Kobun on Power

As shared in the Sunday, January 24, 2021, Dharma Talk by Jikoji Guiding Teacher Shoho Michael Newhall, and as it appears in “Traces of Kobun,” available here for download. 

Power
The power of meditation and wisdom together is called joriki. Jo is samadhi, and ki is spiritual energy, compassion, and wisdom. Existence, the world of phenomena, is power itself, but each thing doesn’t have power. If you presume a self-authorized power, you shrink existence. If you do not presume power, power can fill existence. Because form is also the process of cessation, power cannot be possessed, but it can be felt. For people who deny the existence of power, there is no power. At this level it is just a concept. In the same way we could deny holiness, and with that tainted concept, there is no holiness. If we begin to feel power, we see that everyone has power, everything has power. Existence is made of power. Life is energy itself. This energy and power is generously dispersed into all things.
 
Power is experienced when you meditate because your meditation is the action of denial of your personal power. So you become the center of the power, but you do not have power. It is like the experience of bowing, when you really feel your bow. When bowing, you are nothing, you do not have anything; you’re actually nothing, you disappear. You are like dust on the earth. When you stand up, you stand up as a person, a particular existence and you feel everything. At that time you are ready to walk.
 
Joriki is like a tree standing straight in the winter and making strong rings. That strength is important to feel. We have the same action the tree has; depending on the change of seasons, water, and sunshine, it forms rings. The experience of samadhi, concentration, and meditation makes that ring in human existence. That is the real age of the person.
 
Existence deepens by recognition. Actually, there is no such existence. Things exist as they are, completely relating to each other, but that is just how we think about things. Existence shows its depths by recognition of itself. The direction that this whole universe is moving is the direction of your deepening zazen. It is not a personal feeling. It is the direction your existence is supposed to go, so it is a natural thing you are doing.

A New Year's Sangha Note From Shoho Michael Newhall

To the New Year - a poem from W. S. Merwin:
 
            With what stillness at last
            you appear in the valley
            your first sunlight reaching down
            to touch the tips of a few
            high leaves that do not stir    
            as though they had not noticed
            and did not know you at all
            then the voice of a dove calls
            from far away in itself
            to the hush of the morning
 
            so this is the sound of you
            here and now whether or not
            anyone hears it this is
            where we have come with our age
            our knowledge such as it is
            and our hopes such as they are
            invisible before us
            untouched and still possible
 
     Yes, it’s been a year. Can we just leave it at that? We can all fill in the blanks - what a year of stress, stories, episodes, there is a lot to release, with a deep sigh we acknowledge it. So lets meet the turning season with what remains, what we are after all, that is - still intact and, after all, ready again for the turning of the day.
 
      Jikoji’s day to day existence as usual is just meditation and attending the temple. Nothing special, just business as usual. We continue to zoom out and meet the many hands of sangha. We are still together, and apart, and missing everyone, but with everyone, nothing is finished, nothing missing. Our existence is, as Issai put it:
                       A dewdrop world,
                          that is nothing but a dewdrop world
                             and yet...
 
     At Jikoji this new year’s practice was much quieter than usual. There must have been a hundred and eight bells but they all seemed like an exquisite dream, unsounded but still heard, and in this dream everything bowed to one another.  This is our new year, and the world is turning. We are turning. Dogen Zenji said “...understand the wild birds and monkeys, the thoughts and emotions, have carried you away, and so just take the backward step and be unified, and when unified, in that place, you will turn things by being turned.”
 
    From Jikoji - a happy, healthy, safe new year to everyone.  A “self-blessing” and a blessing extended to all, even that fearful one hiding behind you, to the all of the all, as far as we can imagine, and a bit further, just to be sure no one is missed. May we be the world, turn the world, while still being turned... 
 

A Note on Chanting by Meido

<p style="font-size:24px;line-height:130%;">Yesterday, sitting under a green umbrella, petting Miso, the cat, the breeze blew through the chimes hanging outside the zendo door. Too often, I forget to remember that chanting is the wind of the Dharma playing through the chimes of my heart. And then, can I really sing!

My Practice Today by Kaizan Doug Jacobson

Bodisattvas apply continuous effort and awareness. When we recognize and remember how we are the product of efforts by countless beings, for our birth and upbringing, shelter and sustenance, education, support of societal structures (education, governance, healthcare, infrastructure, public utilities.) With profound gratitude for this existence, we can with curiosity put ourselves out to meet the moment when it shows up. Our practice as bodhisattvas is being skillful and helpful with others and about bringing out the best in what others have to offer.

A note to the Sangha from John Somers

Among the benefits of being at Jikoji now is the opportunity to become more familiar with the library resources, including various books of sutras, commentaries and teachings such as Dogen’s writings. My thoughts have been stimulated by my explorations of these teachings, as well as from numerous Jikoji dharma talks and discussions, thankfully being shared “live” now through technology.

The Case for Equanimity - Shoho Michael Newhall

"For all the trouble under the sun
There be a remedy or there be none
If there be a remedy, go and find it
If there be none, never mind it

The opening statement of a Dickens novel, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" has carried its age well, as applicable now as when written. In our present time the story is far too real. Real events confront us: the pandemic, polarization, divisional legacies, regressive tensions, social fears, and a cultural immaturity that seemingly cannot move beyond a harrowing adolescence. To have no intense positions at this time seems either an act of avoidance or simply ignorance. Given these circumstances, the question for us is what to do, or not do, how to respond, or not respond, how to be in this moment of history authentically, and how to be real in the making of a real world.

A note to the Sangha from Emmy Bowser

This past week, we’ve seen Doug traveling back and forth and up and down the road with an attached trailer. What’s he doing? You wouldn’t know it by Doug’s usual enthusiasm and show of energy, but inside that trailer is a heavy load of gravel that he’s depositing around the greenhouse up in the garden. The greenhouse is getting a firm foundation, thanks to Doug!

A note to the Sangha from Kaizan Doug Jacobson

With deep gratitude for this place and time,
And for this shared existence and the many beings in our lives,
For health and well being everywhere.

With deep gratitude for those assisting the sick in hospitals and everywhere, the graphs show it only getting worse for many parts of the country. How to assist the effort, how to provide support – these are questions we each can find ways to answer into the foreseeable future.

Metta Practice – Michael Newhall

This last Sunday the residents maintained the traditional program of morning practice, a service (chanting the Metta Sutta), a talk and a lunch. It was the usual, but also not usual. With just the few of us here “in place,” we were missing the fullness of the zendo, the engaging questions and dialogue following the talk, the social chatter in the dinning room, and the group walks or programs that followed. We were missing the whole sangha. We were missing you. In holding Jikoji now, we residents extend our affection and connection to all of you in your places. May we all be safe and healthy going through this.