Archive for February, 2010
Zen and Common Sense
It is winter, it is cold, and sometimes the weather gets not only nasty but increases the likelihood for accidents.
Zen students like to brave storms, cold, heat, rain, snow. Well, you can do that for yourself if you’d like, but don’t do it on the way to the Zendo. Sometimes it is more prudent to stay home and be safe than putting oneself into harms way. That includes looking ahead: how bad will it be when Zendo closes?
Please use common sense and make your own judgment if Zendo is not officially canceled but conditions are bad. We don’t want you the get hurt on the way here or on the way home. We’d much rather see you in one piece when the weather has cleared.
For tonight, Wednesday, February 10, 2010, we have not canceled as of 4:30 pm. It may be bad later, or after Zendo, so please take care and check before you come (on the phone message 617-491-8857) or this web site if the program has been officially canceled. We trust your judgment to stay home when it is better to do so.
January Update
We greeted the New Year with a Joya-no-kane sit on New Year’s eve. There was a good number of friends who came to the CBA to help us celebrate the old and welcome the new. It was nice to be able to share the 108 strikes of the large bell with everyone who came.
The Open House events in January and February were well attended, and some new faces have joined the sittings. It is nice to see that the practice at the CBA draws seekers without having to advertise.
Shinge Roshi gave a teisho at the CBA on January 10, 2010 on the Rinzai Roku. We were very glad to have the opportunity to have her visit the former place of her practice (with Maurine Stuart) and to have a teisho presented. Although there are many different schools and traditions it is very important to keep the wonderful fact in mind that we all are working on investigating the same Great Matter. Many thanks to Shinge Roshi for her generosity.
During the Rinzai-ji Dai-sesshin in January Sasaki Roshi’s Inji called up and told Shuko that Roshi was looking for a particular translation of the Hekigan-shu (Blue Cliff Record) Case 1 and Case 2 by D.T. Suzuki. Roshi remembered that he used to have it, but he could not find the translation. Several scholars were contacted, but none was able to come up with it. Shuko did a little investigation about it on the Internet and found out that the translations were published in a particular periodical out of Otani University in 1968, The Eastern Buddhist. With the help of that knowledge and the OCLC WorldCat (a catalog of holdings of libraries around the world) we were able to find out that Harvard Divinity School should have the 1968 Vol.1 and Vol. 2. Dai-sesshin had already progressed to the second day without translation of the cases. Shuko had the brilliant idea to go and look at the CBA if we had these volumes in the library – and voila! Right there, on the shelf, just what Roshi was looking for. A quick scan, email to Rinzai-ji, and the Dai-sesshin had finally the required translations. Many thanks to Shuko for her investigation and brilliant idea!
At this time we are deciding when to hold our next day-sit. If it does not work out in February, we’d like to have something in March. Please come back to the site and check for news about that, or check the RSS feed that you can susbscribe to at the bottom of this page.
We also wish Taigen a quick recovery from his injury – six screws in his clavicle. We miss him at the Zendo and send him our best.