings realize the emptiness of the three wheels,
giver, receiver and gift.
Author: Fashi Lao Yue
A SINGLE THREAD is not a blog.
If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching,
please contact editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com
Sit Still. Leap Clear.
May we with all beings realize the emptiness of the three wheels,
giver, receiver and gift.
Author: Fashi Lao Yue
A SINGLE THREAD is not a blog.
If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching,
please contact editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com
Announcement
We are pleased to announce morning sittings at 6:30 am to 7:00 am. Monday thru Friday. Central Time USA. ZOOM
It is complete silence.
If you are interested, contact:
laodizhishakya@gmail.com
Does It Matter?
She leans across the table towards the face and asks, “Are you a man or a woman?”
The body across from her is wide and chesty, held together by a dull green jacket about to split open freeing layers of winter clothes. The head is covered by a flowery scarf underneath a well-used black-knitted hat. The face is round and shiny giving the impression of being slick but not soft. A pair of black glasses hang on the bridge of a bony, broad nose. The eyes look into hers across a well-situated brown bag of food and a paper cup.
“Does it matter?” The voice is smooth as blades on ice.
She sits back to consider. Her eyes blink. The mouth joins in with a puckered, lowered lip. The automatic powers – blinking, puckering, and yes, considering.
Before her thoughts come, before her words are expressed, she watches as the body across from her stands up. Before she speaks, a hand as big and thick and long as an imagined giant opens and offers her a mint. The kind twice-wrapped in yellow paper.
The gift is held under her nose; it is impossible to ignore. She looks up over the top of her plastic sunglasses and shakes off the offering.
“Take it.” The voice insists.
She takes a sip of the cooled off milky coffee from a paper cup and keeps her head down. The body is right, she figures. For weeks, no – more than weeks, months she’s been sick. The coughing. The headaches. And worst of all, the sleepless drip-down-her-throat nights accompanied by wandering in the lightless but familiar rooms, hoping for relief that never comes. It is some instinctual impulse to do; to take some action against what comes in the shape and size of threats to the body. She concedes, the mind doesn’t seem to be able to win – it’s a miserable weapon, often no protection at all. In between these recollections she wonders if the mind and the body are allies – in cahoots with one another. All of this appears in a flash.
She wants to follow the collusion conspiracy but when she opens her eyes the muscular hand remains open and still and the mint, like a butterfly lure, sits on the plump ridges of thick skin.
“Do you work with your hands?” She asks as if she already knows the answer.
The stocky fingers close like the mouth of a snapping turtle catching hold of a passing prey. Just as fast, the hand, now a fist, disappears into the pocket where the mint once lived. There is a shuffle against the grey-speckled table with thighs moving forward and hands grabbing the previous arranged food bag and coffee mug.
She looks up. First, she watches the body scuffle with the uncomfortable, little chair, pushing it back. Then she feels a yearning, a pull from within her to tell the body to stop the move – to stop the leaving. It, too, was very fast. Quick as a wink, she’d say to others who might listen. By the time all this appears in her mind the the body is out of sight. Leaving her mouthing the words to an empty chair.
“It doesn’t matter.”
I’ve lived as a man and a woman
Image Credit: Fly
WORK AS DEVOTION RETREAT
All intentional action is karma. When we concentrate and focus our consciousness on our actions, we actualize the Way. We purify the mind. Steady our hands. Perfect the Way.
RETREAT OVERVIEW
Zendo’s and churches are closed so it’s up to each one of us to put together a zendo and/or church, a place of worship for our practice, right there at home. With the intention to realize that every space is a place of practice; a holy place. As the cook told Dogen, nothing is hidden from practice. But unless you practice this truth, nothing will be revealed as practice and you will not realize the Way of practice.
This retreat focuses on WORK – work as a spiritual practice. Those of you who are working at home, you may want to make your work-for-money a spiritual practice. Certainly those who are fortunate enough to have work at this time are grateful to have it. So….you can start with gratitude as an offering.
The first thing I’d like you to do is to choose a morning and afternoon activity that you can commit to for 90 days. Something you are willing to begin and continue. As an example, I will draw in the morning and write in the afternoon every day for 90 days. And this will be done as a devotion…with candles, flowers, and bells and bows and chants before I begin and when I finish.
Of course you can do more than two activities but two is the minimum for the retreat. Suggestions: going for a walk, exercise, reading, playing a board game, entertainment, speaking to someone on the phone…nothing is left out of practice. Offer all the activities for what it actually is – an opportunity to contemplate, meditate, concentrate, focus – not going after the end result…but attending to what is right in front of you. Sleep is also part of practice.
This retreat is focused on WORK – the WORK suggested in this essay – WORK as the 4th Awareness.
In order to give your time and energy to this work you will need to contemplate what devotion is. Here are some thoughts on devotion.
To begin, the two activities need to have a ritual, devotional approach surrounding the activity. The reason to create a ritual is simple – it reminds us to practice the WORK activity as devotion and not as a goal to complete and finish. Taking the finish line down will be difficult for some of you – and you may need to spend some time relinquishing a deadline.
In order to do this you will need a space devoted to the activity. A sacred space is a space dedicated by you to your spiritual purpose.
It is a space that is venerated; a space given respect and requires reverence from you. Now since we here are contemplatives and often spend solitary time in silence we suggest you do the same in regards to your activity. Before I go on – I want to remind each of us that our activity is KARMA.
Anything you do intentionally lays down an imprint along the line of cause and effect – but don’t get too enmeshed in what that does. KARMA is complex and difficult to tease out.
THE very best action is action given out of a courageous heart and big-open-generous hands that does not seek any result or reward. In many traditions, this refers to knowing you are not the doer.
Think of all the ancient sages, Buddha, Christ, Rumi, Shams, mystics. Offer unselfishly what you have to do without seeking a reward.
In order to do this type of ACTION, one must surrender the self-centered interest in the activity and just offer devotion as stated in the Way of the tenzo’s prayer. (See tenzo’s prayer here)
This gives everyone an overview of the retreat. I will check in from time to time via e-mail. Sending teachings and support to those who sign-up.
If you’d like to join the retreat, please send an e-mail to: marilyn.fischbach@gmail.com and your name will go on the list.
Please consider this carefully. Don’t just say, “oh, I think that might be fun.” Don’t just add your name as another thing to do – that will not serve your spiritual purpose. Contemplate this offering. If you are able to commit to it – then send an e-mail and join in. AND, remember this is a 90 DAY commitment.
The retreat begins here on May 20th.
May we with all beings realize the emptiness of the three wheels,
Giver, receiver and gift.
If you have any questions, contact Marilyn at marilyn.fischbach@gmail.com
Practice I Am Here
My main practice for many, many years has been Zen Buddhism. It includes sitting, silence and study. Over time and with the help and direction of my late teacher it changed and continues to change. All practices that include the body and mind suffer change. It’s the nature of the transient world.
Slowly, over a period of years I have withdrawn from the activities of the world in body, mind and speech. I continue to withdraw. It takes time to settle into solitude especially when we have been active in the world. My practice changed to a stillness that is without words. It is a new place where attainment no longer pushes or pulls the body and mind.
Although I am a Zen Buddhist, who is considered a master of the teachings, I often find Jesus Christ to be an exemplar and teacher of the Way. God in man, an incarnated divinity who showed up on earth in an impermanent form and suffered the changes of the human condition. He is kin as well as a teacher. Attainment in a worldly form was not important to him because he didn’t come here in a body-mind form to get anything; he came to show the Way.
His life pointed out the impermanence of the body and mind when he was killed by hanging on a wooden cross for many to see. Sometime ago one of my students went to Rome, to the Vatican and came back with a gift for me. When she gave me the gift she said, “I looked and looked for a gift for you and when I saw this, I knew immediately it was for you because I can’t imagine anything that exemplifies “letting go” as this.” She handed me a golden crucifix.
I practice remembering the crucifix as an icon of renunciation. I know Jesus Christ pointed out how confused our minds get over the things of the world. We put our heart and mind on getting the things of the world – and not on the Way which transcends the unreal, impermanent objects. When we become foolish in this manner, we invite fear and more confusion into our mind. I think Jesus knows this is our tendency so he pointed it out to us in one simple phrase: “Don’t be afraid, I have overcome the world.”
Yes. Don’t be afraid. The things of the world suffer change and scare us. Don’t go after the unreal, changing things – don’t get entangled with them. There is nothing to attain. In Zen Buddhism, it is said like this – with nothing to attain, the being of Light dwells in nirvana, a transcendent state where desire and suffering cease.
When I get here, people generally ask me, “How do I live then?” It always makes me smile. My first response is “Why do you worry about the future? The future has not yet come.” This answer usually invokes more questions and often worry. I know the worry is the very tendency in the mind that confuses us. It also shows a cloud over the mind of the one asking. The cloud of desire that wants to accomplish and attain and get something. Under this cloud it is very difficult to be still and practice “I am here.” Even an adept of longstanding may struggle with being I am here being fearless and generous with what comes.
There are many other teachings to help us follow the Way and renounce our ignorance but the one I will offer here captures both the mundane and the transcendent as well as the teachings of Zen Buddhism and Jesus Christ.
“Know all things pass away. Be fearless. And give, give, give.”
If only one is possible for you right now, choose give. If you knew how important giving is, you’d never miss an opportunity to give.
May we, with all beings realize the emptiness of the three wheels, giver receiver and gift.
OM
Author: Fashi Lao Yue
If for some reason you need elucidation on the teaching,
please contact the editor at: yao.xiang.editor@gmail.com
Chapter Two – The Human Dilemma
Chapter Two looks at the very heart of our dilemma – it is simple – we are caught in the divided delusion of right and wrong, good and bad – this divided mind keeps us from looking at the Source; the Oneness beyond words. Until we look and know the Source for ourselves, we will endlessly suffer; moving the rocks around in the river’s flow – trying to get it just right.
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Chapter Two -The Human Dilemma
Image Credit: George Mann