Accordingly, in the practice-enlightenment of the buddha way, meeting one thing is mastering it — doing one practice is practicing completely. Here is the place; here the way unfolds. The boundary of realization is not distinct, for the realization comes forth simultaneously with the mastery of buddha-dharma.

We always want to keep track of things and witness what happens. The urge to know, to be aware of, to grasp intellectually is precisely what Dogen sees as being an illusion. We don’t own realization and it cannot be measured or known. No traces are seen, and understanding doesn’t take place before of after practice. [Click through to sit along with today's video.]

Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended.

To view all of Jundo and Taigu’s SunSpace posts, click here.

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Kensho (seeing original nature) is necessary and vital to this path. Can such happen in an flash? Yes, but it usually ends up a flash in the pan – unless cultivated slowly, step by step, and made a part of one’s life. Must enlightenment happen in an flash? No, for the Buddha’s Truths can pierce our marrowless marrow slowly, step by step, with steady years of practice. In either case, arriving at “no beginning no end“, or any other destination, is not the end of the trail, nor the beginning. [Click through for more, and to "sit-a-long" with today's video.]

Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended.

(Here is the interview with Joko Beck mentioned today.)

To view all of Jundo and Taigu’s SunSpace posts, click here.

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There is no easy way to see a loved one slip away. Yet, can we learn how just to be with someone we love during the time we can, and then be willing to let them go? [Click through for more, and to "sit-a-long" with today's video.]

Can we allow the change? Might we let happy days be happy, sad days be sad… and reject none of it? May we see wholeness in all of life, both in the infancy of youth and the second infancy of growing old? Can we be at peace with it all, even the parts which break our heart?

Buddhist Practice is, at the core, allowing and flowing with change — for all is change. Can we find an abiding peace, equanimity — even joy — dancing all of life’s dance? Can we know peace, equanimity and joy… even as we shed tears?

A sand castle emerges from the sand, which emerges from the sea. It is for a time, then slowly slips back into the sea. There is a beauty throughout, there is the sea throughout.

Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended.

To view all of Jundo and Taigu’s SunSpace posts, click here.

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Our family is no exception, reminded as we are of an adopted little girl who was to come to us years ago, but never has. She is just a name to us, a shadow, an empty child’s room that has gathered dust.

[Click through to hear more, and to "sit-a-long" with today's video.]Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended.

To view all of Jundo and Taigu’s SunSpace posts, click here.

To subscribe to the RSS for the “sit-a-longs,” and be notified of new postings, click here.

Now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, this bird or this fish will not find its way or its place. When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find you way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point; for the place, the way, is neither large nor small, neither yours nor others’. The place, the way, has not carried over from the past and it is not merely arising now.

There is no need to hurry and nowhere to go. As soon as one practices fully, this place is the whole, full-blown moon. The self changes, everything changes, so movement occurs. But although movement occurs, we never leave this place. The time of practice is not even taking place now. So mindfulness is extra. The time and space that Dogen is talking about are different from the ideas we have about time and space. [Click through to sit along with today's video.]

Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended.

To view all of Jundo and Taigu’s SunSpace posts, click here.

To subscribe to the RSS for the “sit-a-longs”, and be notified of new postings, click here.

What was not so traditional, however — and rather groundbreaking and somewhat controversial — is that it was, we believe, the first time that a Buddhist Ordination has been performed simultaneously on three continents (with the preceptors, Taigu and Jundo, in Japan, and our three ordainees in Canada, Germany and Sweden) all linked by audio-visual media via the internet.

Well, welcome to the future… which is just the present all along! [Click through to read more and view video of the ceremony.]

Oh, some small changes to tradition had to be made, and customs adapted, such as that bestowal of the Buddhist robes and head shaving occurring at the hands of a friend or loved one who “served as our hands across the world, and the hands of the Buddha across time.”

Some of the more conservative folks in the Buddhist world may have trouble with that fact, and we have heard some critical voices raised about the nature and effect of the ceremony. It is surprising to me that so many Buddhist folks, though all about dropping artificial categories like “distance and space,” and who regularly invite all the ancient Buddhas and long dead Ancestors into their ceremonies, seem to reject that a ceremony of ordination can be done “long distance via the internet.”

Our reason for choosing to conduct the ceremony this way is simply keeping with the entire spirit of our TREELEAF SANGHA as an an online practice place for Zen practitioners who cannot easily commute to a Zen Center due to health concerns, living in remote areas, or childcare and family needs, and our seeking to provide Zazen sittings, retreats, discussion, interaction with a teacher, and all other activities of a Zen Buddhist Sangha, all fully online. As we approach our fifth year, we believe we have succeeded, and the ceremony is another symbol of that and the strength of our community. What is more, beyond any ceremony, the real test and responsibility will be the training and education as clergy, ministers and teachers that it is our responsibility to now provide these novice priests. In order to do so, we are about to embark on a road which will take years of hard and sincere effort, also combining traditional ways and some very new, innovative ways of education. If anyone wishes to download and read a very long and detailed statement of the ‘goalless goals’ of training that these three are expected to follow and come to embody … HERE IT IS (33 pages, PDF) based, as closely as we can, upon guidelines for priest training established by the The Soto Zen Buddhist Association (SZBA) of North America.

The video of the ceremony is in three parts (about 40 minutes). Here is the first part; Be sure to toggle to “FULL SCREEN” for the full effect. (That’s the little button on the lower right of the YouTube screen.)

Here are links to PART 2 and PART 3:

This is an important moment for any Buddhist Sangha, and a time for celebration. Congratulations to the three Ordainees as they undertake training!

Please sit-a-long with our special 90-minute Zazenkai. It begins with a wonderful Heart Sutra recitation in Japanese by Taigu, followed by two periods of 30 minute Zazen, with 10 minutes of Kinhin walking in between. Le Zazen Formidable! Merci, Tenryu, Taigu et tout! [Click through to "sit-a-long" with today's video.]

A fish swims in the ocean, and no matter how far it swims there is no end to the water. A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies there is no end to the air. However, the fish and the bird have never left their elements. When their activity is large their field is large. When their need is small their field is small. Thus, each of them totally covers its full range, and each of them totally experiences its realm. If the bird leaves the air it will die at once. If the fish leaves the water it will die at once.

This is a small-big reminder: to sit is to fully enter the realm of awakening. Dropping the body-mind, this collection of habits, tensions, expectations, desires… you find the place where everything is complete, nothing is lacking. [Click through to read more and to sit along with today's video.] If you chase Buddhas, you will find nothing but Buddhas. The realization Dogen talks about is bigger than our idea of what Buddha is like, what enlightenment is like. The practice-realization is to give up any of our demands and secret wishes to just allow that freedom to arise, bird in sky, fish in water.[Click through to read more, hear today's talk, and to "sit-a-long" with today's video.]

Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended.

To view all of Jundo and Taigu’s SunSpace posts, click here.

To subscribe to the RSS for the “sit-a-longs”, and be notified of new postings, click here.

Likewise, there is no where to go, nothing to attain, nothing in need of fixing, to add or remove. Yet, how we fix this world, nurturing the good and removing the bad, is largely up to us. We had best make this world better.

Roshi famously said that the phrase “socially engaged” and “Buddhism” is redundant. We practice to awaken… yet we practice to “save all sentient beings.” And those sentient beings, though never in need of saving from the start, cannot live on “merit” and “awakening.” [Click through for more, and to "sit-a-long" with today's video.]

Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended.

But in this attaining — by which the core attainment is the profound experience of no need to run, nobody to do the running, no separate place to run to, nothing which can be lost or attained in the effort — the best way of attainment may be to radically give up all running, and all need to attain. As with a dog chasing its own tail, what is here all along may be found by being very still and seeing just what is. [Click through for more, and to "sit-a-long" with today's video.]

Oh, don’t get me wrong: diligent practice is not stagnation, ambivalent complacency, or sitting on our hind-quarters like bumps on a log. This practice is vibrant, alive, realized in our energetic sitting, standing, walking, running and all activity in life. However, that which we are making real is this radical “non attaining” — and the best way to do that is to attain stillness and stability within, no matter the apparent movement and commotion without.

And the way to do that is to sit very stable and still.

Today’s Sit-A-Long video follows. Remember: recording ends soon after the beginning bells; a sitting time of 20 to 35 minutes is recommended.