Zen quote: Love!

 Wow been a while since I posted! Our practice carries on, we meet each Monday evening in the new place on the high street. Join us! Drop me a line if you're curious. Anyway, here's a quote I was just via a publisher's mailing list, it kind of struck me:

To love, in the context of Buddhism, is above all to be there. But being there is not an easy thing. Some training is necessary, some practice. If you are not there, how can you love? Being there is very much an art, the art of meditation, because meditating is bringing your true presence to the here and now. The question that arises is: Do you have time to love?

(Thich Nhat Hahn, True Love)

 

Beginningless

I talked online on Saturday about the Verse of Atonement, the gatha with which we start the online Saturdays and, of course, we chant first thing every morning on sesshin. 

All evil karma ever committed by me
On account of my beginningless greed, anger and ignorance
Born of my body, mouth and thought
Now I atone for it all. 

I won't say anything here about any of this except to share some exploration of the word 'beginningless'. I have always been struck by the idea that Buddhist cosmology is so utterly different from that of, say, the Abrahamic faiths, in that it does not posit a point at which the world comes into being, there is no creation myth in the canon. This is a topic for another day, perhaps. But for what it's worth, this is what came to me on the topic of 'beginninglessness':

There is something of the eternal about us – don't make too much of this, it is not personal! But under the layers of habit and personality and history, under our joys and sorrows, our guilts and our vindications, under our cherished notions of who we are and our loves and losses... under all that is timeless being. Our original face before our parents were born. Our primal conscious matrix, which is not individual, which is part of the warp and woof of the universe. Our fleeting glimpses of this are like the slightest touches a mayfly leaves, tapping the surface of the pond. And while we return to the light of our conscious lives, the dark depths of that eternal and unchangeable AMness is unmoved and undifferentiated by it. 

(This is what image creation tool ideogram.ai produced
when I gave it just the word 'beginningless' to work with.
Not sure what it was 'thinking', but it's pretty enough!)

New venue (again!) - but not far...

 We're moving - again! This time it's because the zendo space we rent is itself moving... and not far, the distance between the two front doors is probably only about 30m! The new place is right on the pedestrianised high street (Abington St), though it's at the back of the building and seems very quiet.

The new venue is also lighter and with higher ceilings, and the entryway and corridors & stairs as less dark & forbidding! We start sitting in the new place this coming Monday, 4 September 2023. 

I'll add details about how to access the building to the "when & where" section of the website as we learn them ourselves. In the meantime, here's part of a screenshot from Google Maps Streetview to show you how close the new place is to the old... the "Fone Box" is now a "Vape Store", I'll try to take a more up-to-date shot for the website soon.

 Our schedule remains unchanged - still meeting every Monday (including Bank Holidays), arriving 7.15pm for a 7.30om start.

Still here! (I really need to post more regularly...!)

 Just a quick note to keep this blog 'current' - we continue to meet every week, and are growing into the new space comfortably. The most important thing for a Zen group is regularity, and I think we have now sat every week since moving into the new venue (bar one because of illness). Not all of us every week of course, but all of us that can make it! 

One advantage of the new space is the ability to have regular interviews in a private room, and we've taken to scheduling interviews on the first and third weeks of the month, either to support those doing koan practice, or just to have a chance to reflect on your ongoing meditation and your life as a practitioner in general.

In fact, as we've been finding out way in the new venue, we've tried various arrangements. Currently, we're having a 'formal' week on the first and third weeks, with interviews as mentioned but also a chanting service after zazen before we have our usual tea & chat. On other weeks, we're keeping it more plain - the usual two periods of sitting, no service, just tea & talk before heading home. Seems to be working for now, we'll see how it goes.

So, if you're reading this and have thought about joining us to sit, I'd encourage you to give it a try. No time like the present!

May Bank Hols reminder - we sit!

Just a quick note to confirm that we will be sitting on the Monday of the May Bank Holiday. Please do join us, even if it's your first time or you've not sat for a while - arrive at 7.15ish to be seated for a 7.30 start.

Our usual 2 x 30mins zazen will be followed by a chanting service, tea and discussion. 

The rhythm of life...

 

A quote from Tim Burkett's Zen in the Age of Anxiety: 

As we follow the natural rhythm of our breath, we begin to discover in an experiential way that our thoughts, sensations, and emotions come and go as naturally as the breath if we do not cling to them or try to avoid them. Of course emotions are more viscous and slow-moving than breath, but they come and go nevertheless, because this is the natural rhythm of life.

This came from a promotional email, haven't read the book itself so no idea if I can recommend it or not - but I was really struck in just this quote by the image of the way that our emotions cycle up and down over the course of our days and weeks and years... and how this is in one sense no different from the rise and fall of our breathing.

We become so familiar with our breathing on the cushion! And we never question the next breath, or whether it 'ok' or 'acceptable'... and once a breath has been released, we don't spend ages regretting that breath, or trying to recapture it! The breath has passed, and we move to the next one. If only we could do the same for our emotions - just have them manifest in our lives as a natural and appropriate response to the circumstances that life throws at us... and then move on from them.

And of course, our practice does help us do this - even if it's not immediately obvious. But over time, we invest less and less of our identity, effort and thought into hanging onto or judging our passing emotions, and move into a more spacious way of engaging with the world.

Moving in at the Fish Street dojo...

 So this Monday we finally made the move, after a few weeks of 'test sittings. The cupboards are now full of zafus and zabutons, the keys have been handed over into my grubby paws, and the website updated with the new details.

I will not miss having to lug heavy bags and boxes up the stairs each week - let alone between different venues!

There are still a few things to sort out, some bits & bobs to buy to make sure we're properly kitted out (some chairs are a must, but mugs for tea and coffee are the absolute priority, naturally).

But we're in! Really pleased that we've moved, and looking forward to more activity in the group and hopefully meeting more folk keen to 'settle the great matter of life and death'... or at least join us for some zazen.