Newsletter of the Prairie Zen Center

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.

There will be no phone hours May 17th,

Jun. 19 - July 4th, Aug. 13th - 18th

Phone - (217)355-8835
E-Mail - pzc@prairiezen.org

"One minute zazen (sitting), one minute Buddha; one hour zazen, one hour Buddha." -Dogen

"Following believed thought, believed emotion - suffering of thousands of cuts.”

Upcoming Events
• There will be an all day sitting from 9am to 5pm on Sat. April 14th and a board meeting at 4pm that day.
• The Memorial Day sesshin begins the evening of May 23rd (Wed) and ends midday on the 28th (Mon)
• There will be an all day sitting from 9am to 5pm on Sat. June 16th and a board meeting at 4pm that day.
• The July sesshin will be from the 12th (Thu) to the 15th (Sun).

Visiting Teacher
On Sunday, April 15, Ven. Zuiko Redding, resident teacher of the Cedar Rapids Zen Center, will give a Dharma Talk at PZC as part of our Sunday schedule. Please join us in welcoming her.

Elihu to Visit Evanston Group
On Saturday, April 21st, Elihu will lead a day of Zen practice at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church 1509 Ridge Avenue in Evanston, Illinois. The event will be from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm with a break for lunch and will include zazen instruction, talks by Elihu and opportunities to meet with him privately. Further information is available on the PZC website or by contacting Sue Sommers at 847-869-1969 or tornsue@aol.com. This event is sponsored by the Zen Sitting Group of Evanston, an affiliate of the Prairie Zen Center. All are welcome.

Elihu to Visit Springfield Group
Elihu will visit the Sangamon Zen Group in Springfield, IL on June 9th from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. The day will include sitting and private meetings with Elihu followed by a Dharma talk at 11:00. For info contact Ed Russell at 217-528-4834 or edr@computer-dept.com

Indestructible Nature
An edited Dharma talk, Jan.2007
by Elihu Genmyo Smith

This, life as it is right now, is the joy that nurtures and fulfills us, the cold that chills us to the bone, the mystery that we are. It is straightforward and simple, being just this; unfortunately, exactly this seems so difficult for us. Believing fears, we refuse this intimacy. The “icy couch,” as Joko calls it, is right here. All sorts of beliefs and habits, and resulting conditions and circumstances, make it hard for us to be this very life. Refusing intimacy, we do not see this; we are confused about this. In the face of confusion, clarifying the teaching of Ancestors can support living this moment, nurture and encourage our practice, this non-doing.

A monk asked Zhaozhou (Joshu in Japanese), “Before there was this world, already there was this nature. When this world is destroyed, this nature will not be destroyed. What is this indestructible nature?” This monk is no different from any of us in knowing much - all sorts of ideas. Nothing wrong with what he said, in fact he was quoting Zhaozhou, “When the world was not, there was still this. When the world is destroyed, this reality is not destroyed. Take one look at me, I am nothing other then I am.” This. We are this. In a way, the monk is sincerely asking for help, “What is this?” But notice where he goes off; “indestructible nature” - making a dream of this. Instead of being this, non-doing, we want to know what non-doing is; even more, we think we know what this is and what this is not.

So Zhaozhou replies, “the four great elements and five skhandas.” This world, this body-mind. Right here, this life, here it is. But the monk believes and knows too much about this world, this body-mind - “These still can be destroyed.” In the midst of not-knowing, we are offered this - but we get caught up in believing ideas and habits of body-mind, and believe stories about what this is. “The four great elements and five skhandas,” what is this? What is indestructible nature? Do you agree with the monk’s question? Ask yourself - be honest. It is important to see what we would ask in a similar situation. Can this be destroyed? Are we sure about what is and isn’t? What is this? Is indestructible nature elsewhere?

Zhaozhou again responds "The four great elements and five skhandas." In a way the monk’s questions are fine. The monk is saying, five skhandas, body-mind, is being human; this whole phenomenal world is the four great elements. He may add, isn’t the Buddha's teaching about impermanence (and the entailed stress, suffering)? How is this indestructible nature? How does this take care of suffering?

Right here, right now, what more is there to be sought? What is our experience? Do we believe otherwise? What do we believe? Can we open what we believe to being what is, what we are? We need to clarify this, testify as this. Unfortunately, to paraphrase Zhaozhou, we turn our head or change our expression and then this is immediately lost. Non-doing is being this true form, nowhere else but right here. Right in the midst of conditioned circumstances. To settle as this non-doing. This is what Dogen Zenji says in Shoaku makusa: when non-doing lies behind your head, is the base of your life, then “when you bring your own body mind to practice…the power of practicing with the four great elements and five heaps instantly appear in full and your own individual self consisting of the four great elements and five heaps is not defiled. Thus you will be able to practice with today’s four great elements and five heaps. The power of each moment’s practice by the four great elements and five heaps causes the aforementioned four great elements and five heaps to practice. When the mountains and rivers, stars and planets also are caused to practice, then the mountains and rivers, stars and planet, in turn cause us to practice. ”

This cause and effect moment – this moment flowing stream - is our life. Mind-body beliefs and constructs attempt to solidify this, and so we bump into circumstances with painful results. This is our practice opportunity, being this moment. We miss this if we do not see the constructs, the source of pain, as the ignorance and beliefs they are, and do not open up the seemingly solid construct as this moment.

Dogen has a nice comment on this dialogue of Zhaozhou, "When the water is deep the boat rides high. When there is much mud the Buddha is large." Indestructible nature is exactly responding in the midst of deep water; indestructible nature, much mud, large Buddha. Do you see?

Dogen also commented on this dialogue regarding indestructible nature, saying “I would say to the monk, fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles.” For all of us it is important to ask our question - that is practice. Not figuring things out and asking questions from theories, but asking the question of our life practice, coming out of our practice. This is our practice effort. But what if the monk would respond to Dogen, “this is still something fabricated and perishable. What is the indestructible nature?” Doesn’t that seem to be so for you? Look closely. Dogen responds, “I would simply say to him fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles.” How do you see this? Is fences, walls, tiles, and pebbles the indestructible nature?

A monk asked Zhaozhou, “What is the body of no disease?” Some of us in this Sangha are facing disease. Serious diseases. Is there a body of no-disease? This is a very real question. Zhaozhou says, “four elements, five skhandas.” How could that be? I have disease. How can you say four elements, five skhandas? There are all sorts of suffering and violence in the world. How can you respond to “what is the body of no disease” with four elements, five skhandas? We really need to chew on this until we can make it our own. Then we may see something or we may say “no, this doesn’t satisfy.” Good. Then our chewing practice goes on. When we hear words like conditioned, cause and effect, impermanent, those are important and valuable to assist us to see the nature of circumstances, of our life. And yet, if we are trapped in the words and ideas, then we are in trouble. Those words are just “clothes stuck on the body” - and if misused may become further hindrances. We can even be trapped in fancy words like Buddha or Nirvana, and be “seeking for Buddha fools.” There is no conditioned except in the midst of the unconditioned; there is no unconditioned except in the midst of the conditioned - but this is explaining, with limited utility and at times may even hinder. Nevertheless, live words expresses this very life, supporting us in being the non-doing we are. Non-doing is practicing all good, moment-by-moment responding to circumstances.

This is our life. Our life is not just so-called inside; everyone you encounter, everything you encounter - Mind in earth and sky - exactly this. There is no indestructible anywhere else. An Ancestor says, “If you don’t give rise to mind then the 10,000 dharmas are not transgressed.” There is no Buddha anywhere else. But will we embrace this moment, being chilled to the bone? Unless we do so, unless held beliefs open, we make all sorts of Buddhas and sentient beings in our mind, and they aren’t of much use. Are we caught in the midst of body-mind habit, emotion-thought belief? Look, just this – but what kind of this is this? Original face of cause and effect is non-doing, is not obscuring. To paraphrase Dogen, one’s own self is neither existent nor non-existent. Being this is non-doing - being functioning from morning to night, this ongoing practice.

© 2007 Elihu Genmyo Smith