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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 begins at 8:00
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 (Summer)
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 Tue., Mar 21st; Thur., Mar
23rd; Tue., Apr. 11th; Thu., Apr 13th.
Phone - (217)355-8835
E-Mail - pzc@prairiezen.org
Members on the Web
If you are a member of the Prairie Zen Center and have personal
information, announcements, web links, etc that you would like posted on
the PZC web page, send an email to pzc@prairiezen.org. |
This Untouchable, Unthinkable Universal World is each one of us.
Soen Nakagawa Roshi
Center Schedule and Events
• The Sunday service on January 29th will
include a memorial for Gudny Holte, mother of Bjorg Holte.
• 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 next sesshin begins on Thursday, March the 30th and ends Sunday,
April 2nd.
• Memorial Day sesshin is scheduled for Wednesday, May 24th to Monday, 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.
Note: There will be no class on Tuesday, March 21st.
Elihu’s Travel Schedule
- Elihu will be at the Zen Center of San Diego Jan. 20th to 22nd for a
meeting of the Ordinary Mind Zen School.
- He will visit the Sangamon Zen Group on Saturday, Feb. 11th at 10 AM at
the Unitarian Universalist Church, 745 Woodside Road in Springfield,
Illinois. He will begin with a Dharma talk which will be followed by
sitting and dokusan. For information contact Ed Russell at 217-528-4834 or
email pzc@prairiezen.org.
- On Saturday, February 25th he will visit the Evanston Zen Group leading
an event titled “A Day of Zen Meditation.” The day will focus on
meditation instruction, short and longer meditations, talks on meditation,
support through sharing of experiences and private meetings with the
teacher.
Location: The C. G. Jung Center, 1567 Maple Avenue, Evanston, IL
Time: 9:00 am to 4:00 PM; lunch break 12:00 to 1:30
If you would like to participate, contact Sue Sommers at 847-869-1969 or
Tornsue@aol.com. This group is an affiliate of the Prairie Zen Center.
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Ordinary
an Edited Dharma Talk by Elihu Genmyo Smith
Our life is the life of Buddha. Somehow we manage to miss and
forget this Buddha life we are. In facing difficulties, confusion and
suffering, we have the opportunity to notice missing life. In making and
clarifying our practice effort we are opening to exactly this life that we
are. So Ancestors have said, “ordinary mind is the way” and “mind is
Buddha;” (and very directly “not Buddha, not mind,” even though this may
seem contradictory). “Ordinary mind” is exactly this, “mind is Buddha” is
exactly the truth; they are not merely utilitarian sayings. At the same
time, these phrases clarify what we do that keeps us from being who we
are, which is holding to a concoction of habits of emotion, feeling and
thinking. We usually call these ordinary and natural, though they are not.
We do not see these habits for what they are because we are so used to
them. More significantly, we do not see that in holding to habits,
reacting from them, and living out of them we hinder and limit this
ordinary functioning we are, and so suffer and experience all sorts of
difficulties. Living out of habits, out of self-centered views, we turn
activities into something that serves expectations and conditions. And we
usually blame difficulties and suffering that arise on people and things
“out there.” Even hearing a phrase “ordinary mind,” we limit the word
“mind” to thinking and concepts, and get stuck in this misunderstanding.
Similarly, we connect the word “ordinary” to particular activities as if
practice has to do with so-called ordinary activities. When carrying along
so-called past or bringing up a so-called future, ideas or expectations
can get in the way of ordinary activities being ordinary activities. If we
are dreaming, even ordinary activity is no longer ordinary.
Ordinary is being ordinary functioning, whether sitting, working, talking
to people or performing a fancy ceremony. It is being the ordinary
intimacy of what ever we are doing. Don’t believe that ordinary mind is
cognitive. Ordinary functioning is not a particular state of mind. In each
and every aspect of our life, this is exactly who we are. To restate
Nagarjuna’s “because of emptiness all things are possible,” because of
ordinariness, being ordinary, everything is possible. Being plain water,
we take on any form, taste, shape, color because we are ordinary, because
we enter intimately into the moment, because we give self away to the
arising circumstance moment. This is the simplicity and the richness of
sitting - entering the moment. This is the emptiness that responds to
suffering; that clarifies how self-centered habits of body/mind create and
perpetuate suffering. As many of you know the character that gets
translated as mind (the Chinese “hsin” or Japanese “shin”) can be
translated as mind, heart, or heart/mind, all/none of which are accurate.
It is ordinary, simple, exactly this functioning that we are; nothing
else. So, practice is being ordinary.
Our life from morning to night is nothing but ordinary. It is sitting
still, it is walking and eating and speaking and thinking and all the
other ways that we are alive - and that we are not alive. Dogen gives
zazen instructions of how to sit upright and then states “think
not-thinking.” What is that? “Nonthinking.” This is not some special state
of functioning. It is being ordinary - but as soon we make something of
it, “to be ordinary,” it is far from it, as Nanch’uan states. Attempting
to be simple is not simple any more. So our practice needs the effort to
notice what is added on to the ordinary moment - if need be to over and
over see the words and ideas we make this into, that we try to squeeze
reality into. Practice effort is not to create ordinary; when necessary,
it is to see what seems to be blocking or limiting. Nothing special, means
just that, no special thing; this, always this. Being completely what we
are, doing each thing, each functioning moment as it is. Of course
thinking “am I doing this completely?” “how do I be simple and ordinary?”
is an added drama. Wholeheartedness is our practice, not knowing is the
way, ordinary.
If you try to be ordinary, it is something extra; and going along in our
usual way is not ordinary, even though we say it is ordinary. Our usual
way is a particular collection of habits of body-mind, emotion
-thoughts, which is often far from this moment. Seeing exactly what we are
up to allows this ordinary
functioning that we always are. From morning to night all we encounter are
forms of emptiness, our original face. Forms of emptiness are emptiness,
are exactly form; clarifying form is emptiness; so we see form is form,
emptiness is emptiness. And yet if we stick to this form then we miss it –
unfortunately that is one habit. Similarly, if we get caught in emptiness
we are caught there. Being ordinary means being the functioning we are,
being the bodily sensing, as we are. Reacting to circumstances is an
indication that there is something we are holding and believing, right
here; these beliefs are the basis of the reacting. Noticing is to sense
where and when we say “but this is not enough,” “this should not be,”
“this is too boring,” or thinking about the thousand things that are okay
or not okay about so-called past, so-called future, so-called others. No
matter which of these is the moment that we are caught in, right here is
our practice opportunity of opening as this ordinary functioning that is
our life, exactly this condition. So, whichever dharma, whichever form of
emptiness, we encounter, whether so-called inside or so-called outside,
whether so-called body or so-called mind, exactly this is ordinary. This
is the whole of our life. Whatever arises is taken care of. Being clear
how to take care of this is the functioning of ordinary. Every one of us
as we are is ordinary; not when you attain some other skill but as you
are, not as anyone else is, not as any picture you have of what other
people have told you how it is, but exactly as you are. There is not a
single thing you lack in being this ordinary functioning, this ordinary
mind; ordinary Buddha, ordinary no-Buddha. Nevertheless, it requires
wholehearted practice - because you are the only one, you are the only one
who can take care of what needs to be taken care of, who can see exactly
what needs to be taken care of in this moment.
Student: So basically ordinary mind is awareness?
Elihu: Already there is an added word. See, ordinary mind and awareness
are not different things. Yes, being ordinary is awareness, yet this is
not a special state called awareness, no particular mind. So no mind, no
Buddha, no awareness, being ordinary. This is exactly your functioning
this moment.
Part of what we discover as we sit, being present, is all the ways we
spin-off or get caught-up. Noticing this, we can see and make the
appropriate practice effort. This is a support of zazen, of practicing
with others and of our intention to practice, all of which enable us to be
this. On the one hand we sometimes slip off into not trusting what is
ordinary, on the other hand we may slip into “oh, it’s just ordinary,”
dullness; as noted, often what we call “ordinary” is continuing the
chatter of habits in various forms. None of these serve this ordinary
functioning we are; they blind us even though we can’t be blinded. Though
we can not be hindered, we are hindered. This is the opportunity of
appropriate practice effort, noticing and being this moment which doesn’t
exclude thought, dream, and yet is not at all that. When you are working
in the kitchen the job is to respond; the response is this functioning of
ordinary, ordinary functioning. Ordinary mind is the way. When using the
word “mind” it is valuable, as mentioned, to note the tendency to narrow
this ordinary functioning into thinking, a psychological state or
emotional state. Ordinary functioning of course includes emotion-thought
since we are human; this moment being alive as we are, this exact
body-mind multiplicity, this moment. Of course, saying this is too much,
and gets in the way. Simply doing this, there is no extra thing needed.
Okay. Let us all make good use of these few days of sitting together, of
this life, and do our part, our effort. Intention enables us to truly
taste and savor the life we are, to see to the extent we can. Being who
and what we are is this opportunity, this ordinary functioning, this
ordinary life, nothing other than the life of the universe, the life of
the Buddha.
Thank you.
© 2006 Elihu Genmyo Smith |
