TREELEAF ZENDO PODCAST

Just Sitting, Thinking-Not Thinking ... is the silence always heard in noise and silence, the stillness that is both movement and standing still ... the peace encountered even as disturbance .... . ... ... ... the full, vibrant life ... ... ...   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... that is clear, living,...

... and other reflections on "When Roshis Act Ugly, Small And All Too Human" ... Before I add my small voice to the many calls of condemnation of Eido Tai Shimano "Roshi", and demands for his self-reflection, dismissal and disgrace (more here from James Ford) ... http://monkeymindonline.blogspot.com/20 ... o-zen.html ... I would like to reflect on the overall question of when Buddhist teachers act...

Dear All, Just a little New Years Greetings from the Cohen Family (it's already the New Year here in Japan) ... And don't forget our New Years Zazenkai today ... All Are Welcome! RING IN THE NEW YEAR ... AND EVERY NEW MOMENT ... WITH OUR 4-HOUR ZAZENKAI ... (detail here) viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3260 Gassho, Jundo, MIna, Leon and 'Tin Tin' the Cat Visit the Forum for this topic!

Heading home to see family and friends always presents a few special "opportunities for Practice" at this time of year ... Meeting family and old friends ... how do you explain to them about "being a Buddhist"? You may even start to feel a little guilty for not being part of the religion you were raised in. How should we celebrate the holidays with friends and family? My answer: Celebrate Peace &...

Our practice is shikantaza. Shikan means just, nothing but...Core and essence of our tradition, it is also a practice of simplicity. Visit the Forum for this topic!

It is often said that Buddhist groups in the West are not very welcoming of children, and miss chances to communicate basic teachings and practices to kids. In both Asian Buddhism and for other religions in the west (but, somehow, not so much for "Western Buddhism"), "religious holidays" can be a time for families to unite, to bond through customs and practices, and to bring children into the spir...

What is the meaning of Koku? What is Koku? What is not Koku? Visit the Forum for this topic!

So many folks are losing their jobs these days, sometimes after many years of loyal and hard work at a business. Almost nothing more to do but let it go, move on, trying to keep a roof over our family's head. When I was a kid, my own father went through a hard bankruptcy after many years of being the president of his own small company making furniture. Leon was not a "Buddhist" by any means, but s...

Rohatsu is coming. Celebration, quality time, quiet time. My wish is for you to enjoy your retreat. Not to rush it or wish you could be somewhere else. Just surrender to each action and moment as it is. Visit the Forum for this topic!

Our Annual 'AT HOME' Two Day 'ALL ONLINE' ROHATSU (Buddha's Enlightenment Day) RETREAT IS COMING UP ... to be LIVE NETCAST on the weekend of December 4 and 5, 2010. This Retreat celebrates the 'official' closure of our ANGO (100 day Special Practice Season) at Treeleaf, is a part of current preparations for our JUKAI (Undertaking the Precepts) Ceremony in January, and marks ROHATSU ... the traditi...

Space...Gap or stretch? something out there or just plain close? Something we are part of or something we travel and walk through? Dogen, a simple man in medieval Japan, loved space. He wrote a whole collection of talks about it. Dogen made it very clear: we are space and as such we may experience space. Sitting with its moving boundaries and constant shivering-shifting is space itself. Carving a...

Someone asked me today during our Zazenkai if FOLKS IN ZAZEN CAN LEVITATE. Well, I am open minded about such things, but I have never seen so in person. The only photos I have seen look either like they have been photoshopped, or there is something wrong with the photo (such as the dark background and sleeves in these photos which surely hide a platform) ...   ... or the person is "bouncing" more...

It is hard for any of us to remember in this consumer driven world, but there is a wonderful freedom in living simple, living small. The psychologist Abraham Maslow said that man really needs just a few things for peace and happiness ... a certain amount of food and a healthy environment, shelter and physical safety, the love and friendship of others. Beyond that, anything else might be seen as a...

When Dogen was in China he wrote this: Break open a single particle and all the sutras grow clear: the great merit-wheel of the dharma turns as a whole. The womb of a donkey gives birth to the noble horse Each time you look, you'll see it new. Mysteriously, the skin-bag is the Buddha field. Even a failure, imperfect, raw, half-baked, crooked, call-it-whatever, everytime it will shine, both differe...

I hear from folks every day touched by the bad economy ... jobs lost, houses foreclosed, marriages under stress, people in crisis. These are hard times for so many. Over the coming weeks, I will offer a series of talks on what Buddhism has to teach about the economics of "hard times". Some of it will cover big topics that impact the whole system, with our consumerism, materialism and wasted resour...

"EVEN AS" ... an ordinary phrase that one hears used a lot around here: Drop all thought of "this and that" ... even as we live in a world of "this and that" ...Drop all thought of anything to achieve ... even as we keep moving forward to get things done ... Drop all thought of anyplace to go ... even as we have places to go and people to see. Drop all thought of "time" ... even as we watch the cl...

A frequent visitor to our Sangha gifted us with a lovely post ... on Zazen and choices ... on "sitting with" questions ... Zazen is compass-ionate Yes, folks, indeed it is. Take what is tumultuous, sit it down in zazen Like a true compass, zazen points And in that pointing, all directions thereby are known Take what is submerged, sit it down in zazen Like a bubble of air, tugging toward ‘up’ No am...

Well, the cat is home from the hospital ... minus his tail, bandaged up and down. Somehow, he seems okay with it ... too "simple minded" and "dumb" to rehash the past, worry about his limited future, his options, to be traumatized by the drama, concerned about his scarred looks, to mourn for his missing tail. He just sits with it all ... and purrs. Oh, what we might learn from poor, dumb animals!...

This lovely poem of Dogen is an attempt to convey through sound and breaths his real and original face. The mountain of samadhi, the moon of awakening, the white and changing nature of rice, cloud and water. This is also a precise description of what takes plcae when one sits, the no-self being realised when everything is invited adn included in a lively process of expanding in all directions. On...

NOTE: PART OF END OF TALK WAS CUT OFF ... BUT THE POINT GETS ACROSS!  There's an old Chinese story about the son and the broken leg ... A farmer had only one horse, and one day the horse ran away. The neighbors came to console him over his terrible loss. The farmer said, "What makes you think it is so terrible?" A month later, the horse came home--this time bringing with her two beautiful wild hor...

An old Zen poem, the 'Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi' ... When the wooden man begins to sing, The stone woman gets up to dance. Visit the Forum for this topic!

It’s almost to the point that there’s a flavor of Buddhism for everyone, especially in the West! From A is for Amida to Z is for Zen, there are groups and teachings of all stripes … the monastic and the “out in the world” types … traditional and tradition breaking … many teachers in between, mixing and matching. The Western Buddhist world comes in ten thousand colors and flavors! And that can be G...

The topic came up in another thread about worrying too much about what others think of us ... I have a tendancy to take a lot of what people say to me, personal. ... Can anyone give me some tips from a buddhist or zen-perspective, how to stop myself from constantly being so busy with what other people think of me (or, better put: what I think that other people think of me) Link to thread Well, ult...

Dogen writes: Do not suppose that what you realize becomes your knowledge and is grasped by your consciousness. Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. Its appearance is beyond your knowledge. Zen master Baoche of Mt. Mayu was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, "Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. When, then, do...

Last time, in our series on Zazen for Beginners (we are all always beginners), I used the analogy of clouds of thoughts and emotions drifting through an open, clear, boundless blue sky. I said, in Shikantaza “Just Sitting” Zazen, we do not resist the clouds, do not attempt to silence the thoughts and emotions forcefully. Instead, we just return our attention again and again to the clear sky, and a...