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by Gigen Victoria Austin “Bleah.” A resident of Beginner’s Mind Temple in San Francisco has lived with GI issues in long sittings since he moved in several months ago. When he sits more than two periods of zazen, his digestion slows down. His hiatal hernia, usually dormant, worsens to active gastritis. Even in a one day sitting, though he feels an urgent need for relief; his body cannot take care of itself. As we discussed his zazen practice, several other issues came up. First, he is tight around the hips from the prolonged standing that is part of his daily schedule. Second, in zazen his arm hurts. Third, because he cooks breakfast once a week and has two other zendo positions, he gets to sit in his regular place about twice a week. The change makes it difficult for him to settle. In our review, though, because GI issues came up again and again, we decided to focus our attention there. He had already repeatedly tried to solve the problem with endurance, thinking he might be able to free himself “from” the pain. However, this approach had not worked. GI issues are physiological and hernias most commonly do not heal on their own. So we asked ourselves, “How about freedom ‘with’ the pain? How can a person with GI issues relieve the pain, develop stability and ease, and take care of the body so that body and mind could settle in peace and harmony? How to read this article: This is a record of how one practitioner deepened his stability and ease by accepting and responding to somatic messages that might otherwise have gone unheeded. It is not intended as a prescription for people with GI issues. I offer this for us as colleagues on the teaching path to explore freedom “with” rather than “from” physical pain. Process: During our half hour session, we explored three steps and stages:
 The zendo fire raging by Shinshu Roberts On March 27th , Tassajara residents were awakened to the sight of the zendo engulfed in an inferno of flames. As a former resident of Tassajara, I have memories accumulated from several practice periods and three months as Shuso, and I am part of a larger Tassajara sangha of present and former residents, summer guests, and workers. Each of us carry memories of this building: oryoki meals, service, zazen, laughter, pain, Dharma talks, tangaryo, cleaning, and ceremony.  Residents during an ango may recall fondly, as I do, standing on the engawa at dusk on each “8” day preparing for nenju, a ceremony to recall and renew our faith and effort in practice. This was a sweet time at the end of the day, as we lined up outside on the zendo porch. Standing barefoot, we felt the smooth undulations of the wooden planks under our feet, boards that we had cleaned daily with a damp rag and that reflected the effort of generations of students since the zendo was built. The zendo’s high perch looked out over Tassajara’s cabins and during nenju we gazed across Cabarga creek below the zendo, seeing Suzuki Roshi’s garden, the Kaisandō building and the abbot’s cabin. The ceremony began with hans echoing a call and response through the valley announcing the abbot’s procession as they offered incense at various temple altars. We listened to the abbot’s footsteps fading into the distance and returning, then the deep resonance of the densho as the procession reached the zendo. We felt the air and calm of the sacred silence of evening passing. Earnestly, the Ino recites: Carefully listen everyone. Twenty-five centuries, seventy-three years ago the great Tathāgata entered nirvana. When this day is gone, your life also decreases. Like a fish in a puddle, what pleasure is there here? We are to practice constantly, as if to save our heads on fire! Mindful of transiency, pursue the path with diligence and care. Throughout Zenshinji the Dharma safely resides, bringing peace to all. Everyone in the ten direction knows an increase in joy and growth in wisdom. Thankfully we recite the names of Buddha. This is still so: Throughout Zenshinji (Zen Heart/Mind Temple) the Dharma safely resides.  The Buddha statue, whose head is resting in the ashes and burnt wood of the recent fire. he zendo that burned was not the original zendo, nor was it the first major building to be destroyed by flames at Tassajara. Originally, Tassajara was a resort with a hotel that was located on the same spot as the zendo that just burned down. That hotel caught fire in September of 1949. In 1978, the original Tassajara zendo, located off the current kitchen, was destroyed when a fire started in the chiden area during a ceremony. As in the current fire, the seated stone Buddha was almost destroyed. Experts at the de Young Museum in San Francisco restored the Buddha and it was later installed in the new (now gone) zendo at Tassajara. Produced in the Gandhara region of Pakistan, it was probably made around the 3rd or 4th century C.E. The place of our memories is now gone. We will never forget or return. Yet, even if we had entered the doors of the old zendo innumerable times, each time was new and would not be replicated. Such was true of the hotel and the first zendo. Still, for me, they are stories. Everything is different and we cannot mourn what we did not experience, except as a thought, wish or fantasy. The old zendo burned down, the old hotel is gone, and now “my” zendo is gone; it is just a memory but, at a future time, another building will be there, or the garden will be bigger, or some new use will arise. The future guests, students, priests and abbots at Tassajara will make new memories and sit in a new space and call that place their zendo. Perhaps in the future, I will stand on the ground of the old zendo and send a fond blessing to my memories, but I will not be “a fish in muddy water” asking “what pleasure is there here?” because there is just this place, this time, this life of practice where we stand right now. It is still our lineage of warm-hand-to-warm-hand. There is joy and wisdom still to arise from these ashes.  The aftermath of the zendo fire As Dōgen so poignantly wrote about practice, “Yet, in attachment blossoms fall.” Tenzen David Zimmerman, San Francisco Zen Center’s Central Abbot, who is currently leading the practice period at Tassajara, wrote after the fire: “Good morning. Tassajara practice continues uninterrupted. The Sangha is resilient; monks sit zazen in the Retreat Hall. Canyon wrens sing on the Kaisandō roof in the morning. Frogs chant along Cabarga Creek at night. Gratitude to the Buddhas and Ancestors, the mountains and waters, for this liberating Way of life.”
And so it is. Our practice is impermanence. This is just another way to say inter-being, co-dependent arising, intimate life, lineage, Buddhas, ancestors, and foolish human beings, frogs chanting and a wren’s song. No one was hurt; practice persists. The Dharma reaches everywhere. by Tonen O'Connor
Our first encounters with the word "Buddha" can be somewhat confusing. Are we speaking of Siddartha Gautama? What about the way Dogen refers to his teacher, Rujing, as "the old buddha," or all those "buddhas and ancestors?" What about Buddha as the Mind that is the ground of all things as they are? How are we to perceive the presence of Buddha in our lives? From the earliest days, the Buddha insisted that he and his teachings were synonymous, as we can see from this exchange found in the Khandasamyutta chapter of the Samyutta Nikaya: "For a long time, venerable sir, I have wanted to come to see the Blessed One. but I haven't been fit enough to do so." "Enough Vakkali! Why do you want to see this foul body? One who sees the Dhamma sees me; one who sees me sees the Dhamma. For in seeing the Dhamma, Vakkali, one sees me; and in seeing me, one sees the Dhamma."1 Over time, the concept of Buddha expanded from Shakyamuni, "the awakened one," to a view of Buddha as the truth of the Dharma as it manifests within the impermanent and interdependent life of all things. Buddha became the name of universal truth. Within the Mahayana tradition that includes Soto Zen, it is customary to view Buddha from three perspectives known in Sanskrit as the Trikaya or Three Bodies of Buddha. These are the Dharmakaya or Truth Body, the Sambhogakaya or Enjoyment Body, and finally the Nirmanakaya or Emanation Body. It is important to understand that we are not viewing three separate bodies, but rather three aspects of the entity to which we give the name Buddha. As we come to understand these aspects of Buddha, we begin to more clearly perceive the ways in which Buddha is present within our lives. The broadest understanding of Buddha is as an ultimate, over-arching Truth that is the well spring of all that exists. It is this Truth that is represented by the Dharmakaya. As defined in the Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism, it is "primordially existent, transcending all perceptual forms and hence not possible to perceive". Yet, among its qualities is listed "the intrinsic ability to perform all activities." This suggests that we can know the dharmakaya only through what it does. We cannot directly perceive the Dharmakaya because it is neither a place nor a thing, but rather the home of a set of truths that are the basis for all existence: the nature of all things as empty of own being, existing interdependently, and subject to continuous change. I think it may be helpful to also add one more truth that may not come as readily to mind, that of Possibility. The Dharmakaya is unknowable because it is a vast realm of as-yet-unrealized Possibilities, a deep well spring of infinite possibility activated by causes and conditions as they come together, making manifest our world. It is the Dharmkaya performing all activities that provides an answer to a koan found as Case 100 in Dogen's Shinji Shobogenzo: One day a monk asked Master Unmon: What is the Ascending Dharma Body? The Master said: To explain Ascending to you would not be difficult, but what do you think the meaning of Dharma Body is? The monk said: Please master, find the meaning yourself. The Master said: Setting aside the meaning for a while, what do you think the Dharma Body means? The monk said: It means that everything is just as it is. The master said: That answer is simply what you learned on the long floor of the Zazen Hall. I ask you, does the Dharma Body eat meals? The monk could not reply. 2 If he had realized that as he ate his rice it was the Dharmakaya performing an activity, the monk could have said, "Yes, the Dharmakaya eats meals." The Sambhogakaya or Enjoyment Body refers to that aspect of Buddha available to bodhisattvas, great enlightening beings. It is sometimes also known as the Reward Body, because it is known to those feeling the joy of understanding the Truth of Buddha's compassion. Their grasp of the Truth of the Dharma enables them to enjoy the presence of great Buddhas such as Amitabha and Vairocana as they communicate the Dharma through their glory and their teachings. However, this aspect of Buddha is not limited to fully realized bodhisattvas. You and I can get a glimpse of the enjoyment of the Sambhogakaya as we arouse the aspiration for enlightenment, begin our journey on the bodhisattva path and our understanding and joy increase. We can find the realms of Amitabha and Vairocana in the sutras we study and sense the joy of the Sambhogakaya within our zazen. It is said that out of great compassion for the suffering of human beings, those enjoying the radiant delight of the Sambhogakaya create the Nirmanakaya, a human emissary of the Dharmakaya who comes to teach the Truth that will alleviate suffering. In our world this was Siddartha Gautama, known as Shakyamuni Buddha. Out of his deep grasp of the causes of suffering, Shakyamuni devoted a life of compassion to teaching the Dharma, the Truth that helps us see things as they are and lessens our suffering. He lived, of course, over 2,500 years ago, but Dogen has a wonderful suggestion in the fascicle of Shobogenzo titled Sokushin zebutsu (Mind Itself is Buddha): All buddhas in the past, present and future, when they become buddha, unfailingly they become Shakyamuni Buddha. 3 To become Shakyamuni Buddha is to do as he did. It means to become a sharer of the Teachings, a person devoted to offering the Dharma in order to reduce the suffering of others. It means to act with the deep compassion of a buddha. This is to practice and study the Way. All three aspects of Buddha, the Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya are how the Mahayana illustrates the ways in which Buddha is present in our lives. As contemporary followers of the Way, it is now up to us to share widely the teachings and compassion of Shakyamuni so that we, too, become Buddha's Nirmanakaya. Notes: 1. Samyutta Nikaya, trans. Bikkhu Bodhi, Chapter 22 , 2. Master Dogen's Shinji Shobogenzo, trans,Gudo Nishijima, Book One, Case 100 3. Sokushin zebutsu, unpublished trans. Shohaku Okumura |
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