Lost Coin SF 05/23/11
 
There will be a one day program about form, the rational of Zen, etc. this summer in SF.  Please register on MeetUp if you plan to attend.  The administrators (Rebecca) can teach people how to register on MeetUp. 
 
If there is a financial challenge or some other issue about the October sesshin, talk to Doen.  The sesshin will begin at night on the 5th and ends on the 10th.  There will be five overnights.  This will not be severe sitting – don’t worry about accommodating the practice.  Doen will cater it for individuals, if they have special needs.  If you want to practice, you need to be hard on yourself to get something out of the practice.  Figure out what you want – inconvenience yourself.  Doen will help out to make it possible for you to come.  Rebecca and Caryn found a place that offers three meals.  If you have the idea, tell Doen.  Without deep immersion, you won’t develop.
 
Doen is actively looking for a practice center in the Bay Area. 
 
Most students are working on koans.  Rinzai is the sect of Zen that practices koans.  Doen is transmitted in both sects of Zen (Rinzai and Soto).  Completing koan study ends formal training. 
 
The dharma is not taught didactically, it’s like listening to a song.  You might hear what you’re looking for in the first or second sentence.  It is not accumulative.  There is a particular emphasis in Zen on spontaneity.  There is a reason for this – approaching a situation with an idea fixes a situation. 
 
A koan from the Blue Cliff Record: “[Nonsen], this flower”
 
Nonsen points to a flower and says, “People of this world see this flower as if in a dream.”  The other individual near Nonsen is an administrator/poet/Zen student named [Ricity-fu].  He goes to see Nonsen and says something to impress him, “Heaven and Earth are of one substance,” expecting Nonsen’s happiness. 
 
Saying that people see their whole life “as if in a dream” – what is the dream?
 
Similar to someone saying something New-Agey, this is not the dharma.  It’s a dream, an idea, a thought.  A nice idea will not set you free.  Mushin, no mind, sitting is to forget the mind.  When you’re seeing the flower, you’re thinking.  When you really see the flower, there is no I, self, flower.  Shunyata, emptiness, is the absence of thought/separation between “I” and mind, “I” and separation.  Nonsen calls the state of separation a dream, pointing to the Reality.  It’s only when there is no separation when life is not a dream.  “To speak of the dharma is to spread manure on the white snow,” is a quote from another koan.  When you speak of the dharma you turn it into manure.  Nonsen is trying to blow out thought.  Another way to say this is that Ricity-fu spoke of playing basketball, Nonsen was actually playing it.   
 
Imagine asking a famous basketball player how he shoots a basketball, he wouldn’t know how to answer – it is done not with the mind, but with spirit.  Chi (Chinese), commitment, emotion, no-thought, non-intellection is also spirit.  This will allow you to enjoy life, instead of thinking about life. 
 
[Satcho’s] verse: “Seeing, hearing, touching, knowing is not one and one. . . “ [missing part]  “Mountains and rivers should not be seen in a mirror.”   When you really see yourself, you find the true self, without limits.  The true life is not feeling or appreciating the flower – it is being one with it.  With whom will the serene waters reflect the lake. . .”  Only in forgetting the self is it seen. 
 
 
Shikantaza is just sitting.  There are 550 koans in three sections.  First you sit (zazen, etc.) then you practice the koan.  The koan is a direct assault on enlightenment.  1st is Mu or Wu in China.  Lost Coin does excellence in everyday life.  Unless a student hates koans, Doen will recommend it.   Koans are like a book.  Doen practiced koan study with 3 teachers for 25 years.  Doen will give us insight, we will do the action. 
 
One of the greatest experiences for Doen was fighting over a koan with Genpo Roshi.  In order to accomplish a koan, there must be no separation.  Koans teach a lot that cannot be put into words.  Oneness is not the same thing as a counter-culture idea of “everything is one – can I sleep with your partner or have your car?’
 
There are many sides to practice – ordination, rituals, heart, emotion – not just insight.  There are three treasures in Buddhism (the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha).  Don’t forget the sangha.  It’s about forgetting the self, and opening the heart.  Doen has objections about things like boundless compassion, we can start opening our hearts by being sensitive.  Doen believes Lost Coin is the best example of this.  There is always room to improve.  Be as close as you want to be to Doen.  Doen doesn’t want to be authoritarian or a rockstar.  Include him.