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A Virtual Alms Round

Portland Buddhist Priory Posted on November 22, 2016 by cwdlylionNovember 22, 2016

(To see the original of this emailing, go here.)

“The light of Buddha is increasing in brilliance and the wheel of the Dharma is always turning. This temple building and this ground are guarding the Dharma and the trainees and all meditations and contemplations are full of treasure and wisdom.”

Dear Friends,

This month marks the end of my first year here at the Portland Priory: it has been an interesting and fruitful year for me and I am touched by your support and kindness. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to do my practice here in Portland and for the opportunity to serve as the priest of this temple: I look forward to continuing to learn and grow with you all.

I continue to be impressed with your dedication to applying the practice when confronted with impermanence and I hope that the practice has been a comfort and support for you, both regarding the changes at the temple and regarding the turbulence and change facing our wider community today: certainly the world can benefit from the light generated through our efforts in practicing the Way.

Virtual Alms Round.

It is the practice of monks and temples to hold out their alms bowl when there is a need, we hold out our alms bowl in faith that support for the practice and the temple will be given as is good. The temple holds a space in the world where compassion and harmlessness are valued and where all beings are welcomed to seek and find their own true spiritual home.

Our Appeal

So, the simple thing is that donations to the temple – that is, both financial and food donations – are down, and we hope that you will consider giving your support to the temple as the year draws to a close.

The temple’s usual basic yearly operating cost is from $9,000 to $11,000. This year, our year-to-date income is around $4,000 short of our operating cost expenses. So far, we have covered that shortfall from our savings, but long term, of course, we won’t be able to rely on savings.

Our long-term goal is to rebuild our savings, which have seen a substantial reduction over the last 2 years. For now, our goal is to meet our annual expenses this year and in the coming years. (For a more detailed look at the temple finances, please contact either myself or Allison Coe, our treasurer.)

How you might give

I am sure you are aware of many of the ways of giving and I encourage you to make use of whatever method is simplest for you. Whatever the size of your donation, it is gratefully accepted and deeply appreciated.

One way of giving that you may not be aware of, and may wish to make use of as the holidays approach, is giving through AmazonSmile. Amazon.com will give to eligible non-profits .5% of purchases made through the AmazonSmile program on the Amazon.com website.

For more information on (and an easy link to) making purchases through AmazonSmile that will benefit the Priory and for a few other suggestions for donations, please go to our “Supporting the Priory” web page.

Remember that all donations to the temple are tax deductible.

Finally, I and the priory council are deeply grateful for your practice and support of whatever kind. We hope that your holiday season will be peaceful and bright and that you, together with all beings, will be well and happy in the coming new year.

With best wishes and a bow,
Rev. Leon

The Perfection of Zen

Portland Buddhist Priory Posted on November 22, 2016 by cwdlylionNovember 22, 2016

(To see the complete November 2016 newsletter, go here)

It is a little hard to believe that it has been so long, but this weekend, on Sunday the 6th of November, we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Reverend Master Jiyu-Kennett’s death with our Founders Day festival. In addition to respecting and revering her for being the founding teacher of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives and the founder of our temple, I, like many people, feel a very personal connection to Rev. Master Jiyu since she was the living teacher of the monks and lay practitioners involved with our Order when I first started practice. And more than that, she seemed to really speak to a part of me that I had little hope of being addressed by a living person.

Reflecting on Rev. Master Jiyu’s influence, I am reminded of a small episode from the life of the Buddha. After a long period of extreme effort, he realized that asceticism does not work and gave up forcing himself in that way. He took a meal and a bath and, standing next to a river, maybe after having cleaned his alms bowl, he tosses the bowl into the water saying “If this bowl floats up stream, I will attain enlightenment,” and the bowl floats upstream.

In practicing the Dharma, we all will find ourselves in a situation where we will need to go against the stream: sometimes perhaps in an outward or social way, but mostly we will need to go against the stream of the greed and anger and confusion we find in our own minds.

Rev. Master Jiyu used to say that in the imperial era of the United Kingdom, the one unforgivable social transgression, when living in the provincial areas of the empire, was to “go native”. To adopt the values and views of the people “conquered” by the empire. It was ok to study things like Buddhism from an academic perspective, but one must not believe in it or take it seriously. When she encountered the Dharma, she recognized on a heart level that it had great value and had the courage to wholeheartedly give herself to it: she went native.

This willingness to take practice seriously and go against the stream, not just to do something different, but because of what I can only describe as the necessity of the heart, was to me one of her greatest offerings and I feel continually blessed by all that she made possible. I often find myself in a state of wonder over the unlikely set of circumstances that has given me the good fortune to encounter others who take the Buddhadharma seriously and carefully cherish and preserve it by putting it into practice even in small ways.

Rev. Leon

 

The Perfection Of Zen

By Reverend Master Jiyu-Kennett

[The temple Rev. Master refers to is Unpuku-ji, in Haino, Mie-ken, Japan. The picture above was taken at Unpuku-ji during Reverend Master Jiyu’s Chief Priest installation ceremonies (Kessei) and shows the statue mentioned in the article below.]

The perfection of Zen teaching must, of necessity, show itself in the way of life of the trainee, and in his behaviour to other people, otherwise he has learnt nothing. But perfection is something at which we work, it is not some­thing that we can ever completely achieve—hence there is nothing but end­less training for the trainee, and no one ever says he is either enlightened or not enlightened—he just goes on in his endless training, doing the best he can.

I learned a lot of what I know of the perfection of Zen teaching from the statue of Kannon in my own temple in the country. When I first took this temple there was only half a roof, no ceilings, no wall, no gate, a weed patch for a garden, no gas, water or sewerage arrangements and only one electric light bulb which you carried on a long line from the ceremony hall to the one room in which there were mats and in which I was to live. I was abbess of this two hundred year old temple in which even the statue of Kannon needed an umbrella to keep out the rain. Rats scuttled at her feet and wood worms gnawed at her pedestal, but her face was completely at peace. With hand upraised in blessing she gazed down on me in utter serenity, silently blessing the village in spite of the fact that her house had been allowed to fall into ruin, and drunks sported themselves bawdily in her meditation hall, for the temple had no parishioners at that time and was known to be the poorest temple in all Japan.

For the first few days I did nothing but zazen in the company of the beautiful statue then, as the weather grew warmer and I began to look around me at the state of the temple’s dereliction, I gradually collected the money to mend the roof. I put up the ceilings with my own hands, never knowing before that time that I could handle a hammer and nails. Together with friends we put up a wall and built a gate, and begged enough mats from those who were buying new ones for their houses to cover the floors of all the rooms. As you will see from the news-letter the house is almost finished—only three ceilings now needing very slight repair and, this year, a friend is putting in modern toilets. It has been hard work; it has taken a long time—and I have loved every minute of it. But the statue has the same smile of benediction now I have almost finished as when I began—come rain, sleet, snow or typhoon, buildings or no buildings, she blesses the village. And when the drunks insult her by making water in her now lovely garden and desecrate her meditation hall she does not complain.

This altitude of uncomplaining all acceptance is one of the signs of the perfection of Zen teaching and the complete peace and freedom that training for such an attitude of mind can bring is its own reward. But, you may say, I have no such statue to teach me such things. My answer is that you can find spiritual truth in everything you see; even the most inanimate thing can be the master of a true trainee, hence the stupidity of looking for a specific person as a “master” or teacher. If you doubt this, take a look at the road outside your house. The rain soaks it, the sun scorches it, the traffic churns up its surface and the dogs and the drunks foul it without ever a sound of complaint there­from. When the trainee can become like the road outside his house, com­pletely uncomplaining in the face of all events, both good and bad as the world understands good and bad, he will have come close to the perfection of Zen. My advice to all of you who grumble and complain is to look with religious eyes instead of worldly ones on everything around you and make even a blade of grass your master for it has much to teach. No one expects you to become perfect but there is room for improvement in all of us. And remember that three of the signs of enlightenment in our behaviour are gratitude for all things, and a complete lack of either grumbling or anger.

Originally printed in The Chu Shin Zenji Newsletter, [Sōji-ji,]February, 1968.

The Myth Of A Permanent Personality

Portland Buddhist Priory Posted on October 6, 2016 by cwdlylionOctober 6, 2016

(From the October 2016 Newsletter. To see the whole newsletter go here.)

I recently came across an episode from the Invisibilia podcast that I found to be interesting. While the episode isn’t necessarily Buddhist, it does point to some important ideas that might help to illuminate the nature of the self and how we might be able to change ourselves for the better.

The Personality Myth — Invisibilia, July 24th, 2016

From the perspective of practice, we build our personality through the repetition of behaviors and thought patterns; these patterns are often called habit-energy and in large part habit-energy makes up our personality. If you have ever tried to deliberately change these patterns you will pretty quickly come to realize that they can be quite deeply ingrained and difficult to change or work with. While they may be challenging, it doesn’t mean that they are somehow permanent. Happily, even the deepest patterns of our minds can be worked with and redirected.

An example of this comes to mind recently as I encounter division and hostility, directly from others and also in the news and on various media. Often, this external problem really isn’t addressable through conversation. I can address my side of it though (the fear and defensiveness, etc.) through the simple practice of wishing that others find kindness. We can wish that beings be free from suffering and we can try to be kind and patient in dealing with others. Whether it appeals to us or not, we are on this earth together and it is difficult to maintain one side of various opposites when trying to be kind to others. Being patiently kind in the face of division helps to dissolve those polarities that we encounter outwardly and helps to change our inner habit energy.

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