WATERFALL

2002 fall newsletter

Eshin's talk at Galiano Island sesshin

Shakyamuni was the founder of Buddhism. He didn’t actually ‘found’ Buddhism. We just say that. By reflecting inwardly, by becoming more aware of how he responded in circumstances, he came to see the reality of himself and the world. He woke up, or became enlightened, to his true nature. He was a human being like us, and spent the rest of his life helping other people to also wake up and become enlightened to their true nature. This tradition of awakening and helping has come to be known as Buddhism. But when you are doing Buddhist practice, there’s no need to label it, one just does it.

This ‘true nature’ Shakyamuni also called ‘dharma activity’. We could also call it ‘Buddha activity’, the activity of Buddha nature. The word ‘activity’ is important because we are not talking about a thing or an object and it is not a particular or special state. Rather, it is the activity of the seamless interplay between ourselves and our surroundings.

Let’s be clear about this, because we have all grown up with a rather static sense of ‘I am’. When we label ourselves, we think we are this sort of person or that sort of person. A static image is formed. Indeed we have a self, but Shakyamuni pointed out that our true nature, the activity of the self, is the unending seamless interplay between ourselves and the circumstances we are in.

Other Buddhist traditions actually have meditations into trying to find the real core, the permanent thing that is us. The point of these investigations is to show there is nothing we can hold up in an unchanging solid way that is us. Our body is always changing. Our emotions and thoughts change. Do we have a soul? Then where is it? No one has actually produced it yet. Maybe the Buddhist claim that there is no static, enduring, unchanging thing that we can call ourselves still stands.

Buddhism states that we are always undergoing change. This opens the possibility of our development and realizing our innate potential.

The biggest delusion is thinking ‘I am’ in a static way. That the ‘I am’ is apart from the world it is in. The delusion is to think that we are other than the interplay that is continuously happening between ourselves and our surroundings.

What is even worse than having such delusions or illusions is that we build ourselves up and make ourselves static. From this all our problems and self-concerns arise. Then we try addressing our problems by adjusting or fixing ourselves in some way. Rather than trying to fix ourselves, we can undermine the whole of this delusion by practicing an ongoing, moment-by-moment, seamless interplay between ourselves and our surroundings.

When we come to investigate and practice our true nature, the dharma activity, the first step is to realize that ourselves and our surroundings are not as separate as we conventionally view them.

The sound of the bamboo chimes, the sound of the trees and wind interacting, the light that plays across the room, the texture of the air that moves across us – all this is not outside of us and not inside either. We’ve always known this, but we forget and we create the illusion of ‘I am’ and stand apart from our experience of the world.

Carefully investigate this. Check it out!

Little by little as we continue Zen practice, we come to be more at ease with where we are and what we are doing. This is the natural way when we are not caught up with ourselves. When it’s time for kinhin we just stand and simply walk step after step. It is a natural thing. One thing after another, we are already engaged in what we are doing. Little by little we come to realize this. We also come to feel more at home with where we are and what we are doing. This is how we manifest the dharma activity. This is real peace of mind. It is not a personal subjective state but the wisdom that there is no other place to be, no other self to be.

Who is it that knows this? Who is it that sees and hears and touches? It is ourselves. This is also something to realize and manifest. We affirm the activity of our true self. It is difficult to explain because it is contradictory. We are at the same time ourselves and at the same time the wind blowing through the trees. The affirmation is of our inter-relatedness.

Our culture takes inside and outside as separate, apart. This distinction is also built into the language. It is difficult to talk lucidly about true nature because it is not built into the language. This is why we sometimes come across the expressions “It is zazen that does zazen” or “It is walking that walks”. These are also none other than ourselves.

Sometimes we use language that negates the sense of self. When the subject disappears the sense of separate object also disappears. When the sense of self is negated, the naming of ‘jet plane sound’ falls away and becomes the pure, direct cognitive experience of jet plane sound.

Sometimes we use language that affirms ourselves. Who is it that knows the sound of the plane? Who is it that has the direct cognition of plane sound without any gulf or distance between? What self is it that knows everything with direct cognition and without distance? This is the self before seeing, before hearing, before smelling, before tasting, before touching and before thinking. This is the prior self, the true self.

When we come to practice this activity in zazen, when we sit and breathe, it is truly the case that we are being breathed – coming and going. In the dharma activity there is coming and going and at the same time there is the interplay between outside and inside. Although inside and outside are not separate from each other – there is an interplay coming and going between them.

In other words, the sense of no self (the void or emptiness) is not a fixed object; it is the dharma activity. We chant in the heart sutra ‘ form is none other than emptiness, emptiness is none other than form, form is emptiness, emptiness exactly form’. The activity of emptiness has a vibration between self and other, it is not a static thing, it is a dynamic coming and going.

When the clapper sounds we gassho and stand. One does not follow the other. When we hear the sound of the clap, we bow. We do not think ‘ Oh, I’ve heard the clapper now I must bow and stand’. When we reflect we find that sometimes we catch the dharma activity, there is the sense of sound and bowing without the sense of distance and linear time.

It first became very apparent for me when I was tenzo at Mount Baldy . My practice seemed a lot better even though I wasn’t sitting. Once we’ve done some sitting practice to steady our mind, it becomes quite apparent in activity using our body and mind.

The same principle is happening when we sit, the activity of sitting and being breathed. Because it is so simple the mental aspects seem much stronger. So, although it is simple, it seems harder. Because it is simpler it takes longer but it is also deeper. The realization from practicing zazen is much stronger and deeper, though the same principle is found in every other activity we do. With zazen we become clear about the principle of all our activities.

When we meet someone, how well do we do the dharma activity? Do we stop and look at the person as if they are outside of us? Or is there a meeting; a sense of no distance. Then we manifest and respond if need be, without the sense of distance, yet both people are distinct in themselves.

Children are very immediate; they have no sense of distance. Children do not feel apart. We have been educated to think that mother, father and child are all separate. But for children, the mother and father are not apart from the child. The mother and father should also see the child as not apart, not to be avoided.

This takes practice. It is difficult to find words that communicate the sense of no distance, of equality, yet at the same time everything is distinct. Sometimes we fall into our conventional self and we look at objects and label them for better or worse. We chant daily Chien-chih Seng-t'san’s poem “Affirming Faith Mind”. This starts off so strongly. “The great way is not difficult for those who do not pick and choose. When love and hate both disappear the way stands clear and undisguised, but even slightest distinctions made set earth and heaven far apart. If you would clearly see the truth be neither for nor against. To set up likes and dislikes is nothing but the mind's disease, and not to see the way's deep truth disturbs the mind's essential peace. The way is perfect like vast space where there's no lack and no excess. Our choice to grasp and to reject prevents our seeing this simple truth. Both striving for the outer world as well as for the inner void condemn us to entangled lives. Be serene in the oneness of things and false views vanish by themselves.“

Here the conventional mind has stopped functioning because we have met seamlessly, without the sense of being apart. But dharma activity doesn’t stop there, then there arises the question ‘ Who is it that knows this?’. This is the arising of our true self, of Buddha, who unknowingly knows. It is knowing without an object. This is difficult because we are educated to know ‘things’. Buddha nature knows but there is no object in it. Conventionally this is called intuitive wisdom.

The nature of everything is an activity. As soon as one holds something up and says this is it, this is what I’ve realized then an object is created. Like a rock in the flow of dharma activity. The dharma activity has become frozen. Dharma activity is to become the seamless interplay between ourselves and our surroundings, to make no distance between them, and to play in the true nature of ourselves.

Gardening by Gareth

Gardening is one of many opportunities we have at the Zen Centre to extend and deepen our practice beyond sitting. I started garden practice a year ago last spring, so this is my second seasonal cycle. Gradually, I worry less and less if I’m doing it “right”--whether preparing the soil in the early spring, planting in the late spring and early summer, harvesting, or cleaning up in the fall--and more and more just do it.

Like sitting practice, this is an endless process of letting go of the separate me who’s gardening and just doing it, gradually realizing and manifesting more connection in action. Gardening and other work is particularly good practice for me because it naturally drives me to reflect the activity rather than the old thinking patterns going on in my small mind. It’s really no different than helping to set up the zendo before we sit, or participating in the monthly zendo clean-up, or whatever . . . with the added benefit in gardening that you get to eat the results!

Well, more than that. Every activity is what it is, though I particularly enjoy weeding: maybe because I hated it so much as a kid growing up in L.A. and being told to do it. That seemed ridiculous back then because the weeds would just all grow back. Now part of the “fun” is that it is endless.

It would be great if more members could join regularly in the garden practice. That way we could share the yet deeper practice of being together in action.

Centre News

The last Galiano Island sesshin of this year is November 16-23, 2002 .

Dates for 2003 have been resolved. We’ve decided to make one sesshin run from Sunday morning to Saturday evening. It was thought this format may be better suited to people with Monday to Friday work, just five work days are needed. One other sesshin will run Wednesday morning to Tuesday evening. This style needs only one weekend to be available. Later in the year we can review which styles seem best for people.

February 5 th –12 th (Wednesday morning to Tuesday evening)

May 25 th – June 1 st (Sunday morning to Saturday evening)

August 9 th – 16 th (Saturday morning to Friday evening)

November 15 th – 22 nd (Saturday morning to Friday evening)

Arrival should be on the day before sesshin begins. We leave after an informal group breakfast the morning after it ends.

Hosen Osho visited the Zen Centre on June 13 th. Eshin and Myorei Corinne were able to spend some time showing her the Centre and entertaining her. Hosen is responsible for Bodhi Manda Zen Centre in New Mexico , part of Rinzai-ji, and was on her way to Eartha and Sokun Andrew’s wedding on Hornby Island .

Gardening has become a practise activity for the last couple of years. It requires a commitment to help regularly, every week or two, throughout the year. Garden practise includes garden planning, plant choices, caring for the soil, pruning and composting. It is a practise that requires consideration and care for all aspects of the garden, fulfilled in a co-operative manner. So far Eshin, Gareth and Corinne have been the team but others are welcome to participate.

Recent maintenance at the Centre -

The back deck had become slightly rotted after being damaged during the renovation. Thanks to Dale and Brad for replacing rotted supports and installing a new watertight surface.

Brent recently completed running ethernet and phone lines and jacks throughout the building.

Eshin has made a butsudan ‘house’ for the Manjusri statue.

The only significant maintenance to come is zendo tanhs. There seems to be several views on this so a meeting will no doubt be called to air options.

The Zen Centre has some boxes for Eiju incense available for $15. It is an excellent sandalwood incense for home use.

Please feel free to send articles, poems, stories, etc for the newsletter. The form is up to you but should show your Zen experiences and realizations in a way that is of help to others.

This is the last newsletter for 2002. The Zen Centre culls its mailing list at the end of the year. Regular sitters and contributors remain on the list, others please let us know if you wish to remain on. Thank you.

Sangha News

Dale Hofmann is planning to move to New York in October. He's been part of the Zen Centre since 1996 contributing his great humour and administrative skills. Best wishes for his new start.

Peggy Scott, a regular at the monthly zazen-kais, has moved from Squamish to North Vancouver . We’ll be seeing more of her now that she’s closer.

The latest show of Stuart Sind's paintings is at Bau-Xi gallery ( 3045 Granville St ) October 5 - 26. Check it out!

Kazumi Tanaka and Eshin attended the September sesshin at Mt Baldy ZC. It was Kazumi's first time with Roshi.

Betsy Williams dropped by the Centre in early August. She now lives in South Australia with her husband and was visiting Canada for a few days. It’s been a couple of years since she’d practised here.

In early July Myorei Corinne returned to France for a week after hearing her aunt had died. She was ninety-nine and passed away in sleep. Condolences to Corinne for her family loss.

Contributions

The Centre asks for a contribution from its friends. This is a way to support the Zen Centre itself and to repay benefits from the Centre’s practise. A contribution of $20 per month is expected and many contribute $35 or $50 per month.

A great thank you for all the donations this summer from Benny, Bill, Branko, Brent, Brian, Chris M, Chris R, Corinne, Dale 1, Dale 2, Gladys, Hosen, Ian, Ivan, J B, Jason and Laura, Jason M, Jerry, Josie, Kazumi, Keith, Ken S, Kyira, Martina, Masaru, Michael L, Naomi, Paul C, Peggy, Roy, Steve J, Steve W, Stuart, Susan and the many anonymous donors. Thank you !!