Delaplane Zen

07/26/2024

Lyrics of the Trees by Marcia Neidley Lynch

Teach me the music of the trees
Who karaoke with the breeze.
Magnolias clapping dusty hands,
Aspens giggling with golden fans.
Pine needles sighing in the wind,
Hemlocks whispering with their kin.
Catching the zephyrs of Your breath
Praise You without an alphabet.
Teach me the lyrics of all these,
That I may praise You like the trees.

06/28/2024

The Moon Tucks in the Shoreline by Marcia Neidley Lynch

The moon tucks in the shoreline
With a frothy satin tide.
Smoothing all the footprints
Of careless wandering strides.
Gessoing the canvas
Of errors brushed with pride.
Washing a fresh horizon
For the morning side.

04/13/2024

Our dim and pallid modernist world could not be more different from the pagan’s. Here all has been reduced to mere matter, moved about by the collision of atoms. There is no meaning in the wind. There are no spirits in the trees nor stories in the stars. We can no longer see them. Nor for most of us does God seem, as the early Christians felt deeply, to permeate each breath and every stone of creation with his energy, present at once in all things and beyond all things. Ours is a profane, mechanistic world—a dead world, in which the vast majority of us have, perhaps literally, lost the ability to perceive that it is still alive. Instead, in our drab materialism, most of us live in a kind of self-imposed virtual reality, obsessed with predictability and technocratic control.

08/07/2023

This Saturday 8/12/23,: Mike presents the seventh case from The Hidden Lamp, "Chiyono's No Water, No Moon:"
Japan, Thirteenth Century

Chiyono was a servant in a Zen convent who wanted to practice zazen. One day she approached an elderly nun and asked, "I'm of humble birth. I can't read or write and must work all the time. Is there any possibility that I could attain the way of Buddha even though I have no skills?"

The nun answered her, "This is wonderful, my dear! In Buddhism there are no distinctions between people. There is only this--each person must hold fast to the desire to awaken and cultivate a heart of great compassion. People are complete as they are. If you don't fall into delusive thoughts, there is no Buddha and no sentient being; there is only one complete nature. If you want to know your true nature, you need to turn toward the source of your delusive thoughts. This is called zazen."

Chiyono said, with happiness, "With this practice as my companion, I have only to go about my daily life, practicing day and night."

After months of wholehearted practice, she went out on a full moon night to draw some water from the well. The bottom of her old bucket, held together by bamboo strips, suddenly gave way, and the reflection of the moon vanished with the water. When she saw this she attained great realization.

Her enlightenment poem was this:

"With this and that I tried to keep the bucket together,
and then the bottom fell out.
Where water does not collect,
the moon does not dwell."

08/07/2023

Kinin walking zen model

06/24/2023

05/30/2023

Zen
Precepts:

First: The Precept of refraining from killing

True-self is clear and obvious. In the sphere of the everlasting Dharma,
not nursing a vow of extinction is called the precept of refraining from killing.

Second: The Precept of refraining from stealing

True-self is clear and obvious. In the sphere of the unattainable Dharma, not having a thought of attainment is called the precept of refraining from stealing.

Third: The Precept of refraining from sexual impropriety

True-self is clear and obvious. In the sphere of the unstained Dharma, not yielding to attachment is called the precept of refraining from sexual impropriety.

Fourth: The Precept of refraining from telling lies

True-self is clear and obvious. In the sphere of the inexplicable Dharma, not speaking even a single word is called the precept of refraining from telling lies.

Fifth: The Precept of refraining from using intoxicants

True-self is clear and obvious. In the sphere of the originally pure Dharma,
not being ignorant is called the precept of refraining from using intoxicants.