http://www.onesangha.org/groups/zen-practice/forum/ http://buddypress.org/?v=1.2.9 en 23@http://www.onesangha.org/groups/zen-practice/forum/topic/30-days-of-practice/ http://www.onesangha.org/groups/zen-practice/forum/topic/30-days-of-practice/ Sat, 20 Nov 2010 15:29:57 +0000 Al Jigen Billings I posted the following on my blog at http://www.openbuddha.com/2010/10/21/30-days-of-practice/ a short while ago. I offer it for discussion. Inspired by Ryan’s “100 Days of Practice” series, I’m setting up a public commitment to practice, though I’m going to scale it down to 30 days this first time. Now, I have a somewhat regular practice of sitting though I haven’t made a point of doing the same amount at the same times every day. I also haven’t always done the same practices, outside of sitting, every day. This discipline has often been difficult for me though I generally try to roll with it and be compassionate towards myself. I am setting this for myself as a challenge, starting this weekend. I’m blogging about it, which I generally do not do about my practice, because I want to encourage other Buddhists with whom I work in the seminary and elsewhere to possibly do it as well. As part of this, I’ve outlined a basic practice below. I’m actually going to do a bit more than this but the form below is drawn from the one used within the Five Mountain Sangha, so I will be doing something very similar. What is below could be considered a good minimal version for many Zen practitioners or others within the Mahayana tradition. As you will note, we generally practice in English in my school, thinking it is better to understand what one is saying rather than chanting in some exotic sounding language but forgetting the meaning. When we do chant in other languages, with the exception of mantras or dharanis, we follow that with the same chant in English. I encourage other people to consider taking up the challenge of maintaining a regular and formal practice for a 30 day period during the next month in order to see how it does (or does not) affect your relationship to practice and the Dharma. A Practice Vandana – Homage NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMA SAMBUDDHASSA Homage to the Buddha, The Venerable One, the Enlightened One, The Supremely Awakened One. Tisarana BUDDHAM SARANAM GACCHAMI DHARMAM SARANAM GACCHAMI SANGHAM SARANAM GACCHAMI I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Dharma. I take refuge in the Sangha. Huayen Purification All the negative karma committed by me from beginningless time Due to greed, anger, and ignorance Born of my body, speech, and mind I now confess and purify it all. (Repeat above three times) Opening the Dharma This Dharma incomparably profound and minutely subtle is hardly met with Even in hundreds of thousands of millions of eons. Now we see it, hear it, receive it. May we completely understand and actualize This Tathagatas true meaning. Heart of Great Perfection Wisdom Sutra (Each syllable below is chanted distinctly, usually to the beat of a wooden drum. If you can’t manage that, just do a monotone chant but put some energy into it! You can hear the Kwan Um chanting of this here.) AVA-LO-KI-TESH-VA-RA, THE BO-DHI-SATT-VA OF COM-PAS-SION, DO-ING DEEP PRAJ-NA-PA-RA-MI-TA CLEAR-LY SAW THAT THE FIVE SKAN-DHAS ARE SHUN-YA-TA, THUS TRAN-SCEND-ING MIS-FOR-TUNE AND SUF-FER-RING. O SHA-RI-PU-TRA, FORM IS NO O-THER THAN SHUN-YA-TA, SHUN-YA-TA IS NO O-THER THAN FORM. FORM IS EX-ACT-LY SHUN-YA-TA, SHUN-YA-TA EX-ACT-LY FORM. FEEL-ING, THOUGHT, VO-LI-TION, AND CON-SCIOUS-NESS ARE LIKE-WISE LIKE THIS. O SHA-RI-PU-TRA, RE-MEM-BER DHAR-MA IS FUN-DA-MEN-TAL-Y SHUN-YA-TA. NO BIRTH, NO DEATH. NO-THING IS DE-FILED, NO-THING IS PURE. NO-THING CAN IN-CREASE, NO-THING CAN DE-CREASE. HENCE: IN SHUN-YA-TA, NO FORM, NO FEEL-ING , NO THOUGHT, NO VO-LI-TION, NO CON-SCIOUS-NESS; NO EYES, NO EARS, NO NOSE, NO TONGUE, NO BO-DY, NO MIND; NO SEE-ING, NO HEAR-ING, NO SMELL-ING, NO TAST-ING, NO TOUCH-ING, NO THINK-ING; NO WORLD OF SIGHT, NO WORLD OF CON-SCIOUS-NESS; NO IG-NOR-ANCE AND NO END TO IG-NOR-ANCE; NO OLD AGE AND DEATH AND NO END TO OLD AGE AND DEATH. NO SUF-FER-ING, NO CRA-VING, NO EX-TINC-ION, NO PATH; NO WIS-DOM; NO AT-TAIN-MENT, IN-DEED, THERE IS NO-THING TO BE AT-TAINED; THE BO-DHI-SATT-VA RE-LIES ON PRAJ-NA PA-RA-MI-TA WITH NO HIN-DRANCE IN THE MIND. NO HIN-DRANCE, THERE-FORE NO FEAR. FAR BE-YOND UP-SIDE DOWN VIEWS, AT LAST NIR-VA-NA. PAST, PRE-SENT, AND FU-TURE, ALL BUD-DHAS, BO-DHI-SATT-VAS, RE-LY ON PRAJ-NA-PA-RA-MI-TA AND THERE-FORE REACH THE MOST SU-PREME EN-LIGHT-EN-MENT. THERE-FORE KNOW: PRAJ-NA PA-RA-MI-TA IS THE GREAT-EST DHA-RA-NI, THE BRIGHT-EST DHA-RA-NI, THE HIGH-EST DHA-RA-NI, THE IN-COM-PARA-BLE DHA-RA-NI. IT COM-PLETE-LY CLEARS ALL SUF-FER-ING. THIS IS THE TRUTH, NOT A LIE. SO SET FORTH THE PRAJ-NA PA-RA- MI-TA DHA-RA-NI. SET FORTH THIS DHA-RA-NI AND SAY: GA-TE GA-TE PA-RA-GA-TE BO-DHI SVA-HA. GA-TE GA-TE PA-RA-GA-TE BO-DHI SVA-HA. GA-TE GA-TE PA-RA-GA-TE BO-DHI SVA-HA. Meditation (Periods of sitting and walking meditation go here. At the very least, try doing a 20 minute period of sitting meditation followed by 10 minutes of walking meditation.) Dedication Buddha Nature pervades the whole universe existing right here, now. Whenever these devoted invocations are sent forth, they are perceived and subtly answered. We dedicate their merits to all members of our human family, throughout space and time. We especially dedicate their merits to those who suffer as a result of calamity, cruelty, and war. May we live in perfect peace with Buddhadharma, and may we realize the Buddha way together. All Buddhas throughout space and time, All the venerable Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas, Maha Prajna Paramita. Four Great Vows However innumerable all beings are, We vow to save them all. However inexhaustible delusions are, We vow to extinguish them all. However immeasurable Dharma teachings are, We vow to master them all. However endless the Buddha’s way is, We vow to follow it. (Repeat above three times) 16@http://www.onesangha.org/groups/zen-practice/forum/topic/30-days-of-practice/topic/going-it-alone-making-it-work-as-an-unaffiliated-buddhist/ http://www.onesangha.org/groups/zen-practice/forum/topic/30-days-of-practice/topic/going-it-alone-making-it-work-as-an-unaffiliated-buddhist/ Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:24:02 +0000 chana Here is a timely article (PDF). I think (hope) it is the trend...... http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/BDSpring10Unaffiliated.pdf Chana 17@http://www.onesangha.org/groups/zen-practice/forum/topic/30-days-of-practice/topic/going-it-alone-making-it-work-as-an-unaffiliated-buddhist/topic/limits-of-practice/ http://www.onesangha.org/groups/zen-practice/forum/topic/30-days-of-practice/topic/going-it-alone-making-it-work-as-an-unaffiliated-buddhist/topic/limits-of-practice/ Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:09:31 +0000 Al Jigen Billings Catherine posted the following in the Spiritual Materialism discussion. I thought it merited its own thread. ------ I’m putting this in a different post, though perhaps it would be better to move it into a different conversation Is 5-10 hours a week that difficult for people? I’d really like to avoid having this become an ordered list of who sits how long, but I would like to have a better idea of what people are struggling with. I know when I teach Taiji, it seems to be a good rule of thumb not to expect that most people will practice outside of class. I’m not particularly bothered by this. And some people do, and they more ofter are the people who stick with it and do more with it, but not always. (And I’ve been really blessed in my students. And teachers, for that matter.) Personally, my schedule is my schedule because I like my life that way a lot – but a lot of people seem pretty horrified by it, and I’m perfectly happy to accept that it might not be especially portable. When it comes to practice, well, you’re doing the work that you’re doing. Anyone who thinks attending my classes is valuable is welcome there, but a class by itself is maybe a little flavor, and it doesn’t strike me as a meal to sustain you. I mention the Taiji just because it’s something I’ve been doing in a formal way for quite a while, and something I’ve experienced from a number of perspectives. By the time I started a formal regular practice of zuochan, I’d had a meditative practice in various forms for some decades and was accustomed to making that sort of time in my life. I don’t know how it works for most people. I hear a lot about people not having time in the modern world, but that hasn’t really been my experience. (One major exception: small children. I am in awe of anyone who has small children and manages to get anything else done.*) I mean, there is always limited time, and there are priorities for that time. And I do think that people have different needs for down time. It took me a long time to realize that when my spine injury was particularly bad, hot baths and trash fiction were often more productive than trying to make myself do something “productive”. But it has also been my experience that a lot of choosing to do things is often as much the converse: choosing not to do other things. The clearer I’ve gotten on what is important to me, the easier it has been to lay aside other things. Ridiculing people for not practicing also doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, though it seems we’re often not a sensible people. I generally figure that people will practice when it becomes important for them to do so, and try not to get in any one else’s way. I guess I have seen situations where people have tried to use practice – as well as any other number of measures – as a way of establishing some kind of social hierarchy. Meh. But mostly, what a waste of time. I’ve also run into a lot of people who have been pretty deeply unhappy about their own practices or lack thereof. And sometimes this unhappiness seems to get projected at other people. (Of course, that is in turn my interpretation.) A lot of these things seem very convoluted for people. That often hasn’t been my experience… but then, my experience for myself has been that usually when things seemed most complex, and I most conflicted, I was usually trying to avoid looking at a relatively simple choice straight on. * My yoga teacher was talking about making time for uninterrupted practice, and mentioned that it really doesn’t apply to people with young children, but then raising a family is itself a yogic practice. I’m still in awe. 6@http://www.onesangha.org/groups/zen-practice/forum/topic/30-days-of-practice/topic/going-it-alone-making-it-work-as-an-unaffiliated-buddhist/topic/limits-of-practice/topic/spiritual-materialism/ http://www.onesangha.org/groups/zen-practice/forum/topic/30-days-of-practice/topic/going-it-alone-making-it-work-as-an-unaffiliated-buddhist/topic/limits-of-practice/topic/spiritual-materialism/ Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:34:01 +0000 Paul Dōch’ŏng Lynch We use our intellect to translate our experiences and direct them into categories in an attempt to understand our lives. Our beliefs become surrogates for our experiences, and as we get older, they eventually may insulate us from any direct experience what so ever. Through our habit energy we utilize concepts, ideologies, and constructs as filters that partition all of our incoming perceptions. Furthermore, we manipulate our interpretations of our experiences until they eventually concur with our particular belief system. Spiritual materialism therefore is our utilization of religious and spiritual beliefs to conform to our own worldview. True spirituality, and in this case Zen practice is an attempt to rid ourselves of the baggage of all belief systems.