The Precepts

Breath Work

2007-10-12T08:01:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the Breath Work Audios

The audios are located to the right under AUDIOS.

Lesson 1 is at the bottom.

There will be up to 36 audios posted as we work with the breath.

May the merit of this practice benefit all beings in all directions throughout space and time.

Do Not Disparage the Triple Treasures

2006-11-30T07:57:00.000-08:00

Do not disparage the 3 treasures...please listen to the audio; the cicadias joined the audio but it is still audible. Enjoy!

WORTH waiting for...Interfaith Audio

2006-08-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay. Life arises. Here it is and it is wonderful. Let it arise.

This is a wonder filled tape; down to earth risiing to heaven.

Interfaith Work

2006-07-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

Buddha does not praise self over others.

See Your Thief

2006-07-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

What makes us take what is not given? Poverty mind? Stinginess? Fear?

The Medical Paradigm

2006-06-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

Encourage
Side Effects
Don't Abandon
Attend

Want to stay away from making a crime scene...but of course there are accidents; and mistakes.

I am NOT a liar

2006-06-09T04:50:00.000-07:00

For the Love of Henry

2006-06-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

What do you care about? How do you care? The precepts help us take care of our life.

Please come and take your seat...

2006-05-26T12:32:00.000-07:00

Here is your seat.

It rests on top of a three legged stool.

It grows within the upright sitting posture.

Please, come, come...

Your seat is waiting for you.

Please come and take your seat...

2006-05-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

The Glass Menagerie

2006-05-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

It has been many, many years since I've read or seen Tennessee William's play "The Glass Menagerie..." but as I recall there is a character in the play who is enchanted by a set of glass figurines... she is somewhat spellbound by them and tends to live her life fixed upon them....she is unable to see through them, to see through her enchantment with them...the audience knows and sees but she is not able to see for herself...

This precept, this precept about anger includes our enchantment with the figurines in our world from what Shantideva calls the "little cares" to what we imagine to be the "big cares." We become spellbound in our mind, wanting the moments of our lives to reflect what we have in our minds, from our conditions and habits and when it does not we get angry...the anger protects us from falling through and seeing through to disenchantment....it is there where we are actually free, actually sober enough, to stay with the real situations. Anger is a surface for the enchantment below. Anger is a little bell, a clacker to take a look around for the spellbinding going on in your heart and mind.

Shortcut to Enlightenment

2006-05-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

Start by putting yourself at ease. Then notice what takes you away from being at ease. Then go back to being at ease. It's one, two, three...being generous with all the senses comes from a place of ease....

generous eyes

generous taste

generous touch

generous smell

generous ears

generous mind-heart

Make the best of friends

2006-05-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

Meeting everything...just that. Meeting what comes into life right in front of you; inside and out. Meeting and greeting without gripes; without critcism; without corrections; sweeping is an example...meeting the floor with the broom; meeting the broom; hearing feeling sweeping without rushing; without pushing; shoving. Meeting sweeping.

Meeting the wishes, fears, sorrows, memories, hates, aches, itches, pains, complaints, measures, meeting all the birds that fly into your life.

Making friends.

No Gripes - 6th & 7th Precepts

2006-05-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

This precept is an encouragement to practice equanimity...everyone is welcome; every part of yur self, every being in every place welcomed. No one faulted, criticized, x'd out, left out, not included. It is the precept to help us leave the mundane pair of praise and blame. Welcome aboard....ahoy.

Ahem!

2006-04-28T05:16:00.000-07:00

This path is the path of clear vision.

Intoxication

2006-04-28T05:07:00.000-07:00

When we become intoxicated we become unclear, foggy, caught up in whatever it is that intoxicates us. We become sloppy and careless and our body, speech and mind are loaded guns that we play with...we are already pretty foggy, pretty stupid and ignorant...adding to it makes us drinkin' drunks.

Clear the mind, make an effort to clear the body, the mind , the speech. Stay sober, stay with your experience.

Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil

2006-04-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

Tell the truth or vow to refrain from lies. Again the precept asks you directly, please vow to tell the truth...and more. It asks us to stop believing the lies wwe tell ourselves; the lies of the conditioned mind that we build our life on and live each day from...if you believe you are "bad" that is a lie; if you believe you are "good" that is a lie...we flip back and forth trying to protect these ideas about who we believe we are and they are at the root of not telling the truth...It's the me we hold onto and grasp that is at the bottom of the lies we live.

No Misuse of Sexuality & Greed-Aversion

2006-04-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

This precept is closely linked to greed & aversion; underlying the whole mess is a misunderstanding and mis use of change; everyone knows life changes but everyone misuses that understanding to go for the gusto. More to follow.

Do Not Take What is Not Given

2006-04-06T05:35:00.000-07:00

This precept is to help us see and perhaps even confess our tendencies to take what comes into our life as a pleasure, an aggravation or for granted. Rather than be open and appreciative we tend to want something else, something more, something different, something otherwise. We become a thief when we clench down or push away what arrives in our life. Buddha knocks on the door and says come out, show up, open up, be cheerful, appreciative...look I have a gift for you...here it is...myriad things arise and fall away. We resort to thieving when we don't like what arises, what arrives as our life. There is an audio, Non Stealing. Thank you.

Wheel of Care & Confession

2006-03-31T12:55:00.000-08:00

Please consider this practice. Create your own wheel as a mirror of confession. More to follow. I apologize but the audio this week got cut off; but I think there is enough on there to see how to use this wheel. Turn the wheel; see for your self.

Wish Well-Being ...Beyond the Conditioned

2006-03-23T07:17:00.000-08:00

This week we talked about the 10 Grave Precepts and in particular No Killing. I will post a chart to accompany the 10 Grave precepts and will end with Cultivating Goodness and Purifying the Mind. I will also post the story on another blog for hard copy.

2006-03-21T17:30:00.000-08:00

Wish well-being....
Beyond the conditioned.

Suffering

2006-03-01T18:18:00.000-08:00

There is a new audio...title Suffering. It is in wav format so I hope you can listen to it as is. Thank you.

Is this Birth or Death?

2006-02-24T07:45:00.000-08:00

2006-02-22T08:44:00.000-08:00

See the GREAT INTENTION below

The Great Intention

2006-02-22T08:21:00.000-08:00

I recently heard a dharma talk where the speaker reminded those listening that intention comes before attempt which is followed by actualization...What is the Great Intention of your life. Forget for a moment all the thoughts and beliefs that you have heard or taken in and ask your self in the privacy of in between your own heart beats...what is the great intention of my life? It might prove to show you the attempts and actualizations arising...I don't know.

I know that for much of my life it has been pretty stupid and that stupidity was attempts to actualize something beyond acquisitions and protections and defenses...although at very early ages I turned away from getting and having I often found myself with my fingers in the cookie jar. How about you?

I am at the present time turned towards freedom and liberation. Asking and looking at freedom brings up more silence than words.

Living a stupid life

A student went to his teacher and whined, “I live a stupid life.”
“From the very beginning.” replied the teacher.
Surprised, the student repeated, “from the very beginning?”
“Yes! And, I suspect, without neglect.”

From the very beginning…without neglect.
What is it that is from the very beginning, without neglect?
The call of goodness to the true situation. This student, although whining about his life and surprised by the teacher’s reply, sits in the middle of the cloudless sky, but is unable to fully know it. The student, although unaware of the cloudless sky, cries out the truth when he says, “I live a stupid life.” The teacher knows the student is unaware and hears the cry. The teacher brushes away the clouds with her true response, “from the very beginning.” The student, jolted, repeats the teacher’s reply, “from the very beginning.” The teacher, with another sweep brushes again with an emphatic “Yes! Without neglect.” In other words, from the very beginning this student, like all of us, lives stupidly and lives stupidly without neglect. The juxtaposition of the whine and the response of “yes” awaken and free both the teacher and the student in the sharing. It can not be otherwise.

Awareness is everywhere and ever available. It is also at this meeting that the student determines which direction to turn, either towards the continuation of the whine or the realization of the call to dive into the true situation of finding oneself continuously stupid. Every moment is like this. It is like a turnstile spinning in either direction for each one of to enter. Can the student hear the call of buddha? Can the student take what might seem a backward step into the whiney cry and say “yes.”[1] The student, if ready, turns inward and sees for oneself his stupid ways of living. And with his own voice and in the light of awareness remark to himself, “Yes, indeed, I live a stupid life and I live it since the beginning without neglect!” Buddha within hears “the whine” as a cry of ignorance, nothing more, and nothing less. It is an exclamation of “not fully knowing” the true situation. Yet, it is transformed and illuminated once realized by the student as where he actually is. Buddha hears Buddha.

Before the transformational confession is echoed the student may be hindered by self-centered obstacles. The student, for example, may find a wish to be right, a defense to run or avoid, a wish to be in oblivion, a reliance on a habit or a fear of knowing the oceanic truth. The student may feel angry or hurt or misunderstood. The hindrances to the call arise as an endless myriad of shapes and colors and it takes a buddha to see each shape as a response to a call to turn toward the homeless home. It takes a buddha to hear a buddha, to see a buddha. The whines, the begging, the complaints, the howls, the scoffs, the rageful fits are some of the cries from a caught human being. It is like an animal in a trap. These cries are attempts to get free just as an animal yowls and rips and tears its own flesh to free a snared paw. Human beings do the same. How can it be otherwise? Although the truth is right in front of us all the time; we are trapped and snared by our inner delusions. Each step, each response is a response which may or may not be one of being awake, but even so, it is an attempt to free ourselves. Buddha is always calling us, always. Although it may feel and seem like it is Mara or the devil, buddha is there right in the middle of the devilish fevers. Our confused and sometimes upside-down response is our naïve yet noble attempt to find the Way, to set our self free of the inner traps of grasping, pushing, and pulling at our own ensnared attention. We imprison our self over and over again with our constricted views of our life circumstances.

Just as an animal “instinctively” bites its own leg to free itself, human beings “instinctively” try to find the Way, ignorantly and instinctively. It takes the big ears of Buddha to hear the cries as they really are, to see the Buddha being seized by a stupid life and to help the Buddha get freely awaken in stupidity.

A story.
Ed told me this week that students sometimes say, "I don't want to smile sometimes, I am too angry or hurt or sad to smile." The response to such a heart might go like this,"well, could you just find a little smile for the one who does not want to smile?"

[1] Dogen, Fukazazengi

Continuous Buddha - Shoaku Makusa

2006-02-09T07:24:00.000-08:00

Continuous Doing Buddha; Refrain from Doing Harm
Shoaku makusa by Dogen
The dewdrop is you; the moon is you; actualizing the fundamental point.
This is the fundamental point.

I cease from doing harm
I devote myself to practicing good
This purifies my heart
And this is the Great teaching of all buddhas
For all times,
Everywhere.

This teaching is the foundation. This teaching is the one taste of all buddhas. This teaching is the teaching of peace. This teaching is the end to conditioned suffering. Yet, it does not mean that you will avoid pain and injury; it does means liberation and freedom from the bondage of the self-centered ego; from that suffering that hinders our awareness and our ability to see clearly. Examine this truth carefully and with effort.

NO master, no teacher, no higher up of any kind demands this of you for that is not the Way; this is given to you as an offering, as a spiritual key, a lock opener, a cork screw to pop open your self and find Buddha love. It is a teaching to take up as you take up the rakasu; it is a teaching given to you and it is a teaching made by your own hands; stitch by stitch, one moment of your life after another. It is a name-finding teaching. It is intimately given from your own heart to your own heart seen and recognized by other Buddha hearts. Nevertheless, do not hunt for praise nor shun any blame. Wholeheartedly practice and refrain your self from you as your main concern and harm no being.

Don’t worry about your past misconduct; that is chasing a false god; a dream, a phantom where you create wishes upon wishes to clean your self up. Do not live your life fixing up your mistakes; that is wrong practice. Cultivating dead seeds does not bring freedom. Planting and nourishing the past keeps you in the past. There is no self centered atonement. There is liberation now with no thought of time. It is not a gathering of dead leaves. Although burning dead leaves may clear your way the Way is to practice doing no harm and devotion to goodness. Buddha is no harm and Buddha is goodness. This is the fundamental vision of all Buddhas, everywhere.

Don’t worry about being right or being wrong; that is the self tricking you into thinking you can divide the world into categories. Simply stop doing harm, give your self to doing good and your pure heart which is already there manifests as the world honored one.

Redemption

2006-02-02T06:39:00.000-08:00

This particular audio focuses on redemption...we all have had what we would consider as being disturbing conduct..and when we are disturbed we feel off in some way...we feel something is off kilter, out of whack, out of balance...there is a thud, a thump, a bumpiness felt somewhere in us...pay attention to this thumping, this disturbance and see if you can sit upright right in the middle of it right where you are...ahhh...redemption is ever-present, all around us, everywhere.

Precepts, Self Off-Balance

2006-01-26T05:33:00.000-08:00

Well, the digital recorder lost the last few minutes of the audio; but there is 30 minutes of the class online.

When the mind and body are disturbed what do you do? When you experience being off-balance, what do you do?

Be sure to read the previous post....

2006-01-20T14:32:00.000-08:00

Consider the alternative of suffering with only me, exclusively me, fixed and frozen, superficial & heartless,fortifying habits, continuously dualistic and feeling incomplete, narrow and constricted, given up and hardened...

Add your own...when we spend days that are soaked by misery they are days of the Singular Precept of ME, MY & MINE...wait, though, don't destroy that, don't bring up hate to eradicate this precept, take your seat and sit with your self right there in the middle of it...and breathe in compassion.

Please read before listening Pure Precepts 1.Thanks

2006-01-19T05:57:00.000-08:00

Most religions have clear ideas of right and wrong. Christianity, for example believes in the existence of two moral areas; a world of right (heaven) and a world of wrong (hell). Although people from Christian cultures may not believe in the actual existence of two worlds any more, as they did in the Middle Ages, they still believe clearly that there are two kinds of actions; good actions and bad actions.
Religions usually lay down moral criteria to guide believers into good and away from bad. That is, people believe that actions can be pre-judged as being good or bad. And they believe that we can clearly delineate the two. Christianity has the 10 commandments as the basis for good and bad action, but in practice, Christian societies have developed idealized ethical systems and guidelines to teach people what is right and what is wrong. It is not an exaggeration to say that one of the aims of Christianity is to eliminate bad from the earth and to leave only good. However, from a Buddhist point of view this would seem to be a fruitless exercise. Buddhists believe that reality or Dharma is beyond concepts of good and bad; that is, it contains both good and bad un-separated, in a pre-conceptual state. To try to remove half of reality would seem to be by definition unachievable. More than that, the conscious effort to try to remove half of reality is also a kind of affirmation of the existence of just that part that you are intending to remove. 1997 eido michael luetchford

ENLIGHTENMENt-buddha, dharma, sangha

2005-12-08T05:35:00.000-08:00

Even before we practice it, enlightenment is there. But usually we understand the practice of zazen and enlightenment as two different things: here is practice, like a pair of glasses, and when we use the practice, like putting the glasses on, we see enlightenment. This is the wrong understanding. The glasses themselves are enlightenment, and to put them on is also enlightenment. So whatever you do, or even though you do not do anything, enlightenment is there, always. This is Bodhidharma's understanding of enlightenment. --Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Everything is buddha, dharma, sangha...

How to love as a refugee

2005-12-01T06:57:00.000-08:00

The awakened heart and mind and the teachings are a refuge for us. To wear the rakasu is to see and know that each of us is a refugee; that our true face, our true situation is the awakened state. It is a reminder of our refugee status. The precepts are a way to love unconditionally; to take care of others unconditionally.

Nothing is pin-downable

2005-11-21T12:35:00.000-08:00

SCRIBBLES by Ansgar Holmberg, published with permission, 2005.

Trial & Error

2005-11-17T05:36:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post a few clarifications in regards to this teaching on refuge. We spoke of "trial & error" as the method of practice with the precepts. We try this and make a mistake and we try that and make a mistake; adjustments to our life and heart; the adjustments, the errors are part of the refuge not separate from it.

Also, I want to clarify the 3 ways which I think I muddied up a little. Here they are:

1. concrete refers to taking refuge in the historical process of the legendary buddha; icons etc
2. more intimate: refers to contact and interaction with teachers whether things or beings
3. most intimate: your own heart and mind which is also in engagement with others & self

Thank you
Liz

Slow skill

2005-11-14T05:31:00.000-08:00

It is better for us to build the skills of dharma, the skills of turning inwardly in a slow way; not rushed as if to get to a goal...mindful of each stitch, of looking at each piece of cloth, care filled consideration; not too slow, not too fast...there is no hurry, there is no goal; this practice is consistent in every posture...sitting, standing, lying down and walking...pulling thread is just the same as zazen...

Thank you.

Sorry, the photos are out of sequence

2005-11-12T09:56:00.000-08:00

Well, everything is a little challenge; I will number the sequence with a little title...packets with samples will be sent and given to everyone...use these phtos to take a look at what you get in the mail.

Thank you.
Liz

You hold the thread with the needle to pull the knot # 3

2005-11-12T07:12:00.002-08:00

Start a knot # 1

2005-11-12T07:12:00.001-08:00

You pull the thread through to start the knot # 2

2005-11-12T07:12:00.000-08:00

Put them together like this....

2005-11-12T07:11:00.003-08:00

Wrong sides together; b & d types top line on the tan bottom on the cho; reverse for a,c,e types

2005-11-12T07:11:00.001-08:00

2005-11-12T07:11:00.000-08:00

The point of the needle up 3/8 of an inch apart from the last stitch on the bottom side of the drawn line

2005-11-12T07:10:00.002-08:00

Completiing the stitch

2005-11-12T07:10:00.001-08:00

2005-11-12T07:10:00.000-08:00

Start the stitch like so

2005-11-12T07:09:00.001-08:00

Making a stitch like this one.

2005-11-12T07:08:00.000-08:00

These are the tans and chos

2005-11-12T07:07:00.000-08:00

Step One Instructions will come by mail

2005-11-12T06:55:00.000-08:00

Refuge

2005-11-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

When you feel like you are not taking care of your life where do you go for refuge? When you feel shakey or shaken or frightened?

Prayer
Food
Love
Another Person
Drugs
Smoking
Talking
Try to calculate a solution
Figuring
Your intellect
Drifting
Worry
Sex
Money
Work

How do you take care of your life? Of life? Where do you go? What do you do?

Living a Stupid Life

2005-11-03T06:42:00.000-08:00

A student went to his teacher and whined, “ I live a stupid life.”
“From the very beginning,” replied the teacher.
Surprised, the student repeats, “from the very beginning?”
“Yes! And I suspect without neglect.”

Although the student whines he or she is awakening to the true situation. It takes a certain glimpse of wisdom to see that we live stupid lives, lives that are anchored in self-centered ignorance. And as the teacher says so emphatically, we do this without neglect. The teacher continues to speak and tell the student that the cry of a stupid life is the cry for freedom. The nurse for such a whine is the milk of loving-kindness, the heart of compassion and the wisdom of the teachings.
To study the precepts is to study the teachings in the middle of stupidity. It, however, requires an alert, responsive and sincere heart to see the wisdom in these teachings. We need not see them as mere rules to measure your self or others, but as food for the moans of stupidity.
Each one helps us wise-up and tend to our liberation.
Seeing for our self that we live a stupid life is a step towards wising up.
Picking up the precepts helps us see how to live wisely, in loving-kindness, and compassionately. They are milk for your cry, not for the cry of someone else.
They are not weapons to be used to judge or harm anyone.

Looking in the mirror of the precepts

2005-06-19T15:03:00.000-07:00

Being grateful.