Daigo: “Great Enlightenment”

Portland Buddhist Priory Posted on by

(Follow these links to see the September 2023 Priory Newsletter, the October 2023 Priory Newsletter or the November 2023 Priory Newsletter where this was published in three parts.)

– Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett

The following is a transcription of a lecture given by Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett to all monks and lay trainees during the Segaki sesshin held in the fall of 1980; the lecture was given on October 29 of that year. In this Dharma talk, Rev. Master Jiyu has used paraphrased quotes from Volume I of Dogen Zenji’s Shobogenzo. (Shobogenzo, Volume I, trans. Kosen Nishiyama and John Stevens, Tokyo, Nakayama Shobo, 1977, pp. 34 – 38.)

The original transcription first appeared in The Journal of Shasta Abbey, November – December, 1981, and is reprinted here in a slightly modified form with permission. (For this presentation, I have edited the original transcription for readability. LK)

 

Homage to the Buddha,
Homage to the Dharma,
Homage to the Sangha.

 

Daigo, which has here been translated as Great Enlightenment, would be better translated as “the Great Water of the Spirit of the Great True Self.” Go is the old Japanese term for self; and to find the True Self, which is of course the Cosmic Buddha or the Buddha Nature, to become one with that True Self, is the rightful occupation of all monks. [The spiritual purpose of all beings.]

But the title daigo is a many-faceted sword because Continue reading →

Being Comfortable

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(Follow this link to see the August 2023 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.)

Rev. Master Meiten McGuire – Victoria, B.C. Canada –

From Reflections on the Path: Zen Training in Everyday Life, the first book of Rev. Master Meiten’s teachings. It was published by the Vancouver Island Zen Sangha. Rev. Master Meiten died in January 2018 in Victoria, British Columbia. She was 92 years of age.

Rev. Master Meiten’s writings have been compiled in a new volume entitled Coming Home: Taking Refuge Within which is now available on Amazon.

The chapter “Being Comfortable” was published in the 2018 OBC Journal and is reprinted here by permission.

A painting of the Buddhist wheel of life held by a fierce being

Wheel of life image from our library. A common feature of all depictions of the wheel of life or Bhavachakra is that a Buddha appears in all the realms of existence, even the hell realms.

That everyone likes to feel comfortable is probably a safe generalization. Being comfortable has two aspects, it seems to me: we work to hold on to what brings us comfort, and we seek to remove that which makes us uncomfortable. The rhythm of our lives comes out of responding to that comfort/discomfort continuum. In psychology, needs and desires are distinguished, a distinction Buddhism also makes as a middle way between asceticism and self-gratification. The Buddhist mendicant is allowed only four requisites, the basics needed for sheer survival in this world. They are shelter, clothing, food, and medicine when sick. For monks, life can be simple because their needs are few. It’s a good reminder for all of us that we really don’t need a lot, though we do need a few things. This recognition can help us move toward simplifying our lives, and as we rid ourselves of some of the outer clutter, the mind has a chance to become correspondingly quieter.

All of us need to look dispassionately at what motivates us in our moment-to-moment choices, our daily and monthly ones, and then in our bigger view of how our lives have been Continue reading →

Taking Up the Pearl

Portland Buddhist Priory Posted on by

(Follow this link to see the July 2023 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.)

Kanzeon In Our Library

The altar pictured in the first image of this newsletter sits in our library upstairs where we hold our classes and broadcast our Zoom meetings. It is not usually in the Zoom picture since the camera for broadcasting and the screen for viewing the Zoom meeting sits on a shelf below this altar. This statue will occasionally come to mind while we talk and, since we have been thinking and talking a fair bit about Kanzeon (Japanese; Guanyin, Chinese; Avalokiteshwara, Sanskrit; Chenrezig, Tibetan) Bodhisattva over the last month or so, I thought I would share this picture.

Kanzeon is the Bodhisattva who embodies the aspect of Continue reading →