Current Book:
"Living by Vow", by Shohaku Okumura

​

Living By Vow - Myoshin’s Notes from January 01, 2023

​

Re: Sound of Emptiness: The Heart Sutra aka The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom

​

A small group of us met to begin our 90-day inquiry into the quintessential Buddhist teaching on emptiness: (The) Mahaprajñāpāramitā Hrdaya Sutra, also known as the The Heart Sutra, an

abbreviated version of the comprehensive teaching: The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom.

​

I read brief quotes from Okumura and Edward Conze (from his introduction to the Large Sutra
on Perfect Wisdom) who stated how difficult this sutra is to understand. Although understanding is difficult, we, like Buddhists around the world, will read it, study it, and see what happens.

​

Subsequently, I reiterated the distinction between living by karma (which means living by habit)
and living by vow (which means living by intention). All of our actions (body, speech, and mind)
are either born of habit or intention. If we have taken the Precepts, then we have vowed to live

by intention, not habit. As always, we do our best knowing that we can never be perfect.

​

Someone in the class made the point that certain individuals may have greater difficulty living by vow (intention) due to childhood hardships. I affirmed that some of us have more challenges to deal with than others, but that no matter how much suffering we bear, if we are following the

Noble Eightfold Path then we are compelled to make our best effort, which is our vow.

​

I shared that being diagnosed with AIDS in 1987 impelled me to seek help from Joan Halifax,
which led me to the practice of Buddhism. I encourage everyone to remember that the Buddha’s teachings are about suffering (dukkha), and that if we are ever to be free from suffering we will have to find a way to work with it no matter how difficult that may be. I also reminded everyone that this is the teaching of Dongshan’s ‘No Cold or Heat’ that we studied several weeks ago.

​

It is very important that everyone learns to practice patience with themselves and each other as
we work together on this sublime, esoteric, and mystical teaching. Let us all strive to be together peacefully while we find our way through the morass of entanglements that is the dharma and also our life. We are all capable of doing this with each other’s compassionate understanding.

Finally, please remember, having a deep and generous heart is the best way to practice zen.

​

Gassho, Myoshin

​

Living By Vow - Myoshin’s Notes from Week 7, October 30, 2022 

​

We began the class rereading from page 80 through page 83 where Reverend Okumura talks about Dogen’s names for the okesa. 

 

The first name is the robe of liberation — that which frees us from attachment. The second name of the okesa is the robe of formlessness (muso), where the use of the word form means temporal form or appearance. Okumura says, “the robe of formlessness means that this robe has no form, not that it is beyond form and emptiness.“ Page 83 

 

He goes on to say that “emptiness means moving and changing moment by moment and that there is nothing beyond form and emptiness.” Myoshin used the example of hemoglobin, red blood cells that absorb oxygen while they pass through the lungs and distribute it to the cells in the body’s organs and muscles. They are continually changing at every moment of its existence just like all dharmas throughout the entire trichiliocosm including the kesa. 

 

Further along Okumura says the reality of emptiness has no fixed form and if we grasp at the Buddhist teaching — hold onto it as something substantial, i.e. not a manifestation of emptiness, then “we missed the point of the Buddha’s teaching.“ When we try to control it, we diminish our Life force so instead we open our hands (of thought), realizing the meaning of the name of the okesa, which is “the robe of formlessness.“

 

Living By Vow - Myoshin’s Notes from Week 6, October 23, 2022

​

We begin again on page 81 where Okumura says: “The construction of the okesa symbolizes the emptiness of the five skandhas. … The okesa is an example of emptiness or egolessness (anatman), impermanence, and interdependent origination. So the robe is much more than a uniform; it embodies the basic teachings of the Buddha.” Here, I suspect the basic teachings that Okumura is referring to are the three marks of existence: dukkha, annica, and anatta, where anatta/anatman refers to ‘no-self’ or egolessness; impermanence is dukkha (suffering) and interdependent origination corresponds to annica.

 

How is impermanence suffering (dukkha)? Myoshin gave the example of the ice cream cone that he wishes would last forever but disappears in a few minutes. What ensues is sadness for the loss of the treat and desire for more. This cycle of satisfaction followed by dissatisfaction is, in Buddhism, suffering. You don't have to have an arrow stuck in your chest to suffer. There are thousands of ways we suffer everyday: the annoying neighbor with the leaf blower; the guy in front of you on the highway who’s going too slow; your kids or spouse who won't help with the chores, etc. All of these complaints arise from attachment to the ego-based IDEA that things SHOULD be a certain way, even when they’re not.

 

Because the three marks - like all things including your breath, your heart beat, your liver function - are continuously in motion, it’s nearly impossible to clearly demarcate where one of them begins and where another ends. This is the inconceivability of all phenomena.

 

We then got into a discussion about The Two Truths - Relative and Absolute - and took a little detour. Myoshin read an excerpt from Thomas Cleary’s text Entry Into the Inconceivable, an introduction to the Avatamsaka (Flower Ornament) Sutra. On page 71 Cleary says: “Great Universally Extensive” is the reality realized by all enlightened ones. “Buddha’s Flower Ornament” conjoins the realm of reality and the person who realizes it.

‘Conjoin’ means ‘join with’. When Cleary says the person who realizes the realm of reality is conjoined with it, he means the enlightened one is ‘joined with’ reality, The Absolute. This is the Way of the prehistoric yogis in India, the Way rediscovered by Shakyamuni Buddha. This ‘joining’ can only happen by way of experience; it cannot happen in any conceptual (e.g. logistical) way - ever. After class, Melissa shared this: “There are two definitions of the word “yoga”, depending on which Sanskrit root is used: They are (1) yujir (2) yuj. The Veda used the word ‘yoga’ with the meaning of ‘yoking’, ‘joining’, ‘coming together’ and ‘connection’.” This is what Cleary is referring to when he says a meditation practitioner is conjoined with the realm of reality. I believe that is what is known as samadhi.

Living By Vow - Myoshin’s Notes from Week 5, October 16, 2022

​

Today we began reading on page 81 and learned a new definition for the word ‘immaculate’. Reverend Okumura says, “In Buddhism, things free from attachment are immaculate”. To be immaculate means to be free from attachment, which stands in contrast to the conventional understanding of the word immaculate.

​

Further along, Kotatsu reiterated the importance of attention in our practice. Myoshin stated that one aspect of our religion manifests in the attention that we bring to our feelings when we practice zazen. It is through our attention to our feelings, our consciousness  awareness of physical sensations in the body via perception, that we can experience our attachments: positive, negative, and neutral.

​

The practice of developing the capacity for attention and cultivating awareness of the five skandhas is what the Buddha taught in the Satipatthana Sutta (The Foundations of Mindfulness). Kotatsu noted that the ability to develop attention requires agency - the activity of our mind that is intentional. When we chant, “May our intention equally extend to all beings…” this is what we’re talking about. 

​

Kotatsu noted that even current neurobiological research has confirmed that simply sitting still, the way we do in zazen, is beneficial with regard to easing agitation, anxiety, mental anguish, etc. These are things that the Six Buddhas before Buddha knew and have transmitted to all of us. 

​

If we look deeply enough at our attachments we begin to notice causes and conditions and realize that “(there is) no fixed thing outside experience.” Kotatsu Roko, March 20, 2022

                                                              ***

Living By Vow - Myoshin’s Notes from Week 4, October 9, 2022

The Kesa / Okesa / Buddha’s Robe / Rakusu is a great, immaculate, formless field of benefaction. Wearing the kesa is being wrapped in the arms of the Tathagata. We vow to perfect our practice knowing that Right Effort is the Way and that we will fail. Still, we do our best.

​

Dissolving our attachment to the five skandhas—all of the physical and mental aggregates of a human being—is freedom. These aggregates include:

• Form - our physical body

• Feeling - sensation(s) occurring in the body

• Perceptions - arising from eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind

• Mental formations (samskara) - thoughts, beliefs, cognition, etc.

• Consciousness - of which there are eight kinds

 

We practice to fulfill our vow to save all beings knowing that everything is sacred and alive. Our religion is to know that we too are truly alive. Full complete and perfect enlightenment begs us to come forward. We practice diligently knowing ‘the tail will never pass through’ (Wumenguan).

                                                              ***

Living By Vow - Myoshin’s Notes from Week 3, October 2, 2022

There are three essential practices for all Mahayana Buddhists, which includes all Zen Buddhists. They are: 

​

1. The thought of enlightenment 

2. Taking/ receiving the Bodhisattva Vows

3. Realizing the Six Perfections

​

The Six Perfections / Paramitas are:

1. Dana - Generosity 

2. Sila - Deportment 

3. Kshanti - Tolerance 

4. Virya - Energy

5. Dhyana - Absorption 

6. Prajna - Wisdom 

​

The realization of the perfection of wisdom - prajñāpāramitā - is a necessary requirement for the attainment of Karuna - Compassion. 

​

Compassion is that which is most highly valued in all of Buddhism and is represented by the manifestation of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, aka Kuan Yin (Chinese), and Jizo (Japanese) Bodhisattva.  

​

The Bodhisattva Vow to save all beings hinges on the attainment of both wisdom and compassion. ~ Myoshin

                                                              ***

Living By Vow - Myoshin’s Notes from Week 2, September 25, 2022

​

“Sutras are words (sutured/sewn together) of the Buddha.” Kotatsu Roko 

​

“Buddhism claims that a person called ‘The Buddha’ rediscovered a very ancient, ageless, wisdom, about 600 BCE.” Edward Conze, A Short History of Buddhism. 

 

“A religion that has nothing to do with our fundamental attitude toward our lives is nonsense. Buddhadharma is a religion that teaches us how to return to a true way of life.” Kodo Sawaki Roshi

 

Regarding the question, ‘What is Vow?’ Our fundamental attitude toward our lives, how we work with the ageless ancient wisdom sutras of the Buddha, is our true way of life, our Vow. Myoshin 

 

Next week we will continue to read and study the introduction to the text Living By Vow.

Living By Vow - Myoshin’s Notes from Week 1, September 24, 2022

Book was introduced and the Robe Chant was discussed with sangha participants led by Myoshin Tom Jones and our guiding teacher Kotatsu John Bailes.