ORDINARY MIND ZEN-AUSTIN

Ordinary Mind Zen-Austin Name Change

2009-06-08T07:50:00.004-05:00

Dear readers:
Ordinary Mind Zen-Austin has changed its name—although not its function. It is now Appamada, and it has a new web site and a new blog. Please visit the new site at http://www.appamada.org. This blog will stay right here for historical purposes, but we will move all new discussion to the blogs listed at: http://www.appamada.org/profiles/blog/list. You can learn more about the name change and the meaning of appamada, the Buddha's last word, here: http://www.appamada.org/page/about-appamada

May 2009 Practice Intensive-Lotus Lake

2009-06-01T08:32:00.003-05:00

May 2009 Practice Intensive-Lotus Lake

Group photo from the Practice Intensive

More photos will be available at the new flickr group site for the sangha: http://www.flickr.com/groups/appamada

Front row: Darrell, Peg, Lisa K., Joanne
Second row: Pam, Lila, Laurie, Sally, Lisa B.
Third row: Maureen, Susan, Joan, Craig, Patty, Eric
Back row, Flint, Bill, and Sarah
Photographer: Tabrez

One Day Sitting

2009-04-21T09:15:00.006-05:00

One Day Sitting
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

Sunday Ordinary Mind offered a one-day sitting. Following the Sunday morning program, we shared tea, work practice, zazen, lunch, and a talk about the Buddha's family. The talk was based on an essay by John S. Strong, "A Family Quest: The Buddha, Yasodhara, and Rahula in the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya." This essay, published in the book Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Traditions of South and Southeast Asia, provides a very different account of the Buddha's home-leaving, based on the ancient Sanskrit texts, rather than the stories that grew up around the Pali canon. If you are interested in reading the essay, I have posted it on the wiki in the "Readings" folder here: http://ordinarymind.pbwiki.com. One-day sitting participants did a great job during work practice pulling weeds, dusting, brushing cushions, and mopping the floor in the Zendo. We appreciate all of their efforts!

Suzuki and me

2009-04-13T18:21:00.003-05:00

Shunryu Suzuki once famously said, “In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.” I can hardly claim Suzuki’s attainment or background with Zen, but if he is correct my own experience seems upside down. I started my Zen practice with very clear, singleminded ideas about practice drawn from my reading. I could have given you definitions and descriptions for dharma, satori, samadhi, shikantaza, karma, no-mind, zazen, samsara, enlightenment, and emptiness. I could clearly explain the four noble truths, the eightfold path, the 12-fold chain of causation.

Each of these concepts seemed well-defined, simple, and direct. There was only the straightforward matter of sitting in zazen until I became enlightened. And it was very clear that enlightened somehow meant whatever I was not. Zen masters were in short supply, but it was no problem: the important thing was to apply yourself wholeheartedly to the project of awakening—without, of course, any gaining idea.

The clarity and simplicity of what I knew about Zen was so compelling compared to the messy, confused, complex, and hapless life I was otherwise living. There was a single-mindedness about the discipline of zazen, and the path had a clear direction and goal. If only I could transcend the messiness of this human body, these unpredictable emotional storms, the incomprehensible tangle of relationships, and the tedious clutter of work in my life! As a novice, I was drawn to the single possibility offered by Zen, the “leap beyond the many and the one,” the single moment of liberation that would suddenly and magically transport me into the bliss of belonging, the wisdom beyond critique, the compassion that could save the world.

Forty-three years later I can only say, expert or no, that the practice has utterly confounded me with its myriad possibilities, its timeless unfolding as “branching streams,” its endless variety and openness. It is more and more obvious to me that dharma gates truly are boundless, that the dream of awakening is just that—a dream, that there is literally nothing whatsoever that is not part of this path, a path without any clear direction beyond the very next step. There is nothing except awakening being realizing itself—in a moment or over aeons, no real difference.

As the Buddha put it in the Lotus Sutra, “Now I am revealing a deeper truth—that the path, the teachings, the practice, is much larger than I indicated before—in fact it is infinite in scope, limitless, because beings are infinite and limitless. Although I defined it before, in truth the path cannot be defined. No ordinary person could possibly know it, for it is beyond all knowing.”

Beings are infinite and limitless: the possibilities are boundless. Is this a beginner's view?

May 2009 Practice Intensive

2009-04-05T20:57:00.002-05:00

The forms for the May 25-29 Ordinary Mind Practice Intensive have been uploaded to the wiki here. Please let me know if you have any difficulty downloading the forms. The application forms and the additional information packet with maps are both on the wiki page. If you are not able to download and print the forms, please let me know and I'll print a copy for you. We are looking forward to this opportunity to deepen our practice individually and as a sangha!

Kuan-Yin

2009-04-02T09:07:00.001-05:00

Kuan-Yin
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

The Bodhisattva of compassion, Kuan-yin, as she is known in Chinese Buddhist tradition, is known as Kannon or Kanzeon in Japanese Buddhism. Her name means "the one who hears the cries of the world." Kuan-yin, also spelled Guanyin, originated as Avolokiteshvara, the Sanskrit name for this Bodhisattva, originally a male figure. The Heart Sutra, chanted daily in Zen temples and monasteries, originates from Avolokiteshvara as a teaching given to Sariputra. This beautiful new statue, now residing in the practice discussion room, is a gift from Flint.

"Just As I Am"

2009-03-17T19:24:00.004-05:00

I was recently invited to write a short piece about my spiritual life; a vignette illustrating a significant turn in my spiritual path. This is what I wrote. The story became more important and more intimate than I had anticipated, but this is how writing - and practice - often goes. If we are willing to offer ourselves fully to it, it can take on a life of its own, and we are often changed as a result. For those of you not raised in a traditionally Southern Christian family, the specifics of the hymn and the service may have little meaning. However, I hope you will find something that resonates within the larger story.

I remember sitting in the front pew of East Avenue Baptist Church on Sunday morning as a young boy, watching my grandfather preach. When he finished and it was time for the invitation, he would ask us to join in singing the old hymn, “Just As I Am.” The church was too old, too small, and too poor to have a Minister of Music, so he would point us to the right page in the hymnal and we would sing along as he spoke during the chorus to those in the congregation who were ripe for conversion. I was a serious little boy, having grown up in the Southern Baptist Church, and I was always moved by that song and the earnest request of my grandfather, or any preacher, who was suggesting that this was a life-saving opportunity - the pinnacle of spiritual transformation - to come forward and profess your faith in Jesus Christ and thus to be assured of salvation.

The music was emotional and solemn: “Just as I am, without one plea, but that Thy blood, was shed for me, and that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.” The invitation touched that place in me, and I am sure in many others, that longed to be called into a relationship in which we would be fully seen, completely accepted, and infinitely loved. Only God was capable of that we were told, and if we were willing to come to him “just as I am,” all would be well. This was all fine and good during the Sunday morning service, but in Sunday School the very next week, the story mysteriously changed. Apparently I wasn’t OK “just as I am.” In fact, it was probably a good idea that I should actually offer a “plea” to be forgiven for who I was. I could “come home,” but there were rules in this house and entry into the Kingdom had a big price. The truth slowly dawned; being seen was a bit risky, being accepted was definitely going to be conditional, and being loved “just as I am” finally seemed impossible. After all, I knew I was different. I was gay.

I was a really good boy. I did what I was told. I was polite and smart. I had my Perfect Attendance in Sunday School pins and I was a Royal Ambassador. I memorized the 23rd Psalm and repeated it in my father’s Sunday School class when I was five-years old, and was baptized when I was six. I knew what it took to make it in this world of religion and it meant following the rules and pleasing the big people. I knew I could do that and I was good at it. The only trouble was, I had to maintain certain secrets in order to keep it up. Of course, I also noticed that most of the other people in church had their secrets too, but one of the rules we shared was not to notice. It became clear that looking good was sometimes more important than being good, so I became good at that.

Over time, the hidden parts grew too large, the pleasing became too much a burden, and the disconnection too great. I left the church, but “Just As I Am” did not leave me. It kept working on me. I became a Psychologist and practiced as a psychotherapist. I dedicated my life to the relief of suffering in others and in particular I was devoted to helping people find a way to accept themselves, just exactly as they were. If change was possible, this was the starting place. I studied, trained, and practiced. I found my place in the field of Behavioral Medicine, with a specialty in cancer care, working in hospitals and cancer treatment centers around the country. These were real life-saving opportunities, or at least life affirming and healing opportunities. But one big things was missing – a spiritual path. Psychology only went so far, and these patients were facing much more than passing anxieties or depressions. They were not just struggling in their marriages or fighting with their children. These people were facing the possibility of a foreshortened life and they were living with pain and suffering that was very apparent. I needed spiritual help in my own life and new tools to support my patients. I also needed a break.

Work in cancer care can be demanding, so I finally took a vacation to Hawaii, hiking the beautiful and rugged Na Pali trail on the north coast of Kauai with a friend. Along with the needed supplies to sustain us on our trek, I took along a copy of the Dhammapada, one of the earliest texts of the Buddha’s collected teachings. The eleven-mile hike along the narrow trail to our campsite was demanding but the scenery was unbelievably inspiring. The combination of fear and awe left me in a rare state as I finally sat on that remote beach in the Kalalau Valley reading the unfamiliar words of this ancient eastern teacher. Ordinary life had dropped away as I traversed the switchbacks through the hanging valleys along the jagged coast. As I walked, I was held up by the vast sky above me and called forward by the seemingly endless ocean reaching out to the horizon. Something true was being revealed to me in the raw power of nature and more subtly on the pages of the slim volume I carried in my backpack. Here I was, just as I am, without much to prop me up or fall back on, no one to impress and nothing to hide. I stood naked under the waterfall to take my shower, rested in the shade of the rainforest canopy to eat my meals, and took walks along the beach with the shorebirds scurrying along beside me as my companions.

When I returned, I began to slowly find my way along a new spiritual path. This landscape was characterized by mindful awareness, profound acceptance, and deep gratitude for all that is. I studied and learned all I could about the Buddha’s teachings. I came to see that his only concern was the cause of suffering and the relief of suffering he saw around him. That was what I was interested in and what my patients needed - relief from suffering. I meditated and went to retreats. I found a mature teacher to guide me and friends to accompany me along the way. I started a meditation group, founded a Zen center, was ordained as a Priest, spent time in a training monastery, and practiced in Japan. Eventually I allowed a good bit of the ancient Asian forms of practice to fall away. Now I teach this same freedom from suffering, just as I am, in this body, at this time, in this culture, under these circumstances, right here in Austin.

And along the way, I turned back to the actual teachings of Jesus and discovered what the young boy could not have seen; that this freedom was what the Jesus story had been about all along. I now understood that the yearning to respond to that “call” – to be seen, to be accepted, and to be loved unconditionally – was a universal desire, not a Christian or Buddhist desire. Everyone wants to be “saved,” no mater what their spiritual tradition; saved from a disconnected life that is not their own. What was touched as I sat singing that song of invitation was the soft spot in all of us, and it was this tender place that Jesus and Buddha had recognized and met with their lives. They responded as compassionate healers and wise teachers, and their kindness has made a profound difference in the world over the past two millennia. As a result, I now have the opportunity to live a life of truth - just as I am - held in that radiant light of wise care that theses great teachers demonstrated in their lives. And you have that same opportunity - just as you are.

Step inside a moment

2009-02-09T07:42:00.001-06:00

“Wouldn’t it be nice,” Chozen said, “to step inside a moment?” I’m considering that now, how it would be like stepping inside a cathedral, a great space soaring above and around you, filled with light from windows of many colors. And the sounds inside a moment would be rich as a symphony, a heartbeat, traffic, a sigh, a melting sound. The odor of something sacred, human and warm, a lingering aroma of a meal just cooked. Then too the sensations of the skin against the air, against these clothes, a casual itch and a bit of tightness in one shoulder. How full-bodied and wholehearted would our experience be! And how might we fall down in profound gratitude for the splendor we are witness to. Our yearning, the grain of wood in the floor, the mysterious light of the streetlamp, the moon, a passing car’s headlights. The gods envy this moment of a human life, torn as it is by suffering, anxiety, impermanence, and yet, inside this moment is timeless and complete. No worry left in it, no other place to be, nothing to do but look, and feel, and listen as long as we like. Could you ever grow tired of it? Did you forget to notice the dead ant in the corner, the subtle shading of the rice paper in the wooden frames, or the silent figures on the altar, the incarnations of great activity, great wisdom, great compassion, right here in this moment? Did you hear that? The refrigerator turned itself off, once it was cold enough, and a piece of paper rustled as someone turned a page. If you are longing for life eternal, please simply step inside a moment.

Charissa Goodrich

2009-02-07T19:13:00.002-06:00

Flint, Charissa, Peg
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

We have lost a dear friend and sangha member, Charissa Goodrich. We will miss her luminous presence and her open heart. We hold her family in our hearts and minds.When we have further information about her services, we will let the sangha know.

May 2009 Practice Intensive

2009-02-01T14:49:00.002-06:00

In order to line up an appropriate venue for our spring five-day practice intensive, we need to get a sense of how many people are planning to attend. We hope to schedule this practice intensive for the five days following Memorial Day weekend, May 25-29, or May 26-30, depending on the venue.

We understand that some folks may not be certain at the moment whether they will be able to participate, but we'll need to get a rough count in any event to know what will work best for our group. We hope there will be strong enough interest that we can plan on a residential intensive in the country or a bit removed from here. I'll put a signup sheet out on the table, and add one here: http://www.doodle.com/2cpkm53fgz6su9ef. Or you may click the link below.

You don't need an account to put your name on the list.

Appreciative Inquiry at Ordinary Mind

2009-01-25T16:16:00.002-06:00

This morning we discussed the third phase of the appreciative inquiry process for our sangha: Design. In mapping out the design foundation for the sangha at this point in its development, I drew on the discussions we have had during the first two phases, Discover and Dream, and the way the sangha seems to be evolving. Flint and I discussed the major themes as well, and I developed a mind map. We recorded this morning's discussion, and I've linked to the recordings and the map at the Ordinary Mind wiki here: http://ordinarymind.pbwiki.com/Topics. This is an ongoing process of inquiry and reflection, not a settled view. We hope you will help create the sangha that will best support your practice as your life. Please leave any comments about this process you wish either here or on the Topics wiki page.

Playing for Change

2009-01-22T07:57:00.001-06:00

Here is as excellent a description of sangha as anyone might wish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM

Reflections on the way

2009-01-14T17:58:00.002-06:00

We are discovering how the Buddha’s teachings most naturally express themselves in this time and place, together. Each culture and time has found its own way of turning the wheel of dharma, sharing the Buddha’s timeless teachings, and fostering the practices that reflect the awakened life. In this country we have been extremely fortunate to have the contributions of so many different cultural expressions of Buddhism to initiate this process and to establish the teachings here. There is the direct and penetrating practice of Zen, the richness and subtlety of Tibetan Buddhism, the profound mindfulness and concentration practices of the Theravadan tradition, and the dazzling accomplishment of fresh translations of many important texts in all of these traditions. Contemporary scientists, psychologists, scholars, and teachers have also contributed to and benefited from these ancient traditions and practices. A burgeoning spiritual marketplace offers videos, exotic tours, retreats, workshops, online communities, magazines, recordings of talks, monasteries, academic programs, and practice centers. The wealth of opportunities to study and to learn can sometimes be overwhelming.

Our practice here is simple. We focus on sitting meditation and shared inquiry into this very life we are living, these very minds and bodies with which we are living them, and the relationships we are engaged in right now. We teach and learn primarily from a Zen perspective because that is how we (Flint and I) have been formally trained, both in the San Francisco Zen Center lineage, where we were ordained, and the Joko Beck model, with which we are affiliated. We are also influenced by the Buddhist scholars Mu Soeng and Peter Hershock, by contemporary work in interpersonal neurobiology and psychotherapy, by contemporary teachers such as Adyashanti and Pema Chödron, and of course by the rich sources of the Buddha’s teachings in the Pali Canon and our Zen ancestors and teachers.

As we explore together how the Buddha’s teachings and practices can find their best expression for our contemporary lives, we invite and encourage you to connect, share, and inquire deeply with each other and with us. Our sangha and our particular way of working together may not resemble the particular forms or rituals or ways familiar from the Buddhist traditions of other cultures as we find this path that belongs uniquely to each of us and to our community of practice. I have confidence that our deep roots in traditional training and study, our ongoing teaching and learning, our connection with respected teachers, and most of all, our encounters with each of you and with our contemporary everyday lives will guide and ground this work. We also have complete confidence in you and in this process. Great liberation is freely available for every single one of you reading these words. Our aspiration is to support you in realizing it.

Joko with Lily

2009-01-05T14:44:00.002-06:00

Joko with Lily
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

Does a dog have Buddha nature? Yes or mu, Joko reminds Lily of the house rule: the nose must stay below the table! We enjoyed our visit with Joko. At 91, she still keeps a full schedule of daisan with students, both in person and on the phone, heading the Prescott Zen Center, regular sesshins, and the Sunday morning dharma talks. She works seven days a week, and enjoys it immensely. Her playful, mischievous sense of humor and laser sharp wisdom and insight were as lively as ever. We were honored that she invited Flint and I to do the Sunday morning dharma talk, and we were delighted by the warm response from her sangha. Brenda, Joko's daughter, was filming, and we hope to get a copy of the DVD to share with the sangha here. For more images, check the Ordinary Mind gallery by clicking the image or one of the images to the left.

Mystery Orchid

2009-01-05T14:34:00.001-06:00

Orchid
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

An enormous, beautiful orchid plant appeared in the kitchen with no card or note. It is quite gorgeous, and I appreciate this generous gift! Thank you for your thoughtfulness.

Appreciative Inquiry at Ordinary Mind

2008-12-14T14:08:00.001-06:00

This week we embarked on a process of appreciative inquiry for our Ordinary Mind sangha. It will unfold over four Sundays, two at the end of one year and two at the beginning of a new one. We are taking stock of where we are and where we would like to go together at the start of a new era. Today was week one of the inquiry process. We hope you will participate as well, so I am sending along these questions.

Week one

Part one

Please find a partner, someone you feel comfortable talking with:

In pairs, each partner in turn, please give a personal account, describing in as much detail as possible either
A time when you felt the promise of this practice for your life, or
Something this year that filled you with joy, when you felt most engaged, challenged, alive.

Part two

Imagine we asked someone who knows you well to describe the three best qualities they see in you. What would they say?

Now think about over time what fosters your own practice and development on your spiritual path. Can you describe what you’ve observed, what generates growth and aliveness for you?

Part three

Please come prepared to discuss this next Sunday, for Week two of our shared inquiry:

With a partner, discuss: suppose you fell asleep for a good long time, and when you woke up, Ordinary Mind had been extraordinarily evolved, a place and community and teachings that you dreamed of is completely realized. What is going on? What is the environment like? What are people doing? How are you involved differently than right now? What were the keys to this extraordinary success? How did all this happen?

Ordinary MInd Wiki

2008-11-10T11:18:00.005-06:00

Ordinary Mind has a new wiki for sharing and storing information, at http://ordinarymind.pbwiki.com/. Here you'll find guidelines for practice with Ordinary Mind, chants and sutras, readings, signups for events, and background information. You can add poetry to the poetry folder by creating a new page and pasting the poem into it. Please don't add any materials to the wiki that have been published elsewhere, as we don't have permissions for that. There is a signup sheet for the Thanksgiving potluck at http://ordinarymind.pbwiki.com/Thanksgiving Potluck. I hope you will find this resource helpful!

from Chicago

2008-11-05T13:55:00.004-06:00

Ben Syverson and friend Jon, 2:00 AM November 5, 2008
View more photos

Squirrel zen

2008-10-27T15:01:00.003-05:00

Squirrel zen
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

Even a squirrel sitting in zazen is enlightened. Why would you imagine you are lacking?

How simple can you let this be?

2008-10-21T16:21:00.003-05:00

Here is an interesting visualization of my poem, "How simple can you let this be":

You can play with the visualizations using the tabs at the top of the image. It's made using the community data visualization site Many Eyes, created at IBM:
http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/app

I thought this tool might interest some folks. It is a new way of looking at things: numbers, words, and communities.

October Intensive

2008-10-19T19:34:00.004-05:00

We have just finished the Ordinary Mind October Practice Intensive, led by Flint and Peg. We worked with a much-loved Dogen piece, Jijuyu Zammai, Self-fulfilling Samadhi, and the David Whyte poem, Faces at Braga. We also shared poetry by David Wagoner, and a new poem by Peg. During service, we chanted Bodhisattva's Vow, by Toreii Zenji. It was a deep and rich experience, as we practiced zazen, worked together cleaning and preparing meals, and gathered for inquiry groups and dharma talks. I've linked here the readings to share this work with all of you. And I want to add a footnote, as Flint mentioned in the inquiry group, that comes from the Afterword in Taking Our Places. In it Norman Fischer recounts a story from the Lotus Sutra:

It comes at a crucial moment in the narrative, as the Buddha is revealing the esoteric meaning of his teachings to a vast assembly of astonished practitioners. "In the past," the Buddha tells them, "I taught in a linear and straightforward manner about what's wholesome and what's not, about suffering and the end of suffering, about samsara and nirvana. I taught ethical conduct, meditation, and insight, setting forth a path of practice that was clear and manageable.
But all of this," Buddha confesses, "was merely skillful means I had to use, knowing that it was as much as you were capable of understanding at that time. Now I am revealing a deeper truth—that the path, the teachings, the practice, is much larger than I indicated before—in fact it is infinte in scope, limitless, because beings are infinite and limitless. Although I defined it before, in truth the path cannot be defined. No ordinary person could possibly know it, for it is beyond all knowing."

Fischer continues,

Now comes my line: "Only a Buddha and a Buddha," he says, "can understand it." Even a Buddha by himself can't understand it. Only a Buddha and a Buddha can. Only through profound relationship, deep encounter, ineffable meeting, can we ever hope to appreciate the immense dimensions of our human life. (186)

So until we meet again, please appreciate your life, and the pivotal human opportunity of meeting as a Buddha and a Buddha in all of your myriad relationships.

October Intensive Readings link

Installing stone and gravel paths

2008-10-17T16:31:00.003-05:00

Installing stone and gravel paths
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

Today the landscape plan moved forward a great step, thanks to Scott Thurmon and his skillful crew. It is delightful to see what a difference the gravel and stone make. When you visit Ordinary Mind now, you will not have to swim through a sea of mud or a desert of dust. The craftsmanship of the workers and the great care they are taking with this taxing physical labor is inspiring. If you click on the photo you can see a few other views.

Liberating Intimacy Brochure and Application Forms

2008-09-01T14:58:00.005-05:00

Here is an updated brochure for the upcoming Liberating Intimacy Two-year Training Program as well as application forms in Word and PDF format. Flint Sparks will be the lead trainer, assisted by Donna Martin. Please forward to those you think may be interested in this training.

Brochure
Application form (.doc)
Application form (.pdf)

Liberating Intimacy

2008-08-06T09:39:00.000-05:00

Because so many folks have asked about it, I'm linking here a sneak peak at the brochure we will be providing at the Hakomi Conference this week, describing the upcoming training with Flint and Donna, called Liberating Intimacy. We will have more complete information for you shortly, but I know there are many people interested in this training, which integrates Hakomi and Buddhist practice, and it is also important to have an idea of the schedule and dates for the training early. The location for this training will be the Ordinary Mind Zen center here in Austin. If you have any questions about this early information, or if you would like to be on the interest list, please let me know.

There will be several opportunities to learn more and experience a taste of the training this fall, through Flint's Seton Cove luncheon series and through his class.

You may download this brochure at http://www.liberatingintimacy.org/LI_brochure.pdf

Horizonless Intimacy

2008-07-30T06:06:00.004-05:00

I captured this image as I took an early morning walk along the beach in Bray, Ireland (County Wicklow) this past Monday morning (7/28/08). I was looking across the Irish Sea as the sun made its way up through the clouds. If I would have been able to see beyond the horizon where the sea and the sky appear to meet, I would have found northern Wales on the other shore. In fact, on the previous afternoon while walking along another stretch of beach just south of Bray near Newcastle I ran upon a granite marker tucked among the boulders of the seawall protecting the railroad that passed nearby. On the opposite side of the the railway from the nearly hidden marker was an abandoned and decaying building. The marker indicated that it was from this site and this tiny station that underwater telegraph cables were first laid beginning in the late 1880's, connecting Ireland and Wales. These connections were in use through the early 1930's. What happened then? I suppose technology changed what was possible. Horizons for communication were extended and expanded.

If my view across the Irish Sea could have extend even further that morning, beyond the Welch border, I would have encountered the midlands of England where I had just spent the previous two weeks teaching and walking on the moors of Derbyshire. Further still and the English Channel would have come into view and then the Netherlands, France, and the whole European continent. Where would it have ended? With a higher or more complete view, when obstructions or limitations are released, when horizons vanish, what can be seen? Apparently there is no end to the great view of a liberated mind, which I am only imagining, even while my particular human senses are, of course, quite limited.

These past three weeks have been very concentrated for me - many days of teaching and very deep encounters. I worked with a number of wonderful people who were wholeheartedly offering themselves to a process of assisted self-discovery in mindfulness. They were curious about what they could see and what horizons they might explore as their self-identifications relaxed into the more diffuse awareness and warmth of intimacy. In my reading this morning, I ran across this brilliant statement by the late Irish poet John O'Donohue: "In the human face infinity becomes personal."

As I turned my attention to the vastness of the morning sky, into the cold wind, and toward the glistening sea last Monday, my awareness expanded and opened, inviting the unbound possibilities of my heart and mind to know themselves more fully. In the very next moment, in the reflected light of that same morning sun as I turned and looked into the eye of my friend Donna with whom I was walking, that vastness became personal, close, and alive. This is also what I saw in the faces of the participants in the retreats over these past three weeks. In the reflected presence they offered to each other, they began to see their own brilliance and fullness, flaws and limitations, all perfect because they were whole. This is the same infinitely transformative potential I see in the faces of each person who brings themselves forward in our Inquiry Groups, who come to practice discussion, and who sit in the zendo every day. We offer ourselves to each other so we can remember our vulnerable humanness and, in the bargain, get a glimpse of the divine. "In the human face infinity becomes personal." What are the limits of this liberating intimacy? Our spiritual ancestors suggest that it is boundless. Let's turn to face each other again and again, and in that reflected presence, discover this truth to be our own.

About Practice Discussion

2008-07-26T14:03:00.001-05:00

I thought it might be helpful to explain a bit about practice discussion (individual meetings with the teacher, called dokusan in Japanese Zen practice) for new folks, and anyone else who might be a little mystified about it. Ordinary Mind Zen as we understand it is relational practice. It is about connections and the flow of energy and information in our encounters with each other, not solitary contemplative achievement or individual self-improvement. In our view, the work of zazen is in service of our relationships in and with the world. It is about enlightening concourse, the liberating possibilities in our coming together, and is not confined to a personal experience of exalted states of consciousness. For this reason, regular communication with teachers and sangha members is central to our practice. But there is a lot of misunderstanding about this process.

The rule of thumb Joko established is that her students see her once a week if they are new to Zen practice. Once they have been practicing for two years or so, they see her every two weeks. She finds that new students need a little more support for the challenges they meet in establishing their practice. Practice interviews are quite short, usually 10 minutes or so, although this can vary a bit, and they focus on the person’s practice. If the issue is complex or requires more explanation or background, however, Joko will usually recommend that the student make an appointment with her outside of dokusan, when there is more time for providing a context.

Practice discussion is not therapy, nor is it a substitute for therapy. It is not professional coaching. However, any of the issues that might also be addressed by therapy or coaching can have implications or opportunities for practice. So actually, there are no “inappropriate” topics for practice discussion. You do not, in fact need to have a topic, question, or issue: the fundamental purpose of practice discussion is the liberating possibilities of the encounter itself. Of course, practice discussion is always optional, but it can be extremely helpful, and even necessary, as it is quite possible in practice to sail confidently off in a misguided direction, or to torture yourself needlessly with self-doubt, anxiety, or confusion.

Practice discussion is available during any zazen period by request. On Sundays, Peg sees people in order, counterclockwise starting with the timekeeper. However, priority is given to those folks who arrive in time for the first sitting period at 8:00. At other times, or if you have a special need to see her, please email a request or let the monitor know. The monitor sits directly to the right of the door as you enter, and can also help handle other needs, for a chair, bench, or extra cushion, for example. Flint is at Ordinary Mind one morning a week, when he is in town. To see Flint for practice discussion, please email him or call him with a request.

The form for practice discussion is fairly simple. When you are tapped, please rise mindfully and come quietly to the door of the practice discussion room, waiting for the bell. Enter and close the door, then right from the door, make a bow toward the altar. Come to the end of the bowing mat and do a standing bow to the teacher. Then sit, and the practice discussion begins. When it is over, give a seated bow to the teacher, then stand, arrange the cushions and make a standing bow to the teacher. There is no altar bow when you leave.

I hope this helps clarify our practice discussion format. I look forward to our work together!

Fall Class with Flint Sparks: Waking up and growing up

2008-07-03T21:45:00.005-05:00

Here are further details and the schedule for Flint's upcoming class at Ordinary Mind.

Waking Up and Growing Up:
Maturing in Life and in Practice

A six-month series in studying the Self
with Flint Sparks

The great twentieth-century Zen master Uchiyama Roshi was once asked his definition of a Bodhisattva. After a brief pause, he replied in his very limited English, “I think, maybe a grown-up.” What is this “grown-up” that Uchiyama is referring to and how is this an expression of the Bodhisattva ideal in Buddhist practice?

In Norman Fischer’s book, Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up, he writes, “I have always been struck by the language the sutras use to describe bodhisattvic altruistic activity: the bodhisattva matures beings, the sutras say. The work of the bodhisattva is, in other words, to become mature and in doing so to work for the maturity of others.” (p. 20)

In this class we will investigate the interplay among all the streams of human development - neurological, emotional, relational, spiritual. These strands of development form our personalities and inform our relationships. They are the source of all of our joys as well as our sorrows. When Dogen famously wrote, “To study the Buddha Way is the study the Self,” I believe he was suggesting that we explore this map of human growth that opens most fully as human awakening. This is the path of the Bodhisattva which is nothing but the path of the human being.

The class will meet monthly over a six-month period. The program will follow the Ordinary Mind principle of experiential work, rather than following a classroom or academic model. We will incorporate into each meeting some time for sitting, some writing, small experiments or exercises, some inquiry work, and discussion. I believe that in this series, I will have a chance, for the first time, to draw on all I have learned over the years as a therapist and as a Zen teacher. I hope you will join me.

We will generally meet the second Tuesday of the month of each month except for November and January from 6:30 – 8:30 PM. Here are the class dates:

Sept. 9
Oct. 7
Nov. 4
Dec. 9
Jan. 13
Feb. 10

The fee for the entire class is $150. Application forms may be downloaded here:

http://www.ordinarymindaustin.org/waking.doc
http://www.ordinarymindaustin.org/waking.pdf

Questions? Call 512.689.5301 or email pegsyverson@gmail.com or flint@flintsparks.com

Mail or bring this form:
Ordinary Mind Zen-Austin
913 East 38th St.
Austin, TX 78705

Precepts Program News

2008-07-03T13:39:00.002-05:00

Because of the demand for the Precepts Program, I've expanded it into two sections. The first section will meet on the first Thursday of the month and the second section will meet on the third Thursday of the month (with a couple of exceptions, noted below). If you have a strong preference for one section over the other, please let me know. I'll form up the sections and let you know when you are scheduled. Here are the dates for each section:

Ordinary Mind Precepts Program Schedule

SECTION 1
First Thursday of the Month

2008
September 4
October 2
November 6
December 4

2009
January 8 (Note: second Thursday because of New Year's)
February 5
March 5
April 2
May 7
June 4
July 2
August 6

SECTION 2
Third Thursday of the Month

2008
September 18
October 16
November 13 (because of Thanksgiving)
Dec. 15 (Monday instead of Thursday)

2009
January 22
February 19
March 19
April 16
May 21
June 18
July 16
August 20

Please be assured that none of these dates conflicts with Flint's class, "Waking up and growing up." I'll be sending out information about the schedule and registration forms for that class shortly.

Entry deck

2008-06-10T20:38:00.001-05:00

Entry deck
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

The new entry deck is shaping up on the side of the house. The work is being done by Robert McKay of Mac Design-Build. The roof is being done by Clay Fuller of Straight Solutions. We are so fortunate to have such expert help! This is the first phase of the landscape project for Ordinary Mind. We hope to create a serene and refreshing urban sanctuary here.

2008-06-10T12:07:00.001-05:00

Dear Sangha-

If you've registered for the Precepts Program, here are the scheduled dates for the meetings. They will be on the first Thursday of the month:

2008
September 4
October 2
November 6
December 4

2009
January 8 (Note: second Thursday because of New Year's)
February 5
March 5
April 2
May 7
June 4
July 2
August 6

If you have not yet signed up for the Precepts Program, there is still space available. (More information about the Precepts Program) The registration form can be found here:

PDF format: www.ordinarymindaustin.org/precepts.pdf

Word format: www.ordinarymindaustin.org/precepts.doc

"Accepting This"

2008-05-27T13:49:00.001-05:00

I have copied a poem here which I read today at the noon Inquiry Group. I felt it captured an essential element of what these groups, and our sangha, are about. Apparently others were similarly captured. It certainly emphasizes the relational aspect of non-dual practice. This seems like and an oxymoron or at least a paradox - "relational aspects of non-dual practice." Enter the poetry and allow it to speak.

Flint

"Accepting This" by Nark Nepo

Yes, it is true. I confess,

I have thought great thoughts,

and sung great songs - all of it

rehearsal for the majesty

of being held.

The dream is awakened

when thinking I love you

and life begins

when saying I love you

and joy moves like blood

when embracing others with love.

My efforts now turn

from trying to outrun suffering

to accepting love wherever

I can find it.

Stripped of causes and plans

and things to strive for,

I have discovered everything

I could need or ask for

is right here-

in flawed abundance.

We cannot eliminate hunger,

but we can feed each other.

We cannot eliminate loneliness,

but we can hold each other.

We cannot eliminate pain,

but we can live a life

of compassion.

Ultimately,

we are small living things

awakened in the stream,

not gods who carve out rivers.

Like human fish,

we are asked to experience

meaning in the life that moves

through the gill of our heart.

There is nothing to do

and nowhere to go.

Accepting this,

we can do everything

and go anywhere.

Sunday morning schedule changes

2008-05-21T08:06:00.002-05:00

This week we expanded our Sunday morning program, adding an additional zazen period and optional mindful work period. The optional work period is from 7:30 to 7:55. The additional zazen period provides more time for individual practice discussion with Peg, and it means that we finish at approximately 10:40. Afterwards, many folks enjoy going for tea and breakfast together.

As always, you are welcome to come for any zazen period. If you arrive after the start of zazen at 7:30, please use the back entrance and wait in the study for the start of walking meditation before joining the group. The first walking meditation will usually be outdoors, weather permitting. If you arrive between the first and second sitting period, you can join up with the walking meditation in the back.

Day 7: Completion and Return Home

2008-05-04T09:29:00.008-05:00

The photo above represents how the yurt looked before the participants arrived. This particular image was recorded by Rikki Cooke, one of our hosts and a long-time National Geographic photographer and talented teacher (see www.thealohabear.com for more of his work). The elegant arrangement you see here shifted and changed, was rearranged and reordered all through the week to match the needs of the group and each event - meditation, small group work, mindful movement, and even hula. Light slowly filled the room each morning and then faded each evening. People came and went. Many of us were, in alternating waves, inspired and discouraged, joyful and sad, angry and fearful - just like the rest of life. But the room was always ready and held it all, along with the trees, birds, and wind. The earth supported everything below us and the sky, with its many moods, nevertheless remained open above us. In the end, we reflected on our week together and then dismantled the room, put everything away, leaving a clean, empty space ready for the next group. Unlike the typical Western ethos that suggests we "leave our mark" on the world, the Zen teacher Suzuki Roshi suggested that "we leave no trace." The "eight worldly winds" I briefly described in the Day 4 entry point to the storms stirred by clinging to the personal: gain and loss, pleasure and pain, praise and blame, fame and obscurity. There is an alternative, however. We can leave (and live each day) with gratitude and respect, which is certainly how I feel about the Hui and also about everyone who participates here. In many ways it is a long and challenging trip for most people who travel to Molokai. I have a profound appreciation for those who choose to do so -who offer themselves wholeheartedly to the process, who discover the benevolent welcome of Mother Molokai, who are reminded of their shadows and contractions of conditioning they thought they had left behind on the mainland, and who are willing to "take the backward step and turn their light inward," as Dogen poetically wrote in his old Zen meditation instruction. To have the willingness to meet it all with the support of the setting and each other is the beginning of not just personal healing, but of peace. Without this willingness, we feed the seeds of discord, hatred, division, and ongoing suffering for all. But, with a simple turn, we save not only ourselves, but the whole world. Toward this end, I offer the dedication we chanted all week together:

By the power and truth of this practice, may all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.

May all be free from sorrow and the causes of sorrow.

May all never be separated from the sacred happiness which is sorrowless.

And may all live in equanimity, without too much attachment and too much aversion,

And believing in the equality of all that lives.

Mahalo ("Thank you" in Hawaiian)

Day 6: Releasing and Healing

2008-05-02T12:07:00.003-05:00

These posts are such small snapshots of each day, rich with experience, both delightful and challenging. As someone once said, "transformation is not for the feint of heart." Hui Ho'Olana, the name of the retreat center, means "where inspiration rises up form the heart." Inspiration rises rather easily here in this beautiful and welcoming environment, but so does everything else along with it. When we open, everything comes, not just the joy. Today we ceremonially honored what wanted to be released - especially anguish and grief - but first it had to be witnessed. This understanding is most beautifully offered in another Mary Oliver poem, "Heavy" (below). It rained gently in the morning, as if the sky was weeping softly. We moved the large rock from the altar to the deck outside the yurt. We began to ring the bell as might happen in a temple in Asia whenever a death has occurred. As we counted each striking of the bell with the beaded mala - 108 peals of the bell - participants came forward and poured water over the rock to honor their loss or grief as one might do at an ashes site in Japan. The silence was filled with only the bell, the wind, the birds, and the tender hearts of the participants. Later in the day, after dinner, laughter and music could be heard echoing down the hill. How does this happen?

Heavy

Mary Oliver

That time I thought I would not

go any closer to grief

without dying

I went closer, and I do not die.

Surely God had his hand in this,

as well as friends.

Still, I was bent, and my laughter,

as the poet said,

was nowhere to be found.

Then said my friend Daniel

(brave even among lions),

"It's not the weight you carry but how you carry it -

book, bricks, grief -

it's all in the way you embrace it, balance it, carry it

when you cannot, and would not, put it down."

So I went practicing.

Have you noticed?

Have you heard the laughter

that comes, now and again,

out of my startled mouth?

How I linger to admire, admire, admire

the things of this world that are kind,

and maybe also troubled -

roses in the wind,

the sea geese on the steep waves,

a love to which there is no reply?

Day 5: Returning to the Circle

2008-04-30T22:54:00.004-05:00

I've been coming to Molokai for almost ten years and have never experienced "vog" - the equivalent of smog, only produced by the massive eruption of Kilauea happening currently on the Big Island of Hawaii. The haze comes and goes depending on the strength of the eruption and the direction of the winds. It was reported that the pollution level on the worst days has been similar to LA smog on a regular day, only we have sulphur dioxide, ash, and smoke in the mix rather than the primarily carbon dioxide of auto pollution. When the trade winds return from the north, the air clears and we can see far off into the distant horizon. The island of Lanai suddenly appears as if by magic and our breathing is relaxed and easy once again. This dramatic environmental shift is not too different from the internal shifts we discover in practice. One moment we are caught in the haze of the "self-centered dream" and feel real suffering. We experience it in the body and in the breath. As our thoughts change and our perspective shifts, the mind begins to clear and what was previously occluded by "holding to self-centered thoughts" is suddenly revealed as delusion. The entire island of Lanai was not destroyed, we just couldn't see it because the vog made it impossible to see from our personal viewpoint. Neither is our True Nature destroyed when we are caught in the self-centered dream. However, we do loose sight of who we truly are as our horizons contract back to self-clinging, self-cherishing, and the relentless social "I". This doesn't just happen in the midst of work stress and family difficulties, this happens during beautiful and grace-filled retreats as our conditioning is triggered and within the container of practice we have the opportunity to look closely at these patterns which we usually play out as ordinary and automatic. We chant, "each moment, life as it is, the only teacher." This is only true if we are willing to look deeply and if we are willing to help each other look closely in the reflective benevolence of loving relationships. In this way our horizons expand. We become a larger container for experience, more able to "bow to life as it is." The air clears and the breath is easy again.

Caught in the self-centered dream, only suffering.

Holding to self-centered thoughts, exactly the dream.

Each moment, life as it is, the only teacher.

Being just this moment, compassions way.

Day 4: Loosening the "I"

2008-04-30T18:49:00.004-05:00

We began today with a dharma talk by Richy using Tsoknyi Rinpoche's Four Types of "I". This is a Tibetan teaching on the construction of a solid sense of "I" where none exists. He actually starts with what he calls the "Mere I." This is the actuality of our functional sense of self. It is what Mu Soeng calls "a provisional floating center." This is, of course, neither solid nor enduring, but fully functional and integrated. With just a tiny bit of grasping however, we then move to "Ego Fixation." It is here that the sense of self starts to become frozen. There is no more flow or sense of the dance of phenomena. There is always an "I" as the reference point in life. This, of course, results in subject/object fixation - we want happiness and must maintain the "I" in that pursuit. This tends to lead to the next level of "Self-cherishing." We are always putting ourselves first, consuming in the service of "I", increasing the amount of investment in preserving the self. Life becomes more complex. Next comes the "Social I." This is the coarsest sense of "me" generated by social role, work, and identity. This is very well developed and highly valued in the West. The "Eight Worldly Winds" appear at this level because they are what buffet the ego about. I will mention them here although there is much more to them and they deserve a more complete teaching than I can offer in a brief blog post. They are: gain and loss, pleasure and pain, praise and blame, fame and obscurity. These are the guiding forces that push around the Social I. They are not hard to understand are they?

What happens when we release back through these four senses of "I" to the Mere I? Here is a tiny taste - more of a portal into the release to the Mere I - but a beautiful example nonetheless. We did practices today to help us experiment with releasing into Mere I. Below is an report from one of our sangha members in Austin following a recent intensive. I read it to the participants here on Molokai as an example of the fruit of these kinds of teachings. This is what I really love, assisting students so that the teachings emerge from them and then pointing out that they have arrived through them, not me. This is thrilling. Take a look:

"Since the Intensive, I have been experiencing everything through the lens that "nothing is what I call it." It has impacted everything, whether I am sitting or speaking or watching the world around me. I've gone back and listened to talks and read poetry that I thought I "got" and in doing so realized this dimension that was there all along - something I've spoken to other people about but now actually realized instead of interpreting it in words which I heretofore thought defined life. For example, "all things have Buddha nature" turns into "all things share a reality and a life before and after any reference we can make to it." Then, before I name the moon as beautiful, it is already true - active and fully responded to in me and all others in a communication that far exceeds any verbal expression. Then, Dogen says we are "actualized by the myriad things;" speech and thought are just name tags that are just one infinitessimal acknowledgement of the whole and is already flowing through us as vibrating expressions of this ever expansive truth. It has been breathtaking and makes the notion of separateness an organic impossiblity."

What can you actually say about the picture of the flower above (thanks to Cassie Weyendt)? Do those six letters - "flower" - contain the explosion you see? What about the light - not to mention the smell? What about you, or what you call you? Is it really so solid or so necessary? These are good questions. Just to be mindful helps us begin to penetrate the ways we cling to the self, cherish the self, and maintain a social I. Here is the final poem of the day by Mary Oliver.

Mindful : Mary Oliver

Every day

I see or hear

something

that more or less

kills me

with delight,

that leaves me

like a needle

in the haystack

of light.

It is what I was born for -

to look, to listen,

to loose myself

inside this soft world -

to instruct myself

over and over

in joy,

and acclamation.

Nor am I talking

about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,

the very extravagant -

but the ordinary,

the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.

Oh, good scholar,

I say to myself,

how can I help

but grow wise

with such teachings

as these -

the untrimmable light

of the world,

the ocean's shine,

the prayers that are made

out of grass?

Day 3: Entering the Body

2008-04-29T02:14:00.007-05:00

Yesterday Richie began a series of Feldenkrais exercises to assist people in opening very gently to sitting meditation. This morning, Amrita led us in mindful movement as a way to teach the fundamentals of mindfulness itself - through the body. She had previously taught these sequences with Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts in his well known mindfulness based stress reduction program. Later, I offered a dharma talk focusing on the Buddha's Four Noble Truths as an embodied practice. So we are moving from body practices, to teachings, and back to the body, weaving a practice series we hope will assist in deepening each participant to the realization that it is only through having a body and entering wholehearted embodiment with others that we awaken fully to life as it is.

The day actually started quite powerfully, well before these man-made sessions. Most of the group went to watch the sunrise at the Kalaupapa overlook, an old stone wall at the top of a three-thousand foot cliff high above the leper colony of Molokai where Father Damien did his work. Kalaupapa is an entire story in itself of course, full of tragedy and great triumph, but this morning we stood in awed silence for more than an hour as the sun made its way up and out of the ocean offering us an indescribable display of light and texture. It was still mostly dark - at least very gray - when we arrived. A deer bounded across the road as we drove to the overlook parking lot. The moon still lit the sky. The cool morning wind whipped the ironwood trees vigorously and the waves broke forcefully against the shore far below. Later, in the morning check-in, one of our participants, JoLynn, offered this startling poem. It captures the teaching of the entire day better than I could describe.

What I Learned Before Breakfast

The birds do not keep the rule of silence

except when you least expect it.

Even the grays - all of them - are beautiful.

You cannot tell the difference

between the sound of the wind

and the sound of the water, nor

the sound they make together.

There is a line where the

sea stops and the sky beings,

isn't there?

The moon keeps watch till the

sun takes over and when it

does, it aims right for you.

The clouds shape shift before

your eyes offering feathers,

a purple Agapanthus, frosty

meringue, a fiery salmon dragon

sent as an emissary.

Apparently this happens frequently.

Ordinary Mind Precepts Program 2008-09

2008-04-28T17:57:00.004-05:00

Hui Neng, the sixth Zen ancestor, said “It is precisely Buddhist conduct that is the Buddha.” This means, as Peter Hershock notes, that the real Buddhist is seen “in terms of conduct—that is, his or her lived relations with others—and not according to any individually possessed marks or states of consciousness.”

Awareness naturally awakens our aspiration to benefit all beings. The relational quality of lived experience is the complete function of “being Buddha.” It lies in our liberating, intimate encounter and interaction with all beings. For this reason, Buddhism rests on a deeply ethical foundation. The Buddha taught the principles of ethical living throughout his forty-five years of teaching, to every kind of audience from farmers to disciples to kings. Although this ethical foundation parallels the ethical teachings of every major world religion in some ways, Buddhism is unique in the way the precepts are presented. Rather than reflecting moral judgments or declarations of “what is good” and “what is bad or evil,” the Buddha taught an active process of inquiry into that which is wholesome and that which is unwholesome. The definition of what is wholesome is simply that which leads towards liberation and well-being for oneself and others. Rather than setting out rules or commandments, the Buddha urged his followers to investigate for themselves their own words, thoughts, and actions to discover their qualities and consequences. This very process is taking the Buddhist path. He taught a set of precepts to help focus this ongoing inquiry.

Ordinary Mind will offer a one-year program of once-a-month meetings to explore the Buddhist precepts from a contemporary practice perspective. This program will follow the Ordinary Mind principle of experiential work, rather than following a classroom or academic model. We will incorporate into each meeting some time for sitting, some writing, small experiments or exercises, some inquiry work, and discussion. We will also draw on contemporary teachings about attachment and attunement in interpersonal neurobiology, internal family systems, spiral dynamics, and Hakomi. The real heart of this course, however, is utterly simple: it is in the everyday work, lives, and relationships of the participants, the ground of true practice.

At the end of the year, we will offer a small, informal ceremony for those who would like to commit themselves to the path of the precepts in their own lives. This step is entirely voluntary; participants will decide if it is appropriate for them. The ceremony will be a public acknowledgment of a personal commitment and dedication to the practice path as it unfolds right here and right now, in this very life.

You do not need to be experienced in Zen practice to begin the Ordinary Mind precepts program; you may just be curious about the subject. We will ask you to maintain a daily sitting practice (even a very short period of sitting each day) and commit to attending the monthly meetings to the extent that you are able to throughout the course of the program. We will use as our text for the program Diane Rizzetto’s book Waking Up to What You Do: A Zen Practice for Meeting Every Situation With Intelligence and Compassion. (Amazon link) We will also be using the Learning Record, a way of documenting for your own use your experiences as the program unfolds. This is a new way of supporting spiritual practice and we hope you will provide feedback to help refine it.

The meetings will be scheduled for the third Thursday of each month, beginning in September 2008 and ending in August 2009, from 7:00 to 9:00 in the evening. The cost will be $300 if paid in advance, or $30 per month if paid over the course of the year. To register for this program, please complete the application form linked here in both Word and PDF formats. If you have any questions about the program, please let me know.

All my warmest wishes,

Peg

Day 2: Forming the Circle

2008-04-27T19:55:00.004-05:00

We Clasp the Hands

Wendell Berry

We clasp the hands of those that go before us,

And the hands of those who come after us.

We enter the little circle of each other's arms

And the larger circle of lovers,

Whose hands are joined in a dance,

And the larger circle of all creatures,

Passing in and out of life,

Who move also in a dance,

To a music so subtle and vast that no ear hears it

Except in fragments.

This morning we stood together on the lawn in front of the lodge, our toes in the grass, our fingers entwined, joined in a circle in which we honored our personal ancestors as well as the family of Hawaiian people who helped make this retreat center sacred ground. Bronwyn Cooke, the director of the center blew the conch shell in the four directions and intoned a beautiful and powerful Hawaiian chant that calls on us to be present and listen deeply. Part of the translation is an aspiration: "may we be granted the possibility of hearing the wisdom of the song." Following the circle we finally descended the hill to the yurt and began our first formal session. Richie told a beautiful story drawn from Africa about a tribe in which each newborn is greeted with a song given to their parents even before their conception; a song which encourages them to the day of their actual birth, follows them throughout the ups and downs of their lives, and finally sends them on at the time of their death. Following the story each participant offered their aspiration and intention for the week and placed a shell or rock on the altar as a symbolic offering of themselves to the process and to the practices. These were fragments - broken bits of shell mostly - worn down or incomplete, yet perfectly themselves, like each one of us.

The songs continued through the afternoon as we left the retreat center to hear the local "kapuna," the elders who pass on the culture of Hawaii through their music and hula. It was a joyful and powerful event to see the old women, the young children, the locals and the transplanted residents, all singing, dancing, and playing the music that hold the community together. In so many ways we today we tasted the music "so subtle and vast that no one hears it except in fragments." Tonight after dinner we sat together in darkness as the electrical power on the island failed. After such a full day, it was surprisingly easy to find peace and harmony with what life was offering us. Tomorrow we will continue to move deeper into that vast and subtle music of our lives, played through our bodies.

2008-04-27T12:03:00.004-05:00

Day 1: Travel to Honolulu and on to Molokai

As I type these words the bright screens above us on the new Boeing 767 indicate that we have traveled over three thousand mile since our departure from Dallas earlier this morning. We are flying at more than 34,000 feet through the vast sky over the Pacific, hurtling along at nearly 600 miles and hour. It is an unfathomable -54F outside the plane and we are about ninety minutes from landing in Honolulu where it is currently partly cloudy, with a light breeze, and 81F on the ground. This is how we automatically and habitually orient ourselves, isn't it - measurements, numbers, comparisons, evaluations, anticipations, and memories? Sitting in this relatively comfortable seat, drinking endless bottles of water, and feeling rested from a brief nap, it is easy to forget that all of this is a strange thing to do to a body. Spending the equivalent of an entire workday (nearly 8 hours) in a pressurized cabin in order to travel to a dormant volcano (now called an island) rising from the ocean floor in the middle of the ocean is stressful challenge. Not to mention that the day will somehow be 29 hours long and even though it is bright and sunny as we travel on to Molokai, my body will know that it will be midnight, not 7:00 PM as shown on the face of my iPhone. The phone simply changes without any apparent resistance or stress. My body, however, takes time, and that is what we will begin doing tomorrow - taking time to sit in silence and stillness and the fullness of the moment. I hope you will take some time to sit, even for only a few minutes, and enjoy your life just as it is.

2008-04-27T11:16:00.004-05:00

Quieting the Mind:

Connecting to Body, Earth, and Spirit

Flint Sparks and Richie Heckler

April 26 - May 2, 2008

"This retreat is a gentle invitation to awaken from the trance of everyday life and to be refreshed by the richness and aliveness that is available by connecting body and spirit with the healing earth of "Mother Molokai." During our week together we will have opportunities for meditation, mindful movement, and small group experiments drawn from the Hakomi Method. We will teach restorative practices which connect us deeply to our bodies, the spacious mind beyond hope and fear, to the earth, and to the wisdom of our ancestral lineages. We will work with all of these energy streams in an organic, restful, and playful manner with the intention of revealing our basic goodness."

The above was the original invitation to this week's retreat. Today and tomorrow (Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26), fifteen participants are traveling to Hawaii to find out what actually happens when we gather in response to this description that Richie and I manufactured nearly a year ago. No one actually knows the deepest intentions, privately held expectation, and hidden fears of any of the other group members. Sunday morning we will begin to give voice to all of this for the first time in the group, sitting together in a circle in the yurt nestled among tropical foliage, cooled by the island breezes, and serenaded by the exuberant birds.

It is quite a pilgrimage to travel to the tiny island of Molokai, only 52 miles from the bustling traffic of Honolulu and crowded beaches of Waikiki. On a clear day you can actually see the majestic outlines of Diamond Head from the east end of Molokai. However, this relatively short distance belies the enormous distance you travel in the 17-minute flight between airports. When you land on Molokai and step off the plane you enter what the locals call "the most Hawaiian island", and what Riki Cooke (one of our hosts at the Hui) calls "an island in time." My experience, year after year, is that upon arrival I feel a relief, an opening, a simple joy, and a deepening that is totally visceral. The shift is physical. Certainly I have memories and appreciations from past visits. I have ideas about the week and hopes for its "success." But Mother Molokai greets you as an undeniable and immensely intimate embodied presence. This is why I return year after year and this is why I continue to invite others to join me here. You are also invited to join us, in a way, through these daily accounts. I will do my best to offer you brief, ongoing accounts of our daily practices and experiences as they unfold. I hope you enjoy the reports and maybe find yourself encouraged to practice along with us as we open to the ever-deepening awareness of the body and the natural quieting of the mind.

Aloha - Flint

Heart-mind

2008-03-24T19:06:00.001-05:00

Heart-mind
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

Process Notes

Do I want to say something about these anemones?
Or do I drink this color, light, and shadow straight up,
the main question having changed from
how can I make a living
to how can I live this life?
And then...
silence
in the teeth of the great mystery
where words can’t follow
the vast wild night
safely held at bay by
the comforts of this place,
my settled space and this, too
is home to it, the life within
and without no different, really,
the death that enters here or there
completely unconcerned with
where you are or what
you’ve left undone.
It is only this, there is nothing more
to yearn for
nothing to arrive at or discover
because no matter how you have tried to imagine it—
the wars, catastrophes, and epidemics,
the dread and worry, rage and grief
and panic and shame—
there is nothing quite as dazzling as
this: a pitcher filled with little cups of liquid
light in violet, scarlet, white and green,
or your unhindered eyes and mine meeting
and falling
through timeless space,
the true wonder is simply a life like a pitcher
that can hold it all and pour it
into the world
like this.

Jill Bolte Taylor, "My Stroke of Insight"

2008-03-13T18:04:00.003-05:00

There is a wonderful talk by Jill Bolte Taylor, neuroscientist, from the TED 2008 conference. From the TED website: "Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another."

Margaret Harrison

2008-02-25T13:46:00.003-06:00

As many of you know, the sangha lost a dear friend and devoted sangha member, Margaret Harrison, last Thursday. The Ordinary Mind memorial for Margaret is scheduled for 6:00 PM Sunday, March 9, following the one-day sitting, at Ordinary Mind. Please do make time in your schedule for this remembrance of Margaret's life. For those who have not had the pleasure of knowing Margaret, the short video below, provided by Katherine Jones, gives you a good sense of her luminous personality. In it she describes her experience receiving a new heart.

An ongoing dialogue on enlightenment

2008-02-13T11:02:00.004-06:00

Peg:
Enlightenment is precisely the traffic on Mopac. No, not like the traffic on Mopac. It is none other than this. The skillful flowing together with others in complete, moment to moment awareness is your best hope for preventing suffering for yourself and others. On the freeway, your thoughts, plans, dreams and goals, your troubled childhood or big promotion do not matter one bit. The only thing that matters is the appropriate response dynamically unfolding in harmony with the free flow of movement, form, sensation, perception, emotion-thoughts, and consciousness. It is an ongoing jazz ensemble improvisation. The one who cut you off—is he right or wrong? Is she good or bad? Are you furious or amused? None of that matters. The only thing that matters is your skillful responding in slowing safely and avoiding collisions with other drivers. And your awareness is always especially necessary in meeting those who are hindered by “non-awareness.” Distractions are dangerous! Whether you are a CEO or student, tall, short, young, tired, driving a sports car or a battered pickup truck, suffering from cancer or a broken heart, alone or with three bickering kids in the back, on your way to work, to meet a lover, to pick up a few groceries—all irrelevant. In rain or ice, dark or blinding sun, the issues are the same. Blink and the laughing blonde girl next to you suffers a broken neck, reach for something under the seat and spend the rest of your days in a wheelchair: your absolute attention is required in every moment. And on a good day, the whole performance unfolds like a miraculous symphony of movement, color, sound, light, ease, and generosity. You may even be surprised by the dazzling wonder of wildflowers. But whether you are zipping along at 70 mph, peering into a foggy night, or stuck in bumper-to-bumber rush hour traffic, enlightenment is just this.

The rest of life is also this.

Flint responds:
Our habits of mind are like a magic act. When we go to see a magician we know we are being tricked, but the illusions can be so compelling and convincing we become enthralled by what we think we are seeing. It appears that the woman is actually being sawed in half, right in front of our eyes. Inexplicably, the huge 4-wheel drive pickup disappears into thin air. The plump rabbit is actually being pulled out of an empty hat and a flock of white pigeons explodes out of a silk scarf which was, only moments before, tucked neatly into a vest pocket. It is as if we can’t see these events in any other way. This is what makes them so fascinating. The problem in our everyday life is that these illusions become delusion. The tricks are so often mistaken for truth that we operate on these illusory truths as if they were real. We end up betting our lives on illusion and ignoring the truth which could, as they say, actually set us free. Sitting practice and self-study is like going backstage and having the magician show us how the illusion was created.

Every illusion can be seen through and once seen through, we are no longer fooled. The slight-of-hand is obvious and the deception illuminated. It has all been brought into the light of awareness – enlightened.

Upcoming events

2008-02-11T14:09:00.001-06:00

Dear Sangha-

I'm delighted to let you know that the dates for the April Ordinary Mind practice intensive with Flint and Peg have been set. It will begin Friday evening April 4 and run through Sunday afternoon April 6. The cost is $75 if paid before March 10, $100 after that date. Please plan to follow the complete schedule.

The application forms for the practice intensive are now available. Please review the application and fill it out completely, even if you have filled out a similar application in the past, then return it to me. I have attached a copy to this email, but the application can also be found at:

http://www.ordinarymindaustin.org/Intensive-4-08.pdf

Because we have very limited accommodations, for this intensive we do not expect local sangha members to stay here overnight. We can provide a few spaces for folks from out of town. If you are able to accommodate an out-of-town guest, please let me know.

Also, if you have any questions about the application form or about the intensive, please let me know.

When we allow ourselves simply to have this time and space, in mindfulness and curiosity, practice intensives can be enormously clarifying for our practice and our sangha. I am looking forward to this opportunity to deepen our practice together!

There will be an all-day sitting before the intensive on March 9 to give you an opportunity to practice extending your zazen with a few additional sitting periods. The all-day sittings are held as an extension of the regular Sunday morning program.

Ordinary Mind and social activism

2008-02-04T10:08:00.000-06:00

Dear Sangha-
Sunday morning we discussed this topic, and for those who were not with us, I would like to clarify the issue of social, political, and environmental activism with respect to the Ordinary Mind sangha. I am certainly in favor of each member of the sangha connecting with, supporting, and even challenging their communities in the ways that feel most appropriate. Such activity may take many different forms and may reflect very different methods and perspectives. All perspectives are welcome here.

Rebecca McIlwain, a member of the sangha, is offering a workshop intended to foster awareness and contemplation around participants' political engagement. We are providing the space and time for this workshop without officially sponsoring it, as we have done with other offerings that are congruent with the Ordinary Mind way. I think this will be a wonderful opportunity for those folks who would like to bring issues of political engagement into their meditation practice to help clarify their understanding.

We are happy to provide space and time for other groups with a contemplative focus as appropriate, without directly endorsing or sponsoring those groups. Scheduling depends on time and availability of the space. It is typical in cases such as this for a reasonable contribution to be made to Ordinary Mind in support of the sangha.

However, I want to make it clear that the role of Ordinary Mind is support and encouragement and practices for awakening in our lives right now, right here. Our methods involve zazen, inquiry groups, practice discussion, classes, and intensives. There will be no social, political, or environmental activism program officially offered by Ordinary Mind. This is an important point to understand. Certainly we are extremely sensitive to social, political, and environmental needs and the potential for healing and constructive action. And as I mentioned above, we support and encourage people to engage these issues wholeheartedly. There are many, many venues locally, nationally, and globally for such engagement. However, I feel very strongly that Ordinary Mind should not be directing such activity. It is not in our mission. What we can do, is to work with people engaged in these kinds of activities to help them find an appropriate expression and balance, avoiding burnout, anger, and polarizing, finding their own clearest and most beneficial manifestation of the dharma. We are entirely open with respect to the particular social, political, or environmental position a person may hold; we are most interested in their aspiration for a liberated life of openness, compassion, and wisdom.

I think the recently-coined term "engaged Buddhism" is a redundancy: there is no such thing as "disengaged Buddhism." We are in intimate relationships with each other, with our work, with our world, and we cannot escape engagement and activity with all of its karmic consequences. There is no privileged place to stand, outside of the whole. And so as the Dalai Lama said, we are responsible toward the whole world. Notice he did not say we are responsible for the whole world.

Again, our purpose and mission is liberation—mutual support and encouragement for waking up in this life, with all that this may mean for each person in terms of their engagement with the world. I would caution anyone who may assume that positions held by anyone in the sangha, including the teachers, somehow represent Ordinary Mind's "official" position. The Buddha taught the relinquishing of all views (not just the ones we disagree with, nor even just the ones we agree with). If you really understand what this means, the appropriate action will spontaneously emerge within each situation, each moment.

I'm taking a little time with this because it is an important issue as the sangha grows and develops. I realize that some folks have expressed an interest in forming social action groups within the sangha. This is of course perfectly fine, as long as these groups are not represented as official programs of the Ordinary Mind Zen group. They would be, rather, independent affiliations of folks with shared interests in a particular topic or issue. I am especially cautious about replicating in Ordinary Mind the social structures and apparatus that we find in so many spiritual communities which, no matter how well-intentioned, would ultimately prove a distraction from the central purpose of Ordinary Mind.

The Dharma is simple, yet incomparably profound. Our immediate, direct encounter with each other and with the reality of just this is our central teaching: this "crisis-resolving" encounter, in the context of openness, curiosity, and compassion is our method for realizing wholeness and well-being in our world. Not "the" world; our world. It is the source and functioning of true liberation. This is not like any other place or experience or path: let's not try to turn it into something familiar and reassuring.

As always, if you have any reflections or questions about this, please let me know.

Question of the day

2008-01-15T07:48:00.000-06:00

Can you prove that you are not already the mind of enlightenment?

This question came up in zazen, like all great questions.

My immediate response was, yes, of course I can!

How?

Because I still do stupid things.

From what mind would you know that?

Ummm. Ok, but I am oblivious much of the time.

What mind is able to recognize that?

???

In fact, what mind “knows” it is “not enlightened”? What mind could possibly know that?

Take all the time you need.

Foundations of Zen Practice

2008-01-13T16:50:00.001-06:00

Ordinary Mind will offer a Monday evening class in the foundations of Zen practice in January and February.

This course is intended to introduce new and experienced Zen practitioners, as well as those who are generally curious about Zen practice, to its fundamental principles and concepts. The class will provide information and experiential teaching about the origins of Buddhism, the life and teachings of the Buddha, and the cultivation of practice in meditation and in the life of the sangha, the community of practitioners. Zen as practiced here at Ordinary Mind fosters the awakened mind through meditation, study, relational and experiential practice, and inquiry. It is a practical application of time-tested methods for deepening awareness and intimacy with all things, here and now, rather than striving for a mystical or esoteric experience or formal monastic discipline. Our practice, as Joko has taught it, focuses on waking up in our everyday lives, our ongoing relationships, and our ordinary activities. Please join us to explore together just what this practice of Zen offers.

January 21-February 25
Monday evenings
7:00-8:00 class 8:00-8:30 meditation
Suggested donation: $60.00

Note: Please do not allow your financial situation to hinder your participation. Just offer what may be appropriate to your circumstances.

What’s Your Consumption Factor? - New York Times

2008-01-02T10:10:00.000-06:00

Here is a very thought-provoking article by Jared Diamond, the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel: What’s Your Consumption Factor? - New York Times

The Zen tradition has for over a thousand years pointed to the dangers associated with greed and ignorance and hatred. These factors afflict us at every level from the individual to the global. Perhaps this year will be a time of awakening and a great turning from the self-centered dream of gratifying ourselves in seeking comfort and ease. Perhaps this year we can begin a serious inquiry into how much is enough to sustain our lives, and how much we might relinquish in the service of the larger good. Such an inquiry must also take place at every level, from the individual to the global. There is a new sense of urgency that makes more people open to such an inquiry. Let us engage together in serious conversations and activities that will foster a more harmonious and healthy way of being in the world.

Happy New Year!

2007-12-31T23:53:00.001-06:00

Chicago afternoon
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

This is the view from my window here in Chicago. The woods are spectacular in snowy silence, yet the days are filled with the warmth and sparkle of family gatherings. May the New Year bring everyone on earth a fresh beginning and a deep turning toward peace, joy, and complete awakening! I hope you are finding within yourselves a deeper commitment and profound appreciation for your own path, unfolding right through life as it is, this very moment. You are embraced by the entire universe in all of its terrifying splendor. We cannot comprehend the reality of it with our tiny minds, we can only stagger forward, slack-jawed with wonder.

Two poems

2007-12-06T14:09:00.000-06:00

While you were out looking for enlightenment

Here is what the note said:
While you were out looking for enlightenment,
I cleaned the house
and put your laundry in the wash,
I took the dog to the vet: it’s nothing serious, it seems,
and picked up that green tea you wanted.
I had lunch with Alice, she asked
about you
and I made a pot of black bean soup—
it’s in the fridge. The pears are ripe,
please eat them soon!
I called about the termites, they’ll
be out tomorrow,
and the kids and I played at the park.
Josh made a new friend from down the street.
I paid the bills and ironed
a couple shirts. Please remember
your dentist appointment in the morning!
Today was just an ordinary day,
nothing special,
how about you?

What is our practice for?

It goes like this:
In the timeless moment of a melting kiss
a thousand children perish;
savoring our morning tea
a half dozen species disappear forever
from the earth
while we are immersed in prayer
a politician winks and nods
and as we are driving absent-mindedly to work,
deep in a dear friend’s bones
a cancer cell goes haywire.
While we answer an email
acres of rainforest disappear
As we write a check to save the whales
a car wreck cripples a promising athlete.
A drunk walks into a bar
a mother is pushing a stroller
a heron stands perfectly still on one
impossibly slender stilt:
you are not here
you are not there,
where everything is happening at once.
Don’t try to hold it all the only
way to practice is to let go
of all imagining
who we are and
what we can do;
in coming together we grieve
and celebrate the world, our lives
and this.

The big parade

2007-12-04T07:44:00.000-06:00

Today in zazen, I was watching the rising and falling of thoughts, emotions, sensations, and witnessing. I had an image of sitting in a lawn chair, watching a small-town parade. I know the stories and families and history of everyone in the parade: the high school marching band, where my neighbor’s son is playing the tuba, the cheerleader he is secretly in love with, the wounded veterans, blind, crippled, pushed in wheelchairs and bearing witness to unimaginable pain and violence, the crazy Lions club clowning around on tiny bicycles, the horse troop prancing proudly with fluttering banners.

I am captivated by their wholeheartedness and sincerity, and sometimes I want to jump up and join them, or pull a dear friend out of formation to come and visit with me. They keep passing by, filled with sensation, emotion, story, movement, color, music, pain and wisdom.

And then I become aware of the blue spring sky above, with its scattered tufts of clouds, and bright, almost hot sun. The parade is along the main street of my familiar town, with its outdoor pavilion in the middle of a square bounded by small-time stores and cafes. Down the road, not very far, is the rough side of town, where the tough kids live, and desperate families always on the edge of ruin and failure, and where terrifying dangers lurk, or so we feel. Up the hill are the homes of the well-to-do, rich only by small-town standards: the owner of the funeral home, the supermarket manager, the realtor and car dealership owner.

We all want to live on the hill, bestowing our riches on those we cherish and living in comfort and grace. This small town is here in the middle of the country, not far from a great city, an ocean, a mountain range, a prairie. And this beautiful land is in the middle of a continent, troubled by wars and rumors of wars, pollution, crime, the ravages of drugs, violence, greed, and unsurpassable beauty. The continent is part of a collective of lands and oceans, peoples, animals, plants, and formations, spinning 1,000 miles per hour as it arcs through space around the sun, in a solar system of serene choreography, moving with impeccable precision in just such a way as to fulfill its unique place in the galaxy, set somewhere in a vast, incomprehensible universe, so that on this bright, warm, spring day as I sit watching with complete awareness, I can see and hear, at last, the tiny, heartstopping vision of my own child, hands clasping the little saxophone with total absorption, breathing into the reed and bringing forth the tenderly cracked notes of I Love You Truly. If you blink you will miss what you have waited a lifetime for. Don't hold back! Appreciate this very moment—all of it.

repentance and refuges

2007-11-12T11:06:00.000-06:00

Dear Sangha:

At the end of our morning zazen, we have been chanting the robe verse:

Vast is the robe of liberation,
a formless field of benefaction;
wearing the universal teaching
I realize the one true nature,
thus harmonizing all being.

We have added these verses, before our three bows:

All my ancient twisted karma,
from beginningless greed, hate and delusion,
born through body, speech, and mind,
I now fully avow.

(this is repeated three times, and followed by these verses:)

I take refuge in Buddha;
I take refuge in dharma;
I take refuge in sangha.

I take refuge in Buddha as the perfect teacher;
I take refuge in dharma as the perfect teaching;
I take refuge in sangha as the perfect life.

Now I have completely taken refuge in Buddha;
Now I have completely taken refuge in dharma;
Now I have completely taken refuge in sangha.

Traditionally, this form follows the lineage tradition of Shunryu Suzuki, the author of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, and founder of the San Francisco Zen Center. Buddhists all over the world say some form of these verses every morning. Conventionally, they are called the repentance and refuges. I believe the term “repentance” is a Christian overlay on the original meaning, suggesting sin, confession, and penance. And it does not really suit the Zen meaning well. I would call the first verse an acknowledgment of things as it is (as Suzuki famously said).

There are translations that speak of “all evil karma ever committed by me” but once again, I think this is a dualistic overlay, rather than a true Zen understanding. We are tangled up in karma that stretches back through time: our conditioning from our parents, families and teachers is itself a product of the conditioning they received. If you try to trace the beginning of it you will lose yourself in the mists of time. So it is ancient beyond our ability to comprehend. It is twisted, not evil. I think this term conveys the sense of entanglement in karma the way one might be entangled in barbed wire, but also a certain intentionality that gives it its twists. That intentionality is the piece of it we generate and can control. We don't condone or condemn this ancient twisted karma; we simply avow it. It is where we are, and what we practice in the midst of, the muddy water out of which the lotus blooms.

The three toxic energies identified by the Buddha, greed, hate, and delusion, also stretch far back in time. They show up in our actions, our talk or silence, and our thoughts and emotions. Our practice is waking up to the destructive effects of these poisonous energies so that we can use our intention, our vow, to express our life energy in ways that are more wholesome, that contribute to understanding, well-being, kindness, and peace for ourselves and for others. Because these karmic entanglements are so pervasive, automatic, and convincing, we cannot do this work alone. That leads us naturally to the next set of verses.

We take refuge in the Buddha, who offers us the example of his life and the dharma, the profound teaching of the four noble truths, and the path that leads us out of the creation of suffering for ourselves and for others. And we take refuge in the sangha, those who, in the midst of the same struggles we face, entangled in their own twisted karma, share this aspiration and this path. These “three jewels” of the Buddhist life give us the strength, the resources, and the tools for the radical transformation that waking up makes in our lives. It is not an easy path, nor a quick one.

And why do we take refuge in the Buddha as “the perfect teacher?” Many people bridle at this expression. You may interpret this in any way you wish, but I am reminded of the Tibetan teachings on “the great natural perfection.” This is not the Buddha as exalted above all beings, or as some perfect ideal never to be achieved. We recognize, of course the historical Buddha as a profound and liberated being: but Buddha nature is in all existence. The perfect teacher is the Buddha within you and expressed as all existence. What better teacher or teaching can possibly be found than the very life you are immersed in right now? This is the great natural perfection. Furthermore, what life could possibly be more supportive of our own awakening than the life of the sangha? A life lived in relationships that foster our awakening is a perfect life. So we can completely take refuge in these manifest expressions of the great natural perfection.

This complete expression of our present condition, our search, and our practice home is a beautiful way to start the day. I am happy, in this way, to also honor my training and experience with Suzuki Roshi’s lineage, and to enfold it in our Ordinary Mind Practice.

I hope you will let me know your thoughts on this addition!

Teachings of the Getty Museum

2007-10-08T10:57:00.001-05:00

Entrance to the Getty Museum
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

You can see other photos from the Getty Museum by clicking this image.

The docent at the Getty Museum explained architect Meier’s rigorous discipline in placing every single design element—even sculptures, groves of trees and clusters of boulders—on a grid established for the site. Trees are in containers, so that they can be sited exactly on the grid. The lines of the marble walkways, the fountains, the rows of carefully trimmed trees create a formal kind of serenity. The enormous plazas and vast sweep of marble walls, glass, and steel give a sense of stability and presence that dwarf the human scale of visitors, while giving a powerful impression of solidity, permanence, security.

This discipline, so strictly applied and maintained, could easily become severe and oppressive, even totalitarian. But Meier has provided enormous openings into spaciousness and light, freedom of air and sky, through the use of windows, plazas, and careful siting of the building on the hillside.

Even so, the formal structures might offer only a delusional sense of permanence, separateness, and utopian ease if it were not for one absolutely crucial element: the heart of mystery that is the central garden. Freed from the formalism of the grid, yet still respectful of the theme of relationships among circles, lines, and rectangles, the garden offers refreshment, life, color, and delight in the midst of containment that could have become punishing.

The beautifully designed path down to the garden zigs and zags across the stream, slowing us down, so that we can appreciate the differences in the sound of water on one side of the path and the other, while new vistas of trees, flowers, grasses, boulders, and water greet every turn. From above, you can see below the floating azaleas coming into bloom, that form the central maze in the midst of the pool. Your eye finds the entrance to the maze and follows its curves and blind alleys, seeking the path that leads to the heart at the center, and out again.

You must slow down and listen, stop and look, astonished, smile at the people around you in shared appreciation and pure joy, and drink in the spectacular views at every step. All exhaustion and stress fall away; all daily concerns are revealed as petty and irrelevant; all meeting is held in a spacious, sun-drenched generosity and delight. Even the spectacular architectures above vanish, as you become drenched in wonder.

How like this is our practice, and our life, if we choose.

Reflections from the Intensive

2007-09-27T09:32:00.000-05:00

THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE

Our practice is the art of the possible.

As Flint pointed out in his talk, that does not mean possible as in “someday maybe I will become enlightened”: rather, it is the art of discovering what is possible in this moment: what it is possible to be, do, say, or experience that contributes to the overall wholeness quotient of you and everyone you know, every other being. The expression of that which is moving through you unhindered and unbound. That means if it is a moment of grief, a moment suffused with anger or impatience, a moment immersed in melting love, a moment of boredom, a moment of confusion, a moment of conflict, disturbance, serenity or even bliss: what is possible?

Our practice is the practice of becoming sublime artists of the possible, sculpting experience, composing the music, crafting the poetry of this very moment. The wonderful thing about this practice is that you do not need to be "good" at anything, you do not need to worry about mistakes or lapses, because in the very next moment, a fresh canvas presents itself, a fresh audience appears, an in-breath is followed by an out-breath. And as we immerse ourselves in the wonder of this ongoing creation of our lives, the texture of the fabric and its impeccable design begins to reveal itself as a profound and incredibly rich pattern, a pattern woven of people, places, activities, processes, events, emotions, ideas, and relationships. And we begin to discover that this magnificent work of art we are somehow manifesting is so much vaster than we could ever have imagined. In this moment of recognition, we can realize our always already present awakened being.

How can we not be grateful, even to those who have opposed us, even to those who fear us, even to our own selves, for the experience of being artists of the possible. Bodhisattva's Vow is not just a kind of boy scout oath to save all beings; a very nice homily for a sanctimonious life. Do you really understand the lines in it that sound so mystical, the lines that sound like someone who has been dropping some serious acid? When you really recognize the shift from judgment to appreciation without exception:

Then on each moment’s flash of our thought
there will grow a lotus flower
and on each lotus flower will be revealed Perfection,
unceasingly manifest as our life,
just as it is,
right here and right now.

This is not simply a metaphorical expression, it is a direct stroke of the master's brush, leaping off the page, through your ears, into your mind and heart. You don't even know what it means, because it is not comprehensible to the one who knows.

The meaning is not in the words, yet it responds to the inquiring impulse. This
line from the Jewel Mirror Samadhi perfectly captures the spirit in which Flint and I meet each of you again and again, in practice discussion, in inquiry groups, in our talks and the lives we live. It is a privilege to have this opportunity.

Today, as I have been meeting with you in our practice discussions, over and over the word gratitude has been expressed, so I know this is on your minds as well.

For the artist, life makes no mistakes: the jazz note that seems in error is repeated, woven into a new melody, the smear of paint becomes a window into another universe, the stumble in the dance reveals the vulnerability that is pure grace. We are exploding through our lives, the materials we are working with are volatile, ever changing, remarkable in their variety and potential. They are living materials, with the power to heal, to wound us to the core, to stun us into awe. They are not things we interact with, to push or pare or scrape away. The medium in which we fully express the life pouring through us is relation; it is what is always arising in the experience of what is: which is each other, the work we are engaged in, the environment that is so tenderly sustaining our fragile lives.

And as artists, we recognize there is a craft to learn, a lifelong teaching and learning process that captivates us with its brilliant light. At every moment, we are working, not for fame or glory or wealth, but for the complete expression of that which we truly are. Don't hold back. Please, sit with this understanding, in curiosity and delight. Or in whatever is arising right now, in this awareness we are sharing.

What is possible in "just a weekend?" What is truly possible? I think it is safe to say that neither Flint nor I believe that many years of dedicated practice are required to fully awaken right in this moment, nor some special technique, perfect teacher, or ideal spiritual community. I had a colleague, an expert on reading, who used to say, children don't learn to read. They can't read, and then they can. There are many ways that might happen, but it is ultimately binary: unable to read/able to read. This is the shift Flint was talking about when he mentioned stereograms. It is our funny, effortless, falling away shift when we let the life flowing through us freely express itself in our unique manifestation of body, mind, heart, and relationality. It is who we are, minus the believed stories that we tell ourselves, about ourselves, about the world, about everyone else.

Can that really be enough? Well, what kind of artist are you? Do you want to make little, tentative dabs of the brush with safe, erasable colors? Do you really want to try to plan out the whole canvas in comfortable detail? Don't you want to work on this big masterpiece together? You recall the eko in our morning service:

Life and death are of supreme importance
Time swiftly passes by, and with it our only chance
Each of us must strive to awaken
Be aware, do not squander our life!

Our life; the life; life itself, melody, harmony, dissonance, counterpoint, the only thing we can't do is stop the music. The eko urges us to plunge into our practice and our lives wholeheartedly, but you notice it is not a singular effort: it is our chance, our life...

Can we be brave enough to meet this challenge, every moment a new, fresh canvas waiting for our colors, a silent instrument waiting for our touch? Waiting to resonate with the life that is within us?

Ordinary Mind September 2007 Practice Intensive

2007-09-25T11:16:00.001-05:00

Ordinary Mind September 2007 Practice Intensive
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

The September practice intensive was held this past weekend, the first practice intensive hosted by Ordinary Mind Zen in Austin. Participants gathered Friday evening for zazen and opening remarks by Peg and Flint. The intensive was dedicated to Joko Beck, who has inspired so much of what we do here. You can see her photo in the middle of this picture, and she is also invoked by the calligraphy on the wall, that reads: Ordinary mind is the way. Saturday was a long day of zazen, with periods of work practice, meals, and talks. Inquiry groups with Flint brought the group together in the afternoon on Saturday, and again Sunday morning, It was a wonderful opportunity to deepen our practice and a profound experience in building sangha. We plan to make the talks from the intensive available soon. You can see additional photos of the group by clicking the image here.

One-day sitting at Ordinary Mind

2007-08-19T21:00:00.000-05:00

Today Ordinary Mind offered a one-day sitting. We began with the regular Sunday morning program of two zazen periods with walking meditation between, and then engaged in a group inquiry around the topic of generosity. In our group inquiry, a topic is given, and we sit in mindfulness together for a while, exploring the relationship of the topic to our practice. We sit in silence in a circle until the first person is ready to speak. Each person in turn speaks about this topic while the rest of the group listens with compassionate attention. In this way we learn from each other and also about each other, deepening our connections in the sangha. Finally, Peg draws some of the common threads together in a few summarizing remarks and then there is general discussion about the topic.

The folks who were staying for the day had a tea break before returning to zazen. There was a short work period, followed by lunch and a break. After the break we returned to the zendo for zazen. Peg read the poem “Lost,” by David Wagoner during this sitting period. Then Peg gave a dharma talk on Bodhisattva’s Vow, a poem by Torei Zenji, a Japanese Zen master who lived from 1621 to 1692, and who was dharma heir of Hakuin Ekaku. We read this beautiful poem together, and then discussed its meaning in our practice. Here is the poem, in the version from Joko’s group:

Bodhisattva’s Vow

When I, a student of the Way
look at the real form of the universe,
all is the never-failing manifestation
of the mysterious truth of the Awakened Life.

In any event, in any moment, and in any place,
None can be other than the marvelous revelation
of its glorious light.

This realization made our ancestors and teachers
extend tender care, with respectful hearts
even to such beings as birds and beasts.

This realization teaches us
that our daily food, drink, clothes,
and protections of life
are the warm flesh and blood,
the merciful incarnation of the Awakened One.
Who can be ungrateful or not respectful
even to senseless things,
not to speak of humans?
Even though they may be fools,
be warm and compassionate toward them.
If by any chance they should turn against us,
become sworn enemies and persecute us,
we should sincerely bow down with humble language
in the reverent understanding
that they are the merciful messengers of the Awakened One,
who use devices to emancipate us from blind tendencies,
produced and accumulated upon ourselves
by our own egoistic delusion and attachment
through countless cycles of space and time.

Then on each moment’s flash of our thought
there will grow a lotus flower
and on each lotus flower will be revealed Perfection,
unceasingly manifest as our life,
just as it is,
right here and right now.

May we extend this mind to all beings
so that we and the world together
may attain maturity in the wisdom of the Awakened Life.

September Practice Intensive

2007-08-15T15:38:00.000-05:00

The application forms for the September 21-23 practice intensive (sesshin) with Flint and Peg are now available. The application form is based on Joko Beck's model. Please review the application and fill it out completely, then return it to me. I have attached a copy to this email, but the application can also be found at:

http://groups.google.com/group/ordinarymindaustin/web/Intensive+application.pdf

Because we have very limited accommodations, for this intensive we do not expect local sangha members to stay here overnight. We can provide a few spaces for folks from out of town. If you are able to accommodate an out-of-town guest, please let me know.

Also, if you have any questions about the application form or about the intensive, please let me know. The schedule will be available shortly.

When we allow ourselves simply to have this time and space, in mindfulness and curiosity, practice intensives can be enormously clarifying for our practice and our sangha. I am looking forward to this opportunity to deepen our practice together!

Inquiry Groups with Flint

2007-08-14T16:19:00.000-05:00

Flint will offer additional inquiry groups at the Crossings once a month for the next few months, on Thursday evenings. The first one is Thursday this week, and the others are September 13, October 18, and November 15. There is no cost; dana for the teacher is requested. These dates are also listed on the Ordinary Mind calendar. Here are the forthcoming topics:

Entering the Infinite Mystery (Aug. 16)
All spiritual practices invite us into a profound mystery, which is infinitely spacious, infinitely loving, and infinitely wise. Upon entering fully, we recognize ourselves as that mystery – that space, that love, and that wisdom.

Loving Presence and Transformation of the Heart (September 13)
There is a state of mind – a state of being – which all the great wisdom traditions describe as the foundation for true intimacy and healing care. This is a natural state, full of mutual inspiration, loving attention, and gentle nourishment.

Communion with the Divine and Identity with Truth (October 18)
We often embark on the spiritual journey with a sense that we are far from the Divine, seeking communion. The startling discovery is that through communion we naturally merge into union with that which we sought. In the wordless intimacy of union we ultimately find identity as Truth.

Gratitude as the Source of Spiritual Nourishment (November 15)
When we can relax the contraction of our self-centered perspective, gratitude begins to flow into that liberated space. As our conventional attachment to body and mind fall away, we tap a spring of spiritual nourishment, full of grace.

Flint's new blog can be found at http://flintsparks.zaadz.com/blog

Warmth of the Second Season

2007-08-14T09:35:00.000-05:00

Those who were there, please comment to this Blog to share with everyone what you saw or heard or felt during our sitting (despite the fact that your eyes were cast downward and unfocused).

For my part, I saw a leaf slowly, very slowly traveling alongside the Sunyata opening, looking for the resting place of companionship described in Joso's Haiku:

"Under the water,

On the rock resting,

The fallen leaves."

Also, radiating from the left side of the pool near the falls, when the sun rose, the beam hitting the waves causing ribbons of light to dance away along the bottom.

(My picture of Dave on the Rock did not turn out, so I have here sadly posted only a picture of the Rock without Dave.)

Reflections from the fourth of July

2007-07-23T08:31:00.000-05:00

When we were small, some times, our parents would bundle us up and take us off to a grassy hill to see the fireworks. They would park the car, walk to a clear space, spread out a blanket and a bit of a picnic. We were impatient, constantly asking, “Is it time yet? When will we see the fireworks?” As it grew dark, the tension would grow, and the frequency of our questions would ramp up, until our parents finally would snap and say, “Stop asking about the fireworks! You will see them the minute they start! We can’t make it happen any faster!”
Then, when we were completely exhausted, dreamy, hardly paying any attention, suddenly the sky would explode with fiery beauty and splendor, and with hearts pounding, we would be breathing,“Ooooooh, ahhhh, wow!” Dazzled and suddenly wide awake, we would drink in the sky with deep hunger, the whistles and pops punctuating the brilliant colors and flaring patterns. And then the sheer impact of the finale, blazing across the whole sky, a riot of color and noise, until we were awed into silence, and stillness. At last our parents would gather up the picnic things and the blanket and all of us children, and pack us into the car, where we would immediately fall into a sleep so vast and deep that we would have to be carried into the house. And the next day, the fifth of July, would be a perfectly ordinary day.

I believe most of us imagine satori or enlightenment just this way, and that is why we are doomed to disappointment. Joko reminds us, the old masters remind us: Ordinary mind is the way. Nothing special. Chop wood, carry water. It is not a trick, not a clever Zen subterfuge. This very moment is it. And if that moment contains “fireworks,” just so. If that moment contains “carrying the children into the house,” that is it. If that moment contains “waiting for enlightenment,” that is precisely enlightenment realized. I can’t make it any plainer than this.

Summer in Austin

2007-07-13T22:19:00.001-05:00

summer in Austin
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

Or is it Hawaii? The rains have turned Austin into a tropical paradise, hot, humid, and resplendent with flowers. We are indulged with color, fragrance, and the kind of torpor that makes it harder and harder to go fast and try to do too many things at once. We are compelled to slow down, breath more deeply, look more closely, savor the moment, until finally, we just stop, immersed in timeless, jaw-dropping beauty. Sit on the stoop with an iced tea and watch the cats in the grass. Hold a baby for a minute or an hour or an eternity and gaze into those wide lucid eyes. Eat an enormous ice cream cone as big as your head. Let us be respectfully reminded: life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by, and with it our only chance. Each of us must strive to awaken. Be aware! Do not squander our life!

What is our practice?

2007-07-09T07:36:00.000-05:00

In one of her talks, Joko said, “we get good at what we practice.” It’s interesting to notice just what we are practicing, and how over years and years of practice, we’ve probably gotten awfully good at it: complaining, gossip, annoyance, resentment, judgment, and many other forms of self-centered and often self-destructive thinking. With Wimbledon in the air, I am reminded that she also said that any tennis player who goes onto the pro circuit, even at the bottom of the rankings, has a minimum of 18,000 hours of practice behind them. Of course I immediately did some calculations: that would be nine years of work at a typical 8 hour a day job: 2000 hours a year. It seems unlikely that a person can practice tennis eight hours a day, so in terms of years there is probably an even longer investment.

My next thought was to try to calculate the number of hours I must have practiced Zen, a humbling tally. It certainly took the impatience out of my practice. For all of my wholehearted and sincere efforts, I could not come close to those numbers. It is true that we get good at what we practice, and for this reason, we want to pay close attention to just what it is we are practicing from moment to moment.

But this is only one sense of practice, the idea that we practice in order to attain something: some mastery or excellence or skill, like improving our golf swing or our posture. Or that we practice to become some kind of “Zen champion,” or “pro,” like Roger Federer in tennis, or like the ancient Zen masters we’ve read about. I think of Zen practice now in a different way, not as something done to get enlightened or awakened or more wise or compassionate, to relieve my anxiety or reduce my anger or my blood pressure. Rather, we practice Zen in the way a doctor practices medicine or a lawyer practices law: not because of what we want to attain, but as an expression of who we are. And because of this practice, many other things are naturally occurring, including a reduction in stress, a focusing of attention, greater awareness, healthier relationships, and so on. And just as a skillful, attentive lawyer or doctor cannot help learning more and more about their practice over time, we learn more and more about what practice really is through our experience and dedication. We do not practice to achieve these things, but they are the natural fruit of intelligent, wholehearted practice.

What are you practicing these days?

Practice questions from our sister sangha in Brownsville

2007-07-04T13:57:00.000-05:00

Recently, Suzie Lovegren sent along some questions from the Brownsville Ordinary Mind sangha. I asked Suzie if I might post them to the blog, because I think they may have wide interest. I’ve also included my responses to her. She has edited the original message a little bit to preserve the privacy of the members:

Dear Peg,
One of the women, J, who attends our sittings is a devout Catholic. She has been attending faithfully and always asks questions. Last time we read "Practicing This Very Moment" from the first section of Everyday Zen. Someone made a comment about practice and James turned to the back of the book and read this:
".....The more we practice over the years, the more an open and loving mind develops. When that development is complete (which means that there is nothing on the face of the earth that we judge) that is the enlightened and complassionate state."

When James stressed 'there is NOTHING . . . .that we judge' J said, "What about evil?" This is the first time that neither James, Ed, or I had any answer or comment for her. When we were driving home I kept thinking about her question and James remembered something he had read by Houston Smith: "In Western religion sin is an error of will. In Eastern religion sin is an error of understanding." Still I could not connect the dots from J's question to James' comment.

Also C, a beginning practioner who is faithful to the sittings asked about "all this bowing". Why do we bow when we enter the zendo? Why do we bow to each other and even our places? The only thing we offered was that we bowed to the Buddha within each of us when bowing to each other but we didn't offer much more than that. Do you bow to your places in your sangha? I could not really say why we do that!

Peg I would really appreciate any comments you had regarding J and C's questions. They seem so sincere.

Ed sent me the note you wrote about our decision to change the name of our sangha. Thank you for acknowledging us on your website and for taking the news to Joko herself! We are all so very pleased about this.

I hope your trip went well.

Suzie Lovegren
Ordinary Mind Zen-Brownsville

My response:

Hi Suzanne-

It is wonderful that such deep questions are coming forth in your new sangha. Of course we all meet these questions in our path, and it is great when someone is courageous enough to express them. They are the ground of deep inquiry and practice. We cannot offer "answers" to these questions: rather, they are lived through. We might begin by examining our concepts of good and evil: how and when do they arise? What assumptions must be made before we can even define such terms? These questions are further pointers to the most important question: who we think we are (the righteous judge? The errant sinner? The failed saint?)

We begin to discover the constriction in all hard and fast distinctions, the ways that they limit our view. What are we to make of the child abuser who was himself horribly abused as a child? The conditions creating the hardening of the heart that brings a person to violent crime? The ignorance that leads to wars and conflicts? When we begin to look closely at all of the ways that humans cause each other to suffer, and the causes and conditions that we are all subject to and implicated in, it is not so easy to point the finger of judgment. As everything is interdependent, we participate fully in everything we think of as "evil" and "good."

Perhaps the true poisons the Buddha spoke of, greed, hatred, and ignorance are to blame for society's ills. But we are all subject to these delusions in varying degrees. We share these with all humanity; not in shame, but in sorrow. They limit our freedom and cause untold suffering for ourselves and others. These are the delusions we aspire to see through in practice, for the benefit of all life: for ourselves and for others. Delusions are not sins: they are mistakes, and our Bodhisattva vow means that we are committed to ending suffering in the world in seeing through them completely. When you keep looking deeply at the phenomenon you are most desperate to know intimately and deeply, you will find your practice path leads inevitably toward wisdom and compassion. To the extent that we imagine we are separate selves that can condemn and judge, we maintain the separation that is the source of our pain, and the wreck of a civilization.

When we acknowledge these facts of our human existence, our shared human conditions, our implication in them, and our very real human suffering, it seems to me the most appropriate response is to bow—not to a ruler or a deity, not to a sage or saint, but most humbly to life itself.

But I always suggest to people who ask this question: it is up to you to offer whatever meaning you wish to the bows. You may bow to a loved one or to the one who criticizes you, to your pain or to your joy, to the suffering of others or to their happiness. There are many, many meanings that may infuse this simple gesture, in which we place ourselves in a position of humble appreciation and respect. Of course such meanings may be expressed in other ways as well. This is simply our tradition. If you try it for a while, you may discover its deep, mysterious meanings for you alone.

I have at times done a practice of 108 bows each day. It was a marvelous teaching. The person who introduced it to me used to say silently with each bow "I forgive you." But my own practice seemed to call for a different phrase: "I thank you." I would spread the bows out, doing them in four sets, and it was lovely and often surprising to see what faces showed up for whom I felt such deep gratitude. And something moved deep inside me; it is a mysterious and transforming process.

Well, I must go now, but please keep these wonderful questions going, both in your sangha and in your life, and feel free to send them along any time, or ask for further responses if these do not meet the mark. This is just one person's perspective from the path.

all my best to the sangha,

Peg Syverson

And followed with an example:

Hi Suzanne-

I realized that right here at UT we have had an excellent example to illustrate the points I sent along yesterday. There is in prison right now a former professor of engineering at UT who has been convicted of planning serial murders, of his former dean, department chair, and various faculty. Even while in prison he has been plotting to carry out these murders, and tried to enlist the help of a cellmate. He is utterly remorseless and persistent. Is this man evil? Perhaps you might need to know that several years ago he suffered a stroke that damaged part of his brain, and that before his stroke he was beloved by his students and colleagues alike. Does that change your view? This is a human tragedy; a tragedy that could come to any one of us, or to those dear to us. But I am hard pressed to call it "evil." So it goes, in every case. Does this mean we stand by and do nothing, in passive acceptance? Of course not! Obviously this afflicted person must be kept contained somehow. Similarly, we practice both to recognize and contain our own unhealthy energies and to meet appropriately and to contain the kinds of violence, ignorance, and greed we recognize as destructive out in the world, in whatever ways we may. And when we do so, to the best of our ability, we operate out of our inherent wisdom and compassion.

This is a far, far different view than the conventional impulse to judge and punish ourselves and others.

Evening zazen

2007-07-03T20:23:00.000-05:00

Tonight I was sitting in the zendo for about an hour. I realized that this was exactly what I would have wished for as a child, to be allowed to simply sit, still and silent, while the summer evening permeated me. There was a time I lived in wonder, only to be abruptly interrupted by demands, requirements, arguments, accusations, and all the noisy mess of a family shambling toward a breakup; the jealous bickering of children dodging blame and desperate for some kind of validation or righteousness, the doors slammed, sleep broken by the sounds of shouting below, the wretched fear and loss of control in terrible temper tantrums. To sit as I was sitting tonight, immersed in the sounds of rain and birds, the feel of the air cooling around me and through me without separation or boundaries, is truly a profound gift. It is not something to wish for as a permanent condition: I would not give up the connectedness of my relationships for anything, nor the satisfaction of my work, and even the anxieties and difficulties I encounter. It is simply that this moment, this time feels so nourishing, and because of it, I can experience the other parts of my life not as unwelcome demands and frightening conflicts that bring me to despair, but instead wholeheartedly meet them with some ease and openness. This is a different way of living, quite beautiful and filled with joy and equanimity, even when what I am meeting is fraught with grief or pain or rage.

Joko and Peg

2007-06-26T14:46:00.001-05:00

Joko and Peg
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

It's been wonderful to spend time with Joko, as always.

A view from Joko's Zendo

2007-06-24T18:13:00.001-05:00

Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

Here is a stunning view from the zendo of Joko's newly formed Zen Center of Prescott.

Joko's new zendo

2007-06-23T09:59:00.001-05:00

Joko's new zendo
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

Here is a peek at Joko's new Zendo, serene and lovely. The windows look out into the pine trees and boulders surrounding the house. It is light and spacious here, a wonderful place to sit. Zazen is offered Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings. Joko sees students in daisan (practice interviews) during zazen periods, and also has phone hours for students at a distance.

Visit to Joko

2007-06-21T18:28:00.000-05:00

Dear Sangha-

Visiting with Joko is a real joy. We have been chatting about teaching and learning, about Zen practice, and about sesshins (practice intensives). She looks very well, with good color and bright eyes that show her endless interest and curiosity. She works out on the pilates machine and lifts weights with a trainer. It’s a good time to talk with her about sesshins, as they are just planning the July sesshin for Prescott. I will take pictures of the new zendo, which is absolutely gorgeous, and post them as soon as I am able to. She has just received a copy of the book On Having No Head by Douglas Harding, which she had mentioned in a talk. There is also a DVD, which he sent her. She has phone hours in the morning, and then we chat in the afternoons and evenings. She has a standing offer for any Ordinary Mind sangha members in Austin or the Brownsville group to call her for practice discussion. It is very difficult to get through during her phone hours, but if you are persistent you can manage it. If you are interested, please let me know and I will give you the contact information.

Ordinary Mind Zen-Brownsville

2007-06-17T19:58:00.000-05:00

We are delighted to note that the Rio Grande Zen group has changed its name to Ordinary Mind Zen-Brownsville. You may visit the website here: Ordinary Mind Zen-Brownsville. We wish the group great joy in their study and practice of the ordinary mind way.

Brilliant Dharma

2007-06-05T11:23:00.000-05:00

Perhaps you are feeling a bit terrified and despairing about the world situation, especially as reflected in the dire accounts from news media and the reports of the horrifying activities of governments worldwide. Please go right now to this link and listen to a half-hour talk by Dr. Larry Brilliant at the annual TED conference that will first terrify, then hearten and inspire you:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/58

Please also read the followup piece on the outcome of his daring challenge to the global technological community:

http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/108

Well, go! It’s OK, I’ll wait.

Then come back for a discussion about what this incredible dharma talk has to do with our simple ordinary lives, right here and right now.

Back? A brief review:

You will recall that the aptly named Dr. Brilliant first detailed how the terrifying scourge of smallpox (or any terrible contagious disease) can spread so rapidly. First there is a tiny outbreak in one place, followed by another tiny outbreak, but because of the speed of travel now, those little outbreaks quickly spread around the globe, grow larger, and soon engulf the world in catastrophic losses. He showed graphic photos of the progression of smallpox in humans. He spoke movingly about how smallpox has been declared completely eradicated in the world; he actually witnessed the last case.

How was it eradicated? It had been eliminated everywhere in the world except one place—India, with her 21 states and teeming millions of people, many of them living in poverty and lack, illiterate and out of reach of most forms of communication. Dr. Brilliant and 150,000 people went door to door to every single house in India, carrying pictures of smallpox symptoms and finding every single case. He demonstrated how many different deadly diseases could spread this way, but also how the catastrophic epidemics can be stopped. The secret, he said, is early detection and rapid response. Then the disease can be contained, until ultimately, it dies out completely.

What does this fascinating talk reveal about our practice? As it is without, so it is within. The epidemiology Dr. Brilliant described might just as easily be applied to our inner environment, and the diseases of greed, anger, and ignorance. They begin with tiny outbreaks, annoyance, a little indulgence beyond what is needed, turning a deaf ear to a problem. But because of the way our neural networks form, these outbreaks can propagate until we find ourselves in a global catastrophe of rage, lust, and massive delusion.

The terrible photos of the children with smallpox reveal that early on, the bumps are few and might be easily concealed with a hat. We can cover over our own little symptoms too, with our busyness, distractions, and efforts to look good. But as the disease spreads, it soon takes over, and the photos show in gruesome detail the inexorable progression that leaves those who survive disfigured and scarred. So too, the progression of untreated greed, anger, and ignorance leaves us horribly disfigured and scarred inside.

There is no vaccine for greed, anger, and delusion—these viruses are ubiquitous, infinitely adaptable, and affect all humans. How do we address this pandemic, within ourselves, in our closest relationships, and around the world? Brilliant has asked the world’s most advanced technologists to create a system for early detection, rapid response, and containment. And they have responded enthusiastically to this challenge.

In our practice mindfulness is our technology for early detection, rapid response, and containment of the three poisons. Just as Dr. Brilliant and his tireless team went door to door to every single house in India, we must be as tireless in our practice in addressing every single outbreak of greed, anger and delusion, moment by moment. Notice too that the effective response is not killing those afflicted with the disease, but containment.

We first observe and accurately diagnose the symptoms of our afflictions, respond with awareness, and contain the energy so that the pathological expressions of greed, anger, and ignorance can ultimately die out completely for lack of a host. Leave even one case alone, and it can spread and multiply, so to fully and wholeheartedly meet the situation we must be vigilant and persistent.

Our “team” is our sangha and teachers. The India within is too vast and teeming to be able to do it alone. We need resources: teachings and teachers and sangha to help us identify the diseases, meditation to cultivate mindfulness and support containment. As we contain these deadly contagious diseases, they lose their epidemic proportions. This is true not only within us, but it is also true beyond, even impacting global levels, which create so much suffering and despair.

So what about Dr. Brilliant? Is he a saint? No more than you or I. Does he get angry? I’m quite sure he does, when it is appropriate. But what does his anger serve? It serves life and the relief of suffering, not his egoic identifications. Does he have greed? I am quite sure he does, in the service of his aspiration to benefit all beings. Does he have ignorance? Almost certainly he has the ignorance of someone who goes ahead with the impossible realization of his aspiration.

Can we practice in our ordinary, everyday lives, with the intensity, passion, and determination of Larry Brilliant? It is only in this way that we can fully awaken to the luminous well-being of a healthy life, free of suffering for ourselves and for others.

The teaching of emptiness by Zen master Peg

2007-06-03T19:32:00.001-05:00

The teaching of emptiness by Zen master Peg
Originally uploaded by Peg Syverson.

Peg attains perfect stillness and silence, offering her best teaching to date, but still a 2-dimensional view that is not fully realized. Sangha members will vote on which Peg more perfectly expresses the dharma, and determine which one they will keep as a teacher. While this version is obviously less troublesome and inexpensive, it does not respond well to questions and challenges, maintaining what some think of as an "aloof and forbidding silence," with a performance some find "wooden," although others are inclined to call it "wisdom." This classic laconic "Texas-style" Zen teacher of few words (well, actually wordless) may catch on here in Austin, bringing new vitality to concepts such as "no mind" and "no self." However, it remains to be seen how this teacher can possibly "chop wood" and "carry water."

Evening Zazen reminder

2007-06-01T17:09:00.001-05:00

Next week, evening zazen moves to its new regular time, Wednesday evening at 7:30. There are two sitting periods with walking meditation between. The first period is instructional, offering some guiding or posture adjustments intended especially to support those new to practice. The second sitting period is silent as usual. You may come for the second zazen period only if you wish; please plan to arrive at 8:00, enter quietly, and join the walking meditation. An informal tea follows the evening sittings. This is a good chance to ask any questions or connect with other members of the Ordinary Mind community of practice.

Spring at the Four Seasons

2007-05-28T12:55:00.000-05:00

Besides the beauty and wonder of sitting beside a brook's small waterfall and pool, nature has messages for us that are hard to find in civilization. Our Winter sitting (see the January archive) sent out a clear message that life can be hard and bone chilling.

At our March sitting, the pool still was in Winter's grasp. The path to the pool was as usual full of twists and turns and ever switching views. It sent us a message similar to Su Shih's poem about the mountains:

Regarding from one side, an entire range;

From another, a single peak.

Far, near, high, low, all its parts

Different from the others.

If the true face of Mt Lu

Cannot be known,

It is because the one looking at it,

Is standing in its midst.

At our May sitting, the pool was in Spring time. New life in vibrant green ferns and wildflowers surrounded the stream. This time we also observed that amidst all of this new life, there were also signs of death everywhere in all of the fallen branches and boulders. This provides a contrast that makes the new life even more precious. This message of death out of life and life out of death (which is covered up rather well in civilization) has something important to say about our standing in the midst of the time dimension (which also makes it difficult to know the true face of Mt Lu).

We thank Sherry for taking these pictures of the meditation. We also thank John and Laura ,who aren't in the picture, for treating us all to tea/coffee afterwards at Starbucks.

Agenda for upcoming events at OMZ

2007-05-18T06:13:00.001-05:00

Here is a permanent listing of upcoming events at Ordinary Mind Zen, also linked in the menu to the right:

Weekday evening zazen changes

2007-05-17T10:47:00.000-05:00

Beginning in June, weekday evening zazen will move from Thursday to Wednesday. The Ordinary Mind calendar has been changed to reflect the new day. The times will stay the same. At 7:30 we will have an "instructional" sitting period, which may feature some guiding or introduce some meditation approaches or suggestions for sitting posture to assist practice. This is followed by a short period of walking meditation and another sitting period in the usual silent form. If you are joining us only for the second meditation period, you may enter during the walking meditation between periods. Please plan to arrive at 8:00, and find your seat following the walking meditation period. The first evening of the new Wednesday schedule will be June 6. If you are new to sitting practice and would like some orientation or instruction, please let me know, and I will be glad to assist you.

The Feeling Buddha

2007-05-10T10:08:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday, we began reading together David Brazier's The Feeling Buddha. Brazier is a psychotherapist and long time Zen practitioner and scholar. The book is a fresh look at the four noble truths, the Buddha's first teachings following his enlightenment. The four noble truths are the one core teaching shared by all Buddhists, from those who chant the name of Buddha to get rich to the most austere Zen monks. They are considered foundational, and so we return time and again to their profound message. But why are these simple truths "noble?" Sunday we read the first chapter, "No Pearl Without Grit." There's plenty of time to catch up if you would like to join us: it will be several weeks before we take it up again. Even if you believe you understand just what the four noble truths are all about, this book will challenge your assumptions and shake up your beliefs.

Inquiry Group meeting

2007-05-09T10:51:00.000-05:00

Please mark your calendars for Tuesday evening, May 29, at 7:00 PM. Flint will offer an evening version of his highly successful inquiry group that meets regularly at AZC. This is an opportunity to ask practice questions in a supportive environment with a very engaging and accomplished teacher. In this intimate group setting, we can learn from and with each other by engaging the teacher in the questions and issues we are wrestling with in our practice of everyday living. It is customary to make a contribution as an offering for the teacher in these situations. Please be as generous as your means will allow. We would like to make this a regular offering, and if you are interested in that possibility, please let me know, even if you are not able to attend this time.

Upcoming events at Ordinary Mind

2007-05-02T12:09:00.000-05:00

Would you like more opportunities to deepen your zazen practice?

The dates for the September Ordinary Mind practice intensive have been set. It will begin Friday evening September 21 and run through Sunday afternoon September 23. Please plan to follow the complete schedule. We will have more information about how to register for the intensive available shortly.

There will be two all-day sittings before the intensive to provide an opportunity to practice extending your zazen practice with a few additional sitting periods. The all-day sittings will be July 22 and August 19, as an extension of the regular Sunday morning program, and ending at 5 PM. There will be a break for lunch, so please bring a bag lunch. The schedule is designed to provide an introduction for those new to intensives. There will also be time for questions and answers.

There will be a sangha work day May 13 to help move and level some dirt on the grounds. If you can spare some time after zazen to help with this project, please wear or bring work clothes and a rake or shovel. It should not take long with enough help.

I am likely to be away July 9-17. During this time there will be no morning zazen on the weekdays. The regular Sunday morning program will still be held on July 15.

A Statement of Faith

2007-04-28T08:44:00.000-05:00

The state of Texas has requested a "statement of faith" in confirming tax exempt status. It occurred to me that you might like to know how I responded.

ORDINARY MIND ZEN –AUSTIN
Statement of Faith

“Our Statement of Faith” is based on the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths. These are not articles of belief or doctrine, but experiential truths to be verified by each person through inquiry and practice.

The Four Noble Truths

The first noble truth is the truth of dukkha. It means that affliction or suffering is a fact of all human life.

The second noble truth is the truth of samudaya. It means that together with affliction, thirst or longing arises.

The third noble truth is the truth of nirodha. It means that whatever arises can be contained, and that this containment is essential to healthy living. Note that nirodha does not mean either suppression nor mindless venting; in its original usage the term referred to banking a fire, so that its energy can be used in safe and healthy ways.

The fourth noble truth is the truth of marga. It describes the path or characteristics of healthy living. The eight characteristics of the path suggest a life lived in alignment with reality; the term “right” here means just that: congruent with truth. Marga consists of right view, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation.

We are indebted to Michael Brazier’s The Feeling Buddha for this presentation of the four noble truths.

Question for this moment

2007-04-25T14:33:00.000-05:00

What is the universe discovering about itself that can only be learned or known through this/my/your/our experiencing?

How are you answering this question? Or do you prefer Mary Oliver's:

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Rio Grande Zen

2007-04-23T17:38:00.000-05:00

For readers in the Rio Grande area, there is a new sitting group following the teachings of Joko Beck. The address is:

Rio Grande Zen Sangha
6000 Rusty Nail Drive
Brownsville, Texas
956-621-1767

The board for the Rio Grande Zen group includes Ed Miller, Suzanne and James Lovegren.

If you are in the area, please stop in! You can find information about the sangha here: http://riozen.blogspot.com/

We send a warm Texas welcome to this new sangha!

Ongoing developments

2007-04-09T19:27:00.000-05:00

There are a few new developments that we are discussing for Ordinary Mind. I mentioned Sunday that we may extend the Thursday evening sitting to allow two sitting periods, by beginning at 7:30 instead of 8:00. If you have an opinion about that, please let me know by email. We will probably have two 30-minute periods with kinhin (walking meditation) between, followed by tea and informal discussion.

We have also had a request to add another evening sitting. It may be possible to offer this in conjunction with an introduction to meditation class, if there is enough interest, either on Tuesday or Wednesday evening.

We are also discussing offering a two-day sesshin, probably some time in September, over a weekend. A sesshin is an intensive or retreat that provides an opportunity to deepen your practice through meditation, simple work practice, dharma talks, and individual practice discussions with teachers. Sitting together with others in this simplified space and schedule provides a clearing in our busy lives to enrich our practice. We support each other through our sincere practice and shared silence. If you have any questions or suggestions about this practice opportunity, please let me know. In the months before the sesshin, we will offer two introductory half-day sittings following the Sunday program so that you may experiment with extending your zazen practice in this way.

So, as you can see, we would like to expand our offerings in ways that can best support your practice and your aspirations. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

New additions

2007-02-11T21:48:00.000-06:00

There are two new additions to the Ordinary Mind altar, from Peg's trip to San Diego. The altar now has a new Avalokiteshvara (Kwan Yin), the bodhisattva of compassion, to match the Manjusri, bodhisattva of wisdom, and Samantabhadra, bodhisattva of great activity. There is also a striking new frog, from the artist Jon Anderson. The technique for making the intricate designs is from the centuries old Italian process of millefiore, originally used for art glass and jewelry, and here used with Fimo clay. There is more information about the process Anderson uses at his web site. If you click on Fiore technique, there is an explanation of this process. To see larger images of the frog, visit the Ordinary Mind Flickr gallery or click on any image in the set on the right. To see the frog in real life, come sit zazen with us!

daily sitting

2007-02-08T09:26:00.000-06:00

In the morning, Lila and Tabrez come and sit with me in the zendo. It is so peaceful to sit together this way. Lila is the timekeeper and today I was showing Tabrez how to do the clackers.

I sat for an hour last night, and then this morning I just sat with Dogen’s teaching of “dropped off body and mind.“ I had an image of walking down a sidewalk carrying two heavy suitcases, and finding a little city park, with flowers and trees and grasses. I set down my bags and sit on the park bench, resting a while, before I go on.

This is a peaceful way of life, a calm and present way to start the day. It feels so nourishing. We begin while it is dark outside, in warm pools of gentle light in the zendo, the little tree sparkling red. The birds begin their morning calls, the blower from the furnace, the traffic sounds, a siren, a neighbor putting the dog out and leaving for work. The light grows brighter in the room and spreads out. We move our bodies just a bit for the interval, and then resume sitting. The silence and stillness in the zendo deepen, even while the world outside arouses itself, puts on its daytime clothes. People are waking up, making coffee, turning on the news, feeding the cat, bringing in the paper. They are taking showers, paying a few bills, talking to someone in the next room. They are scratching an itch, blowing a nose, tasting the milk to see if it has gone sour. They are yawning and turning over to get a few more minutes of rest, they are beginning their yoga stretches, reaching for a sock, bending down to scratch the dog behind his ears. They are scrambling a couple of eggs, turning the bacon, pouring juice, buttering a piece of toast, sprinkling raisins on a bowl of oatmeal, grabbing a protein bar as they go out the door. The wisp of a dream is barely recalled, the last crumbs of sleep are swept from the corner of an eye; life turns in its cycle. Still we are sitting; we are sitting still.

Added Views of Four Seasons Pond in Winter

2007-01-23T09:54:00.000-06:00

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Here are links for videos with sound:

January 7 Four Seasons Sitting -- Winter at the Pond

2007-01-16T14:42:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday morn, only a light but crispy breeze would reach down from the hills to wave a fern now and then. But, the valley was resounding from falling water cascading into the pool. Rivulets and sometimes droplets flowing over moss. Leaving a stream of bubbles popping on the pond surface.

Winter was upon all of us here -- bare branches -- fallen leaves -- some kill-frosted ferns -- a Texas valley of Japanese wabi -- "To be poor, that is, not to be dependent on things worldly - wealth, power, and reputation - and yet to feel inwardly the presence of something of the highest value" (D.T. Suzuki, Zen and Japenese Culture)

Five Ordinary Minders silently sat and joined with the pond, the cold, and each other in a winter embrace. (It was so strong, it even split some britches!)

Afterwards, over warm Starbuck's brew, our discussion eventually led to Basho's haiku about the pond (An old pond, ah! A frog jumps in. The water's sound.) as well as Robert Aitken's commentary, and even Peg's remarks, "Ha! Aitken falls right into Basho's trap, teeth chattering like an old drunk on the streets of Chicago." (We caught a picture of the frog in flight at the pool to give you some idea of what we were talking about.)

Next time, on March 11, we will try to take a picture that does justice to the pool's smooth-stone carving of Sunyata; and we will be discussing the poem that led to Dogen's tract on "Mountain Colors and the Sound of Valley Streams."

Ice storm-Austin, Texas January 16, 2007

2007-01-16T11:45:00.001-06:00

Ice storm-Austin, Texas January 16, 2007
Originally uploaded by Jiki Syverson.

Welcome to arctic Austin, Texas! Today the city is still, the stores and offices closed, the traffic stopped, and there are flurries of snow. Ice has wrapped every twig and leaf in crystal, and there are shimmering chandeliers hanging from every eave. It's rare for us to stop completely this way. How cool and refreshing! We see the world with wonder through new eyes, tiny flakes of snow falling from improbable Texas skies. The gift of a day like this is beyond measure. Please enjoy your life.

a morning thought

2006-12-07T11:49:00.000-06:00

This morning in zazen a phrase popped into my head: the effervescent mind. It seems to me, when I reflect on it, that our minds are filled with large and small "thought bubbles," constantly rising to the surface and then disappearing. We are fascinated by these bubbles, which are of course empty. But we can't really drink the bubbles. The bubbles are arising in a medium and the life we are drinking is the whole thing: the bubbles together with the medium. Maybe to stretch the metaphor a bit further, our forms are ways of containing the effervescent beverage so that it is ready to drink. But at any rate, I love the idea of an effervescence that captivates us and adds sparkle, just so we don't mistake the empty bubbles for the drink.

New Zendo look!

2006-11-21T16:57:00.000-06:00

Thanks to the efforts of John and Steven, new shoji screens have been installed in the Ordinary Mind Zendo. John made the frames to fit each window, and Steven finished the frames with tung oil and attached the shoji paper, which has a subtle design of bamboo. These new screens reduce the distractions from passing traffic and pedestrians, while still allowing light in. The top part of the windows has been left open to allow more light and sky and trees in. This bright home for Ordinary Mind is cheerful and spacious. I hope it will serve your practice well! There are more pictures in the album at http://www.flickr.com/photos/syverson/sets/973377/. Click the photo to view them. From flickr you can also view the images in different sizes and download pictures for printing either on your own printer or through a photo service.

Peg and Joko

2006-10-18T11:46:00.000-05:00

Peg and Joko
Originally uploaded by Jiki Syverson.

Joko was a real delight, as always, to be with. I was so happy to see her in Brenda's beautiful home, and to meet the members of her new sitting group. The zendo below is coming along beautifully, and should be a warm and inviting place for zazen. Joko's wing has spectacular views of boulders and trees, and the clear, crisp Arizona sky. She told me that when the December sesshin was announced it filled within five minutes. No surprise there! But she is planning future sesshins as well, so stay tuned if you think you might be able to travel there. Prescott is very beautiful: click on this image to see some of the landscape and other pictures from our trip.

Learning together

2006-10-09T22:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we experimented with a new format for our reading/discussion time. I offered a topic (this week it was anger) and we sat in mindfulness for a few minutes, thinking about our background and practice with this topic, its challenges, and questions we have about practicing with it. Then each person in turn spoke while everyone else listened with wholehearted, compassionate attention. It was very moving to hear the struggles and the wisdom each person contributed. Once each person had spoken, we had a more general discussion. We have more wisdom and compassion together than any of us has alone. It was a very heartening experience. My intention is to do this once a month to start with, and see how it supports our practice and our sangha. Having a topic helps focus the discussion, and the brief period of mindfulness helps each person sort out his or her thoughts in order to be able to listen to others without being distracted by planning what to say.

Next weekend I will be out of town visiting Joko in Prescott, Arizona. The Sunday after I return (October 22) I will report about my visit, and we will also be hosting a one-day sitting here at Ordinary Mind. If you are planning to attend, please let me know, and bring a bag lunch for the day.

Ceremonial Incense Supplies

2006-09-20T15:10:00.000-05:00

This is where we order the hard-to-find chip incense for the altar: Scents of Earth's Ceremonial Incense Supplies For incense lovers, there are also sets of ceremonial incense supplies.

Remembering 9/11

2006-09-11T13:16:00.000-05:00

The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia

Today the news is full of memorials for the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 World Trade Center tragedy. But it is also the anniversary of the Ordinary Mind group moving into our new home at 913 East 38th St.
This is a reminder to me that every catastrophe carries within it the seeds of great joy, and that every great joy also emerges from and is enmeshed with great suffering. I hope that we can, through our practice, develop the capacity to contain all that life presents us, the bitter and the sweet, the joy and the grief. The celebrations and memorials remind us of the three marks of existence the Buddha taught: impermanence, interdependence, and the reality of suffering arising from all formations. When we keep these three truths in mind, we cherish each moment and appreciate each other and our collective struggles to meet on equal ground

Ordinary Mind is the Way

2006-09-10T15:34:00.000-05:00

Ordinary Mind is the Way
Originally uploaded by Jiki Syverson.

Ordinary Mind Sangha, September 10, 2006
(some folks were not able to be with us that day)

Back row: Steven, Iain, Laurie, John, Jeanie
Front row: Charissa, Lila, Ronnie, Georgina, Victoria, Kathy, Mario

The calligraphy reads: Everyday Mind is the Way, and is by Nonin Chewaney.

Celebration!

2006-09-03T19:29:00.000-05:00

Today we celebrated Jeanie Forsyth's 80th birthday in the garden at Texas French Bread, following Sunday morning zazen. Jeanie has been sitting with Ordinary Mind from its very first days out at Live Oak Unitarian Church. Many times the whole sangha sitting would be just Jeanie and I in those early days. When I am traveling, Jeanie is one of the people who is most faithful in keeping the sangha running smoothly for our Sunday morning program. Her contributions and devotion have held things together, even when I was away for as long as six months, first on leave to stay with Joko in 1998, and then most recently when I was at the monastery for training. I have deep gratitude for her dedication to this practice and her long-term work with Joko as her teacher. So it was a great pleasure to express some of our heartfelt appreciation in our little surprise garden party!

News from the sangha

2006-08-27T19:51:00.000-05:00

Last week, Joko Beck gave her approval for Peg Syverson to offer daisan, private practice discussion, for Zen students. This is very exciting news for the Ordinary Mind Sangha! It means we have, for the first time, a resident teacher.

Peg will see students during the Sunday morning zazen periods, and at other times by appointment. Daisan may be arranged by contacting Peg in advance by email (syverson_at_uts.cc.utexas.edu), phone (512.689.5301) or in person. The format is for the student to wait outside the daisan room until the teacher rings the bell, then enter, do a full bow (or standing bow if you wish) toward the altar. Then do a standing bow to the teacher, and be seated. Please state your name and your practice at the start of each practice interview. If you do not have a practice, please let Peg know. At the end of daisan, do a final standing bow to the teacher and leave.

In addition, this new format means a new role in the zendo—timekeeper. The timekeeper will ring the bells to time the sitting periods. The first set of three bells is for the start of zazen, following the incense offering. The timekeeper sounds two bells to end the sitting period and hits the clackers to start kinhin (walking meditation): one time to signal people to spread out evenly for kinhin, and the second time for the start of slow kinhin. If you wish to use the bathroom during kinhin, please wait until the second clacker and then leave the zendo. The timekeeper hits the clackers after five minutes of slow kinhin to begin fast kinhin, and again after three minutes of fast kinhin to signal people to return to their seats. Once everyone is still, the timekeeper rings three bells to begin the second zazen period.

The timekeeper ends the second sitting period with two bells and uses the clackers to signal the brief kinhin period before service (five minutes). Then the timekeeper lights the charcoal and one stick of incense to begin service. At the end of service there will be a talk or reading and discussion, led by the teacher. Then the timekeeper will read the final eko, lead the closing chant and ring bells for the final bows.

During the sitting periods, the timekeeper sits facing the center of the room and acts as a monitor to help anyone who may need assistance.

If there is any confusion about this new role, please let me know! This means we now have three roles (in addition to the teacher): The person who does the clacker rolldown in the kitchen to call students to zazen, the person who offers incense at the start of zazen, and the timekeeper. We will be glad to train people in these roles. If you are interested in learning, please let Peg, John, or Jeanie know.

BCBS-The Buddha Hall

2006-07-30T15:08:00.000-05:00

The Buddha Hall
Originally uploaded by Jiki Syverson.

Here is the Buddha Hall at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, where Mu Soeng gave a course on Lack and Liberation. There are seminar tables in the front, with plenty of room for sitting space. The windows overlook the beautiful forests around the Center. You can see the rest of the photos from this weekend by clicking on the photo.

One-day sitting

2006-02-19T20:21:00.000-06:00

Today the Ordinary Mind group held its first one-day sitting, from 8:00 to 5:00. Despite the freezing rain and highway obstacles resulting from the Austin marathon, hardy participants came and sat together, some from as far away as San Antonio and Longview. The morning began with the regular Sunday program followed by tea and cookies, more zazen, lunch, work practice, a short talk ("You can't have what you want; you can't do what you want; but you can be what you want to be.") and an open sitting period. It was lovely to sit together for an entire day, to work and eat together informally. We discussed whether to keep the one-day sittings as brown-bag lunches, or whether to provide lunch and suggest a donation, and also whether to offer optional sitting that runs later in the evening. If you have opinions about this or other suggestions for the one-day sittings, please contact Peg.