Now is always now

Time to begin again writing adding blogposts. During the pandemic I've been dormant, hibernating like some old bear up in the mountains. Well, that's not quite true. I've been doing a lot of journal writing and trying to wrestle poems and ideas from the journals. Still, it's time to begin again with the practice of Zen blogs and Zen writing. Bear with me. And forgive me for a silly pun.

I thought a good place to start is with a wonderful poem by my friend J.B. Bryan, a cantankerous Zentista who lives in Albuquerque. He's a poet, painter and a "collagist." Is there such a word? He's always putting together random pieces of things into stews, art pieces, music and his life. For instance, in the photograph above J.B. had just served me tea in the adobe teahouse he had built in his studio in Placitas. He had studied the traditions and created his own ceremony, based on the traditions, but with his own utensils and what seemed appropriate for his practice. 

PRACTICE

a body such as this body

tosses back its antlers &

spins them like a propeller

skull finally work

iris, planet, sun

I won’t spend a dime

Great Faith

Great Doubt

Great Effort

O the universe has a wit

easily tasted in green leaves

boiled with water

what’s the bloodstream?

but a river of huge loves &

thunderous flowers of combustion!

be sure to practice everyday

––JB Bryan 

Remember: On Sunday mornings 10AM Mountain Time, we are having Zoom services (brief chanting, a 40 minute period of zazen, and a dharma talk). We also have a lively Wednesday evening book club at 6PM. Write me at bbyrd@cincopuntos.com for the appropriate links. 

Be well. Sit strong. Practice wisdom and compassion. If you miss the mark, oh well, remember now is always now. 

Bobby Kankin Byrd

Guiding Teacher

Both Sides / No Sides Zen

Nothing to Give, No One to Receive It

Excerpt: Nothing to Give, No One to Receive It - Norman Fischer Some gifts we see as gifts (the birthday or holiday gift) and others we usually don’t see as gifts (the gift of sunlight, the gift of breath). The practice of giving extends to all forms of giving. Traditionally, there are three things to give: material gifts, the gift of dharma, and the gift of freedom. But really there are many more things to give: the gift of listening, the gift of love, the gift of creation, attention, and effort. To make a poem or a painting is to practice giving, as is cooking a meal, cleaning a room, putting a single flower in a vase. In his fascicle “Four Methods of Guidance for Bodhisattvas,” Dogen writes that to launch a boat, build a bridge, and earn a living are acts of giving. To be willing to be born—and to die—is to practice giving. I usually think of four simple ways to practice giving: giving yourself to yourself (that is, to be generous in your attitude toward yourself); giving materially to others (giving money or other material gifts to those in need and to those not in need); giving fully and without reservation the gift of your presence and respect; and giving yourself completely in your meditation practice. There are six paramitas or perfections that define the Mahayana path: giving, ethical conduct, energy, patience, meditation, and wisdom. It is no wonder that giving is the first of these. The more you study it, the more it seems that giving is the whole of the Buddha way.

Many thanks to Polly Shikan Perez for this blog post!

Notes from my hand-written Journal.

“Out of nowhere  heart-mind comes forth.”
―Diamond Sutra

My morning ritual is to stumble out back to the zendo and turn on the electric heaters. I want to feel the day. I want my meditation spot to get warm while I drink my coffee. And I want my bowels to move. I also want to hear birdsong, the chatter of the universe, so I pour birdfeed into the feeder and check the bird water.

Yesterday was a day of clouds and cold winter rain. It’s easy for us desert people to get bone-chilled and sad on days like that. Sure, we know better. Our rational minds remind us how good the rain is for the desert, but deep down there’s a hunger for warmth and sunshine. Radiant heat! Three or four cold days of clouds and rain and desert folk start talking some serious sorrow.

This morning when I got up I was half-expecting more rain. Drowsy and still warm from a night under the covers, I put on my robe and crocs and went out the back door― the new day absolutely startled me. Golden sunlight lit up the rooftops and made Franklin Mountain beyond glow. The white-winged doves, perched high up on the electric wires where the sunshine is the best, began to coo and flap their wings. They were ready with their winter hunger. Likewise the house sparrows and finches (some juncos too) sat quietly hidden in the bushes, watching and waiting. I peed on the leafless desert willow. It too was waiting. I went back inside. Behind me the birds began to celebrate the feast.

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Post Script. I've neglected writing on this blog for so long. New Year Resolution! Write more Zen Stuff! Ha! Wonder how long that will last. Perhaps some of our fellow Sanghistas will join me. 

Generosity!

MARCH 2018: SEVERAL OF OUR SANGHA MEMBERS
MOVING A BUDDHA STATUE AND OTHER  ZEN PARAPHERNALIA
FROM THE STONE GARAGE ON LOUISVILLE AVENUE
TO THE ZEN HOUSE AT 2718 CAMPBELL

Generosity, or "Dana", is the first of Gotama's Six Perfections. Gotama is that guy who has come to be known as the Buddha. Everyday, along with his fellow monks, he'd get up, sit zazen, then grab his begging bowl and go from home to home to beg for food. He believed deeply in reciprocity, engaging in the life of his community, receiving and giving, breathing in and breathing out.

So "The Zen House" at 2718 Campbell, otherwise known as Both Sides / No Sides Zen Center of El Paso, is asking for your help in continuing the practice and celebration of the Dharma in El Paso. The Zen House is funded entirely by the donations of our members and our friends. Our basic expenses are approximately $1,100 a month. This includes rent, electricity, gas and water. Anything you can give is very much appreciated.

• Folks can help support El Paso's Zen Community: 
• by giving via our PayPal account at bothsidesnosides@gmail.com;  
• by sending along a check to the Zen House at 2718 Campbell, El Paso, TX 79902; 
• or, best yet, come by the Zen House and drop your donation in the Dana Bowl, staying to sit zazen with us, share tea and conversation.   

We have our services on Sundays, 10 AM, and a "Just Sitting" silent practice on Wednesday nights, 6 to 7 PM. Good things are happening in the silence of zazen and in our daily practice. Come by and join us.

For more information, you can call me at 915-241-3140, write me at the email address, message us via Facebook or comment on this blogpost.

A deep bow to you all, plus a little Texas Two-Step, some flowers and songs.

Bobby Kankin Byrd, Sensei

Three Poems: Rumi, Neruda, Li Po

I drafted this post, oh, in November I think but never finished it. Diana DoShin Johnson used these three poems in a dharma talk on one of her returns to El Paso / Las Cruces. We have them on hand. The poems have not grown older. I have. Bobby Kankin

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Story Water  

                     ―Rumi

A story is like water
that you heat for your bath.

It carries messages between the fire
and your skin. It lets them meet,
and it cleans you!

Very few can sit down
in the middle of the fire itself
like a salamander or Abraham.
We need intermediaries.

A feeling of fullness comes,
but usually it takes some bread
to bring it.

Beauty surrounds us,
but usually we need to be walking
in a garden to know it.

The body itself is a screen
to shield and partially reveal
the light that’s blazing
inside your presence.

Water, stories, the body,
all things we do, are mediums
that hide and show what’s hidden.

Study them,
and enjoy this being washed
with a secret we sometimes know,
and then not.

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XV 

               ―Pablo Neruda

Nosotros, los perecederos, tocamos los metales,
el viento, las orillas del océano, las piedras,
sabiendo que seguirán, inmóviles o ardientes,
y yo fui descubriendo, nombrando todas las cosas:
Fue mi destino amar y despedirme.

We, the mortal ones, touch metal,
the wind, ocean shores, stones,
knowing they will go on, inert or burning,
and I went discovering, naming all these things:
It was my destiny to love and say goodbye.

In Memory of Apollinaire “Polo” Valenzuela

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The Birds Have Vanished

               ―Li Po

The birds have vanished into the sky,
and now the last cloud drains away.

We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.

(Translation by Sam Hamill)

Good luck with that, huh?`

Both Sides / No Sides Zendo
Summer Morning after an Unexpected Rain

Beings are numberless, we vow to save them.    

A Journal Note

(Egad, I wrote the in June 2015, a year and a half ago. I forgot to push the publish button. Oh, well. Better now than never. Things have changed, of course. Polly lives in Las Cruces with her partner Steve, I talk to her and see her from time to time, but we all miss her. I don't see Matthew anymore. I miss seeing him. He's a good guy. I hope he walks through the door again sometime soon. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the post.)

One Tuesday night when I was out of town, Matthew Torres—the young man with the curly hair who comes when he can—brought the Zendo a gift, a little paper dolphin he had made, origami style, from thick paper marbled with many pastel colors. I was out of town and my fellow priest Polly Perez was in charge. Knowing Polly, she received the dolphin with a joyful smile. She placed it in the arms of the bronze teaching Buddha who sits on the altar. But then it was time to ring the bell. She lit the oil lamps and the incense, and the services began, as always, with the voices of those gathered together to sit zazen, atoning for the harm we cause in the world.

So this morning, back in town—the smell of dampness in the air from the little bit of rain we had last night—I went out to the zendo. Lucky me, the zendo is in my backyard. The little building is a 90 year old stone garage that Lee and I, with a little bit of extra cash, transformed 25 years ago into my office. Now it’s the Both Sides / No Sides Zendo, a 12-seater. Buddhism does things like that, letting one thing become another. I bowed to the bronze Buddha. He still carries the dolphin in his arms. This makes me happy. I lit the lamps and a stick of incense. I too recited the Prayer of Atonement for the harm I cause in the world. I bowed to my zafu and began chanting in preparation to sit zazen. Ernie the black cat walked in. He strolled up to me for a scratch behind the ears, and then he slowly went from zabuton to zabuton, sniffing at the wonderful places full of human smell to lay his body down. He chose, finally, the zabutons stacked beneath the altar. He climbed inside the little cave and immediately went to sleep, so black you cannot tell cat from zafu until he opens his golden eyes.

Stephen Batchelor, toward the end of his book Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist, says Gautama contributed four basic elements to the Dharma, elements that were not derived from the Indian culture of his time.

1. The principle of “this conditionality, conditioned arising.”
2. The process of the Four Noble Truths.
3. The practice of mindful awareness.
4. The power of self-reliance.

So there we were—the Buddha, the paper dolphin, the black cat and the old man sitting zazen. We felt the breeze seeping into the stone zendo, and we listened to the mockingbirds and the mourning doves. By sitting zazen, Dogen says, we express our true nature. Ideas and words are irrelevant. Just pieces of trash floating past. But the bell does ring, sooner or later. Like always, I recited the Four Great Vows, vowing to save the numberless earth beings, ending all delusions, entering all the boundless Dharma gates, and becoming one with the Buddha’s Way.

Good luck with that, huh? But that’s what we vow. Over the years, the roots of these vows, watered by the daily practice of zazen, grow deeper into our heart-mind. I blew out the lamps, bowed to the Buddha and the dolphin in his arms, scooted Ernie out of the zendo, and went about my life. As one more of the numberless beings, I carried along the little bit of freedom I realized within those old stone walls—the morning light, the open door, the fresh but damp spring breeze and the happily dissonant songs of mockingbirds and mourning doves.

Bobby Kankin Byrd 

June 2015

Ernie, the Dolphin & the Buddha
A lousy photo but you get the picture!

Ernie opens his eyes!

Old Man Winter Morning Zendo Poem

Old Man Winter Morning Zendo Poem

Morning zazen makes no sense at all, 

Absolutely no sense at all.

But I’m happy to be here, after practice,

Alive on my black cushion, bundled up

From a nagging sickness, sipping cold coffee,

Incense burned to ashes in the quiet,

Candles flickering, sunlight shadows

On the brown wall, and those silly pigeons,

They’re eating out of the cat dish again.

Ha! Good for them.

They don’t know right from wrong.

What better time to give thanks,

Thank you, thank you

A single grackle screeches out

Her love for me

And then she flies away.

In celebration of Harvey Daiho Hilbert Roshi's 70th Birthday

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Each moment, life as it is, the only teacher. 

Being just this moment, compassion’s way.  

―The Third and Fourth Principles of Practice as adapted by Charlotte Joko Beck and the Ordinary Mind School from the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths

You know, when you first start reading about Zen practice, you come across two visions of how to sit on a cushion, Rinzai Zen and Soto Zen. These are the two primary Japanese lineages. Each is pigeonholed into its own stereotype. Rinzai is the sterner practice, more martial in observance of all the rules, and Soto Zen is softer and more lenient in many ways. In Rinzai Zen, you sit zazen facing the sangha, you have regular sansen (interview with the teacher), the teacher gives you koans to break the hard walls of psyche, and the aim is to experience “kensho,” or sudden enlightenment. In Soto Zen, you sit facing the wall, you have irregular dokusan (interview with the teacher), and there is no aim, per se. You sit shikantaza, which means “just sitting.” The Soto lineage favors of what is called “gradual enlightenment.” Of course, in actual practice, especially here in the United States, the differences between the two lineages have faded away in some aspects, and really, the only way to find out the real differences, is to go sit with one group or another. If it’s true Zen practice, the foundation will always be zazen, sitting on a cushion (or chair, as your body requires), back straight, eyes open, breathing in and out, bringing the mind to the point of existence. 

Ha! The reason I wrote all of that is because of that little poem up above, “Old Man Winter Morning Zendo Poem.” I consider it a “Zen poem” because it speaks of my daily practice. But in high school and college, when I started reading about Zen poets and artists, I was always intrigued by how they had these sudden blasts of simultaneous insight and expression. Basho and his buddies would sit at the edge of a creek, getting drunk on sake and throwing down haiku and renga at each other in raucous laughter-filled dharma battles. The great calligraphers would approach a blank scroll with brush and ink, there would be a frenzied dervish swirling of arms, perhaps a shout and grunts, then, ZAP! And there it was! Another masterpiece!

Oh, I wanted to be like them. That was my romantic notion. Now I’m almost 75, and I want to say my Zen and writing of poetry is not like that at all. That’s not who I am. That’s not how I write poems. 

Every day I try to write in my journals. Mostly with my illegible (except to me) hand-writing. Sometimes on the computer. Sometimes even on my cell phone, talking, not writing, into the damn thing if I have idea, see or hear something that interests me. Anyway, from time to time I go through my journals and try to harvest poems. When I find something, I fiddle with it some, and, after a while, if I like it, I move it to my “poems in-progress” files.

Several weeks ago, I scribbled in my notebook about the silly pigeons eating out of the cat dish. When I finish my morning zazen, I can see them out there, finishing up what the cats didn’t eat. That irritates Lee and me, them eating the cat food and shitting all over the place. We wish the cats would do their job and harvest the pigeons but the cats don’t care about the pigeons. They are no longer hungry. They just watch the pigeons and dream ferocious cat dreams. That’s why we don’t feed the cats on the front porch anymore. It’s no fun to come home and see pigeon poop on the front porch. But one morning, after zazen, I looked out there at the pigeons and laughed at them. Silly birds, they don’t know right from wrong. Ha! I wrote that down. I took a sip of cold coffee. It was delicious.

Then one day at services, while we were finishing with the tea, one of our members had a question. She said a friend of hers was comparing Zen with another form of Buddhism. In Zen practice, the friend said, we don’t do anything. We just sit there. “It doesn’t make any sense at all.” I had to laugh. Her friend was right, of course, because he was witnessing our practice only from the outside. And that’s what we do. We just sit there, staring at the wall. 

So this comment stuck with me. I wrote that down in my journal too. Then I remembered something I had been working on. I went to my journals and found this little piece about giving thanks for our practice. “Thank you, thank you.” All of this migrated into my “work-in-progess” files. I coupled that with the pigeons, right and wrong, and the idea about “making sense.” Then a few mornings later, a grackle showed up while I was sitting. It was one of those times during zazen when you hear something perfectly―my hearing the bird and the bird’s wild screech wrapped up together into one complete expression of existence. Not two. But one. That’s what Dogen means when he writes, “to be realized by the 10,000 things.” The grackle screeched out her love for me. Why not? She flew away. It all made sense. And I put it all these bits and pieces into this one little poem. 

When the poem was done, I liked it. It satisfied me somehow. And I like how it was made. Like following a mountain trail up and around to no place in particular. Except I need to pay attention. See the world clearly as it is. Otherwise, I’ll get lost for good. This is how I try to lead my life, following that mountain trail through the scrub and the trees, around the rocks, up through the rip-rap, vowing not to squander my life. So I decided to share the poem on our email list. Then yesterday morning, during zazen again, I remembered it was almost Harvey Daiho Hilbert’s birthday. He’ll be 70, so I need to give him thanks too. He was my teacher for all these many years. Thank you, Daiho, thank you, thank you. That’s what I want to say. To Harvey and to all those who have come before us. 

With our practice, 

We honor all those beings, 

Women and men, 

Known and unknown, 

Who have given their lives

To this practice 

For our present benefit. 

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So, yes, yes, thank you. Thank you. 

Bobby Kankin Byrd