What does Maybe look like?

What practitioners might come to the Dharma hall if the venerable monk would sit on the cushion?

Day in and day out, the sun rises and the sun sets. We have come to know this and to rely upon it, incorporating it into our lives. These things that are predictable create the foundation for other decisions; we build upon what we know. But how many picnics have been scuttled by a 50% chance of rain?

When something--like the weather--becomes uncertain, we can suddenly find ourselves forced to reevaluate our situation. If we were truly committed to that picnic happening, we could schedule it in a bomb shelter--weather not withstanding. Alternatively, if it was actually time with family or friends that was important, we could find some way to do that, rain or shine. Still, we ultimately cannot guarantee the outcome. In spite of our best efforts, the picnic might not occur. The people might not show up. The people who do might not have fun. Who knows?

Today is Monday. Yesterday I heard the monk might show up in the afternoon; later I heard he showed up for a while in the evening.  I hear now that tomorrow he might come in the evening, but that it is more likely he will be here next week sometime. What is a practitioner to do?

Perhaps the storm cannot decide when faced with a 50% chance of a picnic...

When doubt is something in which we are certain, we weigh it like anything else. If you are clear in your own priorities, you will do what is right for you, perhaps knowing with certainty that you are precisely where you need to be, wherever that is.

Tomorrow, I expect to be here for the usual Aikido and Zen time from 6:30-8:00 p.m. How about you? Don't worry about the monk: I will guarantee that if Elijah happens to show up and take the seat we prepared for him, it's only to tell you that you have already arrived.

Almost Ready...

Every hand--big or small, seen or unseen--moves our effort forward. Hopefully, each of us in the sangha and beyond is one step closer to seeing how fixing a hole in the wall reveals the entire truth within our practice.

Thanks everyone for your continued efforts!

Please keep an eye on this website and the Twitter and Facebook feeds for updates on Z.M. Pohwa Sunim's visit!

Open Your Eyes...

... and behold your inheritance!

Empowered and with a new sense of life and direction, we wake up where we stand, in our own circumstances and with the entire universe at our feet! Sometimes, though, it looks just like this... and, really, it's enough to put you back to sleep...

But wait... Before you doze off again, reconsider the predicament: The first among the Ancient Buddhas left this for you... And you? As of now, you are the last of the lineage of Future Patriarchs! So, what will you do with it?

One will clean the dishes. Another set out the trash.

* * *

Thanks to those who joined us today with some clean-up and repairs at the BZC! There's still some work to do tomorrow if you felt left out today. Leave a post or email Joe if you'd like to lend a hand.

Begin Again: Preparing for the Monk's Arrival

Fresh candles, water, cantaloupes, oranges, apples, grapes, cherries, sweets, ... This is all part of a truly wonderful offering found in the temple this evening. How auspicious that these should all be discovered at the altar before our evening class!

In Zen, Aikido, and other martial arts practiced here, we work with what is offered, each within his or her own circumstances. This is so natural; how could we do otherwise?

Still, we question and confuse ourselves. Where did this offering come from? Why was it offered? Was it a special occasion? A Buddhist holiday? A plea? A thanksgiving? What does it mean to find this here? Then we ask, what should we do with it? How should we honor the gift, the gift giver, and the intention? How can we do this if we do not know what it is?

Perfect giving and perfect receiving. We do these every moment of our life without knowing. When we inhale, do we consider where it came from? When we exhale, do we wonder how it will be used? Would we hold our breath at either end if we new another's purpose for it? Watch as the question arises how your breathing becomes uncertain. Where did the perfection go?

Zen Master Pohwa Sunim will be returning to the States for a short visit over the next few weeks, some of which will be here with us at the Baltimore Zen Center. A few of us will be working this weekend to prepare the center for his stay. If you are in the area, please join us for a light dose of hard work! We'll serve the fruits from the offering as we clear a path to his high seat.

When we make such an effort for a reason, we give it a name such as "dana" or simply "practice." Sometimes it is during this practice of generosity that we find the perfection of giving, the effortless way to do hard work. Perhaps if we make the effort to make the Monk comfortable, perhaps he will try to show us the meaning of "Bird flies; feather falls."

If you'd like to lend a hand and share a meal, please leave a post here or send a note to Joe!

Keep Your Lantern Lit!

This weekend is the Lotus Lantern Festival, marking the beginning of the weeklong celebration of the birth of Siddartha Guatama, the man who would come to be known as the Buddha.  At Pohwa-seunim’s temple of Yeonpyeongsa & temples across South Korea, colorful lanterns are being constructed & displayed.  In Seoul, a huge street festival is taking place, with dancing, music, and a parade of colorful lantern floats.

The lotus flower has been regarded as a symbol of enlightenment in Buddhism for centuries.  Its beautiful blossom grows best in the murkiest, muddiest pools.  So it is only natural that its shape has been used as inspiration for lanterns in Buddhist temples around the world.  Just as a lantern brings light to darkness, so too do we practice to bring light to our lives & world.

In Seon, there are three pillars, or energies, necessary for practice.  The first is great doubt.  We continue introspect on our gongan, we continue to take nothing for granted in each & every moment of our lives.  However, great doubt by itself leads to nihilism, a fanatical obsession with emptiness.

So we also need great faith, faith in the Dharma, faith in Buddha, faith in ourselves.  Before we practice, we affirm our faith, saying “I take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.”  Faith balances our introspective doubt, keeping us from the depths of nihilism, and our introspection balances our faith, keeping us from fanatical blindness.

Both of these however, can wax and wane.  The struggles of day to day life can snuff out our desire to practice.  We may say that we’re going to sit in meditation in the morning, but when that alarm clock sounds, it’s so much easier to roll over & sleep for another half hour.  Our gongan may frustrate us & so we decide to watch TV instead of spending time introverting on the hwadu.  A coworker may anger us, & we decide that we’ll give in to our anger, just this once…

So we have the third pillar of our practice, great perseverance.

If a lantern is not fed fresh oil, it will not stay lit.

In the 6^th century, two young warriors came to the monk Wongwang and asked him how they could practice Seon while fulfilling their duties to their kingdom.  He gave them five precepts that have been handed down as a guiding ethos for those who involved in Seon martial art practice.  Those two warriors went on to teach those precepts to the military, & defended their kingdom, leading to centuries of peace & unity.  Of these precepts, the fourth is “Im Jeon Mu Toe”, meaning “In Battle, Never Fall Back”.  So in our practice, when we feel our faith falter, when we feel it is easier to rollover & go back to sleep, we must have the perseverance of a warrior, rise up, and keep moving forward, never falling back, never giving any ground.

In our daily practice, we chant the Heart Sutra.  According to legend, the sutra was written when the monk Shariputra asked the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion, Gwanseum, how we can practice like the bodhisattvas.  Gwanseum answers, laying out a short overview of the basics of Seon practice, finishing with the Wisdom Perfection Darani, Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha.

However, if we look at the Heart Sutra as a gongan, the Darani is the hwadu, the response to Shariputra’s question, “How can we practice like the bodhisattvas?”

Gate gate paragate parasamgate Bodhi svaha can be translated from Sanskrit as “Going, going, going further, going even furth, the great Awakening!”  We never accept that we have reached the other side because of our great doubt, we have faith that we keep moving, and we persevere, as we move forward one step at a time, never falling back.

So, during the Lotus Lantern Festival, we light our lamps, we keep them well-oiled, and we move forward, never ceasing.

Merry Christmas! Jesus is here!

"Wait...what?!?"

"I thought we were talking about Zen!  Keep your JudeoChristian monotheism out of my Korean-filtered introspective Dharmic practice!"

In the Mirror of Seon, the Great Master of the Western Mountain, Seosan, expounds on the words of the sutras translated by Kumarajiva, which says,

The Buddha did not appear in this world to save sentient beings.  Rather, the Buddha appeared in order to liberate this world from the mistaken view that there is life and death, or Nirvana and salvation.

Seosan states that we exist in stillness, abiding in nothingness, neither coming nor going, neither being born nor dying.  Yet we, in our minds, decide that there is birth and death, that we suffer, and so we decide that we need to be freed from our suffering.

The Apostle John says in his Gospel,

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.  He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.

In John's theology, Christ is the agent of creation.  He is the Word of God, spoken from the dawn of time.  He is in us, around us, from the beginning until now.  Yet we decided to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil, and we continue to, everyday, in every decision we make, in our acceptance of what we believe to be reality.  We create our Original Sin, and ignore that we are originally a part of Jesus Christ, as John says,

In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

We live in the world Christ creates, but we refuse to recognize it.

Thankfully, we do not have to keep eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

To all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God - children not born of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.  The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.

Later in John's Gospel, Jesus says,

I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

This Christmas, let us ask ourselves, "Why did Jesus say that?"

Just a gongan, not a sermon...

Merry Christmas from all of us at the Baltimore Zen Center.

The Rat Trap of the Patriarchs

One of the most common questions I hear from beginners to Ganhwaseon is, “How do I work with my gongan?”  or “How do I sit with my gongan?”  That is a gongan in itself!  We don’t actually offer a lot of instruction for how to practice a gongan, because discovering how to work with a gongan is actually a part of the practice itself.

That said, there are certainly things we can caution a beginner to avoid.  One of the primary things is concerning yourself with the idea that you have to find a given correct answer.  This may seem paradoxical, because gongan are not “whatever works for you” practices.  We often hear from pop Zen “gurus” that “there’s no right answer to a koan”.  As usual, there’s some truth to that, but it’s also a lie.  There are certainly right answers to them, and there are certainly errors.  However, if we look at our gongan as something to be solved, and begin our practice from the point of view that we must find an answer, then we’re starting from the wrong point of view.  If we treat our gongan as a riddle or a word problem where we sit and intellectualize about it’s meaning, then we’re just creating another structure to cage ourselves in.  If we sit and just guess randomly at it’s meaning, then we’re letting our mind wander and master us.

On the other hand, we shouldn’t just sit & “be mindful” of the gongan, waiting for the answer to suddenly come to us.  Mindfulness is good thing, it encourages us to lay aside distractions and discriminations.  Yet mindfulness will only get us so far.

So what are we to do with our gongan?

Each of these approaches are often and quite naturally ones that we all begin to use when we work with a gongan.  We use our intellect & end up attaching to the idea that the gongan has an answer, that it has some meaning, if only we could just figure it out!  We craft well-thought answers, only to have them crushed by the teacher in our discussions.  Seeing the intellect fail, we begin guessing, hoping for some moment of inspiration, but these too are all cast aside.  Frustration mounts, and many students quit at this point.  “Gongan are ridiculous!  There must be a better, easier way,” our minds tell us.

This frustration, this realization that our mind has failed us, is the first sign that we are ready to truly begin to practice the gongan.  Many give up, but at this point if we can just continue to push forward, then we can see things open up. Our frustration arises because our mind realizes it is like a rat in a maze with no solution.  There is no way out.  Now we can begin Ganhwaseon.

Perseverance.