We're underway! The winter practice period began last Wednesday morning with the opening ceremony, and the Ino, Djinn, striking the wooden the tsui -ching in the zendo. The daily rhythm of waking around 4:45 feels easy at first, bouyed by the excitement and anticipation to begin.
...
My idea for this space in the coming months is twofold: first to give updates regarding life here at the temple during practice period, and second to note, quote, and comment on the two Dogen Fascicles titled Continuous Practice, which Paul has selected as the theme for this practice period.
The first fascicle opens with:
"On the great road of Buddha Ancestors there is always unsurpassable practice, continuous and sustained. It forms the circle of the way and is never cut off. Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana there is not a moment's gap; continuous practice is the circle of the way."
(Kaz Tanahashi trans.)
The other morning as I sat in the cold and dark early morning in the cavernous zendo (meditation hall) here, I watched as my mind became fascinated with the phrase "circle of the way." The word "way" is quite common in zen literature. It is in some ways interchangeable with the word "path," which we hear in the Pali Cannon, the earliest words of the Buddha. But the term "way" became more popular when Buddhism entered China, perhaps as the Chinese translated Buddhist terms into a language they were more familiar with, that of the Tao, or "Way." Most of us today carry some notion of a "spiritual path." And I think most often it feels to us like a path through the woods, or a path through time. I start here and I went to get over there. What my mind became entranced with was the idea that this path is actually a circle, that as we travel this path, we are making our way back to the start.
There is an old zen phrase about our practice as, "single iron rail
extending ten thousand miles," which along with bringing forth the stricter, single-minded side of zen, also fits our more usual perception of our life's journey - I'm here and I'm trying to get to there, so I head out in that direction. But this notion of our path, our journey, being round suddenly felt to me more complete, more satisfying. Is each lifetime like an orbit around the sun? Perhaps even each moment? Does it feel like coming back home to return to where we started? Maybe so.
I can remember when I was younger how each interaction each scene of life felt so new and intriguing, "I wonder what is going to happen here, where will this lead?" And more often as I get older I get to see the same thoughts arise in my mind, the same disgruntlements get replayed, I think a lot of people have this experience in zazen, especially on longer retreats. Or I see the same (or similar) relationship dynamics appear, and I think, "haven't I played this one out before?" So, one implication of the way being a circle, is that even in these moments of repeating, practice is there. Not only practice, but as Dogen puts it, when practice is there, then aspiration, enlightenment, and nirvana too. As we play out and discover something new about these cycles and habits in our life something very fundemental is there too, something shared by us all, and that can be our comfort. We are not doing this alone.
"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.": - T.S. Eliot
