|
Zendo Schedule
All sittings are at 515 S. Prospect, Champaign (NW corner of Green and
Prospect).
Weekdays:
(Mon.-Fri.): 6:00 to 6:50 a.m.
Tuesdays:
7:30 to 9:00 p.m. (Class 8 to 9)
Thursdays:
7:30 to 9:00 p.m. Dokusan available
Saturdays:
8:00 to 9:00 a.m.
Unstructured, sit or do slow kinhin as you wish
Sunday Mornings:
Dokusan available
8:45. Samu (cleaning/set up)
9:00 Service
9:20 Zazen & Kinhin
(sitting and walking meditiation)
10:00 Introduction for newcomers
11:00 Dharma talk
You are welcome to join Sundays sittings at the beginning of any sitting
period. An introduction to Zen practice is available during the 10:00 a.m.
sitting period. This schedule is approximate; please arrive early. Please
wait until the beginning of walking meditation and enter the zendo at that
time. During sesshin, the regular schedule is suspended.
Phone Schedule
Out-of-towners can reach Elihu at these times:
Mondays: 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.
Tuesdays: 7:20 to 7:55 p.m.
Thursdays: 7:20 to 8:00 p.m.
The Center is closed the day before and the day after sesshin, all phone
interviews are also canceled on those days.
Note: There will be no phone hours on Nov. 24th or Dec 20th through Jan.
2nd.
Phone - (217)355-8835
E-Mail - pzc@prairiezen.org
|
“A human being is part of the whole, called by us
“Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself,
his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a
kind of optical illusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind
of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and
affections for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free
ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to
embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
- Albert Einstein |
___________________________
Center Schedule and Events
• The Zen Center will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday,
November 24th.
• There will be a potluck Bodhi Day Party on Sat. Dec. 10th, 6 PM,
at Faye Lesht’s house at 603 Pine St. Champaign.
• A Bodhi Day service will be part of the Sunday schedule on Sun.
Dec 11th.
• There will be an all day sitting 9:00 to 5:00 on Dec. 17th
• The Zen Center schedule will be suspended from Tuesday. Dec. 20th
through Monday, January 2nd. As always, the Zendo is available for
informal sitting by members anytime unless it is in use. The regular
Zen Center schedule will resume Tuesday, January 3rd.
• The next sesshin will begin on Wednesday evening, January 11th and
end at noon on Monday, January 16th.
• There will be all-day sitting on Feburary 25th and April 22nd from
9:00am to 5:00pm with board meetings at 4:00pm.
• The March sesshin begins on the 30th and ends April 2nd.
• Memorial Day sesshin is scheduled for May 24th to the 29th. |
Tuesday Night Class
The Winter/Spring session of the Tuesday Night
Class will begin January 24th and run through the first week of May.
It will explore selected writings of Joko Beck and other related
texts. There is a requested donation of $50 for PZC members and $80
for non-members plus a cost for texts. Contact the Center or visit
the website for registration information. |
Elihu’s Travel Schedule
- Elihu will be at the Sangamon Zen Group on Saturday Dec. 10th at 10
AM Saturday at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 745 Woodside Road in
Springfield, Illinois. There will be sitting, dokusan, and a jukai
(receiving the precepts).
- Elihu will be at the Zen Center of San Diego Jan. 20th to 22nd for a
meeting of the Ordinary Mind Zen School. |
|
|
Being Joyful, Giving Yourself Away
Elihu Genmyo Smith
(Edited
excerpts from a Dharma talk)
Are
you joyful? “My religion is happiness,” says the Dalai Lama. Dogen Zenji
calls zazen “the Dharma gate of joyful ease.” Similarly, “the great
precept is being joyful always” are the words of a Chasidic song. In spite
of this, what is so for many of us does not seem to be joy. Sometimes
there is just a slight aching, “something is not OK.” Or life is
emotionally and physically very difficult and painful. We may face
dissatisfaction throughout life. All this is compounded by the violence
and harm done by humans to others. What to do? Do we seek joy, or at least
relief, by changing conditions and circumstances? Do we try to get the “thing(s)”
we believe will create or bring joy, or at least end discomfort? As a
short-term strategy that might be appropriate; unfortunately, doing so may
lead us to further misunderstand and even miss basic aspects of our life.
The fact is we gravitate naturally to joy. We do so because joy is who we
are. Yes, joy is exactly this life. “True Nature is Joyous” states the
Ten-Clause Kannon Sutra. This is not a matter of subject and object, of an
enjoyer and joy; joy is true nature, our nature, no separation. Though at
times we use the word “Bliss” in place of “Joy,” this is not a special
state. Our activities are always this joy functioning. This is
unconditioned, not dependent upon circumstances. Sadly, we may not know
this, and in fact in so many ways we believe just the opposite. We believe
specific conditions and circumstances are needed to be joyful. And
believing this, believing right now is not enough, makes and insures that
it is so. Then we are sure life is lacking, especially in the midst of
ongoing difficult circumstances. Unfortunately, seeking joy in conditions
can lead to being caught up in and attached to body-mind habits,
especially those of greed, anger and confusion/ignorance. The teaching of
Shakyamuni Buddha and our Ancestors clarify how fear, frustration and
suffering arise from greed, anger and confusion. At the same time, the
teachings reveal freedom from fear, freedom from frustration and
suffering. Buddha Dharma reveals joy in the midst of this dependent
arising life, even in the midst of the physically and emotionally painful
conditions.
Practice is living this moment as is, rather than limiting life by trying
to force it into the various forms that we believe to be real- feelings,
habits, words, ideas and ways of functioning. Practice is living as who we
are - rather than being trapped by all sorts of dreams. Joy is in the very
midst of the conditions of body-mind-world. Inhabiting this body-mind
moment, we learn how to do this, how to notice where we are caught up and
to open to what we are rather than look elsewhere. We give our self away.
In zazen we give our self away to sitting. Giving body away to the ground,
giving eyes away to the wall we face, giving hearing away to the sound,
giving breath away to the universe. Giving self away; this is nonthinking.
When we sit we give self to this bodily moment, to this cushion, (strikes
stick) to this. We give our self to the earth, to the air. In giving away
self, we find that we are giving our self to our self. The zendo is a lost
and found: You lose your self; and if you lose self then you find your
self. Finding self, practice is this moment losing your self. Over and
over, lose and find.
At times we act as if we live in a bubble of skin, or maybe a little
bigger bubble which includes some others, some circumstances. Outside the
bubble is who we are not. During sitting we may sense and notice the
believed solidity of the bubble that we live within. We discover our
insistence that what is most significant is the perceived condition of my
bubble, rough, smooth, clear, at times even comparing one bubble with
another, of “present” to “past,” to “future.” Unfortunately, the more we
focus on our vision of the bubble and how it ought to be, the less we see
the bubble as is in the midst of circumstances, the bubble which is part
of the ocean, and the less we live the whole ocean that the bubble is. We
forget “the mind that has been correctly transmitted is that of ‘one mind
is all dharmas’ and ‘all dharmas are one mind. (Dogen)”
The Vimalakirti Sutra, talking about a Boddhisatva regarding difficult
conditions and illness, states “It is the dharmas that combine to form
this body” meaning the phenomena, the circumstances of the moment, that
combine to form this. “When it arises, it is simply the dharmas arising;
when it ceases, it is simply the dharmas ceasing. When these dharmas arise
the Boddhisatva does not state ‘I arise,’ when these dharmas cease he does
not state ‘I cease.” This is the point that we often get trapped in,
adding “I” to the circumstances of our life, making for suffering. This
doesn’t mean not to respond to and work with circumstances - but when we
add “I” to arising circumstances as opposed to being the bubble pushed
this way and that in the ocean of life, all sorts of difficulties occur.
Being this bubble on the ocean flowing, being pushed this way, getting
battered, doing what needs to be done, responding, it is only adding “I”
to the circumstances that perpetuates suffering. Believing and holding to
“I like,” “I dislike,” “I need” perpetuates dissatisfaction.
Look at everyday activity. What is “walking?” Even on a mechanical level,
from a simple scientific perspective, it is an interconnected process of
gravity and the forces of push and reaction going on among the parts of
the body, the ground, the air and the whole universe. This is not
something special and certainly does not require thinking about it. Being
not knowing, being walking, this is our functioning. This is so in all
aspects of our life. Walking isn’t just in a little bubble. Ordinary
walking is our opportunity to walk the universe - we walk the ground, the
ground walks us; just walking. So from the scientific perspective Albert
Einstein can state “A human being is part of the whole, called by us
“Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his
thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of
optical illusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison
for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affections for a few
persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison
by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and
the whole of nature in its beauty.”
So be a scientist, be an explorer, discover the life you are. Our sitting
allows us to be, to see, this life that we are. Live your life.
Nevertheless, “It is not the case that we become the universal life as a
result of our practice. Each and every one of us receives and lives this
universe-full life. We are one with the whole universe, yet we do not
manifest it as the universe in the real sense.” (Uchiyama Roshi)
Practicing, we see how the believed thoughts, “my” thoughts, batter us and
keep us from manifesting who we are. When there is holding believed
thoughts, the practice effort is seeing this and opening right here, being
this ocean that we are from the beginning. Being so, we manifest this
joyful functioning in this particular wave, this body-mind world moment.
Joy is not an added ingredient, dependent on anything extra. Seeing and
living this, we manifest the universe we are. Please, en - joy, be joy
living this moment.
© 2005 Elihu Genmyo Smith |
