Sangha Life
A Publication of the Missouri Zen Center
June-July, 2003

220 Spring Avenue
Webster Groves, MO 63119
(314) 961-6138

Visit us on the web at www.MissouriZenCenter.org
(pdf and html versions of this newsletter and the calendar are available from the website)

Events for June and July
• June 7
	Change Your Mind Day
• June 15 
	Guest Speaker Shoken Winecoff
• June & July 
	Movie Nights to be announced

Sunday Speaker Series

The Zen Center began a Sunday Speaker Series on May 25 with Zuiko Redding giving a Dharma talk and participating in a luncheon with our sangha. It is anticipated that on certain Sundays prior to Rosan’s return, the Zen Center will host a Zen teacher, who will give the Dharma talk. This is an excellent opportunity to meet teachers whose names may be familiar but who rarely get to the St. Louis area. Please come sit with us, enjoy the summer Sunday mornings, and meet with and learn from our guest teachers.

On Sunday, June 15, Shoken Winecoff from the Minnesota Zen Center will join us and give the dharma talk. Please watch for announcements of other teachers who will be our guest for the Sunday Speaker Series.

Japanese Festival, Labor Day Weekend

Our biggest fundraising event of the year will occur on Labor Day weekend when the Zen Center runs a food booth at the Japanese Festival taking place at the Missouri Botanical Garden. We will need many volunteers to make this event a success for us and for the people that we serve. Please plan to spend a few hours working at the booth on one or more days during the festival. More details on how to help will be forthcoming in the August-September issue of Sangha Life. Be sure to enjoy the Japanese Festival’s many activities when you are not working at our booth! This is one of St. Louis’ premier cultural events and is a great way to learn more about Japan and Japanese culture.

Change Your Mind Day

An afternoon of meditation, inspirational talks, and music in the Buddhist  tradition will take place across the United States on Saturday, June 7 at the  annual Change Your Mind Day, sponsored by Tricycle, the independent Buddhist  review. The St. Louis observance of Change Your Mind Day will take place on the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.

“You don’t have to be a Buddhist to share in the afternoon. As when Buddha  taught, sitting under a tree in a forest grove, everyone is welcome,” said  Rande Brown, national Change Your Mind Day coordinator. “Because the  teachings and meditation focus on awareness and compassion, they can be  appreciated by anyone wanting more spiritual understanding. Change Your Mind  Day reflects the Buddhist concept that if we transform our thinking from  confusion to wisdom, we will have much happier lives.”

In 1994, the first Change Your Mind Day in New York’s Central Park attracted  about 300 people. Last year attendance was more than 2,000. Two years ago the  grassroots event began to spread across the country. Last year the day was  observed in 30 cities including Anchorage, AK; Ashland, OR; Bradley, MI;  Brattleboro, VT; Des Moines, IA; Eau Claire, WI; Flagstaff, AZ; Nevada City,  CA; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Salt Lake City, UT; Seattle,  WA; Tucson, AZ; and Vancouver, B.C. 

Change Your Mind Day is unique because it presents a tapestry of beliefs and  approaches found only in Western Buddhism. In many Asian countries, only one  or two streams of Buddhism are represented. However, in the United States and  Europe, many different streams of Buddhism are intermingling and converging,  creating a very rich environment of spiritual practices and teachings. The  afternoon of ecumenical discussions and practices reflects a growing  spiritual trend. 

The event will include Dharma talks to help participants understand Buddhist teachings and sitting and walking meditations. A zafu is recommended.

E-mail Discussion List (listserv)

To subscribe to the Missouri Zen Center’s e-mail discussion list, send an e-mail message to <majordomo@joethejuggler.com>, leave the subject field blank and in the message body type “subscribe mzc”. You will then receive a confirmation message (including instructions on how to unsubscribe). Please only subscribe  e-mail addresses of individuals. Also please be responsible for any information you post, including forwards.

Live Limitless Life!

Rosan Daido
After Gotama attained unsrupassed right awakening (anuttara samyak-sambodhi) and unconditioned peace (nirvana), he entered in limitless life. When he first approached the five mendicants in the Deer Park, one of them addressed to him, “Bho, Gotamo!” (“Hey, Gotama”) He replied, “I am Tathagata.” Tatha-gata means Thus-being, being in thusness, holy truth itself beyond perception and conception. The Dharma-body is beyond any limited identification, Gotama, Indian, human, life, etc. The ocean is not a waterdrop, a bubble, a splash, water, reef, etc. 
If one truly understands Dependent Origination, life is beyond body, mind, wind, water, space, time, etc. If fish is an independent eternal entity, it cannot live with water, oxygen, nutrition, ecology, etc., much less out of water. Such ignorant, arrogant idea is the source of stupidity and suffering, selfishness and sinfulness. No ego without eco, life without environment. Awaken and act accordingly in Dependent Origination, living limitless life, law, light, liberation, and love, as awakened being (bodhi-sattva) and great being (maha-sattva) with and for all.

Living the Global Ethic: Sustainability and Voluntary Simplicity
Part 1: The Ecological Footprint: An Indicator of Sustainability and Justice

by Kuryo
The Global Ethic as put forth by the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions includes a commitment to a culture of solidarity and a just economic order. One of the precepts we vow as Buddhists is not to steal. How do we know if we are following these ethical principles in our everyday lives? One way involves knowing whether or not we are living in a way that can sustain each of the Earth’s people far into the future. The Ecological Footprint is a tool we can use to compare how we live to how others on Earth live and to compare our consumption with what can be sustained by the Earth’s resources.

The Ecological Footprint documents humanity’s demands on nature. We obtain the resources that keep us alive from the earth – food, coal and oil, mineral ores, wood, and so forth. For instance, a certain number of acres are required to grow the wheat that goes into all the bread, pasta, and other products containing wheat that we eat in a year. The more wheat we eat, the more acres of land are required to grow the wheat. Think of those acres of wheat as our “wheat footprint.” Now imagine that everything that we consume in a year – all the food, water, materials, and energy – is converted into the number of acres required to provide each resource, and the acres required for each resource is added up. That is our personal Ecological Footprint: the demand we place on the earth. Now imagine adding up all the footprints for each person on earth, to get humanity’s total Ecological Footprint in acres, and divide by the number of humans to obtain an average Ecological Footprint per person. Now compare that to the earth’s biological capacity (what it is capable of supplying each year) expressed in acres, and divide by the number of humans to get the biological capacity per person. Redefining Progress, on their website www.rprogress.org, gives the results for these calculations. There were 4.7 acres of biologically productive space per person on Earth in 1999. The world average Ecological Footprint was 5.6 acres per person in 1999.  This means we are already exceeding the capacity of the Earth to sustain us over the long term: we are drawing down Earth’s reserves of fertile soil, clean air and water, and minerals and energy sources. And we have only accounted for humans in our calculations! If we wish to leave untouched space for all the other beings we share Earth with, the amount of biologically productive space per person that we can use becomes smaller than 4.7 acres. The Ecological Footprint provides us with a concrete way to calculate the effects of our current lifestyle and compare them to the requirements of an ecologically sustainable lifestyle.
Redefining Progress gives the average Ecological Footprint for 34 nations in its brochure titled Ecological Footprint Accounts, available on its website as a PDF file. These show how far we are from a just economic order, if it is defined as one where all people on Earth use about the same amount of the Earth’s resources each year, and how far we are from sustainability, defined as resource use at or under the biological capacity per person. The U.S. has the highest average Ecological Footprint, at 24 acres per person. Canadian citizens average about 17 acres per person; Germany averages about 12 acres per person; and Japan averages about 11 acres per person. All are far above the average for all people on Earth, and far above the Earth’s capacity to support us sustainably. At the other end of the scale, Mexico and Brazil average about 6 acres per person; Thailand averages about 4.2 acres per person; China averages about 3.9 acres per person; India averages about  1.9 acres per person; and Bangladesh averages 1.4 acres per person. 

In order to move toward sustainability, we need to know our own Ecological Footprint and which lifestyle changes can reduce it significantly. Redefining Progress has a couple of tools on its website to help us do this. In the next issue, I will discuss them and what they reveal about the way Meiku and I live – and how we need to change to live more simply and sustainably. 

Basics of the Heart Sutra

by Ando

Every morning, the Sutra of the Heart of Great Perfection of Insight is chanted at the Missouri Zen Center. Some members may not be aware of the significance of this Sutra. For those interested, the following is some background on the Sutra and an explanation of its content.

The Sutra of the Heart of Great Perfection of Insight

The Sutra of the Heart of Great Perfection of Insight (sanskrit: Maha Prajnaparamita Hridaya), or Heart Sutra, as it is most commonly referred, is the shortest, most concise of the Prajnaparamita Literature. This Sutra was translated into Chinese sometime in the Second or Third Centuries C.E. 

   The Venerable Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva,
   when carry’ng out the profound Prajnaparamita career,
   penetrated through the five aggregates
   and saw that they are Shunya in their nature.

Avilokitesvara (Kannon in Japanese Kwan Yin in Chinese, Chenrezig in Tibetan) is the Bodhisattva of compassion. While practicing Buddhist meditation (according to Dogen Zenji, zazen is prajnaparamita, or perfection of insight) he awakened to the fact that the five elements (aggregates: skhandhas) that compose a human being, form, feeling, ideas, formations, and consciousness are shunya or empty. Here, emptiness denotes the fact that the five skandhas, because of Dependent Origination, are empty of a separate, independent self.

   Here, Shariputra, Form is Shunyata; Shunyata is Form.
   Form does not differ from Shunyata;
   Shunyata does not differ from Form.
   That which is Form is Shunyata;
   that which is Shunyata is Form.
   The very same applies to feeling, idea, 
   formations and consciousness.

Rosan Daido Roshi says, “Phenomenon is form. Life is sunyata.” Thich Nhat Hahn says, “Form is the wave, emptiness is the ocean.” All dharmas, or phenomena, are conditioned by and dependent on other dharmas for their existence.

   Here, Shariputra, all Dharmas are marked with Shunyata;
   Neither originated nor destroyed;
   neither defiled nor undefiled;
   neither decreased nor increased.

Returning to the analogy of the wave, the wave may form, dependending on the wind and tides for its existence, then it may dissolve on the beach, but still it is water. The wave may be polluted by garbage or oil, but still it is water. It may shrink or grow as it moves toward the beach, but still it is water. Regardless of size, shape, or composition all dharmas are empty of independent, eternal self-nature or entity.

   Therefore, Shariputra, in Shunyata,
   no form, no feeling, no idea, no formation,
   no consciousness; no eyes, ears, nose, tongue body, mind;
   no form, sound, smell, taste, touch, mind-object;
   no eye-realm and so forth until no mind-consciousness-realm;
   no nescience, no extinction of nescience,
   and so forth until no old age and death;
   no extinction of old age and death;
   no suffering, origination, cessation, path;
   no knowledge, no grasping.

This repeats the fact that the five skandhas are empty. Since the five skandhas are empty, so are the eighteen realms of elements. These are the six sense organs, the six sense objects (form, sound scents, etc.), and the six consciousnesses (seeing, hearing, smelling, etc.). As with all dharmas, these cannot exist by themselves. They are all dependent on the others for their existence.
The twelve dependent originations, ignorance, phenomena (formations=physical, verbal, mental actions), consciousness, name-form, the six sense bases and their objects (mentioned above) contact, feeling, desire (craving), attachment (appropriation), being (becoming), birth, aging and death are all unable to exist by themselves. They depend on the others for their existence. The same is true for the Four Noble truths.

   Therefore, in no grasping one lives in no mind-hindrance,
   relying on the Prajnaparamita of Bodhisattvas,
   because there is no mind hindrance,
   here one settles in Nirvana,
   transcending the perverted views.
   All Buddhas residing in the three times are awakened to
   the unsurpassed right Awakening, relying on the Prajnaparamita.

Prajnaparamita transcends our ideas and concepts about birth and death, attachment and aversion, and our ignorance. Thus, we can live the Limitless Life and Awakened Way. Prajnaparamita enables the wave to realize that it is water. Yoshida Roshi says that zazen is the key practice for realizing prajnaparamita, shunyata, and the Limitless Life.

   Therefore, know the Prajnaparamita,
   the Great Mantra, the Great Wisdom Mantra,
   the Unsurpassed Mantra, the Peerless Mantra,
   which brings cessation of all sufferings;
   which is true, as it is not false.
   The Mantra in the Prajnaparamita is uttered thus:
   Gate, Gate Para-Gate, Para-Sam-Gate, Bodhi Svaha.

Yoshida Roshi says that his adviser at Tokyo University, Professor Nakamura, said that Gate is a vocative form of gati, addressing the awakened one. Thus, the translation of the mantra is:
“The one who went (fared), the one who went, the one who went far, the one who completely went, hail to awakening!”
Yoshida Roshi also remarked that “went” doesn’t necessarily mean physical moving, but more an unmoved, unconditioned state of mind/body.

   Thus ends the heart of Prajnaparamita…….