Notes from Lost Coin Class 4/4/2011

San Francisco



Please read the blog.  Doen wants us to think about Kamakura Zen.  Samuri
class was practicing Zen and this really was what made Zen survive and it
made it what it is.  Then artists though the artists were lay persons not
monastics.

The FIRST book that Daido Loori Roshi gave to Doen at Zen Mountain Monastery
was about Kamakura Zen.

This is about a very particular approach to Zen.  All of the cultural beauty
that we associate to Japanese Zen came about during the Kamakura period.  This
western approach has become more pacifistic.  Kamakura Zen was more
rigorous.

Rohatsu Sesshiin is a 7 day sesshin with no talking, no eye contact, no
bathing, up at 4 a.m. and every night sit another period longer before bed
so by last night you are up until midnight and have to get up for regular
schedule zazen at 4.

What do you learn about Zen in that situation?  You learn that, when you
really want something, you really have to do it.  There is nothing other
than the doing of it.  If you learn this, it will change your life.

This means you must face your problems head-on.  Do not be a victim.  If you
want something, you must persist and keep at it until it is done.  It might
take a long time but you must keep at it, relentlessly.  To the Japanese,
you must succeed, but they do not mean that you must succeed at all costs,
you must still do it with integrity and it is better to do with elegance but
you must persist until you have done so. Period.

If you want to be a published writer.  Write.  Write.  Write.  When not
writing, read.  Then send out what you have written over and over and over
until it is published.  Edited until better and send again.

This is love, passion, spirit, heart, commitment and this is Zen.  It is not
intellect-based.

If you want this practice and we meet every week, come.  If you want this,
come to the retreats.  When working with Doen, engage him.  Do the practice,
really do it.

This spirit plus consideration for others will be revolutionary for your
life.

The arts address the essence of Zen Practice.  Be free to be filled with a
poem, a tree or another person.  Doen read some of his writing to the class
and pointed out that when he reads it, it puts you there.  That’s how he
writes it as well.  He puts himself there and looks around.  It’s like
method acting.

In the way of this with Zen, do METHOD zen.  GO THERE.  Go to the spirit,
the heart, the practice and be there.



“I want you to TRY to life the book.”  It cannot be done.  There is only
lift the book or do not lift the book.  There is no “try.”  (Yoda also says
this J)

To DO things, you have to get out of your head.  Siting is the practice of
forgetting the self.  Koan practice is a subtle and refined practice of
forgetting the self.  You must actually do this.  Engage it without
intellect.

When Doen wants to write, when he is writing, he is ALL WRITING.  It is all
of his thinking, all of his doing, his reading is for his writing.  All the
time is towards that.  When he was doing piano or trumpet, he would do piano
and trumpet “sesshins” where he would only allow himself to go a few feet
away from the piano or he would sleep with his trumpet in the bed.  This is
a heart thing- be intimately enthralled with what you are doing.

This goes back to the Gurdjieff lawn mowing Fritz Peters story.  Peters is
about 9 years old and gets an interview with Gurdjieff because his parents
are there at Fontainebleau-Avon.  Peters says that he wants to learn things.
Gurdjieff tells him to mow the lawns of the place EVERYDAY.  No matter what.
Rain. War. Sickness.  Gurdjieff is then almost killed in a car accident and
is recovering and Peters is mowing lawns which others try to make him stop
doing so Gurdjieff can rest.  Gurdjieff acknowledges the correct action of
Peters with a wave from his window.

Gurdjieff had an excellent marriage.  This is because he understood the
seriousness of vows.  They meant something.  You vow to mow the lawn, no
matter what.  You vow to love your spouse in sickness, health, better,
worse, these were the words and Gurdjieff meant them.  Really meant them.

This is the spirit we should be expressing in our arts, in our lives.

When you sit, SIT.  When you stand, STAND.  Don’t wobble.  You sit every day
not because of enlightenment.  You sit to learn how to have the spirit of
one who sits everyday.  You aren’t mowing the lawn just because lawns need
mowed, you do it because to do it everyday creates a certain type of person.

Read Zen Culture by Thomas Hoover and Zen and The Ways by Trevor Leggett.  Zen
Culture is available on a kindle account for $.99 but is difficult to find
in print, however used copies are available on Amazon.  Zen and The Ways is
not available electronically but there are used copies available on Amazon,
new copies are very valuable and hard to find.

Modeling is also something to consider.  This is something done in Tibetan
teachings.  In a way Doen is to be the model as he did this stuff the hard
way and this imparts to us the spirit of it.  To do it in LIFE is very good.
At the monastery it was difficult to transition from monastery to every day
life.  To have this spirit in life is the key.  Caryn had a child too so it
was very very demanding.  This is a hard way to go.  Caryn has asked Doen in
the past how he would bring that intensity and difficulty to us so that we
have the spirit.  Doen says we can have that spirit in our lives, but we
must DO IT.

This is no different than any serious training.  Approach your life in that
same way.  Do it for yourselves.  It is also an act of affection for the
teacher and you also do it for the Sangha as a whole.