2 Zen For Filipinos:

Learning From Our Heritage, Forging Our Future

Renowned Filipino Author and Zen Master Ruben L.F. Habito

Roshi is scheduled to arrive in Manila at the latter part of June for a

series of sesshins in Tagaytay, Baguio City and in Mindanao for

Filipino Zen practitioners. He is also slated to deliver a one day

talk entitled Zen For Filipinos: Learning from our Heritage,

Forging Our Future. This event will delve not only into the

importance of Zen practice for us Filipinos, but how Zen practice is

integral to our development as one nation and one people.

The talk will be held on July 6, 2013 at the Yuchengco Auditorium

of Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City (corner of Quezon

Avenue and EDSA, behind Centris / beside Transco).

Tickets for this event are available at the Zen Center in Provident

Village, Marikina, beginning Sunday, June 16th. Sangha members

can simply come for the Sunday zazenkai, and get tickets from

Abby Salacata. Or they can contact her

at abbysalacata@zencenterphil.org and mobile number 0935-949-

7535 for ticket reservations.

For more information about the event, please contact Ada Loredo

at ada@zencenterphil.org or mobile number 0920-960-1224.

Upcoming Sesshin Tagaytay Sesshin with Ruben Habito Roshi Ruben Habito Roshi will lead another sesshin from 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 26 to lunchtime of Sunday, June 30. The venue for this sesshin will be Maryridge Convent, Tagaytay. Please contact Elda Sensei, the coordinator for this sesshin, at eldabalagot@yahoo.com or at +63927-811-0088 for reservations or any questions. Baguio Anniversary Sesshin This sesshin will be lead by Ruben Habito Roshi. It will start 5 p.m. Thursday, July 11 and end lunchtime Monday, July 15. The venue is ICM House of Prayer, Claro M. Recto Road, Baguio City. More details, including the charges, will be announced as soon as they are available. The coordinator for this sesshin is Rudi Tabora and his contact details are +63919-427-1806 and ruditabora@gmail.com. Davao Sesshin Ruben Habito Roshi will also lead this sesshin which will start on the night of Thursday, July 25 and end after breakfast Monday, July 29. More details will be announced as soon as they are available.

Baguio: Glimpse and Orientation Seminars : Series 1: June 1-2, 2013 & July 27-28, 2013

Series 2: August 3-4, 2013 & September 21-22, 2013

The projected venue will be the ICM Formation House and the cost per person estimated at P3,500* per weekend

session including meals and lodging.

For further information please write us at info@zencenterphil.org or contact:

Dr. Rudi Tabora mobile no.:+63919 427 1806

ruditabora@gmail.com

THE ZENDO is the newsletter of the Marikina Zendo. It is available for

download in pdf format at the Zen Center Philippines Website Download Page.

For comments and suggestions, please email rodel@zencenterphil.org

3 ZEN and CHIRSTIANITY

Yamada Koun Roshi

This text addresses some of the most fundamental and delicate religious issues. Therefore, it should be read, quoted and analysed in

a mindful way.

Text digitised by T.Matthew Ciolek ,

Canberra Zen Group.

Copyright (c) by Koun Yamada and Sydney Zen Center

251 Young St., Annandale, Sydney, NSW 2038, Australia.

(Yamada Roshi [Mar 1907-13 Sep 1989] was a successor of Hakuun Yasutani Roshi and a teacher of Robert Aitken Roshi. His zendo is in

Kamakura, Japan, where he taught a number of westerners, including many Catholic priests and nuns. This

particular taIk was given by him to a group of Catholics in Kamakura in 1975. This document was scanned from an un-referenced 2-page

typed manuscript in the collection of the Sydney Zen Center.) I am often asked by Christians, especially Catholics, whether they can practice zazen and still preserve the beliefs of Christianity. To that question I usually answer that Zen is not a religion in the same sense that Christianity is a religion. There is no reason, therefore, why Christianity and zazen cannot co-exist. Almost all Buddhist sects can be called religions. Zazen, however, is quite different in this respect. Quite simply, it is the core of all Buddhist sects. As you know, there are many sects in Buddhism, but the core or essence of them all is the experience called satori or self-realization. The theories and philosophies of all the sects are but the clothing covering the core. These outer wrappings are of various shapes and colors, but what is inside remains the same. And the core, this experience, is not adorned with any thought or philosophy. It is merely a fact, an experienced fact, in the same way that the taste of tea is a fact. A cup of tea has no thought, no idea, no philosophy. It tastes the same to Buddhists as it does to Christians. There is no difference at all. You may ask what makes this experience happen. Well, quite simply, it is when certain conditions are present to the consciousness of a human being, and a reaction occurs. This reaction we call the Zen experience. The reaction of this experience is always the same, regardless of the beliefs we may hold or the color of our skin. It could be compared to playing billiards. When we hit the balls with the same amount of power and in the same direction, all the balls roll along the same course and at the same angles, regardless of their color. Now you may ask, what are the conditions that bring our consciousness to the experience? It is to concentrate with our mind in one-pointedness, and to forget ourselves in it. The one-pointedness is achieved sometimes in breath-counting, sometimes in what call, "following the breath", sometimes, in "just sitting", and sometimes working on koans. You will notice that all these ways point inwardly. It is a very interesting fact, but when we concentrate on an object outside ourselves, for

example, as in archery where we aim at a target, no matter how strong the concentration may be, we cannot attain the Zen experience. So in Zen practice, when we want to attain satori, we have to be absorbed inwardly. Here you must remember that the experience attained by zazen practice is not a thought or a philosophy or a religion, but merely a fact, a happening. And strange as it may seem, the experience of that fact has the power to free us from the agonies of the pains of the world. It emancipates us from the anxiety of all worldly sufferings. No one knows why that experience has such wonderful power, but it does. This is the most important point, and it's the most difficult to try to explain. In the Zen experience, a certain unity happens, subject and object become one, and we come to realize our own self-nature. This self-nature cannot be seen, it cannot be touched, it cannot be heard. Because of these characteristics we refer to it as 'empty' - ( in Japanese, 'ku') - but its activities are infinite. So we say the Zen experience is the realization of the empty-infinitude of our self-nature or our essential nature, as it is often called. When this happens, the fact is accompanied by a great peace of mind. At that moment, we feel as thought the heavy burdens we have been carrying in our head and on our shoulders, indeed all over our body and soul, suddenly disappear as if thrown away. The joy and happiness at that time are beyond all words. And there are no philosophies or theologies attached to this experience. Should such a fact be called a religion? I don't think so. It is called satori, or self-realization or enlightenment. Catholics are attaining the satori experience here in this zendo. I feel that in the future, they should do research into the meaning of the fact of satori from the Christian's point of view. (This should be the work of Catholics, not mine.) Having discovered this new world, the Zen student must learn that it is essentially one with the phenomenal world we all know so well.

Continued on Page 4

Yamada Koun Roshi (2nd Abbot of the Sanbo Kyodan) and his wife

ZEN AND CHRISTIANITY From Page 3 Regarding the relation between Christianity and Zen, I think it can be thought of as two highways, going in separate paths, but crossing at an interchange. The two roads may seem quite apart, but where they cross is common ground. Now, if we take Zen as a religion, Christianity and Zen do seem to be quite different. But their teachings have as their interchange a common area which belongs to both. m at is the area of religious experience.I'm sure that a lot of words and phrases in the Bible could never have been uttered outside of a true religious experience. That, it seems to me, is not irrelevant to the satori experience in Zen. What are we going to attain by doing zazen? There are three categories: 1) Developing concentration of the mind. 2) Satori-awakening, enlightenment. 3) Personalization of satori. The first, to develop concentration, is of utmost importance in establishing and maintaining a successful life in this world. The ability to concentrate calms the surface of our consciousness. This is most necessary in making correct decisions and for receiving external impressions and information in the right way. Also, when the mind is deeply absorbed, it does not easily yield to the influence of external circumstances. And, moreover, when we want to actualize ideas which arise in our heart, or when we want to accomplish some work or business, a strong concentration of mind is indispensable. The second, satori, is the most important to a Mahayana Zen Buddhist. Dogen Zenji, the great Zen master who brought Soto Zen to Japan, has clearly stated that without enlightenment there is no Zen. This satori does not happen necessarily by mere concentration. Our life problem of life-and-death, cannot be solved fundamentally by concentration. It can only be resolved by enlightenment and the personalization of that experience. If we want to free ourselves of the anxiety of the sufferings of life through zazen, the satori experience should be our main purpose for practicing zazen. Dogen Zenji has told us that we should pray for the help of Buddhas and Patriarchs. This resembles Christianity's prayers for intercession. The third aim of zazen, the personalization or embodiment of satori, comes as a matter of course only after having attained satori. To attain this experience of enlightenment is not very difficult. For some people, only one sesshin is necessary. But to accomplish our ultimate personality is very difficult indeed, and requires an extremely long period of time. The experience itself is only the entrance. The completion is to personalize what we came to realize in the experience. After washing away all the ecstasy and glitter of the experience, the truly great Zen person is not distinguishable in outward appearance. He is a man who has experienced deep enlightenment and consequently extinguished all illusions, but is still not different externally from an ordinary man. Through satori and zazen, you should not become a strange person, not an eccentric or an esoteric person. You should become a normal person, a real person and, as far as is possible, a perfect human being. I think the truly great Christian is not much different. TZ

4

Poetry corner

Lifeflow

Leaves’ dying embers

Smoking new life

Into the body of a tree.

Nourished, tree shoots fruit

Which ripen to surrender seeds

To Grateful earth.

-Tess Abesamis

ORYOKI

hand cupped around your

begging bowl of cracked clay, beg

only just enough.

-Edna Manlapaz

EMPTY LINE

the line is empty

one crosses easily to the other side

put aside the phantom

shout “Away!”

pain/pleasure/bliss/gone

is so ordinary

the pitck darkness/light

swims

on all sides

nowhere/everywhere.

-Zos Lee

SILENCE

Dark glistening rocks

pine trees in soft silhouette

fine rain floating down.

-Roderick Toledo

HUANG SHAN

(Yellow Mountain Haiku II)

Misty autumn morning

Solitary tree

Marvelous!

-Rollie Del Rosario

Zen does not confuse spirituality

with thinking about God while one

is peeling potatoes. Zen

spirituality is just to peel the

potatoes.

Alan Watts

5

LOOKING FOR PEARLS Rudi Tabora

Reprinted from “This Very Mind, The Zendo”

A YOUNG man embarked on a journey in search of pearls he had heard of, said to be beyond compare. He began his search in a cavernous cathedral among men who wore mitres and scarlet robes. Gazing upon the bejewelled

crowns of weeping madonnas, he asked the caretaker if he could have a pearl, but the caretaker refused him,

saying such pearls belonged only to the worthy who bowed regularly to the altars.

The young man then joined a caravan of bearded men from the East wearing tangerine tunics and tasseled

turbans, whom he thought might help him. He was told that in order to be worthy of the pearls, he would have to

mouth mantras and tend their cooking pots.

He eventually left the caravan because he could not understand these foreigners’ language and their ways.

The young man went next to the Imperial Library, in whose books the celestial records are preserved. He pored over many volumes,

searching for information about the pearls, but found only empty pages, which stuck to his head.

The tired young man decided to have coffee in a cafe by some ruins. There he fell into conversation with the cook, whom he told

about his quest. The cook introduced him to a grocer, who gave him some advice: “The way to find pearls is to enter the corridors of

silence.”

The grocer showed him how to sit like a mountain, how to breathe like a rock and how to converse with a wall. She also told him he

would find help on the Way if he walked around in circles, along with some black birds who bowed to each other.

Thus encouraged, the young man continued on his journey, treading the unseen Way, on a path littered with pearls.

Weekday Sits at the

Full Circle Zendo

ood news to our fellow

practitioners who are

looking for a place to sit

during the week. The Full

Circle Zendo, located at the 2nd Floor of

the Center for Overseas Workers, Good

Shepherd Compound, Aurora Blvd.,

Quezon City (across PSBA) holds

zazenkai on Wednesdays, 6:00 pm-8:00

pm and Fridays, 5:30 pm-7:30pm.

Available teachers are Sister Rosario

Battung and Rollie Del Rosario.

Dokusan may be scheduled depending

on the teacher.

For more information, please call Rollie

del Rosario Sensei at +63922 853 0235.

“These PEOPLE ARE ALL CRAZY” Irene Worrell Araneta

Reprinted from “This Very Mind, The Zendo”

MY FIRST experience of a long sit as the overnight yaza, I

had feared falling asleep, but to my Surprise I remained fully

awake and energized.

Then we had a five-day session in Baguio My whole body

ached, to the point that I was nearly fainting from the pain.

On the third night I told myself, “These people are all crazy-

and I’m crazier than any of them if I stay here any longer.”

I packed my things and decided I would leave at dawn. But

the next morning all my pains were gone: I felt like a new

person.

So I decided to stay and complete the session.

SAMUt Saring Pictures

Photos of the June 9 Samu

at the Marikina Zendo

PHOTOS BY ADA JAVELLANA LOREDO

Stuffing the Zafus is a time-honored Samu

Tradition at the Marikina Zendo.

With Abby, Kathy, Sars, Rodel, Totoy, Aquilino, David, Aljen and Ada