Toledo Buddhist

"Difficult, difficult..." "Easy, easy..." "Neither difficult nor easy!" “ The Layman Pang was sitting in his thatched cottage one day [studying the sūtras]. "Difficult, difficult," he said; "like trying to scatter ten measures of sesame seed all over a tree." "Easy, easy," Mrs. Pang said; "like touching your feet to the ground when you get out of bed." "Neither difficult nor easy," Ling Zhao said; "on the hundred grass tips, the  great Masters ' meaning." [1]

Recently, Rev. Do-on has been involved in a local effort to save trees in a rare local habitat called an Oak Savannah   at our local treasure, the Oak Openings park . As it happens, we live smack in the midst of this great natural preserve, and Rev. Do-on has a deep heart and body connection to the Ki and feeling of the place. In fact, most days she can be found on the trails for at least some time. But then, of course, things happen. In this case, it was a tornado that back on June 5th decided to take a chunk of our treasured forest along with it. So tornado's happen, of that there is not doubt.  The question then becomes what to do with the aftermath. Kind of like my mind. No, exactly like my mind. And as one of the local community members that responded with such passion, care and intention, I found Rev. Do-on's efforts to be a great inspiration and model of how to engage the world of form as a priest of emptiness (in the pics above she is talking with ...

I was talking with some of the sangha after evening practice last night, and we were all still basking in the glow of last weekends sesshin  which as you may be able to deduce from this pic happened in our family's living room this time around - but that's another story... There is something both utterly mysterious and radically dependable in the practice of sesshin, and the rhythm of joining sesshin, re-emerging into the karmic unfoldings of my life's many up's and down's and then plunging back into sesshin again over and over has in many ways been the root of my spiritual path. At once, it is the place of ease and repose, and it is a intentional holding oneself in what truly is the furnace of deep practice - melting us down over and over as David Sensei so perfectly put it. But any form, any way of practice is no guarantee of anything in and of itself - not even my beloved sesshin retreats. The whole thing, it seems to me, turns (or doesn't) on one...

Yun-Men's Staff of Shallow and Deep Recorded at the Toledo Zen Center on May 20th 2009, this Dharma Talk and discussion explores the Zen teaching of Yun-Men with Jay Rinsen Weik, and gets into a discussion of the role of the teacher in Zen training.

 For me, one of the great joys of being a Zen priest has been the empowerment to really go out and catalyse the creation of contexts for the spreading of the Dharma where it did not exist before.  Many dedicated sangha members have worked together to help create the content and shape the format of the Toledo Zen Center Dharma School, and pictured at left is David Rynick Sensei, Abbot of the Boundless Way visiting with some of the Dharma School kids and their families after last weeks Sunday service. For me, finding a way that is meaningful, relevant and fun for members of the next generation to enounter the teachings of wisdom and compassion simply has to be one of the main missions of the modern American zen landscape. Time passes swiftly, and before we know it these now young folks will be living in a world they inherited from us, so lets take up the koan of how to leave them something worthy of their scutiny.  The seriousness of the imperative is c...

From a recent talk on 2nd life: 10-10-2010 - Rev. Jay Rinsen Weik - Contemplative Practice

This morning I picked up David Dayan Rynick Sensei from the Detroit airport and we have spent the day in conversation and community.  Rev. do-on continued her efforts with the tree deforestation issue at the Oak Openings park near our house and in between I finished up helping to connect the dots with the UT zen buddhist fellowship. A rich time, with many forces pulling and pushing to be sure. But now, its time for the deeper waters of sesshin to flow in - the sangha is arriving, the energy begins to build. I'll post more on the other end.  Till then, may our practice be strong and true.