Discussion questions for this week

• How do you see your involvement with your issue or activity as a part of your practice?  What kind of relationships are there with zazen and study?
• ​Where do you see the three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance cropping up in your issue or activity, both for others and yourself?
• What's one action you've taken toward skillful involvement in your issue or activity?  How did it go?  What's next?
• What resource did you investigate from the list recommended by participants?  Or, what new resource did you uncover?  What did you learn?

Hoko
2/15/2021 12:46:35 pm

My action step was to meet with the Red Cross person in charge of disaster spiritual care in our region to finalize my acceptance for training. I needed to provide a letter of verification from Sotoshu that I was qualified as clergy and was in good standing, and I also needed to pass a screening interview. I was a bit nervous about the screening since I don't have a lot of training in pastoral care beyond the most basic skills. There were a number of questions that posed scenarios and asked what I would do, and it seems that I did well enough and have now been accepted for training.

I hope that in addition to providing care to community members who have experienced disaster I can also be of some help to my Red Cross peers, who themselves are frequently subject to compassion fatique, discouragement and stress.

Reply
Ryan Murphy
2/16/2021 12:51:02 pm

I start with a reflection on a question and then turn to a resource.

"Where do you see the three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance cropping up in your issue or activity, both for others and yourself?"

My approach to beneficial action involves working with people who are participants (inmates) at the community corrections facility in my town. In the past, I've facilitated writing workshops there, but this has came to a halt with the pandemic. My current work is finding a way to safely re-enter or to redirect this work as best I can.

As a graduate student, one approach was to write about my previous work in the form of an experience report to share with other engaged scholars, hoping it would be a way of sharing some strategies that have worked from me. I sent the report to an academic publisher and recently received news that it had been rejected.

One reviewer left extensive comments expressing a concern that my writing was centering my own experience too much, and not involving participant voices enough. She was right. Reading those comments was really difficult, because the reviewer recognized and compassionately pointed something out that I really needed to hear, and this is where the poison ignorance recently appeared for me.

On one hand, I was trying to protect the privacy of participants by not re-telling their personal stories, but by omitting them, I was developing a very self-oriented narrative of the experience. Yes, I am responsible for my own ignorance. I sent the reviewer a "thank-you" note and committed to doing better.

Sometimes beneficial action is simply recognizing that our actions weren't really beneficial in the way we thought they were. That recognition is a major step. Having the resilience to vow to try again and do it differently is another step (or series of steps). We have a whole year ahead of us and the first steps (or second attempt at first steps) are sometimes the hardest.

The resource that I'd like to share is Hoko's Dharma talk on Dharma Gate 55: Dharma as an Abode (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsw6x-O3e8I), featuring aspects of emptiness. The many variations of emptiness and the relation of emptiness to form opened the hand my thinking about my recent experience.

When we embark on beneficial action, there are many ways we might feel deterred. Reflecting on emptiness, it seems that many of those aversions and setbacks are grounded in misperceptions about form and permanence.




Reply
Hoko
2/19/2021 12:49:56 pm

This is a fine example of becoming aware of the impulse to offer what we want to offer rather than perhaps what the situation actually calls for. Making that shift requires letting go of self, which is not easy. This is one way in which beneficial action is a real and transformative part of our practice.

Reply
Sawyer
2/28/2021 05:48:23 am

I feel glad just reflecting on knowing that writing workshops exist in any corrections facility -- and that in your case, one has been facilitated by someone engaged in this practice, with humility, perspective, and "resilience to vow to try again to do it differently."

A thank-you note to you and further resilience towards next steps!

Also, I like the term "engaged scholar..."

Reply
Dennis McCarty
2/17/2021 06:56:47 am

Commenting with a poetic reflection I wrote a few years ago.

“What Shall I Overcome?”

As a straight, white, comfortably male ally
Aspiring to sustainable creation
And equal and just access
By all people to the challenges and rewards
Life has to offer:
As a privileged, white male professional, what is it
That I can even profess to overcome?
It is given unto me to overcome my own comfort.
My own security.
My own entrapment in unasked questions
And unquestioned assumptions,
In those things I so easily am allowed
To believe without challenge--
Or even the hint that it is merely something I believe--
Rather than an objective, universal fact.
It is given unto me to listen, humbly and humanely,
To people whose experiences are different from mine.
To honestly and uncomfortably ponder realities
All around me
Which are subtle, outside my conveniently
Narrow
Vision,
Realities which society will never demand
That I learn for my own safety or survival,
Yet which are essential for the very safety and survival
Of neighbors, co-workers, millions of others,
Bound by rules invisible to me,
Yet painfully obvious to them.
It is given to me to overcome my own ego,
To reduce the distance, chip away at comfortable illusions,
Non-thoughts about lives that NO! are not like my life!
Are not to be judged by the standards of my life!
Are whole and complete in themselves,
Their whole and complete selves,
With a wholeness that can, and will, reach out for me as well,
If only I can spy it out
On the other side
Of what I think I already know.

Reply
Sawyer
2/28/2021 06:04:07 am

I like this kind of mantra, "It is given unto me..." Makes me think of some of Dogen's words on offering: "Because we are blessed with the virtue of offering, we have received our present lives."

Hoko's reminder that we're already always involved in the process of offering and receiving what is being offered, also comes up for me reading your poem. "Privilege" being an offered opportunity for overcoming the very "comfortable illusions" it allows, and therefore overcoming "my own ego." Buddha leaves the palace.

Moved also by a sense of the "wholeness" of other, perhaps less "privileged" lives, "that can, and will, reach out for me as well..."

Reply
Mark Howell
2/19/2021 04:15:14 am

Here is a link to a dharma talk by John Daido Loori Roshi titled "How to Make the Right Choice: Guishan Cuts a Snak‪e." It seems this

https://books.apple.com/dk/audiobook/how-to-make-the-right-choice-guishan-cuts-a-snake/id404820673


Publisher Description

Every day we are faced with moral decisions, and it's often difficult to know how to act. If there's a snake in our garden, do we kill it? If our co-worker is stealing from the company, is it our obligation to speak up? What if we tell our children not to lie, then the phone rings and we ask them to say we're not home? In this compelling talk, Daido Roshi explores the role of morality and ethics in our lives.

Many people think that Zen Buddhism is not concerned with ethics, but, in fact, 16 moral precepts form the core of Zen practice. These precepts differ from precepts in Western religions, and include statements such as "Affirm life: do not kill" and "Manifest truth: do not lie". Roshi stresses that these precepts are not regulations, but are in fact creative; we need to develop a flexibility that allows us to respond to life's challenges as they arise. He offers advice on overcoming the blocks created by our own thinking and grasping, thereby allowing us to live our lives in a fresh way without causing harm to ourselves or others.

Zen Buddhism emphasizes zazen, or seated meditation, as the means to study the self and understand who we truly are. Dharma talks are an essential aspect of Zen training and take place in the context of zazen. Said to be "dark to the mind and radiant to the heart", a dharma talk is one of the ways in which a teacher points directly to the heart of the teachings of the Buddha. In our meditation practice, it is easy to get lost in self-doubt, fantasy, numbness, and emotional agitation. Dharma talks help to ground our practice, providing inspiration and an essential recognition of exactly where we find ourselves, so that we can learn to face difficulties and obstacles with a free and flexible mind. This talk was given at Zen Mountain Monastery or the Zen Center of New York City of the Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism, founded in 1980 by the late American Zen Master John Daido Loori, Roshi (1931-2009).

Hoko
2/15/2021 12:46:35 pm

My action step was to meet with the Red Cross person in charge of disaster spiritual care in our region to finalize my acceptance for training. I needed to provide a letter of verification from Sotoshu that I was qualified as clergy and was in good standing, and I also needed to pass a screening interview. I was a bit nervous about the screening since I don't have a lot of training in pastoral care beyond the most basic skills. There were a number of questions that posed scenarios and asked what I would do, and it seems that I did well enough and have now been accepted for training.

I hope that in addition to providing care to community members who have experienced disaster I can also be of some help to my Red Cross peers, who themselves are frequently subject to compassion fatique, discouragement and stress.

Reply
Ryan Murphy
2/16/2021 12:51:02 pm

I start with a reflection on a question and then turn to a resource.

"Where do you see the three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance cropping up in your issue or activity, both for others and yourself?"

My approach to beneficial action involves working with people who are participants (inmates) at the community corrections facility in my town. In the past, I've facilitated writing workshops there, but this has came to a halt with the pandemic. My current work is finding a way to safely re-enter or to redirect this work as best I can.

As a graduate student, one approach was to write about my previous work in the form of an experience report to share with other engaged scholars, hoping it would be a way of sharing some strategies that have worked from me. I sent the report to an academic publisher and recently received news that it had been rejected.

One reviewer left extensive comments expressing a concern that my writing was centering my own experience too much, and not involving participant voices enough. She was right. Reading those comments was really difficult, because the reviewer recognized and compassionately pointed something out that I really needed to hear, and this is where the poison ignorance recently appeared for me.

On one hand, I was trying to protect the privacy of participants by not re-telling their personal stories, but by omitting them, I was developing a very self-oriented narrative of the experience. Yes, I am responsible for my own ignorance. I sent the reviewer a "thank-you" note and committed to doing better.

Sometimes beneficial action is simply recognizing that our actions weren't really beneficial in the way we thought they were. That recognition is a major step. Having the resilience to vow to try again and do it differently is another step (or series of steps). We have a whole year ahead of us and the first steps (or second attempt at first steps) are sometimes the hardest.

The resource that I'd like to share is Hoko's Dharma talk on Dharma Gate 55: Dharma as an Abode (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsw6x-O3e8I), featuring aspects of emptiness. The many variations of emptiness and the relation of emptiness to form opened the hand my thinking about my recent experience.

When we embark on beneficial action, there are many ways we might feel deterred. Reflecting on emptiness, it seems that many of those aversions and setbacks are grounded in misperceptions about form and permanence.




Reply
Hoko
2/19/2021 12:49:56 pm

This is a fine example of becoming aware of the impulse to offer what we want to offer rather than perhaps what the situation actually calls for. Making that shift requires letting go of self, which is not easy. This is one way in which beneficial action is a real and transformative part of our practice.

Reply
Sawyer
2/28/2021 05:48:23 am

I feel glad just reflecting on knowing that writing workshops exist in any corrections facility -- and that in your case, one has been facilitated by someone engaged in this practice, with humility, perspective, and "resilience to vow to try again to do it differently."

A thank-you note to you and further resilience towards next steps!

Also, I like the term "engaged scholar..."

Reply
Dennis McCarty
2/17/2021 06:56:47 am

Commenting with a poetic reflection I wrote a few years ago.

“What Shall I Overcome?”

As a straight, white, comfortably male ally
Aspiring to sustainable creation
And equal and just access
By all people to the challenges and rewards
Life has to offer:
As a privileged, white male professional, what is it
That I can even profess to overcome?
It is given unto me to overcome my own comfort.
My own security.
My own entrapment in unasked questions
And unquestioned assumptions,
In those things I so easily am allowed
To believe without challenge--
Or even the hint that it is merely something I believe--
Rather than an objective, universal fact.
It is given unto me to listen, humbly and humanely,
To people whose experiences are different from mine.
To honestly and uncomfortably ponder realities
All around me
Which are subtle, outside my conveniently
Narrow
Vision,
Realities which society will never demand
That I learn for my own safety or survival,
Yet which are essential for the very safety and survival
Of neighbors, co-workers, millions of others,
Bound by rules invisible to me,
Yet painfully obvious to them.
It is given to me to overcome my own ego,
To reduce the distance, chip away at comfortable illusions,
Non-thoughts about lives that NO! are not like my life!
Are not to be judged by the standards of my life!
Are whole and complete in themselves,
Their whole and complete selves,
With a wholeness that can, and will, reach out for me as well,
If only I can spy it out
On the other side
Of what I think I already know.

Reply
Sawyer
2/28/2021 06:04:07 am

I like this kind of mantra, "It is given unto me..." Makes me think of some of Dogen's words on offering: "Because we are blessed with the virtue of offering, we have received our present lives."

Hoko's reminder that we're already always involved in the process of offering and receiving what is being offered, also comes up for me reading your poem. "Privilege" being an offered opportunity for overcoming the very "comfortable illusions" it allows, and therefore overcoming "my own ego." Buddha leaves the palace.

Moved also by a sense of the "wholeness" of other, perhaps less "privileged" lives, "that can, and will, reach out for me as well..."

Reply
Mark Howell
2/19/2021 04:15:14 am

Here is a link to a dharma talk by John Daido Loori Roshi titled "How to Make the Right Choice: Guishan Cuts a Snak‪e." It seems this

https://books.apple.com/dk/audiobook/how-to-make-the-right-choice-guishan-cuts-a-snake/id404820673


Publisher Description

Every day we are faced with moral decisions, and it's often difficult to know how to act. If there's a snake in our garden, do we kill it? If our co-worker is stealing from the company, is it our obligation to speak up? What if we tell our children not to lie, then the phone rings and we ask them to say we're not home? In this compelling talk, Daido Roshi explores the role of morality and ethics in our lives.

Many people think that Zen Buddhism is not concerned with ethics, but, in fact, 16 moral precepts form the core of Zen practice. These precepts differ from precepts in Western religions, and include statements such as "Affirm life: do not kill" and "Manifest truth: do not lie". Roshi stresses that these precepts are not regulations, but are in fact creative; we need to develop a flexibility that allows us to respond to life's challenges as they arise. He offers advice on overcoming the blocks created by our own thinking and grasping, thereby allowing us to live our lives in a fresh way without causing harm to ourselves or others.

Zen Buddhism emphasizes zazen, or seated meditation, as the means to study the self and understand who we truly are. Dharma talks are an essential aspect of Zen training and take place in the context of zazen. Said to be "dark to the mind and radiant to the heart", a dharma talk is one of the ways in which a teacher points directly to the heart of the teachings of the Buddha. In our meditation practice, it is easy to get lost in self-doubt, fantasy, numbness, and emotional agitation. Dharma talks help to ground our practice, providing inspiration and an essential recognition of exactly where we find ourselves, so that we can learn to face difficulties and obstacles with a free and flexible mind. This talk was given at Zen Mountain Monastery or the Zen Center of New York City of the Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism, founded in 1980 by the late American Zen Master John Daido Loori, Roshi (1931-2009).