Online Newsletter of the Prairie Zen Center      -      515 S. Prospect, Champaign, IL 61820                April 2006

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., Apr. 11th and 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.

Upcoming Events
 • The Sunday, April 9th service will celebrate the birth of Shakyamuni Buddha with a special sweet tea ceremony (in the Zen calendar the traditional date is April 8th)
• There will be all-day sitting on April 22nd and June 17th from 9:00am to 5:00pm with board meetings at 4:00pm the same days.
• 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 continues through the first week of May. It explores selected works of Joko Beck and related texts. New participants are always welcome. Contact the Center or visit the website for registration information.

Elihu’s Travel Schedule
Elihu will visit the Sangamon Zen Group in Springfield, Illinois on Saturday, April 29th at 10 AM. He will begin with a Dharma talk which will be followed by sitting and dokusan. For location and other information contact Ed Russell at 217-528-4834 or email pzc@prairiezen.org.

Audio Talks on the Web Site
Dharma talks in audio (MP3) format are available on the PZC website. These talks were mostly recorded during sesshin with a few from the regular Sunday schedule. They can be accessed by going to the “Articles and Dharma Talks” page via the “Readings” menu of the web site. A $5.00 donation is required to access the audio page which currently contains over 30 talks.

Fund Drive
Thank you to everyone who participated in the recent fund drive which raised nearly $10,000. Your contributions will greatly help the Center and it’s teacher, members and friends in the continuing effort to support the practice of the Awakened Way. You can still make a donation by following the link on the home page of the website.

Nurtured by Life
Elihu Genmyo Smith

To be awake, alive – this is what most of us want! Is this the way it is for you? Are you nurtured by life? If not, how not? Let’s explore. Imagine if you only ate food that was square shaped and red colored; would you notice or be attentive to foods that were round or green? Certainly, the result of limiting eating to only square red food would limit nutrition. This might result in illness, even in death. Of course, none of us would eat this way, would we? Nevertheless, we often exclude aspects of life that do not fit our ideas and emotions. This self-centeredness also manifests in strong reactions to what we do not like. We assume our ideas of inclusion and exclusion are valid, even though these likes and dislikes limit nurturing, limit the richness and quality of life. Often this results in functioning as if on-automatic, living out of habits of body mind. Doing so, we miss our life.

Being this moment, zazen, is being nurtured by the universe. Yes, the universe nurtures our life. Zazen is allowing nurturing, opening to this nurturing universal life, experiencing this. In fact, the universe is exactly our life-death; right now, we are the awakened universe. Because this is so, we can be nurtured. Nevertheless, ongoing actualization is required for me, for you, to manifest this. Actualizing is being this moment, actualizing this functioning, giving self away, forgetting self. This is clear in sitting upright and still, being non-thinking. If we limit nurturance to self-centered body-mind habits, to the likes and dislikes of habits of emotion-thought, there are consequences. Holding to self-centeredness becomes a way by which we limit this Awakened life we are. There are mental and physical consequences. Though we can be nurtured, it may be inadequate; at times it creates and perpetuates suffering and harm. Despite these consequences, we justify self-centered limitations because we believe that they will protect us, keep us safe from what we fear. We fail to see these very fears and justifications for what they are - self-centered misconceptions and dualistic notions. To paraphrase Eihei Dogen, when we engage life based on self-centered limits and expectations, this is delusion; when we allow life to engage us freely, this is realization. Embodying life-death as is nurtures; it heals us into this moment. Embodying is being bodily present, feeling, hearing, experiencing this body-mind-world. Explaining it pragmatically, the more we do so, the more we are able to be so. The more we open to this universe right here now, the more we manifest this very life as is, this universe that is our life. Stated another way, the more we open to the Dharma, the more the Dharma opens to us.

Do I mean that in the midst of fears and justifications (which seem accurate), practice is experiencing this moment as is? Yes! What about discomfort, what I do not want to feel? Or don’t want to hear him say? Or when I want to shout angrily, or even storm out? Emotions and thoughts which arise often seem true because they are so familiar and comfortable. Just because a thought or feeling arises does not mean life is so. We act on them without seeing what they are, without noticing or questioning any dualistic or self-centered notions they are based on. Taking thoughts, emotions, feelings as reality, rather than simply as thoughts, emotions, feelings, cuts us off from nurturing reality.

Trying to make the world fit emotion thoughts results in misery and suffering. Trying to make emotion thoughts fit emotion thoughts results in misery and suffering. Even trying to make the emotion thoughts fit the world, rather than be as they are, may results in misery and suffering.

Because zazen is nothing special, being just this, it is difficult. Nevertheless, because zazen is nothing special, being just this, it is easy. Being just this, actualizing this functioning, is manifesting the universe as is, the awakened life of joy. Being present is not a particular or special state; being present is just this, this particular moment body-mind. Being this, of itself the awakened life is manifest as this body mind functioning, as emotion thought. Of itself life is illumined.

The functioning of the Tathagata is compassion for beings; one manifestation of compassion is in speech. Not just speech to others, but even speaking to self - sometimes out loud, sometimes in thoughts, in emotions. The functioning of Buddha-nature – if we say it conceptually – the functioning that is reality, that sees the emptiness, the impermanence and the interconnectedness of all things—is the wisdom of seeing life as is. Out of this, actions grow naturally; not as an imposed rule but because action is the natural fruition and functioning of seeing. Our natural functioning is being able to discern life-death and respond as that discernment.

“Such speech as the Tathagata knows to be untrue, incorrect, and unbeneficial and which is also unwelcome and disagreeable to others, such speech the Tathagata does not utter.…Such speech as the Tathagata knows to be true, correct, and beneficial and which is welcome and agreeable to others, the Tathagata knows the time to use such speech. Why is that? Because the Tathagata has compassion for beings.” (Majhima Nikaya)

Because we are wisdom and compassion, we are able to practice. Wisdom is seeing life-death as is. One of the wonderful qualities of being human is that we can see, realize and actualize. In experiencing, in being present, the human quality of seeing and responding flowers. Compassion is manifesting this life, actualizing the life we are. This is manifest in seeing, experiencing, functioning, realizing. This is not unidirectional; manifesting compassion clarifies and reveals who and what we truly are, supports being this moment. And compassion begins in experiencing this present moment. “Even what is uncomfortable, noxious, or painful?” Yes, when this is so. Very much like a tree surrounded by smelly, sticky horse shit, left after the horse has eaten the tree’s leaves. The very process of life transforms the shit into nutrients. The tree is nurtured in absorbing this, as the horse is nurtured by the leaves. Likewise, experiencing - which is our life, which is ongoing practice - is to be nurtured by what ever arises, inside, outside. And this ongoing practice nurtures the arising life. Zazen is not gaining anything, certainly not an understanding - zazen is not putting another head upon our own. Zazen is living fully. Doing so, we are enabled to live fully. Enjoy.

© 2006 Elihu Genmyo Smith