May 2009 sesshin

Picture from May 2009 sesshin

Some of us are back again from 7 or 5 days of pain in the legs and tiredness... coming and going! If eyes were open, one could see people sat in deep concentration, faces twisted or calm, crying or smiling! Ok, yes sometimes wriggling or snoring too .. But as always, we were all laughing and hugging at the end. Hearts were lighter, warmer and clearer. Joseph Binensztok and John Wagner from Blairstown group had their first sesshin ever.......and don't you notice a victorious smile on their faces, specially Joe in his blue T-shirt in the center! Incidentally, Joe sat right next two Joes - Joseph Smalley and Joseph Schneider. So it was Joe after Joe after Joe sitting in sesshin together - 31 Joes in all!!

One highlight of the sesshin this time was that we made our own version of daikon (big radish) pickle. It didn't have the sugar and artificial colors and flavors of daikon bought from asian stores. Some people just loved it but some didn't! :( it did wash our bowls very well! Here's the recipe -- boil the daikon in salted water such that it is still crisp and crunchy and store it in water containing lime and salt. Longer the storage time, more the acetic acid pickled flavor in the daikon!

And was it just me or there were just tons of little creatures crawling on everyone's hands and legs after kinhin? Every now and then, I would feel the tickle and pricks and a tiny dot sized red, black and yellow beings would show up or I'd need to Mu them out!

During early teishoes, Kurt talked about a book on Pali canon by Bhikkhu Bodhi -- most moving of them was the description of how when a monk inquires about the role of the sangha and friendship and companionship of awake people in following the path, Buddha said," This company is not half the path , but the entire path". Alex and Gary were a team keeping the zendo and dining hall running smoothly. Imtiaz and Karen were sorely missed after 5 days because people kept forgetting to switch the rice cookers on at the right times. Sandy made excellent dessert and at the end of sesshin, John Wieczorik silently washed the dessert bowls in the kitchen when everyone was busy hugging and chatting!

As always, please add to this your experience of the sesshin whenever you like! Add comments or add text to the post!

Gassho,

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May announcements

Dear everyone,

Sesshin starts on Sunday (May 24th). If you are planning to come for 7 days, we need to arrive before 8 pm and if you are coming for 5 days on Tuesday, please come around 7 pm because sitting will start at 8 pm on Tuesday. If this is your first sesshin, you could also read this. For details about regular weekly sits during the sesshin week and the final picnic date .....

There will be no sitting at Kendall Park (Monday mornings (May 25th and June 1st), Thursday evening and Friday morning) during this week.

There will be Tuesday evening sit at the regular Vincentian centre venue -- this is the last time we can sit at Vincentian centre - so come to say goodbye to it if you are not at sesshin. After Tuesday (May 26th), we will likely sit at Masonic Temple but Kurt hasn't made a final decision.

There will be no sitting at Cranford on May 24th and May 30th.

There will be no morning or evening sits at Rutgers during the entire week.

Ans lastly, there will be Sunday morning sits at Blairstown as usual.

Picnic date: It is not 4th July but 27th June! More details to come soon!

Gassho! See some of you at sesshin!

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Bring to sesshin

To everyone coming to sesshin for the first time,

There are no formal instructions answering "What should I bring to sesshin?" and "How can I prepare for my first sesshin?" Big Joe recently asked some of us what should he know before coming to sesshin. He also asked, "Should I sleep more?" (May be he meant because I'm going to be sleep deprived during sesshin?). Well....even though we do get up (much) earlier... it is actually not true that sesshin deprives us of sleep. If we add up 6 hours of sleep at night (10:30 PM- 4:30 AM, see full schedule at the bottom of this page) and three half an hour long naps after each meal, we get atleast 7.5 hours everyday. When we come to sesshin for the first few times, we can even longer naps after meals because no one minds if we need to head straight to our dorm rooms! The truth is, however, as we keep going to more and more sesshins and the need to sleep goes down as the days pass. Some of you might have seen May's post two months ago -- in an email to me she had said, "it is much easier to get up at 3 during sesshins than outside of sesshins". It helps to not come to sesshin totally wiped out but we don't really need to sleep more before sesshin! :)

Bring along: In terms of what we do need to bring, here is what I can think of: Change of clothes (we try to choose modest non-distracting clothing), a pair of slip on sandals or slippers, personal items such as toothbrush and soaps etc, alarm clock to get up at the right times after breaks. Murray Grove management gives plenty of sheets and towels.

Cost: Our group might be the one to offer the cheapest sesshins in the country! The cost (including meals and stay) is $20 per day for college students, $30 per day for students who have graduated recently and might not have full time jobs or financial difficulties and $40 per day for people with full-time jobs. By the way, if you are in financial crunch but want to come to sesshin, please discuss it with Kurt.

Food: We prepare delicious fresh meals every day - so we don't need to worry about bringing any food items from home. We eat from what are called 'Oryoki bowls' (with chopsticks if you like; pictured on top). It might seem weird at first but it is rather beautiful and simple way to eat meals. Usually Gary explains the meal rituals to newcomers. Tea is officially served only twice a day but You can bring your favorite herbal tea bags if you like -- there are some common flavors available. There is also some instant coffee and honey around!

Room: We share room with one other person of the same gender in the dorms and the bathrooms are common.

What to do when not sitting or sleeping: Help in the kitchen if you like (there is always something that needs to be done) or take a walk! Kurt has often said that it is not a good idea to bring books or music. There are some trails in the woods surrounding the Murray Grove area and you could bring sneakers to walk in the evenings.

Also, it is good to know that the area can get quite a high density of Deer-ticks that can carry the bug that causes Lyme disease. So please cover your body when you walk outside and check yourself for ticks if you have stayed out for long. No one in our group has gotten sick from this before -- but it is good to know!

So, if May 2009 is your first sesshin - welcome to the adventurous journey ..one breath at a time!

If anyone else would like to add to the list fo things to bring -- please do!



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Zen Training at a Monastery

Hello all!

It's so nice to read about the Sangha happenings and practice! I miss you all! For those who don't know me, I started my Zen practice with Cold Mountain Sangha in early 2006. It wasn't until after my first sesshin in March 2007 that I was hooked on Zen. Then after the June sesshin last year with the Sangha, I realized that I had to focus on my Zen training. So I applied for a one-year residency at Zen Mountain Monastery and have been here for the past eight months. Kriti asked me to share some of experiences training at a monastery, which I am more than happy to do so!

We just completed our first 30 days of our Spring Ango (literal meaning is "Peaceful Dwelling"), a 90-day intensive training period, where we intensify our practice with more sitting, earlier wake-up, scheduled body practice (yoga or movement led by a senior monastic), art practice, and oryoki breakfast during the training week. Every Ango here also has a theme, this ango's theme is Dogen's Genjokoan, which we have a one-week intensive on in May and our art practice is also based on lines from the Genjokoan.

For this ango we also have a Shuso (head monk), who leads the Sangha and is the model for practice during these 90-days. At the end of the 90-days she will undergo shuso hossen, which is a ceremonial rite-of-passage where she will become a senior and give her first dharma talk and do a dharma combat, which is like a public dokusan. The Shuso's dharma combat is when the Sangha can test the Shuso's understanding of the dharma.

For each training period, the residents and monastics all receive new service positions. I'm currently the AM jikido (timekeeper) which means that during the training week I have to make sure the tea and coffee service is ready by 4.15am, offer incense at the main altar, do the wake-up bell at 4.25, open up all the altars and hit the han at 4.50 to signal that the Zendo is closed, everyone should be sitting and doing zazen by then. During the sitting periods I signal the start and end of the periods and offer incense before each period, make sure the kyosaku stick is ready and watch the time for kinhin. Throughout the morning I make sure the tea and coffee service is stocked and clean. For ango sesshin, everything is moved up 30 minutes earler because wake-up is at 3.55am, not to mention there's also a lot more coffee making!

Training as AM jikido has been such an amazing experience so far. I get to serve the Sangha and have seen that the only way I could serve in the most efficient and effective way possible is by letting go of the self. The service tasks are timed quite tightly so that I have to move swifty, which I've been reminded of several times by the monitor. Once I almost missed canton, when the teacher walks by everyone's seat before the first morning period, because I took too long to close everything down in the dining hall. I've noticed that all of my concentration is required at whatever it is that I am doing so that I can do it swiftly and smoothly. So after I do whatever I have to do to get myself ready for the day my attention is solely focused on the jikido tasks to be carried out.

I enjoy sitting before our morning zazen so when I found out that I was AM jikido this training period I wondered what I was going to do. When I saw the idea of getting up at 2.30am to allow me to sit before morning zazen, I heard myself say to myself, "You've got to be kidding." But I felt like I couldn't just turn away from this opportunity (I don't know what else to call it!) so I set my alarm for 2.30am. I was quite tired by the end of the first week, maybe even a little delirious, but now I find that it's no big deal to wake up at 2.30 or at 2.00 during sesshin. And at that time of the day, it seems like it is neither night nor day. What is time in the end? And also, who said we needed 8 hours of sleep anyway??

This post has gotten quite long, but if anyone would like to know more about life at the monastery I'd be more than happy to share! Be well!

lots of love,
May

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Michael Pope's message from Taiwan

This post is just a bit edited version of Mike's (Tall comfortable Mike, if that's how you know him) original heartwarming message posted as a comment. Mike, please post directly as an author after accepting your invitation to be an author (it was resent today).

My name is michael and currently i am living in taiwan. i am running back and forth to Japan every three months for sesshin in japan. i am here in taiwan studying mandarin and such. last summer i lived in a Japanese temple called Bukkokuji. it is on the side of a mountain. i ve heard that most temples traditionally have been built on the sides of mountains. the town is called obama and it is on the west coast of japan. there is also a temple down the street from it called Hoshinji. last sesshin you could hear people yelling mu during our zazen period all the way from the other temple. i thought that was the sweetest and most inspiring thing. you really feel "in it", everyone is working hard.

dokusan is quite a challenge there. one time, i said to the teacher during dokusan "watashiwa gyogen". that means my name is gyogen (my dharma name there) in japanese. i think he went on and on in japanese about how much he loves his teacher because he kept pointing at him, smiling and holding his heart....finally i told him i don't speak a lick of japanese. he just laughed and said...continue, continue! ...so i did.

i am going back to japan in 4 weeks for next sesshin. possibly when i am finished here in taiwan with my studies i will go live in a different temple in japan south of kyoto... but i'll see how that all goes.


Text from an earlier email sent in 2008 (photo of his Takahatsu robes):

i did takahatsu (begging for alms) here. we do it about every 5 days or so. it was painful because we walk in these rice straw shoes. it rained all day! we walk around yelling HO! until we get to a door where we chant (and ask for alms). it is rather interesting. it's like some very old tradition juxtaposed to the modern world. this is the main way the temple is still supported along with donation and bukkokuji's small farms. i hope you enjoy the picture of my takahatsu outfit. i was getting ready to go out. we also have to wear a big hat. then we carry a bowl, small bell, and little papers we give to people..it is a blessing of sorts. we go out all day chanting and yelling!

do you know that most of these monks are not vegetarians. i was very surprised. they eat whatever is given to them. one day someone donated a sausage and pepperoni pizza! i ate a piece thinking it was surely vegetarian...

the sitting schedule changes depending on the weather. if it rains, then we sit 6 hours in a day. if no rain we sit 4 hours. we chant 2 times a day. we have to work in the fields if the weather is nice. the teacher's name is roshi sama. he is quite old...maybe 85. the temple is pretty laid back and people are very humble. i feel like a total beginner again.

From another mail:
i was lucky enough here to be assigned ringing the giant bell and chanting at 11 am. it is like a whole little thing that i do of chanting and bowing and ringing... i was a little nervous at first because everyone can hear you and i have to do it really loud! the bell must weigh 200 punds or more. i felt honored to do it.

Good Luck Mikey! You are missed here -- please post some pictures when you compose create new blog. It is very easy to upload pictures and also videos using the icons on the right side of the create post page! And please write more and often!

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March 2009 Sesshin

Some of us just got back from Spring sesshin! It wasn't a home run with 32 people like last sesshin, but it was wonderful - 2o people (at most times) and it took much lesser time to clean up the zendo and kitchen!

Kudos to Justin! It was his first sesshin -- and boy did he get transformed!! Many people thought he will just quit -- he had only sat for a week at Rutgers before jumping into sesshin but by the end, he "was home"! He loved food and thought it was excellent that, in words from a teisho at this sesshin, "we held each other up" so beautifully!

It was a party in the kitchen, as always --- Many thanks to Brian for endless shredding of carrots and beets, Nobuko for cutting (and eating ;)) pickled daikon, Mike Shawe for squeezing a million limes, Sandy for the rich dessert, Ashish for mixing that thick potato puree, Karen for ricing us up, Imtiaz for delicious eggplant and sambhar, Ilusha and Yvette for initiating laughter when most of us would suppress our giggles! Brian, Jeff, Mark, Alex, Nick and Rachel were doing dishes -- meal after meal. And Rodica ..she is the master mincer - she cuts veggies so beautifully that they seem like tiny jewels!

Gary donned his cold mountain sangha cap at the beginning of sesshin and remained in that spirit throughout - tirelessly drumming mukogyo (wooden fish, a fish is always awake) . Jacky and Alex kept the zendo warm and inviting. The altar looks amazing everyday - but especially when the earthern lamps are lit on the last evening. Alex has made them on Bob's turning wheel and painted these lamps himself. I think they beat everything ever sold in Indian markets during Diwali time! Ofcourse, no one did only one thing and we were all butting our heads and noses into everything!

At one point while announcing Kinhin, Kurt said, "It is time to go limping around in a big circle!" Kudos to all of us -- bunch of limpers! Thanks to everyone for holding each other up and to Kurt for guiding us along ....and making delicious Lasagna (we had rice based one too) on the way!

Some COLD news!

Jacky and some of us were wondering why exactly are we "cold" mountain sangha? We hug at the smallest excuse and seem to be very warm people, cold sounds a bit heartless! Here is a little poem by Hsu Yun, the great Chinese master who could sit for seven days at a stretch that, according to Kurt, explains the cold! Chia-ju (pronounced Jaru) later pointed out the word 'Han' in Han Shan (Cold Mountain) can be translated as both 'cold' and 'humble or poor'. Its beautiful ..isn't it?


Ilusha is leaving for Seattle soon and he is going to try to meet -- guess whom -- our dharma aunt! She is wonderful -- or sounds wonderful. Check this article for all most of us know about her!

Mike Pope has been going to sesshins in Japan and has promised to write a post soon but we heard a snippet in a teisho -- during winter sesshins, there is not heat in Japanese temples. He has taken bath is freezing cold waters! Mike, hope you are deep in mushin when you do that!

Nobuko is leaving for Japan tomorrow for 4 months! There is a wild "Rutgers gang" that sits almost every morning and evening - setting up cushions at rutgers zendo or driving around New Jersey on sundays. She has been an integral part of that "lets do it" spirit and she knows she will be missed! Keep in touch, Nob!

Rodica is inspired to try out sprout based salads and many other people over the years have wanted to atleast keep a recipe handy! So in the next post, there will be recipe for basic sprout making! But it won't turn out so well without help of so many people who chip in to chop, chop and chop!

And last but not the least --

Please make it known that you would like to edit this post-- to add or correct things!

Gassho and hugs!

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