Letter From Our Guiding Teacher, Sept. 2020

Dear Friends,

As we welcome the cooler days of fall, we continue to face persistent and newly emergent challenges. At present, the pandemic has become a fact of life, and we remain in varied states of isolation and lockdown in efforts to mitigate the risks of further transmission and illness. Our ongoing concerns about the impact of Covid19 for our communities are compounded by our present reality of pain, strife, and unrest across the country. On the West Coast, we are also responding to the worst fire season in history with unprecedented destruction. We grieve for those who have lost loved ones, homes, livelihoods, and even entire communities. We speak of this year as one we will never forget—a year we will be glad to consign to history. If we are naturally optimistic, perhaps we look forward to 2021. Still, we have no guarantee that the turning of the year will bring better circumstances. Even though we rely upon the use of calendars and dates to mark the passage of months and years, it is important to remind ourselves that the year “2020” itself does not intrinsically exist as more than a label. We must manifest a new beginning now, through the strength of our practice. We are responsible for preparing the ground for positive change to occur, each and every day, no matter the date on the calendar.

When presented with the never-ending tragic circumstances of the news cycle, it is natural to feel sad, desperate, angry, overwhelmed, dejected, and powerless. Standing together as a Sangha, our most compelling question must be, what, as practitioners of meditation and present awareness, can we do to help? The traditional Buddhist Precepts offer a roadmap—we embrace the territory of our shared life and aim to navigate this territory in a manner which reduces suffering for everyone. The Precepts, which arise directly out of a commitment to reducing suffering in our world, ask us to refrain or abstain from certain actions and to courageously look into our conditioned and habituated ways of thinking and engaging. To truly make use of the Precepts is to dissolve the confusion and misunderstanding that is perpetuated by simplistic and dualistic approaches. Dualistic understanding always separates us from one another. This is a critical time during which polarization seems to grow stronger each day. We cannot escape what is really occurring and the heightened urgency of our circumstances demand that we pay attention as we chart our course.

It is easy to stand with our tribe and shake our fists at the other side. However, if we look deeply into current events, we can see that it has always been this way throughout human history, and long before, all the way back to the mysterious beginning (if there ever was one). The path of right and wrong, “us verses them,” and every other way we split the world, ultimately only feeds the energy and the flux of our collective greed, anger, and ignorance. The forces arranged against us are not truly the fault of others; rather, we are experiencing the sum total of our shared karma. We are not on the wrong path. The all-inclusive path of wisdom, peace, and compassion is always under our feet. This is the harder path to walk. It is a steep path, but we walk it hand in hand, and everyone is invited along.

Through these challenging months, I am encouraged to share that our membership has steadily grown. I believe this is evidence of the supportive and inclusive refuge our Sangha offers which is of inestimable value. Attendance for online meditation is strong and steady. We are still in wait-and-see mode with respect to when we can return to in-person meetings. As you well know, we must follow the state and county guidelines and act safely and appropriately.

In time the challenges of 2020 will be replaced with new challenges. Our role as practitioners is not to wait for better circumstances, but to accept this life as it is and to act in accord with reality. Let us please stay grounded, in-touch, and supportive of one another as we meet each new day, each new challenge. Please remember that we are always in the right place at the right time to make a contribution to the healing and vitality of the whole.

Should you wish to, please reach out to me directly at jokai@longbeachmeditation.org. I always welcome our connecting one-on-one. I would especially like to remind us all that this month we are fundraising for our organization through the LB Gives campaign. Please be involved and make a contribution! For help with LB Gives, Zoom, or any other issue please contact travis@longbeachmeditation.org.

Please take good care of one another and remain resolute and wholehearted in your efforts. The effects of our practice are ripples that radiate out in every direction, reducing suffering and promoting well-being for all, and for that, I express my thanks to each one of you.

Bows,

Jokai

Audio: Presence During a Pandemic by Jampa Kalsang 7/26/2020

Five Senses Meditation

Resources for Beginners: https://tricycle.org/beginners/

  • See

  • Feel

  • Hear

  • Taste

  • Smell

When our mind is overly agitated and we find it difficult to rest on our breathe, we can always use our senses, to bring us back to presence.

Taking in whatever is in our vision, without labeling or conceptualizing. Just see. We call this “seeing without seeing” in contemplative photography. And we do the same with our other senses. Just feel. Plenty of sensations. Just hear. Sound. Taste. Perhaps we are having a cup of coffee and our mind is watching reruns or predicting the future!How about just taste, coffee? Presence. Now how about the last one? The smell of a cup of coffee? Drop the story, enjoy a cup of coffee.

Audio: Ethical Teachings of Buddhism by Jampa Kalsang 7/19/2020

Padmasambhava

“Though the view should be as vast as the sky, keep your conduct as fine as barley flour. Don’t confuse one with the other. When training in the view, you can be as unbiased, as impartial, as vast, immense, and unlimited as the sky. Your behaviour, on the other hand, should be as careful as possible in discriminating what is beneficial or harmful, what is good or evil. One can combine the view and conduct, but don’t mix them or lose one in the other. That is very important.”

Audio: Just As You Are by Jokai Blackwell 6/21/2020

Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage

by Master Shitou

I’ve built a grass hut where there’s nothing of value.
After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap.
When it was completed, fresh weeds appeared.
Now it’s been lived in – covered by weeds.

The person in the hut lives here calmly,
Not stuck to inside, outside, or in between.
Places worldly people live, he doesn’t live.
Realms worldly people love, he doesn’t love.

Though the hut is small, it includes the entire world.
In ten square feet, an old man illumines forms and their nature.
A Great Vehicle bodhisattva trusts without doubt.
The middling or lowly can’t help wondering;
Will this hut perish or not?

Perishable or not, the original master is present,
not dwelling south or north, east or west.
Firmly based on steadiness, it can’t be surpassed.
A shining window below the green pines —
Jade palaces or vermilion towers can’t compare with it.

Just sitting with head covered, all things are at rest.
Thus, this mountain monk doesn’t understand at all.
Living here he no longer works to get free.
Who would proudly arrange seats, trying to entice guests?

Turn around the light to shine within, then just return.
The vast inconceivable source can’t be faced or turned away from.
Meet the ancestral teachers, be familiar with their instruction,
Bind grasses to build a hut, and don’t give up.

Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely.
Open your hands and walk, innocent.
Thousands of words, myriad interpretations,
Are only to free you from obstructions.
If you want to know the undying person in the hut,
Don’t separate from this skin bag here and now.