All Is Provided

The longer I am in the martial arts, the more I see how what you need is always there. When during an attack, the assailant actually gives me what I need in order to defend myself. This is difficult to put into words, but let's say my assailant attempts to push me straight back with both his hands. When his hands come at me I have a variety of ways to work with this and will take the one that 'feels' and 'flows' better. I don't have a pre-set method of dealing with this attack. What is there I use and the answer is provided. Even after I disrupt his initial attack and begin to 'mess him up' with either joint locks, hits, kicks or throws...it all depends on what he provides to me. This dictates the next movement.

All is provided when I need it.

This goes for life as well. Everything I need is already here. It is provided. But just like an attack I need to keep my center...and flow...and smile. Life will provide me with I need to do next. I don't have to pre-think or worry or have anxiety. I just have to trust.

In the martial arts, I trust my training. Defense and movement with another being is natural and no real concern. I am learning the same goes for life in general. Just gotta trust that no matter what life throws at me, I have the skills needed to flow and smile. On my journey this is about growing into my Dharma name of Shinzen...Trust Zen. I trust zen...I trust this moment...I trust that, just like an opponent, life provides exactly what I need to do next. Ahh...freedom!

Leap and the net will appear.

In Gassho,
Shinzen

Vishuddha Chakra and Jin

The throat chakra, or Vishuddha Chakra, guides our energy towards benevolence and compassion as expressed in the concept of Bushido's Jin. It is here we totally surrender our will to that of a 'higher' power...and it is here we find our true voice.

The essence of Vishuddha is Faith. Faith in that which is invisible to the eye. Faith in that which gives rise to our true essence and allows us to see a bigger picture than before. It gives rise to the spirit of deep compassion of Jin. We begin to see that the 'other' is ourselves. Those we thought of as enemies are no more. We can only see ourselves. This requires faith and the ability to communicate from our heart.

About thirty years ago I visited a counselor friend of mine who was an intuitive and could read chakras. She told me I was doing pretty good, but my throat chakra was a bit stuck. As I looked in myself, I realized I wasn't being true to my inner voice, but listening to others and wanting to please them more. Her insight helped my find my voice and faith within myself.  Then about seven years later, I met Nonin, my Zen teacher. He gave me the Dharma name of Shinzen. To have faith in zen.  I had to dig deeper and realized I was still hampered in this area.

This writing and the publishing of my book is a result of opening my throat chakra and speaking from faith and my inner voice...and I am hoping it blesses people. I still care how others percieve me, but I am less apt to be a people pleaser. I also have more faith in general. Faith that everything is okay just as it is.

Vishuddha Chakra and Jin. An expression of Faith.

Hands palm to palm,
Shinzen

Planting your garden

Today is the day I am planting my garden. As I was eating breakfast and sipping on my cup of coffee my mind  wandered into the mind as garden story we so often hear about.  Our mind is a garden. Did you know there is always something growing in it?

Yesterday, I tilled the soil and broke new sod as I expanded my garden as well. Over night, I am sure whatever seeds of weeds, old plants, flowers reside in that soil  the wonderful process of creation is taking shape.

The same with our mind. It is the soil of consciousness and there are many seeds planted in it, consciously and unconsciouly. All of these seeds are just waiting for the right conditions to sprout and grow. While enjoying the  aroma of my coffee, I began to notice the seeds I was planting into my mind and wondering what type of plants will sprout from this....well what you are reading is part of it.

Mindfulness of our thoughts, our mind-seeds, is paramount in having a good garden. After all, what do you want to grow in your garden? I am planting, tomatoes, beans, peas, corn, lettuse, etc. in my backyard garden. I hope they mature into a full harvest of wonderful food I can share with my family and neighbors.

In my mind-garden, I wish to plant seeds of compassion, patience, love, blessings, etc...and hope they too grow and can feed my family and share with my neighbors. It is important to know exactly what you are planting. Pay attention to it.

I am hoping my expanded garden will expand my mind-garden as welll....well maybe if I planted a certain type of mushroom. (lol shhh..don't tell.)  Actually just working in the garden expands my mind and my heart. It feels good to be close to the earth, even though my hands hurt and there is a lot of work ahead.

As I am a conscious co-creator of my garden I also wish to be a conscious co-creator of the universe. How about you?

Hands palm to palm,
Shinzen

Apart from Mind There is No Art of Combat!

Bankei was a Zen Master in the early 1600's. As a son of Ronin, he was also fiercely independent and challenged the overly ceremonial Zen of his time. Bankei was well known for simply telling people to trust in their innate Unborn Buddha Mind.

Today's post I am going to put in a response to a letter he received from a Martial Artist regarding the art of combat. Some of this will make total sense to you...other stuff you might be scratching your head and wondering what he is really saying. This is the stuff you are to explore, meditate upon and hopefully realize in your practice of the arts...and of life.

Here's Bankei:

"In performing a movement, if you act with no-mind, the action will spring forth of itself. When your ki changes your physical form changes along with it. When you are carried away by force, that is relying on "self." To have ulterior thoughts is not in accordance with the natural.

When you act upon deliberation, you are tied to thought. The opponent can then tell the direction of your ki. If you try to steady yourself by deliberate effort, you ki becomes diffuse, and you may grow careless. When you act deliberately, your intuitive response is blocked; and if your intuitive response is blocked, how can the mirror mind appear?

When without thinking and without acting deliberately, you manifest the Unborn (my insert: Unborn can mean Emptiness) you won't have any fixed form. When you are without fixed form, no opponent will exist for you in the whole land. Not holding on to anything, there is no "you" and no "enemy." Whatever comes, you just respond, with no traces left behind.

Heaven and earth are vast, but outside mind there is nothing to seek. Become deluded, however, and instead this mind becomes your opponent. Apart from mind, there is no art of combat."

Hands palm to palm,
Shinzen



translation from 'Bankei Zen' by Peter Haskell

Hsin Hsin Ming

The Hsin Hsin Ming or Verses of Faith Mind is one of my favorite Zen texts. It was written by Seng-ts'an. He was the third Zen Patriarch in China.

I encourage people to read it countless of times. I have copied a few of the first stanzas to wet your appetite. It is quite long and I love the ending.

"The Great Way is not difficult
for those not attached to preferences.
When neither love nor hate arises,
all is clear and undisguised.
Separate by the smallest amount, however,
and you are as far from it as heaven is from earth.

If you wish to know the truth,
then hold to no opinions for or against anything.
To set up what you like against what you dislike
is the disease of the mind.

When the fundamental nature of things is not recognized
the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
The Way is perfect as vast space is perfect,
where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.

Indeed, it is due to our grasping and rejecting
that we do not know the true nature of things.
Live neither in the entanglements of outer things,
nor in ideas or feelings of emptiness.
Be serene and at one with things
and erroneous views will disappear by themselves.

When you try to stop activity to achieve quietude,
your very effort fills you with activity.
As long as you remain attached to one extreme or another
you will never know Oneness.
Those who do not live in the Single Way
cannot be free in either activity or quietude, in assertion or denial.

Deny the reality of things
and you miss their reality;
assert the emptiness of things
and you miss their reality.
The more you talk and think about it
the further you wander from the truth.
So cease attachment to talking and thinking,
and there is nothing you will not be able to know.

To return to the root is to find the essence,
but to pursue appearances or "enlightenment" is to miss the source.
To awaken even for a moment
is to go beyond appearance and emptiness."

Translation: Richard B. Clarke (mendosa.com)

Hands palm to palm,

Shinzen

Sheathing the Sword

Sheathing a Katana, the Samurai's razor-sharp sword, is an art in and of itself. Iaido, the art of drawing the sword, ends with sheathing and bowing. Sheathing the sword is an extremely important part of Iaido as it is putting the sword 'to rest'.

For those who have followed my blog for awhile, you know I consider the mind to be a sword as well. If you do not train in its use properly it will harm you, but if you discipline your mind it will save you. Thus the old Japanese sayings of 'the sword either will take or give you life'. When your thoughts run rampant and are full of worry and anxiety, this sword will cut you up....but if your thoughts are full of joy and faith, this sword will give you life.

Well, what about the sword that is not cutting? The mind that is not judging or discriminating? What about the mind that is 'sheathed'...put to rest? This is the mind at peace. There is an old Zen poem about Faith Mind and is called the 'Hsin Hsin Ming'. One of the phrases talks about how peace of mind is easy, if we do not pick and choose. Discriminating, judging is the cause of our mental dis-ease. This is your mind-sword cutting your life into separate

existences...dualities.

To put your sword to rest is the practice of Zazen. The practice of sitting upon the razor's edge...not cutting, not judging...just sitting there...fully present...knowing if you move you get 'cut' and your mind will not be at ease. To be able to 'still' the mind so it sets upon the sword's edge is truly an artform and requires daily practice. You then can see your life in its totality...not the cut up pieces you have left on the floor.

As a warrior, of Zen and Budo, please make it a practice to set a daily time for formal Zazen and throughout the day, practice Mindfulness of Mind, Body, Breath, Spirit. Sit on the razor's edge of the Katana called Now. Peace is there. Why do you think the Samurai, the Shaolin monks and other Warrior cultures practice meditation?

Hands palm to palm,

Shinzen