Wednesday, March 28, 2007

bzc fundraising letter 7.8.94

7.8.94

dear friends in the dharma,

some 1400 years ago emperor wu of china, known as a builder of temples, asked bodhidharma what merit he had accrued for his efforts. bodhidharma's repsonse has been transmitted to us as the fundamental teaching of non attachment--"no merit whatsoever!"

well, that takes care of the ego; now what about the temple? had the emperor asked bodhidharma's advice about taking care of those temples, i'd wager an encouraging word or two would have come from the blue-eyed barbarian's lips. "take care of your temples, take care of your life!"

here we ask for your continued support of the berkeley zen center. we are about to begin a major renovation of our 1929 russell street building, replacing its crumbling brick foundation and modestly remodeling the community room kitchen. we also hope to improve wheelchair access. the necessary renovation of the foundation will better secure the building in the event of an earthquake. as our sangha grows, the kitchen remodel provides space to prepare food for community events and for increasing numbers of us who attend sesshin. at last we will have sinks that our big cooking pots fit in! so far we have raised $5000 towards projected costs of about $35000.

at the monthly ceremony commemorating our temple's founder, shunryu suzuki roshi, we acknowledge all of us, the cooperating founders both hidden and revealed, who have made this practice place possible. please reveal yourself by contributing as generously as possible and let's continue attaining bodhidharma's "no merit" in a well-maintained temple.

with palms together,

ross estes blum
president

bzc fundraising letter 11.20.94

dear friend,

as bzc president i've inherited not only the responsibility to pen this annual fundraising letter, but also an appreciation of the sincere efforts my predecessors made in their requests for money and of your generous response to these requests. this asking and giving reminds me of how suzuki roshi likened our breath to a swinging door, freely passing in both directions. thank you very much for keeping our hinges greased!

the other day i had the good fortune to meet our teacher sojun for lunch at a favorite chinese restaurant. when the customary cookies came with the bill, we cracked open our futures. having discussed myriad topics over the past two hours, laughing, i read:

you can't learn by
talking too much

well, that was food for thought! in practice, it's true that i usually learn more by doing than by talking. to learn about dana paramita, the perfection of giving, one must give. thanks to your donations to our community room fund, just this year we have remodeled and enlarged the community room and kitchen, completed seismic work on its foundation and structure, begun work on a wheelchair lift and an accessible bathroom.

we need your continuing support to keep doing work like this--to maintain our temple and protect this rare opportunity to practice the dharma. may you also have good fortune this holiday season.

in gratitude,

ross estes blum
president

bzc fundraising letter 6.30.95

dear friend of berkeley zen center,

a thousand years ago zen master yunmen was asked, "what is buddha?" his reply, "dried shit-stick!" pointing directly to the personal hygiene tool used by everyone, dispelled the lofty ideas of enlightenment. waking up was available to any sincere follower of the way even during the most mundane activity.

"our buddha" is toilet paper. i am asking for your support to help bzc build an altar for this buddha in the form of an accessible bathroom in and around the present garden shed/laundry room.

the increased attendance at bzc has pushed our facilities to the limit. the rental toilet in the alleyway has been an effective interim measure. a permanent structure built with the same care and attention as the recently completed community room will further enhance our temple in a very practical way. at the same time we will be able to repair the termite damage within the same building vicinity giving life to two birds with one project. the estimated cost of the $11,000 has been reduced with the gracious anonymous contribution of $5000!

your past donations have been most generous. during previous fundraising efforts, i've felt the needs of the temple be met with the warm heartfelt response of the sangha. we can look at this project as bzc's pay-in-advance version of the pay-toilet. please give what you can and remember suzuki roshi's instruction the next time you sit down, "as we go to the rest room everyday, we have to practice zazen everyday."

sincerely,

ross estes blum
president

bzc fundraising letter 11.27.95

dear friends and supporters of berkeley zen center,

during the past two years as your president i've been involved in some of the more elaborate growth of our temple. the decision-making process is not a particularly easy one given the diversity of our sangha and its many points of view. we are fortunate to have board members who have been able to hear these many points, offer new ideas for consideration and finally arrive at a resolution which best serves the community at large. no doubt you have felt the results as you passed through the gate.

the outcome of the community room and kitchen remodel/retrofit exceeded every expectation. the combination of safety upgrades with the enlargement of the most utilized space (second to the zendo) on the temple grounds has greatly improved the quality of life and practice here. very soon we will begin construction of a permanent wheelchair ramp for the community room, an accessible bathroom in the laundry room area and a renovation of the laundry room-garden shed complex. this upgrade will put to rest many of the issues which have always been of concern to us. these projects were conceived to meet the growing needs of our community. bzc has evolved from its humble beginnings on dwight way and what has remained constant throughout is our sangha treasure: people like you and me dedicated to deepening the roots of zen in america and insuring its future for the generations to come.

suzuki roshi put special emphasis on the importance of sangha. while buddha and dharma are essential to practice, his instruction cut through our self-centered view and helped us understand the teachings and thereby ourselves! in order for us to continue this work please give as generously as you can.

on behalf of berkeley zen center i would like to thank every one of you who have so kindly donated to our fundraising efforts in the past. it is impossible to meet your generous outpourings with words on a page. please receive my gassho with the understanding that your contributions are deeply appreciated by us all.

in gratitude,

ross estes blum
president

Monday, March 26, 2007

wake up and smell the coffee

in the winter of 1967, berkeley zen center was founded on dwight way. twenty years later i moved to berkeley to study with bzc's abbot, sojun mel weitsman. in the spring of 1966, alfred peet opened a coffee and tea store at the corner of walnut and vine. it is here that i landed a job as a sales clerk when i came to study zen. it's hard to imagine life without zen practice or peet's coffee and tea.

during the morning hours i observe our sleepy-eyed customers getting revved up. the line-up at our coffee bar reminds me of the mid-seventies gas station lines. their eyes glaze over as they survey the coffee and tea menu. having discovered a bare cupboard at home moments before, they arrive at peet's, thermos or cup in hand garbling their requests of "leaded" or "high-test" and confessing, "i'm still asleep!" shortly after consuming a cup of peet's finest they are on their way a little warmer and more awake. a monk friend of mine quips, "they may be awake, but they aren't necessarily sentient!"

handling spigots of regular, decaf, hot water, espresso and steam, i'm reminded of the 1000-armed bodhisattva avalokiteshvara. i serve all sentient beings with the precision of a fine-tuned machine. the tea equipage further compounds the act. please don't ask what i'm doing! i remind myself of the millipede who when asked how it could coordinate its myriad legs stumbles as it tries to explain.

around 10am i take time out to catch my breath. outside, a man sits cross-legged atop the newspaper stand. he holds a cardboard cut out of a cup and saucer which reads, "help support caffeine research!" his silent request is a relief from the nagging cries of "spare change" which reverberate throughout this town. i make eye contact and ask him what he's found out. "it keeps me awake!", he says as i drop a quarter in. there are a number of homeless people on this block. fifty-cents later, feelings of hopelessness and helplessness well up in me. what form of dana (charity) gives to all?

amongst the thousands of sentient beings i've served these past five years are the religious writer and professor huston smith, music critic and author greil marcus, photographer annie leibowitz, the contemplative writer brother david steindl-rast and woodstock mc wavy gravy. however, one of the most powerful and intimate exchanges i've had was with a fugitive from prison whose name i did not know. he looked a bit like johnny cash with squared jaw and long slightly waved black hair. daily he would round the corner on his yamaha motorcycle, hair blowing in the wind. after procuring his cup of coffee, he'd stand on the corner alone, sipping slowly. it so happened on the day of his arrest by the f.b.i., i served him his cup. we exchanged smiles as per usual. i knew agents were in the area looking for a man who frequented our store. what i didn't know was that it was he they were after. sadly, i watched as they took him away. the unmarked car drove off and within a minute another car filled the place. i called out, "next customer in line please!" unbeknownst to my new customer an entire universe had just died.

from the mahayana viewpoint i look at this question: just what is a sentient being? all things are sentient beings. my relationship to the cups, bags scoops, cash register etc is no different than my relationship to coworkers and customers. how am i handling this coffee scoop? how am i relating to this person? in zen we say that "other" confirms this self. i want to handle my self with as much attention as i am capable of handling other. i tamp the bag of beans three times to invoke the three treasures before sealing. innumerable labors brought us these beans, we should know how they come to us (painstakingly by hand--it takes a tree one year to produce one pound of coffee!)

sojun impresses upon his students awareness of breath and taking care of what's in front of our noses. this awareness has enabled me to integrate "zendo life" with "outside life". in conjunction with taking care of what's in front of my nose, this mindfulness breathing is my anchor. ordinary way is leagues deep. waking up to this is my vow as a buddhist. the ensuing equanimity affirms the importance of this very moment whether offering incense or a cup of coffee.

suzuki roshi had this to say about the coffee phenomenon: "when you have a cup of coffee on the freeway, that is very good but no one will stay in the coffee shop. you must go on to san francisco. we like that coffee shop, but even though it is good, we should go on with our trip. that is the mahayana way--on and on and on."

at the end of my workday i hop on my motorcycle and ride home. with the helmet visor down, street noise is minimized and the sound of breath fills the universe.

i arrive home and the middle-way is before me. sojun's car is parked in front of the garage on the right and to the left is the concrete wall. the opposed-cylinder heads of my bmw stick out with barely an inch of clearance on either side of these barriers. i never thought i'd be doing kinhin (walking meditation) atop a motorcycle. this mindfulness practice keeps sojun and i eyebrow to eyebrow without a scratch!

i saunter upstairs, hang up my clothes now reeking of coffee and take a shower. afterwards, my wife arrives from afternoon zazen and before setting eyes on me announces, "the coffee man's here!" the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach.

8.30.92

jukai

our practice here at bzc is a wonderful mixture of honoring tradition through contemporary expression. 2500 years ago shakyamuni buddha and his followers sat under trees. we sit under a roof made, in part, from trees.

another tradition we maintain and celebrate is jukai (lay ordination). this is known as zaike tokudo. the practice of tokudo or, home leaving, is already within each one of us. it is the realization that yes, there is something deeper to experience beyond the world of appearances. to reveal the awakened mind, bodhicitta, see into the world of dukkha (suffering), and thereby lessen one's discomfort and experience the interconnectedness of life is the inspiration which brings the zendo to us.

in the buddha's day, those who wished to follow the path of practice formally "left home", becoming a monk in a ceremony called shukke tokudo. the disciples would gather the discarded shrouds from the charnel grounds, sewed them together and dyed them all the same color thus making a readily identifiable robe. in addition, the head was shaved, thus "cutting away" defilements.

for zaike tokudo the disciple leaves the world of attachment (as represented by the home and personal relationships) while remaining in the world. this relationship to practice is unique in buddhism for it acknowledges that while the west lacks the monastic model in mainstream culture (unlike asia), it does have many serious students of buddhism who desire authentic practice.

suzuki roshi recognized the sincerity of his students and to acknowledge his support he ordained them. not quite monk, not quite lay person, we at bzc continue the tradition of practicing monastic forms in the world.

sojun roshi says we're all wearing invisible robes. at jukai, the ordination group is presented a visible robe called a rakusu which each has sewn as well as a lineage paper called a kechimiyaku, which traces the relationship from teacher to disciple from shakyamuni through india, china and japan to america with sojun roshi to you. it then returns to shakyamuni thus completing the circle.

while the rakusu and kechimiyaku are the visible symbols of ordination, what takes place at the ceremony is much more subtle. jukai literally means receiving the precepts. at the ceremony the preceptor purifies the space. the ordinees recite the vow of at-one-ment thus purifying themselves. they are then ready to receive the 16 bodhisattva precepts and formally take on practice. a buddhist name is given and calligraphied onto the back of the rakusu. two names comprise the new buddhist name: one expressing the current manifestation in the preceptor's mind and the other, the one to grow into or aspire towards.

i have attended numerous jukai ceremonies and while the focus is always on the current group being ordained as a confirmation of their practice, i always experience a renewal of my own intention to continue to penetrate the way.

seishi tetsudo

Sunday, March 25, 2007

what is zen? (an open letter to the homeless)

we at berkeley zen center (bzc) have had the opportunity to serve meals here at the shelter over the past year. for us it has been helpful to learn more about the circumstances of homelessness and to help support the work of dorothy day house. bzc has been around since 1967. we're a group of approximately 150 people who practice zen, a sect of buddhism. while this 2500 year old tradition has it's roots in asian monastic institutions, in america zen has mostly established itself in urban temples where its adherents work in the world at various jobs and return to the temple for practice (in the form of meditation) and study. integrating life in the world with this meditative tradition is the challenge for all of us.

some of you have been asking the question, "what is zen?" that is a very good question. we hope our explanation is sufficient and while everything has zen in it, it takes an open heart and clear vision to experience it. should you choose to explore this question further, your life will reveal more questions--some answerable, others not. so what is zen? zen is about closing the gap between oneself and other. the other can be another person, physical object or internal "feeling".

it's easy to feel at one with another person you like or a situation you're naturally comfortable with but what about when you encounter someone (or thing) not so agreeable? we all have those moments. for 2500 years people who practice zen have discovered that meditation helps them harmonize with the world and lessen the discomfort caused by feelings of separateness.

the fundamental root of this discomfort is comprised of greed, ill will and delusion. when someone is caught up with feelings of greed (desire & grasping), ill will (hate & pushing away) or delusion (mistaken cloudy views) this discomfort arises. our attachment to these three aspects or poisons perpetuates this condition and enslaves us. in order to break the bonds of attachment we need to see clearly the causes and conditions which are the source of our pain. zazen (meditation) is our way to cultivate this clear vision.

after a while one begins to experience the three marks of existence which illuminate the fundamental truths in life. they are:
  1. impermanence (things are always changing)
  2. no abiding or inherent self or soul (we're a collection of ever changing thoughts, habits and body parts. are you the same or different from when you were a child? yes and no)
  3. suffering, discomfort or dis-ease (we are always adjusting our mental and physical being in order to get comfortable)
by experiencing these three marks personally we can cease engaging in activities which aren't healthy for us. meditation helps to loosen the grip of the three poisons mentioned earlier by enabling us to see the three marks! in doing so we can live more freely. discomfort will return from time to time but by training the mind you can gain a degree of freedom more quickly and often without long-term suffering. zen is a life-long practice.

zen meditation takes the form in mindfulness of breathing and posture. if you have any questions we'd be happy to discuss them with you. in addition, we recommend two books on the subject: "zen mind, beginner's mind" by shunryu suzuki roshi and "what the buddha taught" by walpola rahula.

sincerely,

berkeley zen center

Friday, March 23, 2007

buddhadharma @ the bean counter

protect and respect wrists of self and other:

1. when first going into the bin to scoop coffee don't take so much.
the extra weight adds unnecessary stress on your wrist.

2. before exiting the bin tilt your scoop back slightly. this mindful
act(ion) helps prevent spillage.

3. every two beans represents one hand motion of a coffee picker.
establishing this foundation of awareness brings you:
a) in touch with your work
b) respect for their work
c) the interconnectedness of our work together

Thursday, March 22, 2007

just when you thought you were bored

reading this will remove any traces of boredom you may have thought were distracting you from more important things.