answer. Returning to New York City, where I live, I decided to find a Zen temple, do meditation and find out for myself. I discovered a nearby Zen group and started learning to meditate. I attended lectures then a week long retreat. Gradually the big Buddha statues started to speak. The Zen monks sitting facing the wall did not seem so strange.
Then I began to experiment making artwork based on what I was learning and discovering. This book is the result. I’ll start with a little introduction to the Dharma as I understand it:
The Buddha Dharma
“The Dharma” often refers to the teachings of the great Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha of India who lived more than 2500 years ago. His teachings range from simple poems and stories to epic philosophical dialogues that challenge all assumptions about the nature of time and space. Cool! Very basically he taught:
The Four Noble Truths
1. Right View
2. Right Thoughts
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration
Shakyamuni taught this path in amazing ways for forty years. His teachings were memorized and written by his followers, and then Collected into big and small books called sutras. The sutras are still being studied and translated, and the wondrous Buddha Dharma keeps spreading and clearing a way to end suffering.
The Buddha turns the Dharma wheel, and reality is shown in all its many forms!
The 24/7 Dharma
Shakyamuni started the Buddha Dharma - but there are many more Dharmas than that. Dharmas were happening before him and after him too, including NOW! There are billions and billions of Dharmas happening all the time, and every one of them can give us the opportunity to look, listen and reflect. For example:
So the Dharmas appear every where if we are awake to them. Some Dharmas are very difficult and require hardship and long hours of practice. Often the most challenging teachings are the ones that offer the most insight and unexpected gateways to FREEDOM.
The Dharmas are BOUNDLESS, I vow to master them.
Dharma Delight
We all experience delight now a now then.
Sometimes there are great delights:
Sometimes there are small delights:
The GOLDEN MOMENT (ordinary.)
Happening over and over again.
A Buddha for everyone,
awake to the world,
as it is wonderful.
ENLIGHTENMENT EVE
Finally Shakyamuni sat on a little hill under a tree and vowed not to get up until clairity came.
Soon his thoughts were filled with doubt as demons of desire and delusion taunted him.
He forged on through the night, resisting the demons, who eventually left in disgust. He then became calm and alright with himself.
Looking up in the dawn sky he saw the morning star shining and, suddenly, the clarity that had eluded him naturally appeared. He touched the ground in gratitude.
Every December 8th we commemorate Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment by sitting in meditation all night. In Japanese-style Zen temples this night is called Rohatsu.
STUDY YOUR SELF
The great teacher Dogen Zenji lived in Japan 814 years ago.
To study the self is to look at something that is changing all the time. When the idea of a solid self is forgotten, the circumstance and need create who you are. Dogen says the myriad things are actualizing you at every moment.
To study the self can be a difficult task, but it is well worth doing. Looking carefully at the self can reveal the causes and conditions of so much of our collective suffering as well as our collective joy.
The best way to study the self is in meditation.
Lunch
