Ocean Light Zen Center

It was wonderful to see everyone at our monthly in-person practice in Seattle today!

We host in-person practice monthly in Seattle and quarterly in Tacoma, in addition to weekly online practice. Join our mailing list to learn more!

Quarterly half-day meditation in Tacoma today. We host in-person practice regularly in Seattle and Tacoma, in addition to weekly online practice. Join our mailing list to learn more!

One-Day Retreat 8/19/23. Our first in-person practice since the pandemic! We hope to come together more often as we move forward, to practice and support each other as a sangha. 🙏🏼

Join us for the Whole World Is a Single Flower 2020 International Zen Conference online September 6-October 11, 2020! This conference includes weekly panel discussions with Zen teachers, small group "coffee hour" sessions, a global meditation retreat, and a private community forum. Learn more and register now: https://bit.ly/2CHuC6Y

Fight Between Two Wolves — Kwan Um School of Zen Recently I heard a story about two wolves. In this story, a grandfather was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf expresses fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, hatefulness, and li...

SUPPOSE YOU CAN GET WHAT YOU WANT?

Recently, a group of us went out to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. The food was excellent as usual and we had a great time drinking tea, eating, talking and laughing together. As the meal was winding down, the bill arrived along with my favorite course—the fortune cookies! Fortune cookies are a wonderful way to end the meal with a little sweet taste and a fun message that we all read to each other and decide whether it is prophetic, lame or just plain funny. As we were going around the table opening and sharing our "fortunes" there were the usual predictions and admonitions for creating good karma etc, but my fortune was a little different from the rest. It said simply:

"Suppose you can get what you want?"

Typically, fortunes are predictions of good luck or sayings about how being a good person will lead to happiness. However, the little slip of paper with red letters hidden inside of my cookie posed a very provocative question. Suppose you can get what you want, then what? How much time and energy do we spend thinking about what we want and how to get it, manipulating people and situations to get the desired result? We often feel our lives are lacking, and this feeling causes us to want things. We want to be well-liked and respected, we want to be loved and cared for, we want fun and excitement and passion. Just as often, wanting arises as aversion. That's the "I don't want" aspect of wanting. It seems that everywhere we look, there is "I want," sometimes even masquerading as "I need."

Perhaps as Zen students who understand the Buddha's teaching we examine our minds and conclude that we would be happier if we weren't controlled by our desires. We practice hard wanting to overcome our desire. Aha! Another thing to want—wanting not to want. A very slippery slope indeed!

"Suppose you can get what you want?" Zen Master Seung Sahn says that when we want something there are two possible outcomes, and both result in suffering. The first is that we don't get what we want and suffer immediately with disappointment. The second thing that can happen is that we get what we want. This can lead to temporary happiness but as this happiness fades we begin to crave the good feeling again and are right back in the cycle of wanting and suffering. Sounds familiar, huh? As the old wise saying goes, "Be careful what you wish for!"

In the Sakkapana Sutra, The Ruler of all the Gods, Sakka, asks the Buddha, "By what fetters, Sir, are beings bound, whereby although they wish to live in peace, without hating or harming others, yet they live with hate, harming one another, hostile and not at all at peace?"

The Buddha replied, "It is the bonds of jealousy and greed that bind beings so that, although they wish to live without hate, still they live with hate, harming one another, hostile and not at peace."

"But sir, what gives rise to jealousy and greed, what is their origin?"

"Jealousy and greed, arise from likes and dislikes. This is their origin."

"But Sir, What gives rise to likes and dislikes?"

"They arise, Ruler of the Gods, from desire. Owing to the presence of desire they arise and owing to the absence of desire they do not arise."

"But sir, what gives rise to desire?"

"Desire, Ruler of the Gods, arises from thinking."

Ouch!! That Buddha sure can be a wet blanket! As usual, he points right to the heart of our problem: I-My-Me thinking. Zen means, I don't want anything. But be careful! If we practice because we want to not want anything, or even if we don't want to not want anything, then without fail, as sure as the fortune cookie arrives with the bill, we will continue to go around and around on the samsaric wheel of wanting and getting.

So what can we do?

In the Diamond Sutra it says, "When thinking arises in the mind, don't attach to it." As we practice, we perceive clearly whatever thinking appears in our minds, relax our grip on it and let it go, returning to this moment, just as it is. In this way we see clearly for ourselves the nature of all things. This means if you want something, don't attach to it. If you get something, don't hold on to it. Moment to moment have just enough mind. When we have enough mind we are no longer controlled by our likes and dislikes, then every fortune is a good fortune.

By Tim Lerch JDPSN

Dear Online Sangha. Please consider joining the Kwanum School of Zen Heart Kyol Che in January. This is our annual period of extra commitment to our practice. Learn more at this link and sign up if you are ready to make a good effort in 2020!

Heart Kyol Che "Kyol Che” is an intensive Zen retreat, traditionally held for 90 days in summer and winter in monasteries and temples in Korea. The name means “tight dharma” or “coming together.” We continue this tradition by offering Kyol Che retreats twice a year in Asia, Europe, and North America, but...

The great Korean Zen Master Kyong Ho said in The Song Of Zen:

There are many ways to attain your true self,
Simply put, here it is:
When sitting, standing, seeing, hearing,
Dressing, eating or in conversation,
At any time, any place,
What is it that brightly perceives?

Kyong Ho’s poem gets right to the heart of practice.
Moment to moment, what is this? What is it that is perceiving this?
When we investigate the subtle, ever-changing, bottomless question of self in every activity, this is Zen practice.

Tim Lerch JDPSN

See you on the mat tomorrow at 9am.

IMPERMANENCE

Autumn is a time of change. The leaves have changed color and are dropping to the ground. The wind is blowing and the temperature is coming down. As we experience these changes of season, it can remind us that everything is in a state of flux and everything is constantly changing. Sometimes there are big changes, like the leaves turning color and dropping. Usually, though, there are subtle changes that we can miss if we aren’t attentive. To accept this constant change is to accept our life moment to moment.

The Buddha called it impermanence.

In the Mahaparanirvana Sutra, it says:
All formations are impermanent
This is the law of appearing and disappearing
When both appearing and disappearing disappear
This Stillness is Bliss

"When both appearing and disappearing disappear,"
What does that mean ?

Outside, a gentle wind is blowing and the last leaves are floating down to the ground.

Tim Lerch JDPSN
Guiding Teacher, Ocean Light Zen Center

As Zen students, we are part of a timeless community that is keeping the Buddha's teaching alive. Over a span of 2,500 years, Buddha's great enlightenment was passed down to us through a long lineage, from India to China to Korea, all the way to Zen Master Seung Sahn. Like a family tree, this lineage chart traces the ancestry of our tradition, depicting the transmission of the dharma from one generation to another.