Thursday, September 19, 2013

Upcoming Courtenay 2 day Intro to Chan Meditation with Diane Kennedy

Please join us Oct 26/27 and meet our new Chan Dharma teacher.

"To be attached to things is primordial illusion" implies that it's not the awareness itself that is the problem, but the clinging to it. For example, I cling to the feeling that I am separate from others and am thus unable to accept the fact that I am the others (and visa versa). We have to be able to see both relative and absolute at the same time and to live and function freely in both spheres simultaneously. That is freedom. Sticking to either side is illusion and bondage. At the same time, however, our practice requires that we stick to one side or the other in order to experience it. Having done that, we must unstick ourselves by letting go of the realization, but we must first have the realization. Just living in the state of oneness without actually experiencing it, is not enough. The fish that hasn't yet realized it's swimming in water is a potential Buddha. A potential Buddha is still a Buddha, of course, but only a potential one. A child of the Buddha is a Buddha and, at the same time, a child. The child has to grow up. And there is no way not to grow up!...from Infinite Circle, Teachings in Zen, by Bernie Glassman, pg. 90-91.
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Please note: there will be no class September 26!
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5. Other Buddhist centres in the Comox Valley:
http://www.dharmafellowship.org/hermitage/ 
http://www.sherabchammaling.com/biography.html
6. And California at http://dharmatalks.riversidechan.org/2013_07_01_archive.html

Please note the change of phone number, ...call Adrian at 250 650 9055,
email adrian2@shaw.ca 




Monday, September 2, 2013

Roshi Bernie Glassman on the costs and benefits of conceptual thinking


















"Our ideas and concepts are very useful, but we have to see that they're models, in the way that the globe is a model of the Earth. It is not the Earth. If we know the globe is the Earth, if we're full of ideas and knowledge we think constitute reality, we'll be shocked time after time when things won't go as we know they should.

When we're bound by ideas and concepts, it's easy to anticipate how we'll act. That's our karma, our propensity to do things in a certain way. But if we can step back and look at that bondage, examine how we act. When we free ourselves of those fixed ideas, when we no longer know how we're going to act, therein lies our true freedom. Each moment the circumstances change, freeing us to not know what we are doing. Indeed, we are free because we don't know. Doing what's appropriate is the expression of our freedom from notions of what's appropriate. Letting go is the manifestation of the One Body; appropriate action is the manifestation of not-knowing."....from Infinite Circle..Teachings in Zen, Bernie Glassman, pg 68-69



Also check out these Chan sites of interest:
 
2. How to chan meditate:
3. Master Sheng Yen in Facebook
4. The Western Chan Fellowship at http://www.westernchanfellowship.org/
5. Upcoming events at Dharma Drum in Vancouver http://www.ddmba.ca/ddmba/apps_ddm/htmls_e/activities_intro.php#compassion_repentance.php
5. Other Buddhist centres in the Comox Valley:
http://www.dharmafellowship.org/hermitage/ 
http://www.sherabchammaling.com/biography.html
6. And California at http://dharmatalks.riversidechan.org/2013_07_01_archive.html

Please note the change of phone number, ...call Adrian at 250 650 9055,
email adrian2@shaw.ca