That which is important

Almost everyday, I interact with patients. The interesting thing that I notice is that about seventy-five percent want to be the doctor, counselor or therapist. Despite their life being in trouble and jeopardy, they sometimes what to practice medicine without a license. They are not teachable, and so the likelihood of failure is higher than normal.

If you go to see a doctor, allow yourself the be the patient. You do not have to have the diagnosis when you arrive at their office. Be the patient and they will help you. If you are struggling and have problems, be open and receptive to support and help. We don't have to be perfect, strong and fearless. It's okay, every person that I've ever met has had a moment. But when the help arrives, be prepared to follow that person our of the whole that we have found ourselves in.

Remain teachable, every day. This is very important. I have a teacher, to guide my Zen Buddhist practice. But I have to allow myself to be the student. I have to allow myself to be taught. Despite having such a good teacher, I am the one who has to be open, receptive, to be the container to carry and digest his teaching. That is my responsibility and no one else's.

That what is a cornerstone of practice is to remain teachable, moment after moment.

Gassho,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Celebrate

One of my friends sent this to me the other day and I thought it was a pretty nice thing that they shared with me, and not I'm sharing it with you.

"You are worth celebrating. You are worth everything. In the entire world there is but one you. There is only one person with your talents, your experience, and your gifts. No one can take your place. God created only one you, precious in his sight.

You have immense potential to love, to care, to create, to grow, to sacrifice, if you believe in yourself. It doesn't matter your age, or your color, or whether your parents loved you or not. Maybe they wanted to but couldn't. Let that go, it belongs to the past. You belong to now.

It doesn't matter what you have been, the wrong you've done, the mistakes you've made, the people you've hurt. You are loved in spite of everything. So love yourself and nourish the seeds within you. Celebrate you! Begin now. Start anew. Give yourself a new birth. Today - you are you and that is all you need to be. You are temporary. Here today and gone tomorrow. But today, today can be a new life. It is given freely.

That is the miracle of Being. So celebrate the miracle and celebrate you!!!"

Happiness,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

One Particle of Dust

Genjo Osho offers teisho "One particle of Dust." As ever, his expression is breathtaking and lively as he delves into Tozan's Five Ranks. He delves deeply into the "Seamlessness" of all being. He clearly encourages and illuminates why our Zen Buddhist practice is "life long," and not merely "over" at some arbitrary point.

One thing that I must say that really stuck to me is that there are people in this world that are suffering. One source of this suffering is nested within discriminating thoughts and actions. In some moments it's clearly obvious, undeniable and unambiguous. In other instances the suffering is difficult to discern or notice, because there is a kind of mask which we can put over ourselves. In the vibrancy of Genjo Osho's words I heard the clear and distinct reminder that our true, true, true, true, true purpose is to relieve suffering not only for ourselves, but so-called "others" who we are "artificially" separated from.

Genjo Osho encourages us to recover the "womb-like reality of seamless reality." How is this done? Zen practice. By-the-way, I'd like to remind you that my favorite translation for the word Zen is "unification." Genjo Osho says, "Great enlightenment is recovering what you already have." That in and of itself is a powerful notion, that if we allowed it - prehaps change and improve how we live our life.

As ever, you can listen to "One Particle of Dust" on Switchpod or look for Choboji under the podcasting section in iTunes. The download is FREE. The time that you will spend listening to this expression of "The Buddha, dharma and Sangha" will be well worth it. "Take a load off," and enjoy it.

Unify Your Heart,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Yes We Can!

I really enjoy this video written and produced by "Will I Am" from Black Eyed Peas. Click play, sit back and enjoy.

Fortitude

Fortitude is defined as, "the spiritual strength for the endurance of hardships." I'm fond of this principle and actually rely on in quite a bit, given that at least once a day, I come across a challenge or problem that requires me to stretch myself, even if it's just a little.

Using Fortitude as a picture frame, what's inside the frame? Put another way, where does our spiritual strength come from? Do we look to external sources or are we looking within? Those are good questions and if we explore them, can unlock a few doors for us.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Reject the Poison

When we are dealing with people in difficult situations, people can be angry, frustrated and carry negative emotions. In other instances, some people are flat-out pessimistic on a regular basis and remind us of "Glum" from Gulliver's Travels. In other moments people can gossip and run down other people. The result of this activity is to generate emotional poison.

After forty-two years, I am still surprised that learning not to accept or eat emotional poison from others is still so very important. The same can be said for sending it as well. We have the capacity to make each other physically, emotionally and spiritually sick. It's not a particularly nice thing to do to each other, but it happens all the time.

An obvious question is, "how do we not taste or eat others poison." My response is that there is no silver bullet. What works best for me is a multi-layered response. First, I remember that their poison doesn't belong to me. I just make an effort not to take it in.

Second, I tend to use a mantra. Mantra translates as "that which protects the Mind from itself." Often, I will use "Namu Dai Bosa," like I learned when I was living at DBZ. We would often chant it and I often felt more centered.

Third, do Zazen. Though we often think of it as sitting, There have been hundreds of times I have stood somewhere, taking 5 minutes to clearly breath my practice. Doing this enables me to reconnect with myself and enviornment.

Fourth, I make a serious effort not to carry poison myself. There is an actual precet that I learned that says, "I will not gossip nor engage in frivilous converstation." When we talk about others in a negative way,, not only is there the effect of the words which we speak to another person, but there is also the cost and consequence of sending out negative vibrations into the universe Itself. These negative vibrations can carry much like a radio wave. This might seem strange to say, but it's like our ability to pickup on someone's mood. They say they are happy, yet might feel very sad.

There are many other ways that we can deal with poison. But the most important thing is just making the effort not to consume it. It doesn't belong to us, so we should not carry it. In doing so, we strengthen ourselves and our life.

May All Beings Be Happy,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

The Life That We Want

Sometimes it's helpful to ask, "Am I living the life that I really want?" If the answer is "no" then it's obvious that we might need to start doing some things differently, so that we can "live the life that we really want."

I am fond of thinking and saying that so-called "good lives, good relationships, good experiences don't usually happen by accident." We have to apply ourselves to them. If we give of ourselves without reserve, this can help us to "live the life we really want." And even if the situation doesn't work out the way we may have intended, we can at least know that we made the effort. When asked about all of the so-called "failures" in making the light bulb, Thomas Edison replied, "I've never failed, I just learned nine hundred ways not to make a light bulb."

George Carlin died yesterday of heart failure, at the age of 71. Tim Russert died a week or so ago, at the age of 58. I wonder if they lived the life that they really wanted? We won't ever *really* know. In what moment will I die? I won't really know that. But I do understand that I am day by day learning to live the life that I really want. It just takes "Right-Effort" on my part, to live the life that I *really* want.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

The Right Thing

Knowing the right thing to do usually comes easy for most of us. It's often obvious and clear. There's little ambiguity.

In truth the difficulty in doing the so-called "right thing" usually about fearing the results. More specifically the notion that by doing the "right thing" that we might somehow lose something. The point we may miss is that if we do something unethical or inappropriate, we've already lost something. It's called integrity. Once we lose our integrity, we undermine or character and the foundation upon which our life rests.

May All Beings Be Happy,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO.com"

Creating our Moments

The Buddha said, "We you are now is what you have done in the past. What you will be in the future is what you do here and now at this very moment". Today like everyday presents an opportunity to influence not only our life but that of others. Will we make decisions and take actions that help or hurt ourselves and others? What we do at this very moment will help determine or influence what the rest of this year or 2009 or 2010 will be like? We each contribute both this moment and to the future. This notion is something to seriously consider.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Listening but not Hearing

Yesterday at lunch, I had an interesting encounter with someone who was visiting our facility. He asked, "So you really think that alcoholism and addiction are real diseases, that these people can't just make their mind up and just stop?" I told him that alcoholism and drug addiction is fundamentally a brain disease. That it's chronic, progressive and shortens the lifespan of the individual if it's not treated.

He looked at me and said, "I just think they need to make up their mind and stop." I replied, would you say that to someone who has cancer, diabetes, heart disease or HIV? Would you just tell them to make up their mind and not have their illness?

He looked at me for a moment and said, "and how do you know all of this?" I responded that, there is over 40 years of hard, scientific data and research that proves out that alcoholism and addiction are neuro-biological illnesses which are in fact highly treatable (no curable). I said, we can even show you on a brain scan the difference in function between someone who is not addiction to a chemical and someone who is. His response was, "I still think these people need to just grow up, and deal with life, like the rest of us."

I just smiled but said nothing. He then said, "you must think I'm one of those right-wing jerks." I replied, not really. But you do appear to be an anti-intellectual. You are impervious to facts. You go with what seems right in your gut and seem to want to trust your intuition. That doesn't make you bad, that just limits your options and possibilities. I then capped off the encounter with, look at it this way,, if alcoholism and addiction where not actual disease, insurance companies wouldn't pay for it. Trust me when I say that they would much prefer to keep the money in their pocket rather than spend it on some futile cause.

He ended up patting me on the shoulder, laughed and said "your a smart cookie, you definitely have your talking points down," and left. After he was gone, I laughed pretty hard.

What I took away from the encounter is that sometimes, while people may be so-called listening, they are not hearing. They are spending too much time holding on to their personal ideas and notions, they don't take anything in. That's a sad place to be.

May Your Life Go Well,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Beyond Self-Rejection

"We have the need to be accepted and to be loved by others, but we cannot accept and love ourselves. The more self-love we have, the less we will experience self-abuse. Self-abuse comes from self-rejection, and self-rejection comes from having an image of what it means to be perfect and never measuring up to that ideal. Our image of perfection is the reason we reject ourselves; it is why we don’t accept ourselves the way we are, and why we don’t accept others the way they are."

Don Miguel Ruiz M.D.
Excerpt | The Four Agreements

Cleaning House

"Zen is a good housecleaning for the Mind," is something Shunryu Suzuki Roshi once said. True, true, true. Even after forty-two years, I am still finding things to clean up, polish, to put into place and in some instances - remove.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Fathers Day

This is the video of a speech given by Barack Obama. Very serious food for thought and a terrific elevation of dialog. Enjoy.

One of Those 997

I once shared something with you that Eido Roshi wrote. It went, "It helps you wade across the river when the bridge is down. It accompanies you to the village on a moonless night." He goes on to explain this so-called "It," is no other than what we call "Buddha Nature," or "Mu" for those who are in the know. The bridge being down is related to the challenges and problems which we may encounter in our daily life, that cause us to be vexed.

But when I wrote that, I left something out that was also very important to share. Roshi says "Once in a great while we can cross a river without a broken bridge. The percentage is three-tenths of one percent. The traditional Japanese saying is that of the one thousand things you may do, you'll be truly contented with only three. That's average. But we greedy beings think that eighty percent should go our way. Therefore we become frustrated or angry. If you have to a thousand bridges on your spiritual pilgrimage, only three will be passable without impediment If we look at it this way, we are grateful and have nothing to complain about. If things go bad, we can say, "Oh, it's one of those 997."

"It helps you cross the river when the bridge is down. Mu helps you. Realization, or understanding of Buddha Nature, helps you. Mystery - it's the only word to think of. It is a mystery. Mysterious Mu helps you. - It accompanies you when you return to the village on a moonless night. On a dark night, Mu accompanies you, always- in particular, to return to your original village. It gives you directions like a flashlight."

This is so true, true, true. The last several weeks have been very rough. I've been buried and on top of that some people that I've encountered have been more demanding than ever. Whats that bumper stick say, "Mean people suck?" That's true too.

But Mu (This Buddha Nature), has been something of a life preserver, for someone who feels like he has fallen overboard. When you are in a storm on a ship, the way to cut through it to turn into it. If you do anything else we are likely to capsize and that might mean that we drown for a while in negative emotions. We can do better than that, to be sure.

So how to we turn into the storm? I feel like Genjo Osho might say, "Turn into with Mu! Don't just be "with" Mu, Be Mu (or Buddha Nature) and no-thing else. Digest, grind and combust every-thing with Mu." If I put it another way, you might use "The Four Agreements" that I posted on yesterday.

Yes I have personally been going though "one of those 997" times where things seem to have gotten way of track, Yet it's Mu that is helping me across. Oddly though, Mu appears in the shape of my family and teacher.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

The Four Agreements

Toltec Wisdom by Don Miguel Ruiz M.D.

BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

DON'T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

DON'T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse, and regret.

Through Adversity

A friend of mine once told me, "adversity is the ladder we will sometimes climb, that can lead us towards spiritual improvement." I've been thinking about that a lot lately. I've had some real challenges in my life, especially in the area of work. Sometimes the expectations of me are so high, that I have to remind people that "I couldn't recall the last time that I was able to part the red sea."

Despite everything that has been going on, the center point for me is Zen. When I feel as though I've lost my life balance, I come back to the basics. I listen to teisho's by Genjo Marinello Roshi, MRO, old books that have proven to be good friends and the like. The reason that I do this is that when my mind radiates with sadness, frustration or pain, it can become like an echo chamber and I use positive input as a counter-weight. That keeps me from floundering mentally and emotionally.

With Zen practice in Mind, not only can it be a ladder that we use to move towards physical, mental and spiritual improvement, it will ensure that our ladder is leaning against the correct wall. I can definitely make myself available to that notion.

Paradox, humor and change

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZEDNO

It cannot be strategy

"When individuals respect themselves, it can be seen in their posture, their voice, the integrity of their opinions. But it can't be strategy."

Hugh Prather
Excerpt | Love and Courage

Happiness is here and now

Wayne Dyer, PhD., was once quoted as saying, "The components of anxiety, stress, fear, and anger do not exist independently of you in the world. They simply do not exist in the physical world, even though we talk about them as if they do."

What is that saying exactly? My understand is that he is basically saying, we have the capacity to be our own "crisis creator." Anxiety, stress, fear and anger cannot exist without us. It's not as if those negative emotions are out there somewhere leading a separate life. We are empowering many of our negative emotions.

The above being said, the question becomes "how do we pull the plug on our negative emotions?" Simple. Zazen or meditation practice is one piece of the puzzle. Another piece is honest communication with self and others. Another piece is to not make *unnecessary* judgments. Another piece is in what I was talking about last week, in relation to surrender. Another element is when my mom taught me to "give, more than you take." And another piece that I personally like to use is to remember, "I am not my negative emotions." They only come up is I allow my Mind to be disturbed. That notion is key.

It may be difficult to comprehend, but I actually had to reprogram myself, to learn how to be my own friend. I use all of the things talked about above. It is in this way that I release a lot of my so-called "baggage," and in the get to feel better about myself and my life. Happiness is not out there somewhere waiting for us, in some mysterious place. Happiness is here now. I just have to clear away the clouds of negative emotion.

Love and Respect,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Surrender

Yesterday, I got a call from someone. She was in trouble related to addiction and seeking help. She sounded desperate, talking in a raspy voice. She sounded like she was more like 80 than 21 years old. She talked about what was going on and that she was really ready for help. But then something happened. Her "boy-friend" came in and told her she didn't really need help. She hung up the line.

My mind flashed an image. It was a person in the middle of a dark lake. There was a storm over head. I saw an arm, a hand, a head, slipping underneath the water. My mind said, "I think she is going to drown." The encounter was over in the blink of an eye.

I define surrender in situations like this as "not fighting those who could help me." Having the ability to accept and embrace support is a skill. I have seen that people can actually build a proficiency in accepting help from others.

When others reach their hand out to me, will I reach back to them? Under the weight of fear, ego and a vast array of emotions walk away from others? If we do that, nothing changes. Things don't get better. As a mater of fact, they usually get far worse.

Surrender is a valuable ally. The opposite of surrender is resistance. Never forget that. If I resist your help, support and embrace, I hurt myself. It is the ultimate "anti-Zen." This kind of resistance produces gaps, distance and separation. We do it in many ways and when we decide, we can stop doing the things that hurt ourselves. We can change our Mind. We can "Live in the surrender," and perhaps - share a better life.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Holding On

Have you ever seen one of those movies where something bad happens that leaves the actor or actress having off of a cliff, out of a window or some other object? As human beings we all have experiences that can influence us in such a way that we feel like we are hanging off of a cliff. Psychological and emotional cliff hangers are inevitable. The real question is how to we hold on?

We I feel out of physiological and emotional fuel, upset, angry, exacerbated and get done with my internal or external temper tantrum, I always end up asking myself an important question. How do I not just hold on, but actually pull myself up over the cliffs edge to get back on solid ground.

My personal answer most recently comes from my Teacher. "Mu." He has said, us Mu to "grind, cut through, to combust and evaporate!" my challenges and problems. This has proven very helpful to me. But at other times I remember other encouraging words such as when Eido Roshi once said to me, "Give yourself to the Dharma and the Dharma will give Itself to you." Or I might say to myself, "Don't give up five minutes before the miracle happens." Or as Joel Osteen says, "Be a victor, not a victim."

No matter what I've used to hold on, I put my breathing about three inches below my belly button (I'm being serious), and repeat one of those phrases that I mentioned above. In my Mind, that is the only thing that I allow to exist. If I am fully concentrated, the divided mind ceases and I am able to recover the moment and act in such a way that fits the new moment. I'm no longer just hanging off the emotional or psychological edge, I'm enabled to "stop living in the problem and start living in the solution" as I like to say.

in our challenges, I can only encourage you to "Hold on," and find that "puddle of peace," that enables us to not just survive your life, but to thrive.

Hapiness,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Life shaped by our Mind

"Our life is shaped by our mind, for we become what we think. That is the essence of the Buddha's universe... If we can get a hold of the thinking process, we can actually redo our personality, remake ourselves. Destructive ways of thinking can be rechanneled, constructive channels can be deepened, all though right effort and right meditation. As irrigators lad water to their fields, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters care wood, the wise shape their lives."

Eknath Easwaran
Excerpt | The Dhammapada (The Path of Truth)"

Always Return to One

About 17 years ago, I formally learned to sit and practice Zazen (trans to sit in unification) at Rochester Zen Center. It took place during an "Introduction to Zen" weekend. If you asked me what I learned or remember about the experience, I would say only "three" things. First I remember being a little frightened, because I wasn't sure if "the whole Zen thing was real or imagined. It sounded good in books, I wonder what it really tastes like."

The Second thing I remember was falling off the elevated sitting positions that held the tatami mats, in the Zendo. That was a little embarrassing. There's nothing like a bruised body and ego, to start your spiritual journey.

The Third thing I learned, came from a response to a question to the main teacher, Bodhin Sensei. The question was, "What do you do when you loose count of your breath?" Bodhin Sensei replied, "Simple. Always return to One. Don't think about messing up in counting the breath, just immediately return to One."

At the time and even now that response serves as very, very, very practical advice, when practicing Zazen. That direction is also handy in living our life as well.

To me "Always return to One," does not just apply to a number, but a so-called "State of Mind." When I am off center, and I later recognize that I am off center, don't think about it, just move back to my emotional, psychological and physical center. Just return to one. Don't do anything else.

Put another way, "I didn't sit Zazen on Sunday." Just return to One and Sit Zazen Monday. "I'm upset. That person hurt my feelings and was mean to me." Just return to one and know that it's not others that hurt our feelings, but that we hurt ourselves by how we allow words and actions to impact us. "I fell of my bike." Just return to One and get back on. "Gosh, that picture I just took on my digital camera didn't turn out the way I thought it should." Just return to One and take another picture. "My co-working isn't listening to me. They promised to take care of _________." Just return to one and fine ways to communicate in a language that is impactful and meaningful to them (and not you). Some people are thinkers and other people are more visual. Communications based on what's heard, not what is said. Just return to One.

Every moment, every where, every when, "Just return to One." We can work on returning to "Zero," next week. This is our practice.

Gassho,

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

I'm Still Learning

I tend to read a lot of books, go to workshops whenever I can and do self-paced training. On top of that, I frequently and as often as I can strive to remember to put myself in what I call "listening" mode. That means listening to people carefully and see what I can learn or discover in that encounter from them. People teach me so much, especially people who think they have nothing to offer.

In doing all of these activities, what surprises me is that "I'm still learning." That's a trip. After forty-two years, even in my chosen profession, I'm still "expanding" and still...still...still... "in the process of Becoming." How is this even possible? So mysterious is the nature of "Being."

I've found in life, we are either going "forwards" or "backwards." I have not really seen any such thing as "standing still." It's kind of like walking towards (or with) a moving target. It's important to remember that so-called "life" is very much alive and has the ability to operate independent of us. What that means is that in order to stick with it, I need to keep moving, keep walking, keep meeting so-called "It." Otherwise I or It might start moving away from each other. I strive to keep pace with It, to maintain a "harmony."

So what am I saying? Push! Learn! Absorb! Assimilate! Weare not out of school yet! Know that when we "think" we have mastered something that there is always something more that we may not have noticed initially. In this instance, I like to recall the koan (place where the truth is), "You are at the top of a hundred-foot flagpole. How would take one more step?" There is also another expression that I have heard in Zen. "When you get to the top of a mountain, keep on climbing." These things may not make sense to us, but if we are listening carefully, we will hear not just with our ears, but our entire Mind and Body and continue learning and climb onward.

Happy Day!

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO