Holiday. All-day Sitting. Dharma Talks. Waking Up to Compassion in the Face of Aggression

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1 Chapel Hill Zen Center News P.O. BOX 16302, CHAPEL HILL, NC JULY & AUGUST, 2016 Holiday The zendo will be closed on Mondays, July 4, and September 5. The usual Sunday program of zazen at 9:00 and 9:50 will be held on Sundays, July 3, September 5. All-day Sitting There will be an all-day sitting on Sunday, July 10, from 6:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. The sitting will begin with orientation on Saturday night at 7:30, and will include instruction on the meal form. The regular Sunday schedule, with zazen at 9:00 and 9:50 and lecture at 10:30, will be open to everyone. The day will include zazen, a Dharma talk, Dokusan and a work period, as well as breakfast and lunch. The fee is $10 for members and $20 for others. Please sign up in advance, and please speak to Josho Sensei if this is your first all-day sitting. For more information on the zendo or oryoki meal form see: / Waking Up to Compassion in the Face of Aggression Sunday morning, July 17, at 10:30 Many people are deeply interested in understanding how to reconcile the commitment to compassion with a seemingly more violent world. How do we find and express the courage to engage with people who see us as an enemy or whom we see as an enemy? How do we live the tenants of active nonviolence through a disciplined spiritual practice in our daily lives? Claude AnShin Thomas will speak about these topics and engage with these questions from a place of his life experiences and the training and the embodying of his spiritual path which is as a Soto Zen Buddhist Monk. Claude AnShin Thomas is a Zen Buddhist monk, Vietnam veteran, international advocate of nonviolence, and author of the book At Hell s Gate: A Soldiers Journey From War To Peace. Born 1947 in Pennsylvania, he served in Vietnam from Since that time he has been working to heal the wounds from war: emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, using these experiences to help others. He was fully ordained as a Buddhist Monk in the Japanese Soto Zen Tradition in He has made several pilgrimages worldwide since Speaking internationally in religious and secular communities about the culture of violence and how they can become transformed, he also facilitates meditation retreats, visits war-torn countries, prisons, former, concentration camps, hospitals, schools, as well as local and national governments. For more information on AnShin s work, please visit The Zaltho Foundation. ( Dharma Talks Josho Pat Phelan, Sunday morning, July 10, at 10:30 Claude AnShin Thomas, Sunday morning, July 17, at 10:30 Shohaku Okumura, Sunday morning, August 7, at 10:30 Josho Pat Phelan, Sunday morning, August 28, at 10:30 Monastic Matters at Koshoji, Japan s First Soto Zen Monastery Sunday, September 25 Dr. Pamela Winfield, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Elon University, will give a presentation on Dogen s text, Jijuyu Zammai, at 11:00. Everyone is welcome. Practice Discussion Jakuko Mo Ferrell, and Choro Carla Antonaccio are available to meet individually for Practice Discussion. If you would like to set up a meeting, please contact either of them at the zendo or at Mositwear@gmail.com, or at canton@duke.edu. Sangha News Choro Carla Antonaccio and Bunkai Stephen Tracy were married in the Ceremony of Candlelight and Flowers on Sunday, June 4.

2 PAGE 2 Genzo-e Sesshin Registration Form August 5 to 10, 2016 Applications Due July 29 Name Phone Address Emergency contact person: Name Phone Liability waiver: prior to sesshin, you will be required to be sign a waiver whereby you release the Zen Center from any liability for accident or injury, and agree not to sue. You may request a copy of the form in advance. Do you have a medical condition (e.g., diabetes, heart condition, pregnancy) or dietary restrictions? If so, please attach a short statement of explanation: I have an oryoki I can bring Yes No I plan to arrive at on I plan to leave at on I can help set up (4:00 P.M. 6:00 P.M.) I can help clean up I have enclosed my deposit/sitting fees $ Checks payable to Chapel Hill Zen Center P.O. Box Chapel Hill, NC I would like to donate toward a scholarship fund $ If this is your first sesshin with the Chapel Hill Zen Center, please attach a short statement about your zazen practice and history: How long have you been sitting zazen? How often are your currently sitting? Have you sat a one-day sitting or longer sesshin before? If so, when and with whom? Do you have room in your home for someone from out of town to stay? Yes No Where do you plan to sleep?

3 PAGE 3 Genzo-e Sesshin Shohaku Okumura Roshi will lead a 5-day Genzo-e or teaching sesshin, beginning at 7:00 on Friday night, August 5, and going through Wednesday afternoon, August 10. In the Genzo-e sesshin, Okumura Roshi will give an hour and a half talk each morning and afternoon on two of Dogen s fascicles, Dotoku or Expressing the Truth, and Mitsugo or Intimate Words. Okumura Roshi will be using his own translations which will be available before he arrives. Translations are also included in Kaz Tanahashi s Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, Vol. I, p. 439 and in Vol. II, p. 531; and in Nishijima and Cross s Master Dogen s Shobogenzo, Book 2, p. 269, and Book 3, p. 93. Shohaku Okumura Roshi is a wonderful teacher of Dogen s Way of practice and thought, and this sesshin is an unusual opportunity for us in North Carolina. Okumura Roshi is the abbot of Sanshinji in Bloomington, IN. He was ordained in 1970 by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, and he has translated many teachings on Soto Zen practice including, Uchiyama Roshi s books Opening the Hand of Thought; The Wholehearted Way: a Translation of Dogen s Bendowa; Dogen s Genjokoan; and Dogen s Extensive Record: a Translation of the Eihei Koroku; as well as his own books, Realizing Genjokoan, the Key to Dogen s Shobogenzo, and Living by Vow. The schedule for this sesshin will be similar to that of a monastic weekend. In order to help all of us settle into the schedule and our zazen practice, please arrive on time. It may be possible to sit part of the sesshin, but space may be limited and priority will be given to those attending the full sesshin. If you can only sit part of the sesshin, please explain clearly what part of sesshin you would like to attend when you register, and please come to orientation on Friday night. It is advisable to sign up for sesshin sooner than you might normally, since Okumura Roshi is a well-known teacher, and there will be more people attending from out of state than we usually have. Please return your registration no later than July 29, with a $40 deposit. Sesshin will begin at 7:00 on Friday evening with orientation and job assignments. Following orientation, silence will be observed. The zendo will be open by 4:00 P.M. on Friday; so please try to arrive in time to settle in before 7:00 P.M. The sesshin day will include zazen, beginning at 6:00 A.M., kinhin, Dharma talks, a work period, formal meals served in the zendo. The day will end at 9:00 P.M. Because expenses will be higher for this sesshin than in the past, the fees will also be higher and on a sliding scale for those who may want to offer more. For members, the fees are $225-$300, and for others $275-$350. There will also be an opportunity to make a donation to the teacher. It is our intention that no one be turned away for financial reasons, and partial scholarships are available. If you would like to request a scholarship, please contact Maura at maurahigh@gmail.com and let her know what your participation in the CHZC has been. In the past, contributions received for scholarships were very helpful in allowing people to attend sesshin here and at the San Francisco Zen Center. You are welcome to sleep in the zendo, and there may be some space available in members homes nearby. Please bring a pad for the floor, a sleeping bag, a towel and wash cloth, slip-on shoes, and layered clothes. Opportunities for bathing are limited. Please bring work clothes. For more information, please write: info@chzc.org, or call (919) The zendo emergency number is (919) Shunbo Zenkei Blanche Hartman Our beloved teacher, Shunbo Zenkei Blanche Hartman passed away May 13, five days after turning 90. She was the first woman abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center, and taught many people how to sew and teach the sewing of Buddha s Robe, the rakusu and okesa. Some of her talks have been collected in the book, Seeds for a Boundless Life. The following talk was given at Tassajara, Zen Mountain Center.

4 PAGE 4 Birth and Death Talk by Zenkei Blanche Hartman There is a verse that s on the han the wooden block that calls us to the zendo. It s also sometimes chanted just before bedtime in many Zen monasteries. It is an exhortation to practice and goes something like this: May I respectfully remind you: Great is the matter of birth and death. All is impermanent, quickly passing. Be awake each moment. Don t waste this life. There is a departing phrase that is very common in Japanese which is O dai ji ni which means literally, Take care of the great matter. The great ancestor Nagarjuna said, In this world of birth and death, seeing impermanence is bodhicitta, the mind of awakening. This was very true for me. This is what turned me toward practice. I was going along, living my life, when one day my best friend had a really bad headache. She went to the doctor the next day, was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, went into a coma and died. Whoosh! Just like that. I was stunned. Often we don t think so much about birth and death until someone close to us particularly a contemporary or even someone younger than us, is suddenly dying, and then we get it that we are also impermanent. In that great Indian classic, the Mahabarata, there s a passage where a great sage is asked: Sir, of all of the things you ve observed in life, what is the most amazing? And he responds: That a man seeing all around him die, never thinks that he will die. That s certainly the way I was until my friend, Pat, died. I was in a really agitated frame of mind. And in all of my agitation and searching around what I wanted to know was Well, if you know you re going to die, how do you live? This is the important point of knowing that all of us die. It s not just, Oh sure, everybody dies; I ll die someday. It s that we never know. We never know. The important part of that is that it encourages us to really pay attention to how we live now. Because how we live is the most important thing. It may feel like we ve got plenty of time to figure that out later. Later. I ll get around to that later. Right now, I m going to do this. But the very encouraging part about noticing that everything changes and this also changes is the reminder in the Gakudo Yojin Shu where Dogen Zenji says, Ancestor Nagarjuna said: The mind that fully sees into the uncertain world of birth and death is called the thought of enlightenment: bodhicitta. Thus if we maintain this mind, this mind can become the thought of enlightenment. Indeed, when you understand discontinuity, the notion of self does not come into being. Ideas of name and gain do not arise. Fearing the swift passage of the sunlight, practice the way as though saving your head from fire. Reflecting on this ephemeral life, make endeavor in the manner of Buddha raising his foot. Socrates said: To fear death, gentlemen, is nothing other than to think oneself wise when one is not. For it is to think that one knows what one does not know. No person knows whether death may not even turn out to be the greatest of blessings for a human being and yet people fear it as if they knew for certain that it is the greatest of evils. So, we can take this realization of impermanence when it comes to us and turn it into a powerful support for living the life we want to live for living as we really want to be and not putting it off. Death is the great mystery. We don t know what it is. We don t know what happens when we die. A monk asked a Zen master, What happens when you die? The Zen master replied, I don t know. The monk said, What do you mean. Aren t you a Zen master? And the Zen Master replied, Yes, but I m not a dead one. The poet Mary Oliver says: I want to be full of curiosity. What will it be like that cottage of darkness? And I feel the same way. I hope that when my time comes I can meet it full of curiosity and interest. What is it? So, we don t know. Suzuki Roshi said toward the end of his life, Things teach best when they re

5 PAGE 5 dying. And Suzuki Roshi said: If, when I die, the moment I m dying, if I suffer, that is all right you know. That is suffering Buddha. No confusion in it. Maybe everyone will struggle because of the physical agony or spiritual agony too, but that is all right. That is not a problem. We should very grateful to have a limited body like mine or like yours. If you had a limitless life, that would be a real problem for you. So, Mary Oliver says it in a very nice way. Who made the world? Who made the swan and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper I mean? The one who has flung herself out the grass; The one who is eating sugar out of my hand; Who s moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down; Who s gazing around her with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open and floats away. I don t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention; how to fall down into the grass; How to kneel down in the grass; How to be idle and blessed; How to stroll through the fields, which is what I ve been doing all day. Tell me. What else should I have done? Doesn t everything die at last and too soon? Tell me. What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Actually, I like to say, What is it you plan to do with this one wild and precious life that has been given to you? You know, life is a gift. When he was alive, Suzuki Roshi said something like, Just to be alive is enough. And I didn t understand that. But then in 1989 I had a heart attack and that was my true birthday. I left the hospital not having died, and as I was walking out, I thought Wow, I m still alive. I could be dead. Wow, the rest of my life is just a gift. Then I thought, My whole life has been a gift; pity I didn t notice it before. This is the thing I want to teach. Life is a gift. How will you use it? How will you fully appreciate it? It s not just a gift after you ve just dodged a bullet, you know. It s a gift from the git-go. So, how will you fully appreciate this gift? Whatever can help you to truly appreciate the gift of this life and live it with gratitude Gratitude is just a wonderful thing and it s available to all of us. So, what is it you plan to do with this one wild and wonderful life that s been given to you? And how will you keep alive your awareness of the uncertainty of life in a way that doesn t intimidate you but that keeps encouraging you to practice as if your head were on fire? To practice because it matters. How you live this life matters. Thich Nhat Hanh in Teaching of the Buddha quotes the Five Remembrances. I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old. I am of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape having ill health. I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death. All that is dear to me, and everyone I love, are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them. My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand. Thich Nhat Hanh goes on to comment: The Five Remembrances help us make friends with our fears of growing old, getting sick, being abandoned, and dying. There are also a bell of mindfulness that can help us appreciate deeply the wonders of life that are available here and now. But in the Heart Sutra, Avalokiteshvara teaches that there is no birth and no death. Why would the Buddha tell us that we re of the nature to die if there s no birth and no death? Because in the Five Remembrances the Buddha is using the tool of relative truth. He is well aware that in terms of absolute truth, there is no birth and death. When we look at the ocean we see that each wave has a beginning and an end. A wave can be compared with other waves and we can call it more or less beautiful, higher or lower, longer lasting or less long lasting, but if we look more

6 PAGE 6 deeply we see that a wave is made of water. It would be sad if the wave did not know that it is water. It would think, Someday I will have to die. This period of life is my lifespan and when I arrive at the shore I will return to non-being. These notions will cause the wave fear and anguish. We have to help it remove the notions of self, person, living being, and life span if we want the wave to be free and happy. So, this is the Buddha s teaching: to relieve us of the notion of a self, a person, a living being and to see that there is no separate, substantial thing that we can point to and say, This is me. It is simply the ongoing arising and passing away, moment after moment of forms, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. But there s nothing else beside that we can say, This is me some separate, substantial thing. This body, this life, this wave, gives us an opportunity to experience life fully. But, just as the wave returns to the ocean, we will return to something. But, we don t know what. But, if we think the end of this life is the end of life the end of this body is the end of life we simply don t know. Life will continue. When this body is no longer continuing, life will still continue. And our actions the effects of our actions is what is connected with this body that will continue. Actions have consequences. Actions have results. Actions of body, speech and mind. And so, there are various teachings in Buddhism about actions. Dogen Zenji wrote the Four Methods of Guidance of a Bodhisattva. The first is giving. The second is kind speech. The third is beneficial action and the fourth is identity action or cooperation. So, this giving, this generosity, comes up in a lot of these kinds of lists that are reminders of how we live our life if we re awake. You know, in the Six Practices of a Bodhisattva, the first one, again, is generosity or giving. One teaching is that a monk doesn t give material things because a monk is a mendicant. A monk gives the dharma and a monk gives fearlessness. When I first read that I thought, I m a monk and I don t know anything about fearlessness. Oh. So, I ve been studying. I read that about twenty years ago. I ve been studying what is fearlessness? It doesn t seem to be never experiencing fear. I don t think that s what it is. It s maybe not being overwhelmed by fear. Being able to be with fear and see it arise and subside. We ve all got a terminal diagnosis right, the minute we re born? But, what we do between the time we re born and the time we leave, that s the important thing. So, that s what I would like to leave you with. Take care of your actions and recognize that when the wave subsides, it s still the ocean. Talking about how to live, Dogen Zenji says: There is a simple way to become a Buddha. When you refrain from unwholesome actions, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate toward all sentient beings, respectful to seniors and kind to juniors, not excluding or desiring anything, with no designing thoughts or worries, you will be called a Buddha. Do not seek for anything else. So, what is this practice as though your head were on fire? Well, that s what we think we re doing here. But, you know what? Sometimes it feels to me like people have forgotten their heads are on fire. Sometimes people seem to have forgotten that birth and death is the great matter; that what we do each moment makes a difference. And, so it really concerns me when it looks like someone is following the schedule here because they have to. I like to think that people come here because they want to follow the schedule and really practice zazen every day and study and learn how to live their life so they can make

7 PAGE 7 the most of this life; so they can actually give all they have to give while they re here. You know, Master Seung Sahn said, Forget about Zen mind. We don t know anything about Zen mind. Just meet each person with the thought How can I help you? Everyone you meet, just meet them how can I help you? Knowing that you are connected to everyone; knowing that you are all water, just different waves in the same ocean. Meet each person with an open heart and with generosity. This is how we can make a difference in our world. The world we live in is not made up of actions that other people do as much as it is primarily the result of our attitudes and our actions. And when we live a life of kindness; when we live a life of compassion; when we live a life of generosity, we get to live that life. What could be better? It doesn t depend on what other people say or do. It depends on what we say and do. It s wonderful when people meet us and want to live that life together with us in that way. But whatever someone else does, it does not impede us in, for example, the Four Methods of Guidance: generosity, kind speech, beneficial action and cooperation. These are guidances for our life that don t depend on other people. They depend on us. So, when you truly realize this life is precious and I don t know how long it will last as Kobun Chino said, When you realize how rare and precious your life is, and how it s completely your responsibility how you live it; how you manifest it; that s such a big responsibility that naturally such a person sits down for a while. It s not an intended action. It s a natural action. So, that s what our zazen is it is sitting down for a while and coming to rest here in this body and mind and generating the heart of generosity, kind speech, beneficial action and identity action. Sitting down and observing what comes up in my mind that hinders me from living the way I want to live. Can I return to my intention again and again and again? Our actions are what are important. Our actions of body, speech and mind are really our only possessions, Thich Nhat Hanh says. So, allow your awareness of impermanence to be the mind of awakening; to be an encouragement to wake up to things as it is and find out how you want to live this life. Someone once asked Suzuki Roshi, Roshi, what s the most important thing? And he said, To find out what is the most important thing. So, how will you find out what s the most important thing for you? I urge you to not forget gratitude; to really appreciate this life that you have and to use it well. Zenkei Blanche Hartman, 2006 Looking Ahead All-day sittings are planned for September 18, and October 9. The Soto Zen Administration in Japan has chosen a teacher from Japan to visit the Chapel Hill Zen Center and give a Dharma Talk on Thursday evening, September 22, at 7:00 PM. The Sejiki Ceremony of Feeding and Nourishing Hungry Ghosts is planned for Saturday night, October 22. Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams will be visiting the Triangle to lead a workshop October December sesshin is planned for December 2-9. Buddha s Enlightenment Ceremony is planned for December 11. People of Color Sitting Group The POC Sitting Group meets on Wednesday nights from 6:00-7:30, beginning with zazen at 6:00, followed by kinhin (walking meditation), and then there is the option to stay for group discussion and community building. Both those new to meditation and experienced, are warmly welcome to join us or drop in as you like. For more information, contact Conal or Kriti at pocsittinggroup@gmail.com. Recovery Meeting The Recovery Meeting meets on Tuesday nights at 7:30. This is a recovery group with a Buddhist perspective on the 12-Step Program which meets at the Chapel Hill Zen Center. The meetings begin with twenty minutes of silent meditation. For more information, contact: or ZenandRecovery@gmail.com.

8 Chapel Hill Zen Center P.O. Box Chapel Hill, NC (919) Sunday Morning 9:00 zazen 9:40 kinhin 9:50 zazen 10:20 kinhin 10:30 service Thursday Evening 6:00 P.M. zazen Schedule Tuesday Evening 7:00 zazen 7:40 kinhin 7:50 zazen 8:20 service Monday to Friday 6:00 A.M. zazen 6:50 A.M. zazen Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 166 Chapel Hill, NC RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED Meetings at 5322 NC Highway miles North of I-40 exit 266 Josho Patricia Phelan, Abbess Embracing diversity, the Chapel Hill Zen Center expresses the fundamental connection of all beings by welcoming everyone to the practice of zazen. May all beings realize their true nature. Silence The voice of the cicadas Penetrates the rocks Basho