eMirror Vol 23, No. 20 (2019-05-17)
Photograph by Dr. Jinen S. Boates, Wolfville Zazenkai, Nova Scotia
eMirror Vol 23, No. 20
Friday, May 17th, 2019
Edited by Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho
The White Wind Zen Community:
An international community practising and teaching Dogen’s Zen since 1985.
And so Dogen zenji says,
In “those sutras” is “the purpose” for “proclaiming purpose” and “the purpose” for “purposely proclaiming.” It is impossible not to proclaim “those sutras.” Thus, “purpose proclaims these sutras.” “Purposely proclaiming” pervades the total universe, and the total universe “purposely proclaims.” This Buddha and that Buddha, both with a single voice proclaim “these sutras.” This world and other worlds also purposely proclaim “those sutras.”
Therefore, “Those sutras were proclaimed.” Those sutras are the Buddha’s sutras. We must know that the sutras of the Buddha which are like the sands of the River Ganges are a bamboo stick or fly whisk. The sands of the Ganges of the Buddha’s sutras are revealed in a staff and fist.
We must know that the Three Paths and Twelve Divisions of the sutras and so on are the eyes of the Buddhas and Ancestors. If we have yet to open our eyes to this, how can we be called descendants of the Buddhas and Ancestors? How can those who do not take these up receive, one-to-one, the Transmission of the True Eye of the Buddhas and Ancestors? If we have not bodily realized the Eye and Treasury of the Complete Teachings, we cannot be Dharma-heirs of the Seven Buddhas.
This was delivered to a large assembly at Kosho monastery in Yoshu on the 14th day of the 11th month, in the second year of Ninji (1241), and presented again at the same place on the 7th day of the 11th month, in the third year of Ninji (1242).
-Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi, continuing teisho 8: "The Purpose of the Sutras", Saturday, March 20th, 2004 in the teisho series "The Thread of the Buddhas," commentaries on Eihei Dogen zenji's Bukkyo.
Upcoming Events
Fusatsu: May 15th, June 5th and 19th.
Sogaku-ki
May 18th is the memorial for the death of Sogaku Myoshin Hakukaze daiosho, the 80th Lineage Ancestor and, it is said, the author of “Scattered Notes On The Daruma-kata”. Sogaku Hakukaze daisho lived during the Tokugawa era. He received transmission from Manzan Dohaku daiosho and gave transmission to Anzan Daiko daiosho.
Fudo en-nichi
May 26th is a day traditionally dedicated to Fudo Myo-o. Fudo Myo-o (J) Acala Vidyaraja (S) A manifestation of “Mahavairocana” or all pervading Awareness as a wrathful guardian figure; a symbol of boundless energy, determination and compassion. Traditionally used as a symbol of the Teacher’s mind in this Lineage. Fudo stands glaring and snarling like a demon; it holds the sword of insight in one hand and the cord of the Precepts in the other; it has chained itself to a rock in the midst of the raging flames of the deepest hell to work for the liberation of all beings there.
Hermitage
The Roshi will begin a period of hermitage at midnight on Wednesday, May 29th, which will end at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 2nd, when he leads monastics in Acalanatha Sadhana.
Introduction to Zen Workshop
The next Introduction to Zen Workshop will take place on Saturday, June 1st, at 1:45 p.m. For more information please see:
https://wwzc.org/introduction-zen-workshop-ottawa
For information concerning our Long-distance Training Program, please visit this Web Page: https://wwzc.org/long-distance-training-program
June Two-day Sesshin
The June two-day sesshin will begin at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, June 7th, and will end at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 9th. On Saturday, June 8th, associate and general students may attend a sitting held in the Zendo. Arrival time is 9:15 a.m. (in time for First Bell). The sitting ends at 11:30 a.m. Students attending are reminded to remain on the first floor.
Monju-e
June 7th is a day traditionally dedicated to Manjusri, a reminder of prajnaparamita.
Congratulations
Congratulations and deep gassho to Eric Cyr of Ottawa who has been accepted as an associate student by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi.
Retreats
Mohamed Zakzouk sat a retreat from the morning of Saturday, May 11th to the early evening of Sunday, May 12th.
To Schedule a Retreat
Please visit this Web page for information about scheduling a retreat and an explanation of the different kinds of retreat (duration and timing) you can sit: https://wwzc.org/retreats. Please note that retreats should be scheduled one week in advance.
Public students sitting retreats should send an email to schedule@wwzc.org to confirm they sat a retreat so that notice of it can be included in the eMirror. Please include the location of the retreat and the duration.
Teisho
Recorded Teachings Schedule
- Saturday, May 18th: “Every Breath You Take” by Ven. Shikai Zuiko o-sensei: "Receiving the
Complete Precepts" (Dharma Talk 26) - Monday, May 20th: "Tada" by Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho-ajari
- Thursday, May 23rd: “Before Thinking: Foundations of Zen Practice” by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi: “What Are We Doing?” (Dharma Talk 1 of 71)
- Saturday, May 25th: “Bodhidharma’s Eyes” by Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi: “Losing" (11 of 13)
Missed Sittings and Teisho
If associate students are unable to attend the Thursday evening associate sitting, they may attend one of the general sittings to make up for the sitting they missed. General sittings are held on Monday evenings at 7:30 p.m. (first Bell is at 7:15) and Saturday mornings at 9:30 a.m. (first Bell at 9:15 a.m.). Please send an email to request permission to attend one of these sittings.
Teisho presented at general and associate sittings which are part of a series need to be listened to in the correct order and with none missed out. If you miss a sitting please borrow a copy of the missed teisho from the library or download it from the WWZC Media Site as soon as possible, so that the continuity of what is being presented is not disrupted. The weekly list of recorded teisho played at sittings is posted on the web site at:
https://wwzc.org/recorded-teachings-schedule
Online Access to Recorded Teachings
Students can access the password-protected online Recorded Teachings library on the WWZC website at https://wwzc.org/recorded-teachings or through the streaming site at http://app.wwzc.org. The custom-built media streaming site allows students to live stream recordings from the WWZC Recorded Teachings collection. It is optimized for use on smartphones and tablets, and works with most modern browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. It can also be used on desktops.
Help Required with Archiving Project
We would like assistance from students to work on an archiving project which has been underway for a number of years. Approximately 100 recordings of teisho and Dharma Talks presented by the Roshi in the late 1980's and early 1990's are still not available to students on our web-site. These were recordings were made on audio cassette. The process for preserving these cassette recordings and making them available to students is as follows:
- Transfer the cassette recording to a digital format
- Edit the single digital files from each cassette side to separate the presentations.
- Clean up the quality of the recording as much as possible using computer software and in the cases of a recording being of very poor playback quality, using the services of a professional audio restoration company.
- Rename, digitally tag each presentation and add the recording information to the database.
- Create archive quality master CD copies of the recordings for long term storage including printing all of the CD case inserts and graphics.
- Upload completed audio files to the WWZC sound-site so that they are available to students to listen to.
This process is extensive and time consuming, requiring at least 4-5 hours of work for each individual recording. The amount of work required for the monastic sangha to complete this project expediently is not possible, so we are asking for help from the rest of the sangha.
A student would be required to offer regular commitment of time, a block two to three hours weekly is ideal but also a commitment every two weeks would work well. Students would be trained in the work they would be doing and so no specific skill set is needed.
If you are able to assist with this vital project to preserve the Teachings please write to Mishin ino or Saigyo tando or send a message to WWZC.org. Thank you very much.
WWZC Website
wwzc.org
Recorded Teachings for Public Access
While most of the online Recorded Teachings library is password-protected and only accessible to students of Zen Master Anzan Hoshin, a small selection of MP3 recordings of teisho are accessible to the public at https://wwzc.org/recorded-teachings. Additional recordings will be uploaded periodically.
MP3 recordings of five teisho are currently available:
- Dharma Position https://wwzc.org/dharma-position
- Eyes See, Ears Hear https://wwzc.org/eyes-see-ears-hear
- Embarrassment https://wwzc.org/embarrassment
- Yaza 2007: Sit Through the Night, the Night is Bright Right Through https://wwzc.org/yaza-2007
- Ven. Anzan Hoshin roshi's reading of his translation of Eihei Dogen zenji's “Bendowa: A Talk on Exerting the Way” https://wwzc.org/bendowa-talk-exerting-way
Samu on Sundays
Each Sunday afternoon (except during O-sesshin and Sesshin), Caretaking Council (Saigyo tando, Fushin shramon and Endai shramon) do samu from 1:30p.m to 4:30p.m. on the various small projects required around the monastery. There are always a great many tasks that need to be done and so any students are welcome and encouraged to come to Dainen-ji to join the monastics in caretaking practice. If you would like to partake in the samu practice on Sundays please write to Saigyo tando at saigyo.cross@gmail.com.
What to do if you arrive late for a sitting
You don't need to turn around and go home. Ring the bell once and then sit on the bench on the front porch. If possible, we will come and unlock the door for you right away. If we are in the middle of the chants or listening to a teisho, we will come to let you in as soon as the teisho finishes.
Painted Cakes
(do not satisfy hunger)
by Ven. Shikai Zuiko sensei
Continuing on with “Painted Cakes: A Zen Dictionary” a limited edition text written by Anzan Hoshin roshi in the 1980s and last revised in 1994.
Sei (J) Insight.
Questions can be sent to me, Shikai sensei, at shikai.sensei@gmail.
Office of the Tenzo
Dogen zenji taught in the Tenzokyokun that the work of preparing and serving meals is "a matter for realized monks who have the mind of the Way or by senior disciples who have roused the Way-seeking mind." In alignment with this, part of Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's samu for the Community involves personally overseeing the activities of the ancient office of tenzo. Ven. Jinmyo Renge osho serves as tenzo and Mishin ino and Saigyo tando offer assistance as tenzo-anja.
Meals Prepared During the Week of O-sesshin
Monday:
Breakfast: Cantonese noodles with strips of Spanish onion, poblano and red shepherd bell peppers, ginger, garlic, shoyu; scrambled eggs.
Lunch: Mixed grain (sona masoori, calrose, basmati and Thai rice with toasted sesame seeds; miso shiru with reconstituted shitake mushrooms, baby bok choy and silken tofu; takuan and ginger.
Supper: Cavatappi pasta with roasted cherry tomato sauce (cherry tomatoes roasted with olive oil, garlic, and chili flakes, seasoned with oregano, basil, lots of black pepper), mixed with red and white kidney beans; sauteed green beans with strips of poblano peppers and white onion, seasoned with red balsamic vinegar, garlic, lots of black pepper; cubed friulano cheese and sweet gherkins with lemon zest.
Tuesday:
Breakfast: Fried pasta (leftover from Monday supper) mixed with leftover green beans, onions, and cheese.
Lunch: Thai jasmine rice with furikake sprinkles; seaweed soup (strained miso shiru broth, wakame, ginger, shoyu, mirin, chile oil, black pepper, sesame oil); baichu kimchi.
Supper: Lundberg Farms short-grain brown rice with butter and baby green peas; blended carrot soup made with coriander and mustard seeds, madras curry powder, minced ginger, chopped onions, carrots, lime juice, vegetable broth; sprout salad (broccoli raab, kaiware radish, wasabi sprouts, red cabbage, and bok choy) seasoned with a dressing made from minced red onion, garlic and ginger, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds, honey, rice vinegar, sriracha, and Dijon mustard.
Wednesday:
Breakfast: Fried rice (leftovers of Lundberg and jasmine rice, garlic, ginger, yellow onion, shepherd’s bell and poblano peppers, cumin powder, chipotle powder, black pepper, coriander); scrambled eggs.
Lunch: Mixed grain (calose and arborio) with sesame seeds; miso shiru with reconstituted shitake mushrooms, baby bok choy and silken tofu; takuan and ginger.
Supper: Small new potatoes sauteed in bran oil and then braised in shoyu, minced garlic, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds, and a pinch of demerara sugar; meinjin (wheat gluten) with sauteed Spanish onion, poblano and red shepherd bell peppers, chopped crimini mushrooms, baby dai gai choy, ginger, bulgogi sauce; salad of sprouts (wasabi, red cabbage, bok choy and broccoli) mixed with sliced Asian pear, seasoned with a dressing made from minced red onion, garlic and ginger, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds, honey, rice vinegar, sriracha, and Dijon mustard.
Thursday:
Breakfast: Congee (leftover calrose and arborio rice, scallions, ginger, sesame oil, shoyu, white pepper); scrambled eggs.
Lunch: White and brown jasmine rice; seaweed soup (strained miso shiru broth, wakame, ginger, chile oil, shoyu, mirin, black pepper) with daikon cubes fried in sweet chile sauce; baichu kimchi.
Supper: Mixed grain (Calrose, arborio and barley) with roasted peanuts; mushroom soup with sliced tofu (Paris and crimini mushrooms chopped and then sauteed with chopped onion and garlic, mushroom stock, shitake mushroom soaking liquid, porcini mushrooms, shoyu, ginger, sesame oil, black pepper, sliced deep-fried tofu; sprout salad (broccoli raab, red cabbage, buckwheat, kaiware radish and wasabi) seasoned with white balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, salt and black pepper, and a little grapeseed oil.
Friday:
Breakfast: Fried rice with tofu.
Lunch: Jasmine white and brown rice garnished with sesame seeds; wakame seaweed soup (wakame, strained miso shiru from the previous day, ginger, shoyu, sesame oil, chili paste, silken tofu); baechu kimchi.
Supper: Roasted chunks of Yukon gold potatoes seasoned with bran oil, butter, Parmesan cheese, garlic, lots of black pepper; tomato soup (diced carrots, onions, celery, minced garlic, porcini mushrooms, tomato juice, oregano, basil, cumin, red balsamic vinegar; lime tofu (deep-fried tofu triangles marinated in lime juice, mirin, garlic, onion powder, bran oil, and then sauteed until golden brown.
Saturday:
Breakfast: Cantonese noodles with strips of Spanish onions, poblano peppers and red shepherd bell peppers, ginger, garlic, and chili paste; scrambled eggs.
Lunch: Leftover Thai white rice mixed with leftover bori bap (calrose and arborio rice and barley), with diced sauteed sweet potato and Spanish onion; Doenjang Jjigae (Korean Soybean Paste Stew) made with chopped daikon, white onion, Napa cabbage, zucchini, green cabbage, minced garlic, gojuchang (Korean chili paste) and doenjang (Korean miso) with silken tofu; kimchi.
Supper: Coconut rice (Thai white and brown rice cooked with coconut milk); tamarind curry (chopped butternut squash, poblano and red shepherd bell peppers, mustard greens, red onion, galangal, tamarind, chili, salt, turmeric; Asian pear with lime juice and chili flakes.
Baking by Sensei:
Coconut cheesecake bars; pumpkin, sunflower seed crackers; oat cakes; “Nomnoms” little balls of energy with walnuts, cashews, flax seeds, chia meal, dried apricots, oats, honey; Queen Elizabeth cake.
Thank You
If you would like to thank someone for a contribution they have made, please feel free to send an email to Jinmyo osho at rengezo at Gmail dot com, but be sure to type "eMirror" in the subject line.
From Jinmyo osho:
Thank you to Mishin ino for preparing most breakfast and lunch meals throughout the week so that I could meet with students in daisan; to Saigyo tando for providing a beautiful selection of fresh monastery-grown sprouts which were used for third bowl during oryoki.
From Endai shramon:
Thank you to the Roshi for the teisho series, "The Lineage of Luminosity, Part Two: The Lineage in China". During this week's Sogaku-ki O-sesshin we have heard the Roshi's commentary on Keizan Jokin zenji's "Denkoroku" in regard to two of our Lineage Ancestors, Bodhidharma daiosho and Dazu Huike daiosho. Thank you to Shikai sensei for the series of Dharma Talks titled "Every Breath you Take", talk 26 of which will be played during the joint sitting for associate and general students during O-sesshin this coming Saturday morning. Thank you to Jinmyo osho for leading O-sesshin, for designing and preparing the meals in her position as Tenzo, and for valuable instruction in daisan. Thank you to Mishin ino and Saigyo tando for their work as tenzo-anja (assistants to the Tenzo) aiding to prepare the meals.
Ongoing Project:
"All is Change"
Dainen-ji, being a 140-year-old building, is continuously in need of maintenance and the costs associated with this can be astronomical when such things as porch repairs or exterior painting are needed. This is something that we cannot afford to do, yet must do and so the "All is Change" project has been created. The "All is Change" project is very simple. Most of us have a bowl or a jar or some other kind of container that we keep somewhere at home and fill up with loose change because it's too heavy to carry around. Several hundred dollars has been collected so far both in loose change and Canadian tire money which has been put towards the building maintenance fund. If anyone would like to contribute to this fund, each penny will be appreciated. The “All is Change” container is on the wooden wall shelf under the Sangha Board in the cloak room.
