A Flash of Lightening

"Having received a human life, do not waste the passing moments. Already upholding the Buddha Way, why would you indulge the sparks from a flint? After all, form is like a dewdrop on the grass. Human life is a flash of lightning, transient and illusory, gone in a moment."

Dogen Zenji Dai Osho
Translated by - Kazuaki Tanahashi
Excerpt from - Enlightenment Unfolds

No Separation

"God must be in us, who are made in his likeness. We cannot presume the duality of God and the world. Religion is not to go to God by forsaking the world, but to find him in it. Our faith is to believe in our essential oneness with him, and not our sensual separateness. "God is in us and we in him," must be made the most fundamental faith of all religion."

Soyen Shaku Zenji, Dai Osho
Excerpt | Zen for Americans

Seeing to the bottom

Once when talking to one of my friends named Jamie about aspects of Zen practice he shared an idea with me. He said, “see a glass jar, that is filled with pure clear water. Next see yourself pouring a cup of dirt into the water. “ He then asked me, “what will happen to your water?” It becomes foggy and you cannot see through it, as you could before. He said, “Now see yourself putting your hand in the jar and stirring the water. What happens then?” The foggy water becomes worse, more dense and it’s impossible to see through it. He then replied “true is true.”

Jamie then stated, “And this is how we are. We are like this clear water, but then we pour in our fear, anxiety, frustration, worries and we contaminate our mind and everything in between. Every thing becomes foggy to us. But if we removed our hand from the jar and stop stirring things up and we let it sit and sit and sit, eventually the dirt would settle to the bottom and though the mud is still there we would have clear water again. Zen teaches us to let our own mud settle by not stirring up our negative emotions and we not only see ourselves as we truly are, but start too act as we truly are.”

Maybe our Zen practice is not about gaining so-called “enlightenment.” Maybe it is nothing more than allowing that which is in us to settle down, so that we can gain enough clarity to see to the bottom of who we truly are.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Evaporating fear and anxiety

"Generally speaking, we are not strong. We are rather greedy and rather lazy. We are fearful and have confusions and anxieties. But when we can testify to, and sense, see, and feel Buddha Nature itself, these inner anxieties will be allayed. The reason why our anxiety is so acute is that we don't know who we really are. Once that is settled by realizing true Buddha Nature, we can calm down."

Eido Shimano Roshi
Excerpt | Points of Departure (Zen Buddhism with a Rinzai View)

Self-efficacy

Anyone who knows me well, is aware of my love for linguistics. Language is one of the key ways that we connect and come together. It is a bridge where we enter into each others mind (which makes its use a huge responsibility). That being said, a word that I frequently think about is "Self-efficacy."

Self-efficacy is the belief that one is capable of performing in a certain level of competence or attaining specific goals. Given this definition, it's striking to me how many times I've encountered people who use a particular sentence. "I can't do it," or "I've always been like this," (implying that change is not possible) or :I feel hopeless cause I always seem to fail." I always respond, "then you won't." The truth is that if our ideas and beliefs are not in alignment with our actions, we often breed our own failure.

An example of this for me is when I was a kid and was playing little league baseball. There was this kid who pitched for the "Optimist," named Eddie Harr. He pitched like fire and everyone was afraid of him, me included. Not only did he have amazing pitches, but he was also known to back people off of the plate if they where "good." Though I was pretty good, when it came to batting, I never ever hit a pitch from Eddie. Why? Because I didn't believe that I could. Even though I went to bat, I wasn't really going to bat, I was going into fear.

Buddha said, "As you think, so shall you become." And another aspect of that is that "what we think about expands." If we have hope firmly in our mind, it expands. If we have fear, anger, hopelessness in our mind that is what will expand.

Belief in oneself and our abilities is absolutely critical. Knowing that if we apply the time, learning, solid problem solving skills, right effort and dedication that we can and will attain our goals. Perhaps put another way, it can be about living with a sense of hope. Once we have that sense of hope, we have the capacity to be our own ally.

The Buddha once said "Atta dipa," meaning be a light unto yourself. In other words, we have the capacity and are able to be a part of our own solution. Dwell, you are the light itself. Instead of always thinking that someone or something is going to fix us, it's our responsibility to heal our selves by taking massive action within our lives.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Living in the Solution

All too often it seems easy to see the things that are going wrong, yet ignore what's going right. That applies to people and life in general. This is partly due to the conditioning we've lived under since childhood. Another influential factor is self-esteem. And another piece of the puzzle is that we can tend to live backwards towards our past, rather than this moment which is going to make our future.

When I notice that I'm catching people doing things so-called "wrong." I intentionally change my mental policy and commit to catching people doing things right. Living in that state creates opportunities to not only interact with others in a different way, but myself as well. I'm reminded of Buddha's words "as you think, so shall you become." Put another was, "What we think about expands and magnifies."

We might say to ourselves, "I think that person is trying to hurt me," or "These people always make mistakes, they probably don't care about what they are doing," or "I'm not a trustworthy and lovable person." In that moment our brain reaches out and attempts to prove that thinking so-called "right." It starts to verify that people are trying to hurt us or making mistakes or that we are not trustworthy and lovable, giving us Howard Cosell like play-by-play's. And as we focus on these negatives, the positives dim as if the sun had been eclipsed by the moon. But like a lunar eclipse, if we shift our attention, we can remove that object blocking our vision or ability to see what's right and okay. The brightness returns.

To keep my mind, zig-zagging forward into the solution and what is "going right," I do a lot of different things. Obviously Zen is one piece of the jigsaw puzzle. I listen to podcast like Genjo Osho from Choboji's and Shugen Sensei from Zen Mountain Monastery. I read, read, read - and not just books on spirituality and self improvement. I'm currently on the last book of "The Dark Tower" series by Stephen King. It allows my mind to rest. I hang out with my wife. She laughs easily and proves to be a good friend. I play with my kids and share time from Xbox "Rock Band" to playing "Super-Hero's." For some odd reason, they like to dress up, using towels that are really capes and pillows that are power shields. And I write to you, which encourages me to have things "worthy" to share.

I'm not sure if people so-called "find happiness." My experience is that we "make happiness." And it seems that how we get there is by living the solution as opposed to living the problem. One last thing that I might share on this. When I begin to observe myself leaning negative, I focus on the 80/20 rule. I allow myself to spend 20% of my time entertaining the problem, but I have to spend 80% of my time developing and then living the solution.

Love and Respect,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digialZENDO

It's unavoidable

There are moments that are as if we've been pulled out of the water like a person who was drowning. But drowning in what? Distraction.

Last night I had one of the half dreaming/half awake scenarios. What happened to our friend Ronnie has been weighing on my head. The thought stated as "we are all coming to the clearing at the end of a path. It's unavoidable and there are no exceptions. The clock is ticking." I woke up thinking, it's kinda nice how your brain will work on you when you are sleeping.

As I was laying there my brain threw an image in front of me. It was me strapped in to a roller coaster, going up a major hill and then starting "the plunge." I got that scary feeling in my stomach and remembered that I hate roller coasters. And then the thought repeated the word, "unavoidable." I new exactly what that was referring to. Death. That thing that comes on an unspecified date and time, without warning. My next thoughts are always the same. My wife, the kids, friends and all the silly things that I enjoy like Mc'Donald's french fries, playing music, learning and all the rest. And then there is the last thought, "I don't want to leave. But it really *is* unavoidable

Those are the thoughts that I sometimes side-step, move to a corner of my mind or try to pretend it's not there. But we all know what the trust is, whether we want to play pretend or not.

The "gift" (and I really do mean gift) of this life is that we have opportunities to do extraordinary things. Bassui says, "If you don't come to enlightenment in this lifetime when will you?" It's important to dedicate time to the things that really matter as opposed to the dramas, distractions, illusions and addictions that we can get into. To make a difference to make *this* life count for something. There's no point in living a mediocre life. Gyo, gyo, gyo, gyo, gyo (practice). There is *no* time to waste.

"Let me respectfully remind you,
Life and death are of supreme importance,
Time moves swiftly like an arrow,
and opportunity is lost,
Each of us should strive to awaken,
Awaken!
Take heed. Do not squander your life."

Happiness,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Ronnie

Last night when I came home, Deb gave me some bad news about one of our friends who is very dear to us. Our friend Ronnie came to the clearing at the end of the path. He was only 34 years old. We where both very shocked and very saddened by this and our heart goes out to his Mom and Brother.

Though you probably don't know who Ronnie was, I feel compelled to tell you about him and what made him so very special to Deb and I. He almost always had a smile and an embrace for you. He knew how to hug people not only physically but mentally and emotionally as well. He was off-beat and wickedly funny. Deb said that was never a time that they hung out that they had a bad time. I looked back through my mind and knew that to be true.

He seemed comfortable within his skin. When he had moments of difficulty, he didn't hold it in or pretend, but rather shared it and released it. It was like he knew that holding on to pain was like trying to hold on to an anvil in deep water. It would only take you down. That was not his style. He liked floating. As a part of his compassion he was a vegan. He didn't believe in harming anything or anyone. He lived as an open and honest person and though he didn't set himself up to be a positive example, he really was. A interesting way his integrity showed up was that when post of the people where around him and partying, he never did. He didn't need artificial crap inside of his body. He knew he was okay as he was.

It may sound odd to say, but he easily reminded people as a better version of the John Cusack character in the movie, "Say Anything." He was a really, really good and loving guy and we miss him. I hope these words give you a feel for the person that he was and is to us. As the ears fill our eyes, though I am Buddhist, these are the only words that make sense to me right now.

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long." - The 23rd Psalm | NRSV

Love,

Jaye & Deb

Stop rejecting the self

"Impeccability means "without sin." Impeccable comes from the Latin pecatus, which means "sin." The im in impeccable means "without," so impeccable means "without sin." Religion talks about sin and sinners, but let's understand what it really means to sin. A sin is anything that you do which goes against yourself. Everything that you feel or believe or say that goes against yourself is a sin... Being without sin is exactly the opposite. Being impeccable in not going against yourself. When you are impeccable, you take responsibility for your actions, but you do not judge or blame yourself.

From this point of view the whole concept of sin changes from something moral or religious to something more commonsense... Sin begins with the rejection of yourself"

Don Miguel Ruiz
Excerpt | THe Four Agreements

Outside (The echo chamber)

I was watching Bill Moyer's Journal on Friday night. One of his guests was, Susan Jacoby. She was on to talk about her book, "The Age of American Unreason." She artfully brought up the "echo chamber." We see it often. There are people who are only willing to listen to their particular group of people. If anything is suggested from outside that group it is somehow thought of as "wrong, stupid or just plain irrelevant."

About a month ago I was talking to someone about "Joel Osteen," and that I liked his message and found his take on things refreshing. The person immediately shot back, "are you kidding me? He's a Christian. Christian's are nuts. They living in constant contradiction. Besides, your Buddhist so how can you remotely like what that guy is saying?"

My response was "not every Buddhist is true to the path and not every Christian is false to theirs. If I lose he capacity to hear ideas other than those that I'm use to, I'd feel somehow limited or not as well rounded." And when people don't properly use their heads only desiring people who are of similar likes and views, intolerance and incompetence is fostered. That is the price of living in the echo chamber. How regrettable.

To have the ability to move outside the echo chamber is critical. How we get there may be another story. It's sure to say, it will not *just* "happen." We are going to have to actively work on it, if for no other reason than it seems almost counter-intuitive, within our society. Despite this what sometimes seems impossible *is* possible. One thing that will lead us their is being *upright."

You can check out the conversation Bill Moyer's had with Susan Jacoby, CLICK HERE. It's an interesting conversation and may give you some things to consider.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Messages

The Buddha said, "As you all think, so shall you become." I think of this as another version of Einstein's E=MC2. That is why it is "Dharma," or Truth.

Recently, I've been listening to what is going on in the presidential race. That has been a lot of heat over Obama's so-called "meaningless words," and "Rhetoric" within his message that he share with people. No mater who wins the election there are some interesting lessons here.


The First lesson is that whether McCain and Clinton like it or not, words do matter. Previously it was rhetoric that got us into a war with Iraq and leading us into one with Iran.

The Second lesson is that the so-called "right words" in the "right-time" and in the "right-place" can produce amazing action. Think of Buddha and how many people came to enlightenment is his time. Think of Ghandi and his vision of "non-violence," that sparked massive change, not only in India but in the United States as well. Martin Luther King Jr., JFK and RFK are clear and obvious examples of not only having inspired words but bring them to life as well.

Massive change starts with an idea. Then a vision is spoken. Then discussions take place with oneself and others to determine who the vision might be fulfilled. Finally there is the diligent action to bring the vision into the here and now. This is the way it works for each of us.

That the words are *particularly* inspiring is critical. Deeply inspiring words carry us though the difficult times. They lead us to make the needed sacrifices and they unify not just the singular person but everyone that we come into contact with. It is the vision expressed though the word that reminds us of our journey together. Mediocre words bring forth mediocre results. Exceptional words and vision bring forth massive change. And for those who doubt this, I am saddened that they are so cynical, because they have lost their fire and imagination and that must be a truly sorrowful state.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Mastering Oneself

"True will-power consists in overcoming the irritabilities, follies, rash impulses and moral lapses which accompany the daily life of the individual, and which are apt to manifest themselves on every slight provocation; and in developing calmness, self-possession, and dispassionate action in the press and heat of worldly duties, and in the midst of the passionate and unbalanced throng. Anything short of this is not true power, and this can only be developed along the normal pathway of steady growth in executing ever more and more masterfully, unselfishly, and perfectly the daily round of legitimate tasks and pressing obligations.

The master is not he whose "psychological accomplishments," rounded by mystery and wonder, leave him in unguarded moments the prey of irritability, of regret, of peevishness, or other petty folly or vice, but he whose "mastery" is manifested in fortitude, non-resentment, steadfastness, calmness, and infinite patience. The true Master is master of himself; anything other than this is not mastery but delusion."

James Allen
Excerpt | Byways To Blessings

Nor Will I Kill

There is a Buddhist precept that says, "I will not be violent, nor will I kill." A lot of people take that as a literal, but it also means something else, to me. It goes far deeper.

On the surface it's very obvious to see what's wrong with physically hurting or killing someone. But more times than not, our life is about what's not so obvious to us. Do we do violence to others with our mind, thought and/or speech? That's a type of violence and way that people are killed too. I don't think the journey is about being a so-called "perfect person," but we can work towards progress and hopefully do it less.

When people make it almost a sport to be rude, cruel, belittle, verbally and/or psychologically abusive, attempt to embarrass, berate or almost in singular fashion focus their attention in "catching people do things wrong," it's a clear indicator that they may have lost something dear. In the west, we call it the "Soul." Put another way, we might call it the loss of humanity, in the worst way.

I've observed that when people use their mind in such a negative way, there is no hope of building harmony, unity, wholeness and compassion. Killing with the mind creates many, many gaps.

In practicing Zen, I recognize that it's not about learning so-called "new things." In certain instances it's about unlearning some of things that I mentioned above. To unlearn striking out at people, so that we can embrace. To unlearn listening, so that we can hear with our heart. To unlearn bashing people, so that instead of influencing people to hang their heads, we help others and ourselves to lift them.

In conclusion I reflect on the words of Gotoma Buddha from the Dhamapada . "All living beings are afraid of the stick [violence]; All living beings fear death, Just as you do, Therefore, do not hurt or cause another harm."

May All Beings Be Happy,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Our Biggest Fear

"Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive - the risk to be alive and express what we really are. Just being ourselves is the biggest fear of humans. We have learned to live our life trying to satisfy other's demands. We have learned to live by others points of view because of the fear of not being accepted and of not being good enough for someone else."

Don Miguel Ruiz
Excerpt | The Four Agreements

Humiliation denied

I caught a video on YouTube this morning of an Obama supporter that gets grilled by a journalist attempting to humiliate and make him look foolish and stupid. As you hear him firing off questions, you can clearly hear the condescencion in his voice. It turns out that he failed miserably. Yahoo and I don't mean the search engine.

Despite the withering questions, the young man held his ground, not bothering to get emotional, but focus on articulating his heart and mind. It an interesting ineraction. Right at the end, the reporter said, "nice to see someone who's awake (i.e. enlightened)." Pretty cool.

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Change Starts Here

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."

Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

Natural Consequences

Yesterday someone close to me sent me an email. As they detailed the events, I was thinking, "wow - this is a horror story. What a craptacular day it must have been."

At the end of the email they said, "I have been listening to "Integrity" (Henry Cloud, PhD.) at night when I can't sleep. I am reading articles on the Internet to try and help my situation. I'm working with everybody, giving people credit when it is due and working to be the best [person] I can be and learn better ways to handle things. My head is pounding and I know I alone have to deal with this just wanted to share it will someone."

After reading that paragraph, my first thought was a visual of that bumper-sticker, "Mean People Suck." My second thought was that small truth that I live by, "you can do everything right, but things can still go wrong." I called the person and let them know that I empathized and that I believed in them.

As I was flipping their situation over in my mind, it reminded me of something that I see everyday. Namely people making decisions or behaving in ways that 90% of the time lead to a painful or frustrating outcome. It would be almost funny if the results weren't so tragic and life limiting.

Sometimes I get this thought that says, "Even if I was the last person on earth, it is still my obligation to do the right thing, no matter what. No matter what. No matter what." But that no matter what can come in a lot of different flavors.

Sometimes, it can be useful to allow people to run into a wall, to help them understand that universal laws apply to them. I call this "natural consequences." I actually learned this principle from my Mom and Dad. When I was a teenager and stuck in the hell of addiction, my father spent some time "enabling" me. My mom did that for a while too. But then at one point, she stopped. She didn't interfere with the natural consequences. She let me crash and burn. Not die, but crash and burn. Sometimes you have to burn a little to realize that you want to get out of the fire.

At the time I said to her, "what kind of mother are you? This ain't fair." She replied with, "I'm the kind of mother who knows that only you can convince yourself not to suffer over this." She held her ground. Guess what happened. I got better. Not only did I stop using, but I went through a spiritual change of direction, with the assistance of a Twelve Step Program and then later Rinzai Zen Buddhism. Things have been pretty great ever since then.

I use this example to say that sometimes expressions of integrity and compassion are not to interfere and let people flame out. we can let natural consequences effect changes that we would not be able to accomplish with others, in a million years. It gives them the opportunity to wake up and decide for themselves, who and what they really want to be. But after the fire, it's nice to be there to help them up, after they put their flames out.

No one can give us enlightenment, we have to activate it within ourselves. No one can taste and digest an apple pie for you. You have to do that one for yourself.

Paradox, Humor and Change,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Expecting a Report?

Two weeks ago, I blogged on "The World of Expectations." i promised to share what I learned from my experiments in expecting. It turns out that it was pretty illuminating. As I described, at every encounter I asked myself, "what am I expecting?"

Once I had gotten my mind focused on this practice, I noticed is how much expecting I and others do. It's inescapable. Here are some examples:

I expect myself and others to be cooperative, helpful, kind.

I expect for myself and others to succeed rather than fail.

There's the expectation to learn, see, feel and experience not only the familiar, but that which has been unknown.

I expect progress rather than perfection, in our growth and development.

I expect that when we don't see things eye-to-eye that we work together, so that we can produce a win/win situation rather than accepting loss/win or win/lose positions.

We all expect, expect, expect, expect.  Through them we shape avenues and lanes that we travel, emotionally. It seems like it's so ubiquitous, we don't notice that we are doing it all the time.

This naturally brings us to a the second thing that I noticed. Differing expectations. What happens to us when my expectations and your expectations don't match up? I found this notion to be akin to discovering king-kong. It almost looks like it is the source of most (if not all) human conflict. That staggered me, because through that filter, i observed it happening over and over again. It is a critical skill to learn how to reconcile our expectations with others. If we cannot do that, we will be as war with people in our life, because we will feel like others are against us.

At this point I have to say, don't get me wrong. I don't think having expectations is negative or wrong. But I do find that it can be useful to manage expectations sometimes, since we can get out of "control" with them. It can be important to understand what is directing or motivating our mind, when it comes to expectations. Is it compassion and hope or fear, anger and depression. These factors influence our expectations as well. This makes having clarity of purpose and mind very important.


If I want to get a long with you, I *must* strive to be aware of the expectations that I'm laying on you and be prepared to drop some of them. Especially if I recognize any that are unrealistic.

This turned out to be an amazingly helpful practice. it's giving me a window into some my motivations and actions. It has shown me how I have the ability to configure my experience, based on expectancy. What did you discover?

Happiness through learning,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Super "Duper" Tuesday

If you live in one of the States that is voting today, I am encouraging you to participate and vote. This is an element of social responsibility that it critical to expressing our thoughts and feelings about who should lead this country.

While I won't tell you who to vote for, I will encourage you to vote your hopes and dreams rather that your fears. If we cast our votes based on our fear, we strengthen and empower the increasing negative aspects of our society. Ghandi himself said, "Fear kills the soul."

Think about it. Yesterday McCain was saying, "I will chase Osama Bin Laden" to the gates of hell." It was more war mongering, preying upon fear and something that was placed in our consciousness on 9/11. On top of this we are also supposed to fear, potential female presidents, Black people, Hispanics, Gay people, Universal health care, Public school teachers, going Green, Tax increases, non christians, muslims living in America, people with so-called strange names, China the rising red empire, the EU and anyone not like us. This is the fear factor. And by living and voting based on these types of fear, we become mindless sheep, losing even more control of our Government that we already have.

In closing, i ask that you think about what Martin Luther King Jr once said. "Through our scientific and technological genius, we have made of this world a neighborhood and yet we have not had the ethical commitment to make of it a brotherhood. But somehow, and in some way, we have got to do this. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way God’s universe is made; this is the way it is structured."

I believe in not only what Martin Luther King Jr. is saying, I believe in you.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Conflict

My experience with Zen has been something of an uneven relationship. But the truth is that the uneven nature comes from myself not from Zen. There are days that when I do zazen, it's like gliding down a gentle slope on a bike. I sit down, rock to the left, rock to the right, counting the breath or breathing Mu and there is no problem. It's just cruising or like vanishing.

But then there are these other times... I go to sit and it seems like I've brought storm clouds with me. Sometimes it is things that have happened at work, or minor things that came up during the normal course of the day. But no mater what it is, my mind can get stuck to the distraction, like crazy glue. When this happens to me is the instant where my sitting can be difficult and in extreme cases, terrible, because my mind can get so divided.

So then the question becomes, "how do you return to we pointed undivided stabilized mind?" The answer is simple (but the execution can be difficult). When you notice your mind is astray, just return to one, mu or whatever your practice is. Do not bother debating about how we got there, or what it means. That's of no use. "Just return to one," is what I was taught. Others have instructed me, "when monkey mind (a brain that ceaselessly chatters and seems to leap from branch to branch) appears, give it no energy and it will dissipate on it own." If you pay attention to it, it becomes louder, stronger and eclipses everything.

I might add, that this applies to our day-to-day life. When I recognize that I've gone astray in some aspect of my life, I just come back to one. In this way when conflicts or problems arise, I am less attached to them, than in the past and they resolve with little intervention from me.

Gassho

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO