Into The Fire

I’m back at it here and have a few stray themes tonight, tied together with fire.

First, sesshin turned out rather weird. I got a nasty, nasty flu in the wee hours of Friday morning and am still only at about 75% usual energy.

And tomorrow I go back to my day job. That’s one fire I’ll be jumping into.

Another fire I’m trying to start is through webinars. I’m offering another Keep Me In Your Heart Webinar tomorrow night, 8/24, at 7pm CST. Click here for more information. The theme is about going beyond self-consciousness – very important for this human life, imv. There are seats available so register soon – probably best to send me an email and I’ll add you to the list (wildfox@gmail.com).

I’m also trying to decide which other fire to jump into next – write a book on Zazenshin (English: The Healing Point of Zazen or The Precept of Zazen or more usually, The Lancet of Zazen) and buying a house in the city and starting another practice center. Doing both well doesn’t seem possible given the other things that I’ve taken on … so what do you think?

I usually go around chewing something like this from all angles, listening to others’ ideas, and finally jump into it. Anyway, it’s a tough one for me but I must like tough one’s like this because I find myself doing it a lot. As one wise friend put it, “Seems like creating a big risky conversation is prime discovery ground for having something to say.”

And speaking of fires and big risky things, how about Zen training? We’re going to be starting another 100 day practice on September 12 (or September 10th for you hearty folks who show up out here from time to time).

Here’s the details for those practicing from afar via the internet:

The purpose of these virtual 100-day practice sessions is for home-based practitioners to use the internet to focus, deepen and sustain practice with a virtual community and teacher. The specific practice recommendations fall into 3 categories: zazen, study, expression.

Zazen

Sit zazen and chant the Heart Sutra at least five of seven days each week (if you’ve been practicing for less than one year, I recommend a sitting commitment of at least 30 minutes; if you’ve been practicing for more than one year, I recommend a commitment of at least 60 minutes). Seal your practice with chanting the Heart Sutra.

Study

Attend the webinars, Saturdays, September 12, 26; October 3, 10, 17, 24; November 7, 14, 21; and December 5 and 19 at 10am – 11am CST (and CDT).

Study selections from Dogen’s Genjokoan and commentary that I’ll provide to participants. You might find the dharma talk by Pat Enkyo O’Hara at http://community.tricycle.com/ on this topic helpful.We’ll start with a review of the text and then dig into the passage about fire and ash:

Firewood turns to ash; it cannot become firewood again. Still we should not regard ash as succeeding and firewood as preceding. Note that firewood abides in the dharma‑situation of firewood and has preceding and succeeding; although there is before and after, it is cut off from before and after. Ash abides in the dharma‑situation of ash and has succeeding and preceding. Just as firewood does not become firewood again after it has been turned to ash, human being does not return to birth after death. Accordingly, it is a traditional way of the Buddha‑dharma not to say that birth becomes death; for this reason birth is called “not‑arising.” It is also a traditional teaching of the wheel of the dharma that death does not become birth; hence death is called “not‑perishing.” Birth is the state of a time; death is the state of a time as well.

Expression: It isn’t complete to sit and study without finding a way to share and express our heart. It doesn’t need to be long. Find something to share that connects the study with your life and speak from the first person, take the student seat, play.

Comment on my weekly Genjokoan blog posts.

Meet with me via Skype or Webex for virtual practice meetings once each month.

Email me a short summary of what’s been up in your practice each week (take no more than 15 minutes for writing). Here’s more details on the format: during the week, find a phrase that summarizes your week, then quote the phrase and explain how that fits. Your phrase can come from anywhere (but it should be from somewhere other than your internal dialogue) – for example, an overheard conversation, something you read or came across on the internet or from a dharma source.One wonderful dharma source for phrases like this is Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Koan Practice, now translated by Victor Sogen Hori (click the title if you want to order it). We’re using phrases like this to express our daily life as koan.So for example, Zen Sand, 4.333 (p. 139), “The tongue falls onto the ground.” Or 4.324 “Heart exposed, naked and red.” Or 4.323 “With one hand s/he blocks out the sun.” Or 4.318 “Stroll through the blue heavens.”

Optional: use a blog and share that way with other practitioners. Simple is fine.

Okay, that’s all for tonight. I’m going to sit on my deck and enjoy the stars now.

Into the Fire