A Workshop for Survivors of Violence

Coming Home: 

A Day for Survivors of War and Violence
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, June 19th

Unitarian Universalist Church 

2000 South Solano Drive, Las Cruces, NM.

Violence is a nasty business. On the battlefield, in the home--it doesn't matter where. It has a way of turning lives upside down, shattering our understanding of ourselves, and making home life difficult. So many survivors of violence suffer from symptoms of traumatic stress. These symptoms are normal responses to abnormal circumstances.  They are uncomfortable and can be crazy-making.

Coming Home is a one-day experience for survivors suffering from post-traumatic stress that will offer specific skills toward healing and recovery from the effects of violence. We will off practice skills that are based in the mindfulness practice of Zen.  Participants will learn Meditation Practice, Deep Listening Practice, Writing Practice, Mindful Speech Practice, Eating Practice, and Movement Practice in the context of their own experience through the day. Movement practice will include Yoga by Susie Citrin, RN Certified Yoga Instructor. Rev. Dalene Rogers of Ambercare Hospice will lead Deep Listening and Mindful Speech Sessions.

Coming Home Practice is a project offered by Zen monk, Rev. Dr. Harvey Daiho Hilbert-roshi, founder of the Order of Clear Mind Zen and a disabled Combat Veteran.  Daiho-roshi has worked with trauma survivors as a psychotherapist for nearly thirty years, was a consultant to the Veteran’s Administration, the Vietnam Veterans of America, and has written and published extensively on healing from the moral anguish of combat.

Come Home on June 19th at 9:00 AM at the Unitarian Universalist Church.   There is a minimal fee of $10.00 for food offered during this workshop, but no charge for the workshop itself. Donations will gratefully be welcomed, however.  The Order of Clear Mind Zen has applied to the State of New Mexico as a Non-Profit Religious Corporation.

For reservation and registration, call Rev. Daiho at Clear Mind Zen, 575-680-6680 or email at sodaiho@hotmail.com.  For information about Harvey Daiho Hilbert and Clear Mind Zen, visit our website.


Tentative Agenda

08:30 AM Open Registration
09:00 AM Welcome
09:15 What is Wrong With Me?  Absolutely Nothing! Keys to understanding trauma and our response to it. (Rev. Daiho-roshi)
10:00 Meditation Practice / Walking Meditation Practice (Rev. Daiho-roshi)
11:00 Deep Listening Practice (how to listen to heal / Mindful Speech Practice (How to speak to heal) (Rev. Dalene Rogers)
12:00 Eating Meditation:  How do we nurture ourselves? (Staff)
01:00 Seated Meditation Practice / Walking Meditation Practice (Staff)
02:00 Writing Practice (Staff)
03:00 Movement Practice (Susie Citrin, RN)
04:00 Mindful Speech Practice (Questions, Comments, Dialogue) (Staff)
05:00 Close

Zazenkai in El Paso June 12th

Zazenkai this weekend. Zazenkai will begin at 9am and go through the day until our regular services. Then we will have our services and end up at our usual time around 530pm. We will have a vegetarian lunch, so if you plan to attend please notify either me or John Fortunato so we can make appropriate plans. We will have Samu (work-meditation). John suggests that for at least some of us, we will be cleaning the grout between tiles in the Zendo so he can seal it later on. Work on our knees and our butts. You might want to have something different to wear for the samu. Schedule will be posted later in the week.

John Fortunato has given to the Sangha a beautiful new Buddha to sit on our altar. And there he sits now, very peacefully. Mr. Wooden Buddha happily manifesting Buddhahood. The Buddha is handcarved by craftsmen  in Vietnam.  This makes our Buddha even more special for to John because John--like other members of our Sangha and our immediate lineage--is a Vietnam vet.

Please visit with the Buddha the next time you are at the Sangha. Bow to the Buddha in yourself. Pick up the statue of Buddha, smell the wood, feel its texture, laugh at his big ears. He's only a statue. An emblem. A piece of wood that used to a living tree. Then be like the Buddha and sit at peace and stare at the wall and practice good.  Bring about abundant good for all beings.

Practicing Street Zen

Zen Buddhist practice is alive and well in El Paso and Juárez. So, yes, we will be sitting this Saturday, May 30th, 330pm, at 711 Robinson. I hope you can be there. It’ll be Memorial Day Weekend. We’ll sit for peace for the city of Juárez. Below are some reworked journal notes from my first practicing of streetZen with Harvey Daiho Hilbert two months ago.

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Zen Buddhist Priest

Practicing Zazen for Peace

Toward the end of March I drove up to Las Cruces to sit streetZen--the practice of doing zazen outside in a public place--with Harvey Hilbert at Veteran’s Park. I had never sat StreetZen with him before. Stuff always got in the way. I am always doing this and that and the two hour roundtrip drive is always a good excuse not to go sit outdoors in the world. But I needed to talk to Harvey about my Shukke Tokudo Ceremony, the Home-Leaving Ceremony that was happening in the next few weeks. I was to become a teacher in the Clear Mind lineage of Zen. I also needed to give him my brown rakusu. I had made my own black rakusu when I took the 16 vows of Jukai and had received the Buddhist name Hen Shin, meaning rebirth or transformation. But the brown I had purchased from stillsitting.com, a Zen family-owned company. (I recommend stillsiting highly for a complete range of supplies for Zen practice.) Now, as my teacher, Harvey would once again write my Buddhist name on the white backing and the date of my ordination as a Zen priest. I learned also he had decided to give me a new Buddhist name, Kan Kin, aka Sutra Reader.

It was so good to see Harvey. I was the first time I had seen him since he separated from his wife Judy. Certainly it was a terribly difficult time for both of them. Still is for that matter. But he seemed relaxed and at peace. I hope so. I wish them both all the best. But I really wasn’t surprised. The practice of Zazen is a good, well-tested boat to navigate our particular journeys.

It was a beautiful spring morning in the desert. Harvey and his student Joe--an older man like Harvey and me--were waiting for me. As we prepared to sit, a road runner walked up and stared at us. He was maybe 12 feet from where we sat placed our zabutons and zafus. Then the bird walked off on his stiff legs, his head swinging back and forth. I was delighted. They laughed. That old bird comes every morning, Joe said. The bell rang. Three old farts sitting on a patch of concrete in the middle of the park. The air pure and cool, almost cold, a nice breeze blowing across my face. Time passed. Thoughts moved through me and drifted away. My attention always back to my breath. Bird twitter in the desert. The croaking of a crow, a mockingbird screaming somewhere off in the desert brush. Behind us men, maybe 40 feet away, practiced Tai Chi scuffling tennis shoes on the concrete. Turns out that they, like the road runner, are common witnesses to Harvey's practice of streetZen. In fact, they time their practice to the ringing of the bell. And the bell rang again, time for our kinhin boogie-woogie. The Tai Chi practitioners rested while we did our walking meditation. Then the next bell. We sat some more. Bird song, the breeze, the scuffling of feet. The minutes passed along with the breathing. The bell rang one last time and we were done. We sat there and talked. We watched a man who was playing with his remote control glider. He would hold the glider by its wingtip and swirl around like a dervish, throwing the glider into the sky. The glider, with the man at the remote, would catch hold of currents and lift higher and higher into the sky. Off in another part of the park a couple was walking with their daughter. The girl, maybe 12 years old, is disabled, a sufferer of cerebral palsy. She had very little control of her body, and her parents struggled beside her. The man pulled her along, sometimes roughly (not meanly) to get her up the steps, but that was okay with her. He was frustrated and sad, but he loved her. The way he touched her cheek and brushed back her head. The girl chanted some rhyme, some riddle, some song. Babbling really. I couldn’t make out any word. Buddha Nature. There it is. How do we bear witness to Buddha Nature, huh? How do we understand the presence of this little girl and her parents? Once when I was I was at the Bodhi Manda in Jemez Springs, old Joshu Sasaki Roshi was talking about enlightenment. Goofy little man. Smooth skin. Little bitty eyes that shone. He said, “There is no answer.” And he giggled and looked around the zendo. He added, “And there is no question.” So how do I understand that little girl and her parents? Daily life is full with these koans. And here I am, going about the practice of Zen in my home, with our sangha and out in the world.

StreetZen is about practicing out there in the world. You don't have to be sitting zazen, but zazen is the foundation of Zen practice. So why not drag your zabuton and zafu outside into a public place? Form is emptiness is form. Sometimes the weather is good, sometimes it's not.

Great Faith.

Great Doubt.

Great Effort.

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I recommend sitting with Harvey during his streetZen. He practices Monday through Friday in Veteran’s Park in Las Cruces at 9am. To learn more about the StreetZen, click here. And we too can consider our own streetZen practice.

Zen in El Paso/Juarez: May 22

Yes, we will be sitting once again this Saturday, 711 Robinson, 330pm. I hope you're all well. John Fortunato will be leading our services. I'll return next week. I look very much to sitting with you guys.

Recently, Harvey Daiho Hilbert wrote about the Heart Sutra on his Clear Mind Zen blog and also in a list-serv I subscribe too. Maria Lopez, aka Makya, one of the correspondents on the list serve linked to this nice Spanish production of the Heart Sutra. It's from the Thich Nhat Hahn tradition, and it's done very differently from the way we do it on Saturday afternoons, but it's very nice to hear the Spanish and, for our English speakers, to read the subtitles. Also, below the video are the links to Daiho Hilbert's discussion of the Heart Sutra.
Enjoy.



Heart Sutra, Part One by Harvey Daiho Hilbert Roshi
Heart Sutra, Part Two by Harvey Daiho Hilbert Roshi
Heart Sutra, Part Three by Harvey Daiho Hilbert Roshi
Heart Sutra, Part Four by Harvey Daiho Hilbert Roshi
Heart Sutra, Part Five by Harvey Daiho Hilbert Roshi
Heart Sutra, Last Section by Harvey Daiho Hilbert Roshi

Photographs from Bobby Byrd's, aka Kankin, Shukke Tokudo

For all photographs from this event go here. They are also on the Both Sides No Sides facebook page.

Zen Buddhism in El Paso / Juárez

Yes, we will be sitting this Saturday, 711 Robinson,  3:30pm in the Kern Place neighborhood of El Paso. Please join us. For more information, you can call me at 915-241-3140.--Bobby Byrd

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I've had the luxury of late to be reading from The Gary Snyder Reader. When I was growing up, wanting to be a poet, learning the first few baby steps about Zen Buddhism, Gary Snyder was a hero. Still is, for that matter. I discovered this going through the reader this last month. His work seems just as wise to me now as it did then. While I read, I took notes in my journal. Below are some of the stuff I gleaned from reading "The East / West Interview." Peter Barry Chowka interviewed Snyder over a five-day period in April 1977 for the East West Journal.

The family is the practice hall.

In one of the Theravada scriptures, the Buddha says, “Be a light unto yourself. In this six-foot-long self is birth and death and the key to the liberation from birth and death.” 

Beware of anything that promises freedom or enlightenment—traps for eager and clever fools—three-quarters of philosophy and literature is the talk of people trying to convince themselves that they really like the cage they were tricked into entering.

To act responsibly in the world doesn’t mean that you always stand back and let things happen: you play an active part, which means making choices, running risks, and karmically dirtying your hands to some extent. That’s what the Bodhisattva ideal is all about.

Too quote my old teacher, Oda Sesso: “In Zen there are only two things: you sit and sweep the garden. It doesn’t matter how big the garden is.”

Find your place on the planet and dig in. 

And then the fundamental ethical precept: Whatever you do, try not to cause too much harm.

Zen Buddhism El Paso / Juarez (3/20/2010) y Upcoming Shukke Tokudo

Yes, we will be sitting Saturday, March 20, 330pm at 711 Robinson. I hope you can make it. Also, we are making plans for the Shukke Tokudo Ceremony on April 3rd. We will have a potluck celebrations afterwards. And, for those of you who wish to sit with us, the day's events will start with a modified Zazenkai beginning at 9am. John Fortunato is the man in charge of both events. If you plan to attend one, the other or both, please get in touch with John so he can make appropriate arrangements.

Shukke Tokudo

On Saturday April 3 at 3:30pm at a gathering of the Both Sides / No Sides Zen Community Harvey Daiho Hilbert Roshi will perform the Shukke Tokudo Ceremony to ordain me as teacher in the Order of Clear Mind Zen. I will receive the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts. These are the same precepts that I recited for the Jukai Ceremony but this time I receive them for a different reason. And I will exchange my black rakusu for a brown rakusu. I’m taking one little shortcut. I’m buying my new brown rakusu. The black I made myself.

The Shukke Tokudo ordination marks the passage from layperson to monk, nun or priest. I prefer to use the word “teacher.” Several years ago Harvey Daiho Hilbert Roshi asked that I take these vows. I treaded water. I didn’t want to be a priest. I enjoyed being a Zen layperson--staring at the wall and reading the books and participating in a Sangha. Of course I was happy with having received the precepts during the Jukai Ceremony. And I was happy with my Buddhist name Hen Shin, which he bestowed upon me on April 2, 2005. Ha! It will be five years minus one day. Hen Shin means transformation or rebirth. I liked that idea. For the occasion I made my black rakusu. I had sewed the thing together with my own hands. That was a task. In the evenings and on Saturdays I sat there at the dining room table and sweated and even bled over that rakusu. Nothing makes a man more mindful than jabbing a needle into his clumsy fingers. Lucky for me I had my wife Lee to give me advice with the pattern and even did some of the sewing for me when I thought I might weep. I was content with the black rakusu, I told Daiho. Besides, I said, I’m not comfortable with the robes or some of the language like disciple or master.

He smiled. “Words and robes, what are those?” he said.

In the meantime I started the Both Sides / No Sides Zen Community here in El Paso to give people interested in Zen and zazen here in our community a place to come together for practice. Time passed, as it always does. We collected dana in the dana bowl and we added zafus and zabutons. For a year plus some we sat at the Black Tortoise Acupuncture Clinic thanks to Richie Barajas and Briana Armendariz. Then we moved into our space on Robinson thanks to John Fortunato where we’ve been for two years. Many times we have sat with just two or three people, a couple of times it was just me, and now we are happy our little Sangha began to grow. Every week the bell rang, we chanted and beat on the wooden fish with its eyes that never close, we lit incense, we sat on zafus and practiced zazen, we did the silent kinhin dance, we sat some more, we chanted the Heart Sutra in Sino-Japanese (our voices so much stronger after sitting), and we had our tea. It was good. Then late last year, one of the men who has been practicing with us for some time told me that he wanted to receive the Jukai Precepts. I was delighted for him. But I said, “You’ll have to go find a teacher to practice with.” He looked at me and said, “I think I already have.” I was both startled and honored. After much thought I went up to Las Cruces. I told Harvey this story and asked him if he would ordain me.

“Of course,” he said, laughing so hard I wondered if he would fall off his zafu.

Tokudo means ceremony, and Shukke is leaving home. Thus, “The Leaving Home Ceremony” or “Home-leaver’s ceremony.” In the old days monks-to-be left home and went into the monastery. Not so much anymore. Especially for American Zen Buddhists. Here Zen is much more a householder practice. But “leaving home” is still a very important concept. I like to think of “leaving home” as leaving that comfortable place called home or the ego to serve something greater than ourselves. In a way we all leave home, we leave the ego, when we do our home practice, the wall in front of us, alone with our breath and the universe in which we live. No separation—the absolute, the universe, the breath, breathing together in and out. We do this too when we come together to sit and practice as a Sangha. And we do this when we climb off our zafus and take our practice out into the city, the place of our life. I now vow to practice and to teach others, if they so wish, the Way of the Dharma as I understand it. I commit my life and practice to the understanding and lineage that comes from Shakyamuni Buddha and Dogen that flows down through all the Ancestors through Harvey Daiho Roshi and his teacher Ken McGuire Roshi.

I vow to appreciate my whole life as the life of the Three Treasures—the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, and I vow to serve Family, Sangha and Community and to practice right livelihood. Daiho Hilbert Roshi has composed the vows of Clear Mind Zen as follows:

I take Refuge in Everything That Is (Buddha)
I take Refuge in Reality and its Teachings (Dharma)
I take Refuge in the Order (Sangha)
I vow to cease creating evil
I vow to do good
I vow to work to create abundant good for all beings,

These too are my vows. I hope you can join me on April 3rd.