Tag Archives: paramitas

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upaya

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The purpose of Zen practice is the perfection of character.

Yamada Roshi quoted in The Practice of Perfection by Robert Aitken

As you read this, I will be winging my way to Sant Fe, New Mexico for a retreat at Upaya Zen Center.  A year ago I arrived at the doors of Upaya ZC feeling like I had walked every mile from home.  My heart in tatters, my moral compass spinning, I had no expectations that 7 days was going to put a dent in my character failings.

It was not my first retreat but it was the first that included formal meals (oryoki).  The mysteries of unfolding the linen wrappings, setting out the bowls and utensils, and knowing which spoon to use in which bowl had intimidated me so much I blocked out the request to read the 30-some pages (!) of instructions sent ahead of the retreat.  By the second meal I was truly panicked.  I could stumble along with the order of use of the spoons and chopsticks by watching my neighbours.  But wrapping up the bowls at the end of the meal with a lotus leaf knot and without the bowls skittering across the zendo floor in the process baffled me.  So I cheated: despite the injunction not to read anything during the sesshin, I pulled out the instructions I had wisely brought along and practiced in my room with a towel.

Achieving success was less about looking like an oryoki dork as it was about fully enjoying the beauty and perfection of the whole process from beginning to end.  There was something deeply satisfying about the laying out of the bowls and utensils, the rhythm and cadence of the serving of the dishes, the bows to the servers, the slap of feet on the floor of the zendo in time to the drumming which opened the chanting.  Everything dissolved into a dance with partners who quickly moved out of sight.

Like life.

And in this life I have, I am slowly learning how to wrap things up as skillfully as I can when all is done.

Thank you for practicing,

Genju

Please visit Jomon at Nothing to Attain for a beautiful linking of oryoki and compassion

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non harming

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In the dimension of primary meaning all sounds are the sounds of the Buddha and all talk illuminates his teaching.  This is the vast and fathomless Dharmakaya.  It inspires us at each moment but nobody lives there, just as nobody lives exclusively in the worlds of harmony or individuality.

from The Practice of Perfection by Roshi Robert Aitken

At the end of most retreats, participants are offered an opportunity to commit to the path taught by the Buddha in a ceremony called “taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.”   Along with the Three Refuges they also commit to the Five Precepts of not killing, not stealing, not engaging in sexual misconduct, not lying and not consuming intoxicants.

Thich Nhat Hanh offers the Five Precepts as Five Mindfulness Trainings and the phrasing is instructive.  Each Mindfulness Training begins with an acknowledgment that I am aware there is suffering, that the suffering has a cause, and that I am willing to take action to diminish the suffering by transforming its cause.  The First Mindfulness Training is reprinted below from the Plum Village site (these are the revised version which has caused a bit of stir):

Reverence For Life

Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating the insight of interbeing and compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, or in my way of life. Seeing that harmful actions arise from anger, fear, greed, and intolerance, which in turn come from dualistic and discriminative thinking, I will cultivate openness, non-discrimination, and non-attachment to views in order to transform violence, fanaticism, and dogmatism in myself and in the world.

There’s usually some objection, if not a full out panic, around the First and Fifth Precepts.  The push-back to the First Precept is often in the resistance to not eating meat, killing mosquitoes and harming others physically.  The Fifth Precept which addresses the use of alcohol gets its fair share of concerned protest related to the complications of socializing with friends and family.  I try to take the view that expressing these concerns strengthens our practice because we are aspiring to be fully engaged in the reality of our lives.

In a light-hearted way, non-harming or ahimsa is a constant practice living in a farmhouse shared over the years with a number of dogs, cats, and mice.  Not to mention the insects: mosquitoes, house flies, the vicious infestations of Asian Lady Beetles and earwigs!  And of course, all beings come with droppings.  I can handle the various poops of the larger beasts but mice and the health consequences of their droppings challenge my aspiration to achieve ahimsa.  For all our discussions, we have yet to agree on trapping them mostly because live traps make no sense in our situation.  Given the mice come in from the great outdoors, all we’d be doing is creating a shuttle bus route so they can go home to invite back their friends from far and wide.  “Look, guys, it’s no big deal.  Every couple of days, this little space capsule transports you back home for a visit!  How cool is that!”

There are various ahimsic solutions: stuffing cupboards with sheets of fabric softener, strong herbs, even (though I refuse to try this) clumps of cat pee-soaked kitty litter.  (Apparently the smell of cat pee tells the mice there are large predators in the house.  Right.  Blind mice could see the size of my cats!)  My solution, limited by time and energy, is to dive into the pantry and shelves, armed with bleach, soap and a strong scrubbing brush.  Until I figure out how to line the pantry and cupboards with sheets of tin so the little critters can stay out, it will have to do.  The reward is an opportunity to be happily fanatic about organizing my pots and pans (by size) and the tin and dry goods (by category though not alphabetically – yet).  And it keeps me away from the Devil Drink!

Who knew keeping the precepts could be so much fun!











Thank you for practicing,

Genju

PS:  There is a deeper issue around the First Precept of Ahimsa and Right Livelihood which I hope to dig into in another post.