WATERFALL

2003 spring newsletter

Zendo talk by Eshin on March 2

Our practise is to come home, to be at ease with where we are and to come home, to be at ease with being ourselves.

We know our surroundings through our five sense organs. The ones we know best are seeing and hearing, but there are also smelling, tasting and touching. Our practise is not to hide or ignore what naturally arises through these sense organs. On the other hand we practise not blindly reacting to them, not making more of them than what they are. When we hear sounds we simply practise the sound already being heard. When we react and say ‘Oh, the street sounds are too loud when I’m doing zazen’ we’re blindly reacting. It is not to be at ease with where we are.

We do the same practise with the sixth sense organ, the mind, with our thoughts, feelings and body sensations. We don’t hide or deny what naturally arises. We’re not trying to stop thinking or stop feeling. It seems a more difficult practise not to get caught up and react to a thought. We react to a thought and start thinking about it, just piling thoughts up. We react to a feeling or emotion and then get bent out of shape by it. Without stopping thinking, without stopping feelings, we practise not getting so identified, so caught up, with them. Our thoughts are our natural intelligence considering and trying to resolve things about ourselves and our lives. They are natural things. Yet we shouldn’t get too tight about them and lose our center. The same with feelings. When we come across things from the outside it’s natural to respond with a feeling. To respond with feeling is a sign of our humanness. We should, without denying the feeling or emotion, practise not having it overwhelm us. This happens when we attach our identity or ‘I am’ to the emotion. Then we loose our sense of the steadiness of practise.

Another way to approach practise is simply to practise being clear and straightforward. Yet circumstances change moment by moment, day by day, year by year. In practising being clear and straightforward we should understand it’s a process of continual change. We are also always changing. When we eat we just eat, when we chant we just chant, when it’s time to sit in this posture and simply breath we just do it. Little by little all the extra stuff we bring in - our worries, our concerns, our neuroses - drop away. As we let go this stuff we find that what is true of us becomes uncovered, unhindered. Sometimes we’re clear and true, sometimes we’re confused and not true. Another way to say this is that we must, in a very deep way, practise trusting ourselves.

When we’re not tight mentally, physically or emotionally, we have space, we can hear ourselves. We start hearing who we truly are rather than our small voices. We gain stability where we can accept things without space narrowing down to nothing. Accepting things and letting things be. We should respond and trust ourselves. Our practise is one of growth and development. Zen is the practise of finding ourselves in our life’s circumstances. It’s natural to want to understand, to be in control, but we let go of this mind and trust. Trust is not a blind trust but having the space to allow things to be, to allow ourselves to be, trusting what is a remarkable human being at the core of all of us. That overcomes the doubts, negativities and worries.

Little by little we come to find ourselves. When we get caught up in the past, when we get caught up in the unknown future we end up worrying, end up concerned, we end up somewhere else other than this moment. If we can really grasp being at home in this moment it actually includes the past and the future. The past is here in the form of how we arrive in the moment. The future is also here by always stepping forward in a deeper trust to find the way to walk where the future becomes the present. Not with any idea but with a deep intent of our direction, even though this intent may change. Conventionally we think some things are important other things are not important. In our practise everything is important. The way we stir and drink a cup of tea or coffee is just as an important practise as doing something we consider important.

In manifesting ourselves more fully in increasingly trust we answer the question’ Who am I?’ The answer to ‘Who am I?’ isn’t some little essay we create in our mind, it is to fulfill ourselves as much as we can in our lives as it unfolds. We make the best use of the circumstances and don’t regret because some other circumstance hadn’t come up. If we start comparing in this way we get caught up in likes and dislikes, good and bad, attraction and aversion, etc.

It’s good to have friends to practise this way together. In a broad way we’re practising with everyone we’re with whether its people we meet daily or people we meet only once. When we practise correctly we become saner in this moment and this is something this world greatly needs. As we continue practising finding ourselves we allow other people to find themselves. We don’t have to try to do it, it is a natural by-product of our practise. It is our lives that mature us.

from Myorei Corinne

At first I thought the zazen posture was a technique to get a certain state of mind. To get a strong, stable posture and to rest the body in stillness was necessary to free the mind and achieve something mental, a mystical experience. Now as I struggle more with this posture, the more strongly I feel that the body is not just a house or a support for the mind.

Working with the body I access all the thoughts, feelings and emotions stored in my muscles, tendons, cells and energy centers. Staying with every physical pain and tension I experience my mind. I experience a body-mind.

Zazen is just like a good meal. If you eat while thinking so much then when lunch is over you can’t even recall the taste of the food. If you pig out without any involvement of the mind then you are left with a vague sense of unease. So much is in the stomach without real enjoyment. To truly appreciate the food all the senses have to be open, the mind receptive and the self actively eating.

It sure takes a while to trust enough to let the thinking mind go and become a lively physical presence able to enjoy a meal or sit in stillness.

Centre News

The Victoria Zen Centre now has a new zazen schedule. Check it out on the last page of this newsletter or on the web and contact Eshu if you have any questions. The new schedule includes Sunday talks, open to the public, and an Introduction to Zen course lasting several weeks.

The Bowen Island zendo now has a web page at www.zen.ca. There are several sits a week at John and Michelle’s place.

Buddha’s Birthday ceremony and potluck lunch will be 11am Sunday May 11th. Please come bringing spouses and children. It’s a great time to meet with other sangha members in a relaxed, enjoyable setting.

Spring Yard Sale as fund raiser!!! The date for this is the weekend of June 14 and 15. Please start searching for items to donate and let Eshin know you have some. The week preceding the yard sale is time to bring stuff over to the centre.

The centre’s directors have decided we need a Retreat Center . Dragon Fly on Galiano Island where we currently hold sesshins will not be available after a few years. This started the idea of planning and getting our own place. It is a big project which will take a lot of time and planning. Stay tuned!

Changes to the constitution and bylaw were approved at a general meeting. The changes were to tie the centre’s teaching and practise to Joshu Sasaki Roshi’s lineage. There were also some tidying up of procedures to reflect our present ways.

Maintenance at the Centre -

A small addition to the stairwell storage was put in with thanks to Brad and Eshin. One day the sangha room benches will be sanded and refinished. The only significant item that may come is zendo tanhs. Tanhs are the platforms in some zendos so that sitting is off the floor. There seems to be several views on this so a meeting will no doubt be called to air options.

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.

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

Sangha News

Chris Reuten’s wife and two children have just returned from Hong Kong . Fortunately they were not in areas or in contact with people with SARS.

Koshin, Soshin and their son Lars visited at the end of February. It was a time for them to obtain zendo bells and gongs and meet the people here. They have moved from Mt Baldy Zen Center to Vashon Island by Seattle and are starting the Puget Sound Zen Center . It’s now the closest Rinzai-ji center to Vancouver and Victoria. To help support the new center they are making robes and cushions. Go to www.stillsitting.com for styles, colours, prices and information.

Carlo Piroso from Kitimat is able to visit and sit weekly with Myozen in Terrace. Best wishes for his practise.

A steady stream of new-comers attends the introductions. Many come, almost on impulse, to find out just what Zen is. Some are starting to sit with us at the centre. Welcome to Kim, Jules, Nadine and Terry.

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 winter from Adrian Dobre, Brad Leggett, Branko Vrbic, Brent Eichler, Brent Ganby, Bryson Young, Chris Massey, Chris Reuten, Christine White, Dale Hofmann, David Turner, Fred and Louise Newman, Gareth Sirotnik. Gordon Davidson, Gordon Grdina, Ian Hignell, Ivan Grabovac, Jerry Cyr, Joni Cooke, Jules Burt, Keith Parson, Kim Best, Martina Vavra, Myorei Corinne Zeraffa, Paul Clarke, Paul Frost, Peggy Scott, Peter Smith, Stephan Fournier, Steve Holly, Steve Weiner, Stuart Slind, Susan Bull and the many anonymous donors. Thank you !!