| OUR TEACHERS |
| WEEKLY SCHEDULE & SERVICES |
| CONTACT / DIRECTIONS |
At some point we realize that what all the books and teachers have been telling us is true. We have to do our own spiritual work. Nobody else can do it for us. Not even our parents. Not even when they want to. And in this tradition, the work is all about meditation practice, whether we are sitting, standing, walking or lying down.
It we ever decide to pour some oil onto this fire we call meditation, there are three attitudes that can be very helpful. They are great faith, great courage, and great questioning. Great faith is about believing in ourselves. My dharma brother, Koho has a little text message he has written to himself on his cell phone: "Enough". We are, each of us, Buddha. We are, each of us, enough. We are, each of us, innately compassionate and surprisingly wise. Over time, if we sit long enough, we will see this in ourselves, in spite of all the other junk mail that flies through our brains. Our delusions downsize, fade, and disappear. The Sixth Patriarch Huineng says it this way:
"Deluded, a Buddha is a sentient being;
Awakened, a sentient being is a Buddha.
Ignorant, a Buddha is a sentient being.
With wisdom, a sentient being is a Buddha…
In our mind itself a Buddha exists,
Our own Buddha is the true Buddha.
If we do not have in ourselves the Buddha mind,
Then where are we to seek Buddha?
(From Zen Poems selected and edited by Peter Harris, p. 31)
Over time, as we sit, quietness and clarity about our lives shows up. As we continue to practice we can see the changes in our own behavior….I can, for example, actually say no to late night television, something I believed impossible fifteen years ago. Admittedly it helps that there are reruns of The Daily Show on Monday and Tuesday evenings, but still. I say no. We grasp less, open more to possibilities. We get better and better at responding immediately to the circumstances right in front of us instead of the things that might happen or already did back when we were twenty three. Faith in ourselves matters.
Great courage keeps us going. It takes guts to do this practice. Korean Zen Master Hyobong used to sit on frozen rivers using the cold air to keep his concentration strong. Zen Master Kusan used to sit on an edge of a cliff. When I was on pilgrimage in Korea I climbed up to a ledge where Wonhyo used to meditate over a thousand years ago. There was barely enough room to sit. But once you are in position you are in position and there is nothing like staring down at a city that looks like a pile of Leggos to make your concentration sharp. Great courage grows out of faith and a determination to see this practice through to its non-end.
Great Questioning, sometimes called Great Doubt, is about living our lives as one great ball of "don't know" mind. We are curious, open, accepting of what the heck is going on in our lives, even when what is going on might be exhausting us. Kusan used to tell his students that great questioning is like a chicken hatching eggs. She knows just when to move one egg away from her body and bring another closer. Her concentration never wavers. That way eggs become chickens. That way sentient beings realize our innate Buddha nature.
Great questioning is patient. Energetic. Open. At its core there is a sweet stillness, a spaciousness, immeasurable and unforgettable. And that is just the beginning. T.S. Eliot once wrote,
"I said to my soul be still,
and wait without hope
wait without thought…
so the darkness shall be light,
and the stillness the dancing."
Yup.
