May 6 Vesak Day All are invited to celebrate Buddha's birthday on Vesak Day, Sunday, May 6, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Mid-America Buddhist Association (MABA) in Augusta, Missouri. This annual event is organized by the Buddhist Council of Greater St. Louis. Member organizations of the Buddhist Council are Do Ngak Choling Tibetan Buddhist Center, Kagyu Dršden Kunchab, Khenpo Rinpoche's Tsokye Dorje Drolmai Chostsog, Mid-America Buddhist Association, Missouri Zen Center, Sri Lankan Buddhist Group, St. Louis Insight Meditation Group, Vien Minh Tu (the Vietnamese Temple), and Wat Phrasriratanaram (the Thai Temple). The schedule of events is as follows: * 10:00 Arrival and tour of MABA and grounds * 10:30 Opening ceremonies, including "Bathing Buddha" rite * 11:00 Group Meditation in the Meditation Hall * 12:00 Vegetarian lunch; includes the music of John Goldstein and performance by Joe the Juggler * 1:30 Walking Meditation around the lake (if raining, under the eaves) * 1:30 Magic Shows for children by Dr. Thiet T. Nguyen * 2:30 Lama Jinpa of San Francisco will speak on "The Turning Point" * 3:30 Conversation with Lama Jinpa in Meditation Hall * 4:00 Closing Ceremonies: Metta Meditation Vesak Volunteers Needed It takes the effort of many volunteers to prepare for and clean up after the Vesak Day activities. Please lend your joyous efforts to help make the celebration possible. On Saturday, May 5 there will be an opportunity to work at MABA to help set up for Vesak Day. Come sit at 8 a.m. and then carpool to MABA to join in the preparations. After the ceremonies are concluded on May 6, there will be an opportunity to help with cleanup for those who can stay later. Please consider helping with either preparations or cleanup to ensure the success of the Vesak Day celebration and to deepen your participation in it. Zen Writing Practice by Richard Fischer Writing in emptiness! Join us on Wednesday evenings beginning April 11 for an evening of "Writing Practice," a form of active meditation taught by Natalie Goldberg, student of Dainin Katagiri. We will sit zazen and prepare ourselves for the release of our expressive imagination in the emptying of thought and preconception. Natalie will be there in spirit and we will cultivate that spirit within ourselves. Zazen begins at 7 p.m.Ñwriting afterwards, when the mind is clear. Bring paper or a spiral notebook and a writing instrument (your flute-pen or drum-pencil!). Beginner's Nights The Zen Center will dedicate two evenings to assist beginners who want to experience Zen meditation in a supportive atmosphere with other beginners. These two evenings are Saturday, April 21 and Saturday, May 19. Each evening constitutes an introduction to Zen practice that will enable newcomers to learn how to meditate and set a foundation for continued practice. The program for each evening is the same. Beginners should arrive by 6:30 p.m. to receive instruction on how to sit zazen and on proper etiquette within the zendo. Sitting will begin at 7 p.m. and last for 20 minutes. Following sitting there will be a question and answer period. Cost will be $15 per person, which includes a copy of the Zen Manual and a coupon for $5 off the price of a zafu (zafus are available for purchase at the Zen Center). Attendees should wear loose-fitting, modest clothing that will not distract others and will stretch for comfort during sitting. Following completion of this introductory evening, beginners may take note that the Monday evening sitting is designed especially for them. On Monday evenings, Maku leads a 20 minute period of zazen beginning at 7 p.m. and follows sitting with a reading from one of the many excellent books on Buddhism. These shorter sittings can help people to ease into the practice at their own pace, in a way they can sustain over time. Hosta Sale, May 12 The Zen Center's annual Hosta Sale fund-raiser will be held at the Center on Saturday, May 12 from 8 a.m. until noon. There are lots of opportunities to help the Zen Center by digging up and potting the hostas, working during the sale, publicizing the sale to friends and co-workers, and buying hostas and other plants at the sale to enhance your garden and add beauty to our world. Every Saturday in April, join the sangha in sitting, eating breakfast, and digging up hostas. First, sit with us from 8-8:40 a.m. and start off your weekend in peace. We'll follow sitting with breakfast, cooked by sesshin tenzo Meiku. Then at 9:30 a.m. or so, we'll go outside and enjoy the day as we dig up and pot the hostas growing on the Zen Center grounds. If you can't make sitting or breakfast, then come and dig up hostas with us. Enjoy feeling the warm sun, or delicate raindrops, or whatever surprise April weather may bring to us. Listen to birds chirp. Marvel at the diversity of hosta colors, shapes, and sizes. Help us strengthen our sangha as we bring more beauty to the world. Besides the Saturday work periods at the Zen Center, we are likely to need an additional work period or two during weekday evenings around the end of April or beginning of May. These could be at the Zen Center or at Kalen's house. Watch the listserv and the postings at the Zen Center for work periods called at that time and help us with those last minute preparations. On the Hosta Sale day itself, we need people to help with moving hostas and setting up work stations starting at 6 a.m. By 7:30 a.m., we need people to help with sales, cart hostas to customers' cars, answer questions about the hostas and other plants, rearrange the displays as hostas are sold, and answer questions about our practice. Please show up to help as early as you can. Those of us who have worked at Hosta Sales can testify that it is most pleasant to be outside on a late spring morning, enjoying the hostas and the people who come to buy them. But if you can't show up until 9 a.m., come then. You can relieve someone who is feeling tired or has to leave early. After the sale is over, we'll need people to help move the hostas out of the front yard and take down the work stations. Plan to go out to lunch afterward and celebrate our success. We can sell hostas only if people who want them know about our sale. You can help by telling all the gardeners you know about our sale. Anyone who likes hostas will want to check out our sale for its large number of different varieties, many not easily available elsewhere in the area, and our fair pricing. If you have your own garden, consider buying hostas yourself. These shade-loving, easy care, hardy perennials live for many years and come in colors, sizes, and shapes that can fit into any shady garden. You can beautify your garden and benefit the Zen Center at the same time! Dogen and the "Old Buddha," Juching By Ando In the summer of 1225, the monks at the Ching-te monastery on Mt. T'ien T'ung in Zhejiang, in Eastern Sung China, were engaged in the intensive summer training. They sat long hours in chih-kuan ta-tso, or "single-minded intensive sitting" (J. shikantaza). The master, Juching (pronounced Ru JING; J. Nyojo), walked among the sitting monks ready to strike those who slept with his fist or shoe. Eyeing a dozing monk one day, the Master shouted "When you study under a master you must drop the body and mind. What is the use of single-minded intensive SLEEPING?" Sitting next to the sleepy monk was a young visitor from Japan, Dogen. Upon hearing Juching's words, Dogen was awakened. The nature of this awakening, and Dogen's relationship with Juching, became the basis of Soto Zen as it is practiced today. Dogen came to China in 1223 seeking the true Dharma. He was frustrated with the Dharma teachers in Japan who had been unable to help him answer the question, "If all beings are endowed with the Buddha Nature, why must we practice so diligently?" This question, or "Great Doubt," haunted Dogen and drove him to China to seek a satisfactory answer. Dogen travelled Eastern China for two years after his arrival seeking a teacher who embodied the true Dharma. Unable to find such a man he was ready to return to Japan when he heard that a new Master, Juching, was ascending as abbot of Ching-te monastery. Dogen travelled to T'ien T'ung and met Juching. Explaining that he had "developed the mind for enlightenment in childhood," and having "acquired some understanding of cause and effect," he had "not yet realized the true goal of the Buddha, of the Dharma, and of the Sangha," Dogen was accepted as a student by Juching. As a result of his awakening at Ching-te, Dogen was able to resolve his "Great Doubt." His question had arisen as a result of a phrase in the Chinese translation of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra which read, "All Sentient Beings exhaustively possess the Buddha Nature, the Tathagata exists eternally and is without change." After his awakening, Dogen, breaking conventional rules of Chinese grammar, translated the phrase in a manner that expressed his understanding of the Dharma, "All ARE the Buddha Nature." In other words, the Buddha Nature is not separate, but IS the rising and falling reality of the world. Or as the Buddha said, "Samsara is Nirvana, Nirvana is Samsara." After his awakening in the summer of 1225, Dogen remained at T'ien T'ung for two more years practicing the Dharma with Juching. Within a year of Dogen's return to Japan, in 1227, Juching died. In Japan, Dogen preached and wrote the Dharma of Juching, referring to Juching as, "My late Master, the Old Buddha." Juching's understanding that single-minded, intensive sitting IS enlightenment, or as Dr. Yoshida teaches, "Practice is Perfection," became the theme of Soto Zen practice in Japan, and later, in this country. Please come practice single-minded intensive sitting with us. Information and quotations for this article came from, "Dogen's Formative Years in China," by Takashi James Kodera. Morning meditation talk by Rosan on 12/19/00: Transcribed from the tape recording by Maku Good morning, Despite the chill and heavy snow we find many of you sitting here. I congratulate you. When you have time and energy to come from far and sit, then it means there is enough room in your life to deal with it (without being) overwhelmed. You have the courage to cope with anything coming to you. It is a very good sign. Dogen loved plum flowers because they only bloom after many years of chill. Old plum trees have the best scent. When you first come here you feel the chill, but then you grow stronger skins to cope with it. You cannot grow staying in a warm bed. You see the bright stars aboveÑchilled stars. Life shines forth like a star in a cold, dark sky. Only in this way life stands out. You are living your own life. The brighter the stars are, the darker night becomes and the colder the air becomesÑbut you'll enjoy it. This is a truth of life. I congratulate you again. Live your own lives as fresh and new airÑalways in high spirits.