Lost Coin Zen Notes – November 9, 2010
 
Administrative News
 
Lost Coin has gotten its tax exempt status – back dated to April 2010.
 
Doen is available for individual coaching for those who want to deal with larger issues. He most likes to work with people who want to do something new/performance vs. relationship – but he can do that too. It will be put into the context of practice. He charges professional fees for individual coaching ($300/hour, but he will charge less for Lost Coin students).
 
Doen doubts whether there will ever be another Zen generation like that of the 1960s in America. There was a lot of strong practice. But then again some things haven’t turned out that well. There have been politics and conflict. He wants to have as deep a training as then (but the only ones that got the deep training stuck around for 10+ years). Longevity and the quality of the teaching and the group are more important than the severity of the training.
 
Also important, is the integration of practice into everyday life. You might think that being in monastery is better. But when you are then all of the time there are things you can’t get away from - annoying people or ex-girlfriends – that eats a lot of energy. Nevertheless, we need a solid grounding of what Zen is. Doen used to think it would be better if he broadened the base – but he is find it is better to stay with traditional Zen. And Doen is a modern guy – so it comes out modern.
 
Does wants to use the Ox Herding pictures to give us that foundation – give us a historical grasp. There is nothing like Zen practice in the world – the only time people got to understand life and death in a way that was not intellectual.
 
Don’t worry about getting Gentling the Bull (it is $88 – probably because it is out of print)
 
First Picture
 
Go back to the 6-7th century – searching for the bull/ox – it is supposed to represent something big – represent the way.
 
The search for what – the bull has never been missing . . . .
 
10 pictures – stages of practice – the last picture is a big guy with a big belly and a jug of wine, playing with children. 
 
Mazumi once showed Doen the pictures – he said, “you think you’re there (picture 5) but you’re not – we all think we are farther along.  The first picture is the hardest to get to – always have to go back to the first one.
 
The chance of encountering the dharma in this life is like a turtle in the in ocean every 10,000 years coming up through a tire in the ocean. That is a bit of exaggeration; however, if you lived 30 or 40 years ago you could not study this, if you were born in Iran, 85% of the world wouldn’t study this. Plus you also need a teacher who has been taught this through multiple generations. You would probably have to be white and somewhat affluent . We take it for granted.
The bull has never been missing (enlightenment), like Lost Coin. But the herdsman (kind of a cowboy) has estranged himself from himself – he has done it to himself. The herdsman finds himself in a tangled path - this is our story. Our thoughts keep us entangled further and further away from who we are.
 
Lust for gain and fear of loss . . . .
 
When we get lost in life we really believe there is right and wrong, that everything that happens is someone else’s fault – we are going fix it at the ballot box, shoot them, etc. Everyone from their point of view thinks they are right. The answer is never going to be that someone is more “right” than someone else.
 
People reach a point where they no longer believe that – we will have to go back to that over and over. This is the point of view of the Dharma – there is something beyond right and wrong, beyond the story of your life. There is delusion because of our ego  and we basically spend our lives  being right – not happy or getting what we want. (The pictures are somewhat circular – we first get one intellectually, then get it more deeply, and then more deeply . . .) but the answer is non-dual. The non-dual world is what is in front of you. Your mind is the whole thing – the world and your mind are the same thing. But before that the world is dual – at the beginning.  Doubt your story. Only when you can see you are free and alive and not scary have you passed the first picture. When you understand that that is where you are heading – then you have passed the first picture.
 
Alone in a vast wilderness the herdsman searches for his ox . . . .he has no clue . . hears only the crickets in the maples (by hearing the crickets he gets a hint of enlightenment - for just a moment he is present).
 
Looking into the distance . . . there are no traces, dense fog and tangled growth (the problems you have at work, your children, your husband . . .) no way out – it will never end – when he realizes that, he reaches for something else. Once they shake off belief they are going to find it. 
 
Grasping the nose of the bull - you are this place, you are the host, not a guest – when we are not a victim and from that point of view we begin our quest for the bull. Remembering the ox – it is our true nature and we decide we want to pursue it. Understand everything is transitory – what isn’t transitory?
Responses to Student Questions
 
This doesn’t mean you can’t have choices about whether one computer program is better than another.
 
What about others who are in your family who are miserable and who could be helped but wouldn’t be interested? The practice should not make you more opinionated than before – it should help you understand others more and make you more sensitive – be less stuck in your agenda and more open to theirs.
 
How others are being have nothing to do with your practice. The practice shouldn’t make you more opposed to others – but make you more harmonious.
 
A student liked the idea of “cultivating chi” vs. meditation – it gave her more incentive to practice. Doen responded that meditation implies contemplation, a leaving of the world – zazen is a concentration, of looking into the core of your being – we are cultivating the force not meditating, a better word is sitting.
