Shunyata or emptiness is at the core of Buddhism. It is given emphasis from the beginning in Zen. In fact Zen reveres the Prajna Paramita sutras above all others. Prajna is wisdom or consciousness, and Paramita is ‘that which has reached the other shore’ or transcendental. It is wisdom or the mind which is beyond conventional ‘knowing about’, the knowledge that comes from books, ideas, etc. It is direct knowing, the knowing that comes from a non-dualistic mind.
Shunyata must not be misunderstood. According to the Shambala Dictionary of Zen ‘… all things are regarded as without essence, i.e. empty of self-nature. All dharmas are fundamentally devoid of independent lasting substance, are nothing more than appearances. … One should not, however, take this view of the emptiness of everything existing simply as nihilism. It does not mean that things do not exist but rather that they are nothing but appearances’.

Apparent things continuingly arise anew from the matrix of changing, inter-connected existence. This is the law of karma. What presently arises comes from past actions. What we do in this present moment is a factor in what will arise. Shunyata refines this by teaching that nothing has a permanent existence or ‘soul’.

This may make us uneasy at first. On reflection we see this uneasiness coming from holding on or attaching to the image of ourselves. When we fixate that image we, in Master Rinzai’s words, ‘try to drive a stake in a river’. Reflecting on shunyata means we must let go into the flow of being, not holding on to any image or label at all. This may be scary at first but in time we trust the creativity of appearing anew.

As shunyata is understood and practiced more fully we turn away from a limited, closed view of ourselves. Not to change, not to create the future, is to be held in the tyranny of the conventional mind. This conventional mind fixates itself and rejects, uses or fights the world for its self-centered comfort and peace. A clear view of karma and shunyata opens the possibility of our potentiality and creativity.

Shunyata should be understood, reflected on, and practiced again and again to deepen and manifest it in ourselves and our lives. It involves letting go of doubts, habits and set ways of being. Doing this allows an open, receptive mind to emerge.

Zazen is a focused way to investigate this and to let go through letting be. Letting be occurs naturally when we don’t attach to or reject ourselves or things, rejecting or avoiding being a form of attachment. Zazen has been addressed many times in talks but it must be emphasised that there are innumerable layers of attachment and letting be. Zazen is needed until the letting be occurs naturally in everyday life.

What does shunyata mean for our daily Zen practice, the practice of our lives?

It opens the possibility of an open, creative, connected way of being.

First we practice opening to the moment to moment situation we are in. Awareness and mindfulness are helpful practices for this. Yet we must let go further and experience being part of the situation, not just being aware from the outside. We open to the outside without qualification, judgement, avoidance, grasping, resistance, etc. It is an act of unconditioned love and acceptance. Second, it requires not blindly reacting with negative and unhelpful emotions such as envy, jealousy, pride, etc. We must become inwardly receptive as we allow ourselves to be intimately part of the situation.

During this journey there is a gradual turning or transformation. Limited, attached ways of being become open, free ways. ‘The self that is not the self is the true self’ is the formula of the Diamond Sutra. Letting go of ideas, labels, and attachments to ourselves we lose the fixated self. It’s as if the usual landmarks of ourselves fade away. In letting go the habitual, fixated self a free, creative self appears. This is our true self. It appears spontaneously and cannot be ‘made’ to appear.
Roshi has used the concept of a sphere, expanding and contracting endlessly, to point to this. Time is bought into the formula of the Diamond Sutra. We let go, contract to the smallest point; then expand, open and manifest to the largest point. This endless repetition is our journey.

Without trying we find that the ability for loving-kindness and caring naturally arise as we realize and experience others as ourselves. Shunyata is experienced as being the changing totality of ourselves and situation. It is the activity of unconditioned love. Not a personal love, not a cultivated love, not a love we can own, but the love that comes naturally from accepting all as ourselves.

To be enlightened is to wake up to the reality of things, to shunyata. As Zen practitioners it is central to our practice. Yet we should not forget that it is in our life that this happens. It is a mistake to think that opening and unconditioned love implies passivity. This is an error in practice. Thus our life is important.

All of us have an intent to be who we truly are, whether we know it or not. It is like a flower or a tree that starts from a seed. The seed contains the potential of the flower or tree. The life journey is to fulfill the potentiality that is there from the beginning in the seed.
Thus practice is to become stronger in the journey of our lives. This will bring out our deepest intent. It is usually hidden under layers of doubt, worry and neurosis. When we firmly step out into what must be done then these layers fall away. When we vacillate or hold back we remain at a shallow level. In time a confidence grows. Here we are connecting to the teachings of letting go and becoming free. Let’s look at Roshi’s expansion and contraction, also called plus and minus. The minus activity or contraction is negating the self and surroundings to the smallest point. The plus activity or expansion is our self expression within the surroundings to the largest point. These endlessly alternate both within ourselves and in our relationships with others. At times negating, at times affirming. At times going with, at times standing opposed. This way we are reborn more fully, step by step, in how we respond to situations. The seed developes by making use of its life force in the various situations it finds itself in.

The more open, receptive, and non-dualistic we become the more our hearts open to others. We see both the impermanence and the inter-connectedness of things.

Ethics or Sila is none other than this open heart responding from the ground that others are ourselves. We may think through ethical behaviour but this is based in an intellectual view, one based on duality. We may have the idea of doing good, of being compassionate, but this idea is also based on a dualistic mind. True ethics or sila naturally arise in a non-dual mind. It is a natural, spontaneous arising as a confidence grows in trusting what comes before thinking about. It arises from that first intuitive thought-action, where intuition is our intelligence functioning from a non-dual base.

For serious practitioners a great effort is made to learn, understand and grasp what shunyata is. As we awaken to it we find it is the true base for our lives, indeed, for everything.

Ian Hignell High above the snowy beach The eagle sits, white head glistening A seagull swoops, Squawks. David Ashton     Various verses Dewdrops Brief lives in bright sun Each containing all Right hand struggles Left hand without thought Jumps to assist Staggering along I wonder why The ox is so heavy As I contemplate The cherry tree Another blossom falls Going away To be here Somewhere else

Centre News

Buddha’s Birthday ceremony and potluck lunch will start at 11am Sunday April 22nd. Spouses and children are warmly welcomed. Please make a point of attending the largest gathering of the year.

The centre is planning new bowl sets. White ceramic bowls are easily obtained from China Town. New bowl cloths are also needed. Is anyone skilled at sewing for the bowl cloths?  Donations are welcomed for the new bowl sets.

Dates for the remaining 2007 sesshins are: May 5th – 12th, August 11th – 18th and November 17th – 24th. They are partly full already so don’t wait until too close to the time before deciding.

The February sesshin was full with fifteen people – Eshin, Myorei, Branko Vrbic, Graham McCaffrey (from Calgary), Reenie Marx (from Montreal), Stuart Slind, Chris Massey, Carlo Piroso (from Kitimat), Christian Reuten, Judith Johnson (from Prince George), Lee Dutta, Lorena Orozco, Ryan Shick, Larry Steele (from Prince George) and Adrian Dobre.

At the January annual administration meeting Eshin stated that our building facilities are getting too limited. Three project teams, each of two people, are researching into options for growth. There will be another meeting in April to review the results and see what is possible. Stay tuned for later announcements!

Two more Buddhist ceremonies were introduced this year. They were the Rinzai Memorial in January and Nirvana Day ceremony in February. Now that the centre has two ordained people besides Eshin all five Buddhist ceremonies will be acknowledged each year.
These ceremonies are Shakyamuni’s (the historical Buddha’s) birth day in April or May, enlightenment day in December and death day in February, Bodhidharma’s memorial in October and Rinzai’s memorial in January. The first three are common for all Buddhists and the last two are specific to our lineage.

Eshin gave a talk to a religions class at the SFU downtown campus in February.

The centre has organized trips to two guest speakers sponsored by Tun Lin Kok Yuen temple and the Dalai Lama Center. The group was too late for the second speaker and everyone ended up playing a fun game of 5 pin bowling in the lanes under the theatre.
Speakers will likely be a regular feature of the Dalai Lama Center. The Zen Centre will not be organizing further trips and suggests folks check the DLC web site for information if they are interested.

Sangha News

Eshin and Myorei will be attending the celebrations for Joshu Roshi’s 100th year and his forty five years in the west. There will be a sesshin and a special dinner April 1st - 8th.

In February Eshin was invited to a Victoria Zen Center weekly zazen meeting at UVIC. It was also a time to renew acquaintance with Eshu.

Jan Irwin passed away peacefully on March 4th. She lived in the Yalakom valley with her husband Bill and children Jared and Selena. Jan was a long time Zen student and devoted to Roshi. She passed peacefully and consciously with her family present. The memorial was in the Yalakom on March 17th.

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