Lost Coin Zen

‘The bright and shining mind is never absent but is colored by the thoughts and emotions people put on it”                                                             

                                                                                                                                 Shayamuni Buddha from the Anguttara Nikaya

And the thoughts and emotions we cling to are what the Buddha refers to as attachment.  We become so attached to our thoughts about the world, that for us these thoughts and states become the real world.

Yes, but aren’t our thoughts real?

 Yes they are really thoughts.

Perhaps we cling to our thoughts to avoid what we see as the real world.  The world of disease, loss, old age and death. The world in which everything is impermanent.

But we have a choice. The road the Buddha took.  Instead of thinking about the world of impermanence and suffering we can embrace it, become one with it.  This is practice and the road to liberation.

What would it be like to completely accept everything that comes with life and death, completely?

It would be to cross over to the other shore.

This shore.

 photo credit: A Chilling Soul

Happy Groundhog Day!

For those of you who live in Europe and may not have heard of Groundhog Day, it was wonderfully explored in a Bill Murray film of the same name.  In it, Bill Murray lives the exact same day, over and over again.  In short, he founds out how life is for most of us.  He also finds out that he is a “minor god”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euY1jeZu9kI

Here, in the States, it is a day in which the length of winter is predicted when a groundhog comes out of the ground in Punxsutawney Pennsylvania today, February 2.   If he casts a shadow, winter is far from ending.  If he does not, spring is about to come.

We have chosen this day to release the February updates to the Study Center. These include three new videos in the video library which continue our curriculum for Lost Coin. Two of these videos are under the Training component and one is under Realization.  There is also an audio from the recent Intensive, Practicing Relationship,  as well as three  Zen poems in the writing section of Conscious Art by well-known adepts with open Dharma eyes.

We  have also included some writings of Takuan which are our first offerings in the new Performance and Excellence section.  A thousand years later Takuan’s teachings are as alive  today as they were then.   Additionally there are two new musical compositions in the musica section intended to focus on the art of improvisation.

With this much new material, we feel confident that anyone can break the chain of samsara and stop living the same day over and over.

One again, Happy Groundhog Day.

 photo credit: Alan Vernon.

We all seek approval from others and if we are students of the way it is natural to seek the approval of our teacher. The prerequisite for our teacher’s approval is that we  have earned our own approval.

A good teacher will show you how to win your own approval. It requires effort, commitment,determination and sincerity.  If that work is done properly your teacher will give you his or her approval, which is a very special kind of empowerment.  It is the empowerment of the lineage.

To do this it is often necessary to give up a great deal of self deceit, complacency and self- soothing.

Aside from approval and empowerment when we let go of our pretended self-satisfaction we can really hear the Dharma. We hear it with the whole body and mind. We see it with the the ear. We hear it with the eye.

Then we can manifest with the whole body and mind. With the wind of our own understanding and that of the lineage at our backs we can blow into the Dharma trumpet that is our life with a breath that comes not from the lungs, nor from the abdomen but from our feet.

 photo credit: Tom Marcello

Every day Master Zuigan Shigen used to call out to himself, “Oh Master!” and would answer himself, “Yes?”  ”Are you awake?”  he would ask, and would answer, “Yes, I am. Never be deceived by others, any day, any time.”

“No, I will not.”

I just taught a workshop on relationship. When I began,  I said that the first issue and last would be that it is up to us – to “I”. Not to the other.

We say:

“I take refuge in the Dharma (The teaching). “I” take it .

“I take refuge in the Buddha (In my true nature). “I” take it

“I take refuge in the Sangha (The community)  ”I” do it.

Being a “master” means the work of  mastering oneself.  We do not need that word “master” The word “I” works very well.

Who is responsible for our life? Who creates the causes that manifest as effects. “I do.”

Who will create our relationships?  Who creates the causes that manifest there?  “I do.”

As in a marriage, “I do”

We have the opportunity to take our power back every day, all our life as Zuigan suggests.

Not power over others, power over the self.

Do not be deceived by others.

Do not blame others.

This is the Way.

I take refuge in the Dharma.

This post is dedicated to the memory of George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff who was born and certainly was alive after his birth date of January 13th, probably in 1877.

 photo credit: David Spender

Join Lost Coin and Doen Sensei in Salt Lake City on Saturday January 14 for an intensive day of practice focusing on relationships with partners, work colleagues, family and friends.  Couples are welcome as well as individuals.  This is a no-nonsense, inspiring Zen approach to creating harmony in relationship.  Further information on the day and how to register is on the homepage of the website as well as this short video, in which Sensei talks about the spirit of the day.   http://youtu.be/iSeI5IZRtVs .

 photo credit: sarniebill1