TREELEAF ZENDO PODCAST

A fruity talk returning to this passage of the XIN XIN MING ... a fundamental view of most Eastern religions in one way or another, as basic as "A is for Apple" ... really quite simple though the mind resists to see ... When no discriminating thoughts arise, the old mind ceases to exist. When thought objects vanish, the thinking-subject vanishes, as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish. Things a...

This week, among all the many horrible stories in the news, two particularly stuck out ... A disturbing video caught by surveillance cameras shows a 2-year-old girl in China laying in the street bleeding, a victim of a hit and run. Even more shocking is that the toddler was then ignored by at least 18 people. Video of the incident, which took place Oct. 13, shows pedestrians and vehicles passing b...

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This passage of the Xin Xin Ming instructs us to not remain divided, and to drop ... through and through ... this and that, good and bad, beautiful vs. ugly, all the divisions of little 'self' from this life and world ... ... yet don't be caught there either, do not remain emptied into Emptiness, and bring the One down into/as/right through-and-through the Many. When we do so, life's greatest obst...

We encounter again the instruction neither to become entangled in circumstances, nor fall into emptiness ... neither remaining in one extreme or the other, finding that which embraces both. But it is not something merely to talk or philosophize about experiencing life this way, like some "ARMCHAIR BUDDHA". Rather, it is to pierce the wholeness of Zazen, carve such into one's bones, bring such to l...

We continue from last time's passage of the Xin Xin Ming ... Live neither in the entanglements of outer things, nor in inner feelings of emptiness. ... As long as you remain in one extreme or the other you will never know Oneness. Those who do not live in the single Way fail in both activity and passivity, assertion and denial. To deny the reality of things is to miss their reality. to assert the...

The Talk this time will be on Master Hongzhi's 'Guidepost of Silent Illumination' ... http://www.treeleaf.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4226 A little more about Master Hongzhi (Wanshi in Japanese) here ... http://www.elqui.mailworks.org/Hongzhi-Zhengjue/index.html And for our true "Dharma Wonks", an essay by Soto teacher, translator and historian Taigen Dan Leighten on ... Hongzhi (Silent Illumin...

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TODAY'S SIT-A-LONG WAS PRE-RECORDED LAST WEEK BECAUSE JUNDO IS IN NORTHERN JAPAN TODAY, IN THE REGION HIT BY THE EARTHQUAKE/TSUNAMI/NUCLEAR ACCIDENT AND HIT AGAIN BY LAST WEEK'S BIG TYPHOON Daily life is filled with many storms. They blow around us great and small, and the circumstances of life can sometimes knock us right off our feet! They blow within us, as the mind reactively rages and storms...

I would like to offer an important reminder and CAUTION to ALL THOSE UNDERTAKING ANGO, RAKUSU SEWING FOR JUKAI and such at Treeleaf ... ... both those who say "it is all going well" ... and those who say "it is not going well" ... ... those who say that "all has been smooth as silk" ... and those who have encountered bumps and places to trip ... ... those who say they have met every goal they set...

The town next to ours here in Ibaraki, Japan, is known for two attractions: Its Giant Buddha Statue, over 100 meters tall (never too big!)... and the new "Outlet Mall" looking like it could be transplanted right from Southern California, each clearly seen from the other. What better place than the mall to look at today's passage from the Xin Xin Ming? The Way is perfect like vast space where nothi...

Koun Ejo's text is here: http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/C%20-%20Zen/Ancestors/Zen%20Master%20Ejo/Absorption%20in%20the%20Treasury%20of%20Light.pdf gassho to all Taigu

Last year I spoke about the little girl that my wife and I have been trying to adopt from China for five years to no avail, caught in red tape and creeping bureaucracy. She is just a name to us, a shadow, an empty child's room that has gathered dust. Our little son always asks for his absent sister, year after year. Now, after much pushing through obstacles, wrangling with regulations, negotiating...

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...

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Doing one practice... Now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, this bird or this fish will not find its way or its place. When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find you way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point; for the place, the way, is neither large nor small, ne...

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That brightness beyond all brightness cannot be own. As you display the moonlight, you cannot see it. Its activity cannot be soiled or limited by your games: dividing, separating, breaking, the dual is left behind. Dogen uses a metaphor and at the same time, it is not a metaphor. Quite clearly, the dewdrop is a dewdrop~you~moon~light~reflection~time~universe. All these words not forming a neckless...

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