Desert Lotus Zen

09/28/2018

Hi everyone -
We have one more session in our current Desert Lotus Zen Koan Discussion Group. Hope to see you this coming Sunday when we sit and then discuss Case 41 of The Gateless Gate. ..from The Gateless Gate, translated by Koun Yamada

Case 41 Bodhidarma Puts the Mind to Rest

Bodhidharma sat facing the wall. The second patriarch, standing in the snow, cut off his arm and said, "Your disciple's mind is not yet at peace. I beg you, Master, give it rest." Bodhidharma said, "Bring your mind to me, and I will put it to rest." The patriarch said, "I have searched for the mind but have never been able to find it." Bodhidharma said, "I have finished putting it to rest for you."

Mumon's Commentary
The broken toothed barbarian came thousands of miles across the sea with an active spirit. It can rightly be said that he raised waves where there was no wind. In later life he obtained one disciple, but even he was crippled in his six senses. Ha! The fools do not even know four characters.

The Verse
Coming from the West and pointing directly to it -
All the trouble comes from the transmission;
The one who disturbs the monasteries
is originally you.

Date: September 30
Time: 4 PM to 5:30 PM
Place: Classroom 2, Valley Universal Unitarian, 6400 W. Del Rio

09/18/2018

Dear Koan Friends:

For next week only we will be meeting in a different room. When you go through the gate instead of turning right and going to room 2, go straight and you will see a door to your left to the office building. Go through that door and go straight past the restrooms and you will see a door to your left. That is the room we'll be meeting in.

For next week we will be working with:
Yen Kuan's Rhinoceros

One day Yen Kuan called to his attendant, "Bring me my rhinoceros-horn fan."
The attendant said, "The fan is broken."
Yen Kuan said, "If the fan is broken, bring the rhinoceros back to me."
The attendant had no reply.

Zifu drew a circle and with the word rhinoceros inside it.

Case 91 Blue Cliff Record, Chapter 3 Meeting the Inconceivable Bring Me the Rhinoceros by John Tarrant

Our meeting starts at 4:00 pm. We meet at the Valley Unitarian Universalist Church 6400 W Del Rio Rd Chandler, AZ 85226
For Next week Office Building across the parking lot from the church. Side entrance through the gate. Door to the left.
We invite you to join us!

Carla

09/10/2018

Our koan for the week of 16sept2018 is an old classic and comes from Linji.

"There is nothing I dislike."

~ Bring Me the Rhinoceros....by John Tarrant, The Record of Linji, (discourses)

Seeya Sunday,
Mark

09/03/2018

Hello everyone,
Our koan for 9Sept2018 One of my favorites, Hakuin, brings us this koan. It can be found in John Tarrant's 'Bring Me the Rhinoceros".

There was a woman who kept the pilgrims' inn at Hara under Mount Fuji. Her name is unknown, and it is not known when she was born or died.
She went to hear a talk by Hakuin who said "They say there's a pure land where everything is only mind, and that there's a Buddha of light in your own body. Once that Buddha of light appears, mountains, rivers, earth grass trees and forests suddenly glow with a great light. To see this, you have to look inside your own heart. Then what should you be looking for? When you are looking for something that is only mind, what kind of special features would it have? When you are looking for the Buddha of infinite light in your own body, how would you recognize it?"
When she heard this the woman said, "This isn't so hard." Back at home she meditated day and night holding the questions while she was awake and during her sleep. One day, as she was washing a pot, she had a sudden breakthrough. She threw the pot aside and rushed to see Hakuin.
She said, "I've met Buddha in my own body, and everything on earth is shining with a great light! It's wonderful!" She danced for joy.
"Is that so?" said Hakuin, "but what about a pit of s**t, does it also shine with a great light?"
The woman ran up and slapped him. She said, "You still don't get it, you old fart!"

Hakuin roared with laugher.

--Mark

08/13/2018

Hello Desert Lotus Zen Friends -

Welcome to our new six-week series of koan study, which starts one week from today on Sunday, August 19, 2018, at 4pm. We meet again in Classroom 2 at the Valley Unitarian Universalist (VUU) Church on the west side of the parking lot. The address is 6400 W. Del Rio St., Chandler, AZ 85226. We start with a group meditation for the first twenty-five minutes, then we will share hot tea and discuss the koan below.

The Desert Lotus Koan Study Group is affiliated with the Pacific Zen Institute. For more information, see our website at www.desertlotuszen.org.
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The Blue Cliff Record, 40th Case
Nan Ch'uan's It's Like a Dream
Case:
As the officer Lu Hsuan was talking with Nan Ch'uan, he said "Master of the Teachings Chao said, 'Heaven, Earth, and I have the same root, myriad things and I are one body.' This is quite marvelous."1
Nan Ch'uan pointed to a flower in the garden.2 He called to the officer and said, "People these days see this flower as a dream."3
----------------------------------
Notes (by Yuan Wu K'e Ch'in, 1063-1135)
1. He's making a living in a ghost cave. A picture of a cake cannot satisfy hunger. This is also haggling in the weeds.

2. What is he saying? Bah! The scriptures have teachers of scriptures, the treatises have teachers of treatises: it's no business of a patchrobed monk. Bah! A powerful man in that instance would have uttered a turning word, and not only cut off Nan Ch'uan, but thereby caused all the patchrobed monks to show some energy.

3. When the mandarin duck embroidery is done, you may look at them, but do not give the golden needle away to anyone. Don't talk in your sleep! You have drawn the golden oriole down from his willow branch.

The Blue Cliff Record, Translated by Thomas Cleary and J. C. Cleary, Shambhala Publications, Inc. (Boston, 1977), page 244.

#666600

07/04/2018

We have chosen the dates for our next 2, six week koan discussion sessions. We will post the 1st koan a week before we start up again. (1) Aug. 19,26 Sept. 9,16,23,30 (2) Nov. 4,11,18 Dec. 2,9,16 (Note..we do not meet on Sept. 2 or Nov 25 or all of Oct)
--Mark

05/19/2018

Oops, I forgot to post last week's koan. We explored the 2nd part, of Baling's Three Turning Words, 'What is the way?' last week. This week (May 20) we will sit with and discuss the 3rd part:
What is the sword so sharp it cuts a hair blown against it?
Each branch of coral holds up the moon.

--Mark

Join us for discussion:
Date: May 20, 2018
Time: 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM
Place: VUU Church Classroom 2 (West side of church parking lot)
6400 West Del Rio Street
Chandler, AZ 85226

Baling Haojian’s Three Turning Words
(translation by John Tarrant and Joan Sutherland)

What is Zen?¡
A silver bowl filled with snow.¡¡

What is the Way?
A clear-sighted person falls into a well.

What is the sword so sharp it cuts a hair blown against it?
Each branch of coral holds up the moon. ¡¡¡

Footnotes

¡ Literally, “What is Kanadeva’s school?” Kanadeva (‘One-eyed Deva’) was an Indian Buddhist teacher considered the founder of the Dhyana (Chan/Zen) school, which Bodhidharma brought to China; he was the dharma heir of Nagarjuna, one of the greatest of Buddhist philosophers, and was himself a renowned philosopher, writing a major work of the Madhyamaka School on emptiness. The Japanese teacher Tenkei comments, “The Kanadeva school means the Buddha-mind school, the school of the enlightened mind…Ultimately the whole universe should be seen as the school of the enlightened mind.”
¡¡ Dongshan’s “Jewel Mirror Samadhi” begins:

The teaching of suchness, intimately given by buddhas and ancestors—
now that it’s yours, keep it well.
A silver bowl filled with snow; a white heron hidden in the moonlight—
Apart, they seem similar; together, they’re different.

¡¡¡ Yunmen said to his student Baling, “When you hold memorial services for me after I’m dead, just restate these three turning phrases and you’ll have repaid my kindness,” and that’s what Baling did. When he became a teacher, Baling didn’t create a document of succession for his dharma heirs; he used these three phrases to transmit the essence of the Yunmen school.

05/03/2018

Chin Niu's Rice Pail (Blue Cliff-74)
Every day at mealtime, Master Chin Niu would periodically take the rice pail and do a dance in front of the monk's hall: laughing aloud, he would say, "Bodhisattvas, come eat!"1
Hsueh Tou said, "Though he acted like this, Chin Niu was not good-hearted."2
A monk asked Ch'ang Ch'ing, "When the man of old said, "Bodhisattvas, come eat!" what was his meaning?3
Ch'ing said, "Much like joyful praise on the occasion of a meal!"4

NOTES
1. "You may play with the fishing line as you will - without disturbing the clear waves, its meaning is naturally distinct." He applies pure ghee and poison at the same time - and he's right! Jewels and gems he arrays all at once, but what can he do? - those he meets with are few.
2. This is a thief recognizing a thief, a spirit recognizing a spirit. If someone comes to talk of right and wrong, then he's a right and wrong person.
3. Indeed, anyone would have doubts about this. From the beginning, he hasn't known where Chin Niu is at. What will Ch'ang Ch'ing say?
4. He sizes up the audience to give his order, and wraps up the case on the basis of facts.

Join us for discussion:
Date: May 6, 2018
Time: 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM
Place: VUU Church Classroom 2 (West side of church parking lot)
6400 West Del Rio Street
Chandler, AZ 85226

05/03/2018

koan by Yunmen: (4-29-18)
See how vast and wide the world is.
Why do you get up and get dressed at the sound of the morning bell?

Commentary: Why in the midst of the unfathomable vastness, do you get up every morning when the alarm goes off and start another ordinary day? Why do I come out of the deep space of sleep every morning to put on my human skin and go out to live a human life?
-Joan Sutherland Vimalkirti & the Awakened Heart page 39

04/11/2018

Our koan for week of April 15:

Bodhidharma's Vast Emptiness

Emperor Wu of Liang asked the great master Bodhidharma,
"What is the main point of this holy teaching?"
"Vast emptiness, nothing holy," said Bodhidharma.
"Who are you, standing in front of me?" asked the emperor.
"I do not know," said Bodhidharma.
The emperor didn't understand. Bodhidharma crossed the Yangtze River and went to the kingdom of Wei.
Later, the emperor raised this matter with his advisor, Duke Zhi. The advisor asked,
"Your Majesty, do you know who that Indian sage was?"
"No I don't," said the emperor.
"That was Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, carrying the seal of the Buddha's heart and mind."
The emperor felt a sudden regret and said, "Send a messenger to call him back."
Duke Zhi told him, "Your Majesty, even if everyone in the kingdom went after him he wouldn't return."

(Blue Cliff Record...case 1; also can be found in 'Bring Me the Rhinoceros' by John Tarrant)

Hope to see you on Sunday. --Mark

04/11/2018

Welcome back to another series of the Desert Lotus Koan Discussion Group. We start up again on Sunday, April 8, and look forward to being together again for sitting meditation, tea, and discussion. Also we have our two day retreat at the Heard Museum with Jon Joseph, Roshi on April 21-22.

This week's koan for our practice:

A monk asked, "What is meditation?"1
he master said, "It is not meditation."
The monk said, "Why is it 'not meditation'?"
The master said, "It's alive, it's alive!"


1 The Japanese word zen comes from the Chinese ch'an which comes from the Indian Sanskrit dhyana which means "meditation". The character translated here refers more specifically to the act of doing meditation as a special practice in contrast to the other activities of daily life. Dhyana refers to meditation as a state of mind that is present in all the affairs of daily living.

Number 100 from The Recorded Sayings of Zen Master Joshu, Translated and Introduced by James Green, (Shambhala, Boston 2001), Page 42.

When & Where:
Time: 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM
Location: Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, Classroom 2
(West side of the parking lot)
6400 W. Del Rio St.,Chandler, AZ 85226

Our dates for the six-week series:

4/10/18
4/15/18
4/29/18
5/6/18
5/13/18
5/20/18

The Not-Knowing Pilgrimage with Jon Joseph, Roshi

Note - We are taking a weekend break during our series. On April 21-22, we will be at the Heard Museum for a two-day retreat. We invite you to join us for The Not-Knowing Pilgrimage with our group's guiding teacher, Jon Joseph, Roshi of the Pacific Zen Institute. For more information, see https://www.pacificzen.org/events/the-not-knowing-pilgrimage-with-jon-joseph-roshi/

02/15/2018

Here is the koan for the meeting on 2/18/18

One time when Dongshan was washing his bowls, he saw two crows fighting over a frog.Someone who also saw this asked, Why does it come to that?

Dongshan replied, Its only for your benefit, honored one

Found in:

Acequias & Gates by Joan Sutherland First Gate Page 78

The Record of Tung-shan Translated by William F Powell Discourse 98 page 56