Faith In Practice

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this ah
what what he's talking about is that when you feel this is reality of non-duality and to connectedness you get a sense of joy and and he and and dogan proposes that when you have this experience doubt will melt away just by having it
experience
so
so what so what is this space then there's nothing to have faith in really there's faith in the fact that the world is address as it is that there's nothing you can do about it that there is impermanence that there is ah suffering that all these things are
changing all the time and a rising in each moment and we can have a lot a wonderful beat be feeling like we have a wonderful life one moment and a terrible life the next moment and i always say you know if you're if you're feeling bad you can be really
really glad because you know it's gonna pass and if you're feeling a and if you're feeling good you can be really unhappy because you're going to know it's gonna pass but it's having an under to an acceptance of that that's just the way our human life is
ah
so the the idea is that if we vow and we set an intention when we encountered what life is
we don't get surprised but we know from our practice and from are repeated practice that if we stick to it if we are sustained by our practice will just live on in whatever it is with whatever it is that comes up
there's nothing magical so i am
when i was getting ready to be ordained
i had a few doubts
and when it and my coin that i meant that i took for myself when i was in the process of getting ready to be ordained was a taking is taking a step of the hundred hundred foot pole
so in that at a dialogue with sojourn which i thence actually some of you got one essential an invitation because it was on there so this is what i wrote at that time about my doubt
how do i proceed from the top of the hundred foot pole a wash and fear excitement anticipation
holding on but with ever loosening grip trusting that i'm letting go i shed layers of karmic conditioning like layers of clothing shed when the heat and light of the sun disperses the fog a prop a procession of ancestors beckoned me to follow to take the next step the awesome step into now
not knowing
and sojourns response to that was what step
you're just living from moment to moment there's no big step
you just you're not going to there's no one hundred foot pole you're just taking the next step because we never know what's gonna come after that so
if we get too concerned and caught up in the doubt of whether i should do it or what i should do we lose it if we just take the next step if we just go to the next practice to go to the next period of zazen and said that's all we do that's our faith in action
til then he says that upon meeting it we shall renounce worldly affairs and maintain the buddha dharma
so that sounds pretty drastic renouncing worldly affairs he was talking to monks in the farcical and preaching to monks and in those days people were very isolated monks lived in monasteries they were big distances between one place in another that's not so in our world even monks so to speak or priests around
the world so then how do we interpret renunciation in our own context
so so did is always saying this just let go at yourself just forget about yourself
renunciation is not really i mean that that's that's that's even then
maybe over here what do i do all the time it's it's really about
i'm not getting caught by things
not renouncing the worldly affairs we have to be and we have to be active in the worldly affairs i mean there are things for us to do both in terms of our families our work friends the world the systems and the world that are not doing so well right now our communities their things to do it doesn't mean renouncing that it rains renouncing some attachment to the
that and some attachment to you
to your
dogan talks will hunting care about fame and gain about you are doing something for some reason or attached to some outcome but you are meeting things as they are in the world and and and without a lot of melodrama and a lot of stories and just going from moment to moment activity to actor
ivvy with a face that if you follow the buddha's way
you will be able to do that with some equanimity
so then he says although our past evil karma has greatly accumulated indeed being the cause and condition of obstacles in practicing the way
so this section is about obviously about the inevitability of karma
about
we whether we knew it or not through our lives we've been generating karma we've been doing things and things have happened some of the karma was good karma some of the camera wasn't so good car
and and we carry that all with us it's an art it's an or elia you know all the seeds that we lay down in our elia are there to our action some many through our actions
so we have we all have settled with no sacks of car it's like a sack of old all stuff that we can't can carry around
so he's just acknowledging the reality that
there are hindrances to our practice the reality is that it all sounds well and good to make this intention to set this intention to practice and yet
our past evil karma has greatly accumulated and fact our karma for moment to moment
sometimes unconscious which is why we recite all week in our bodhisattva ceremony
all my ancient tangle karma from beginning this great hate and delusion we we accept that's not necessarily particularly but we accept that that's the reality of our human existence so we accept it
and we accept that
so dogan hasn't really hit he has really i loved the what he says some things but he says ever since ancient times the skeptical indra lord of the heavens has come to test the intentions of the practitioners as has mara the tempter come to disturb and obstruct the practitioners to
training all the instances occurred when someone has not let go of the hopes of fame and game when great compassion is deep within you and your wish to spirituality to aid sentient beings everywhere as well seasoned there are no obstructions then your training and practice will flower at so
such periods you should scrutinize yourself for signs of attraction and to for him and gain do not close your eyes and doze off so again he saying
he's has these lofty things that we should do these lofty things that we should aspire to but we all know mara
and when we least expect it
we're tempted we go off in a delusion we get attached to something we have some fixed idea about something we want something we hate something the hit whatever you know whatever the latest thing to hate is
i will not mention any other things that matter
but he's saying that when we get caught in these when we get caught in these we we've lost it we have succumbed to indra lord of the heavens and mar the temptress the so so he's saying you be aware our practice then is acknowledge
aging this karma and staying focused staying aware watching when these things come up
and then he switches gears after this ah to talking about how we can have help with from our ancestor all buddhists and ancestors so the first part is about
are realizing we're hearing the dharma and the second is about the help we get after we realize that we can hear we know we're going to fall back over and over again and have to re-learn this over and over again so we need help
so he says may all buddhas and ancestors who have attained the way be compassionate with us free us from free us from karmic effects allowing us to practice the way without hindrance
so
dogan says simply you should walk the path that former saints have trod seek out a teacher you may have to scale a mountain with a ladder or cross vast seas in a rowboat he's just saying that it this is that easy what he's asking us to do
what our ancestors did in realizing the way their practice was hard practice our practice is hard practice just living in in the world today's hard practice just getting through it so he's not he's saying you know you might have to scale mountains it's not going to be easy don't expect don't expect
anything from this practice
so then he says may they share with us their compassion with fills the boundless universe with the virtue of their enlightenment and teachings buddhists this is this is the inspiring part buddhas and ancestors of old with the same as we we in the future
shall be booed as an ancestors revering buddhists and ancestors we are one buddha and one ancestor awakening body mind we are one body mind because they extend their compassion to us freely and without limit we are able to attain buddhahood and let go of that attainment
so in buddhist teaching we know what he says is you are engaged in buddhist activity when you practice every time you sit down every time you take the form every time you breathe together you breathed together with all beings you experience at any time you let go
you are enlightened this is an enlightened activity it's not far away it's right here and are buddhists and ancestors did the same activity they did nothing different we join them we join them we trod the path of the ancestors we are try trotting the path of the ancestors with them bike by maintaining the forms and the
practices by reciting the sutures by doing the practices that they did
the other part of this is awakening body mind we are one body mind
and dogan also says when you see a buddha you see your buddha and self and others so once you realize your buddhahood once you see once you hear
you're hearing with all beings and you're recognizing
the buddhahood of all beings
therefore the john master lung ya said those who in past lives were not enlightened will now be enlightened in this life saved the body which is the fruit of many lives before buddhists were enlightened they were the same as we enlightened people of old of today are as the exactly as those of old
so this is just reasserting the interconnectedness and interdependence of everything that came before us and everything that comes after us we are connected to our ancestors were connected to the future of the present is all is all here with us
ah
the other thing he talks about his save the body and of suits because because
human existence is considered him in buddhism kind of a gift humans can attain the way
and part of our practice is a body mind practice we have to we have to have these perceptions were can't we're not just a brain right or mind we have to smell we have to taste we have to touch that's how we get information that's how we learn reality that's how we realize reality so our body needs to be taken
care of preserve the body don't go off into your head sweat this means don't go off into your head and study and go on an intellectual pursuit stay in the body it's a body mind practice you won't get it if you don't stay in your body and practice in your body and i think some of our practices like bowing together
were bowing together with all beings there is something about that that that brings our bike that keeps our body and when we when we review our posture and we feel our posture were doing that were staying in our body the practices in our body
so now the finale
i think it's the finale
it is the finale quietly quietly explore
quietly explore the farthest reaches of these causes and conditions as this practice is the exact transmission of a verified buddha confessing and repenting in this way when never fails to receive profound help from all buddhists and ancestors by revealing and disclosing our lack of faith and practice before the buddha we melt a
way the root of transgression by the power of can our confession and repentance this is the pure and simple color of to practice of a to mind of face of the to body of faith
so a lot of us
might have a a reaction to all of this repenting and confessing business it sounds old christian maybe the judeo christian
so it might seem harsh might it might kind of feel like oh there's a lot of guilt involved but that really isn't
that really isn't what's meant
what what dogan says is when being mindful and decorous and body own up to what you have done and openly admitted to the buddha the power from owning up to up destroys the roots of what is to filing you this is the whole body of to training and practice it is the heart that truly
trust what we are encouraged to do here is be aware and pay attention to our own thoughts words and deeds and the karmic effects of these we can periodically take stock and then with a full recognition of our human condition and the way we feel and live and how are all in the same boat and we're totally entered the
pendant we asked for competitive for compassion the compassion of our ancestors and we returned to get compassion and then we can pick ourselves up brush ourselves off and start all over again
so there you have it
so
peter
the
who
yeah

yeah

and that you know the birds are rallying in the
the plants are vowing
everyone is living
buddha nature yeah
not necessarily
i mean i mean up when i talk about in sentient beings i don't know i was there not necessarily can't it's like an out there is a yearning and people to
i think you know there probably is i can imagine flowers yearning and roots and and sprouts yearning and birds yearning i can think that they have there are practicing with us this is about trust
trust in practicing the dorm and living the reality of the ultimate reality of interconnectedness and impermanence together dancing together it's all of us dancing sentient beings and in sentient beings doing the dance of life
yeah
yeah sure

yeah

is it

well it faces if faith isn't it is something that's alive
i think that's why we call it a verb
it's alive it's not it's not something over here that we believe we live it
we have delivered an experienced that that's what will our practices about
it's not some idea belief system that we have
we verify it every time we
with our action
as we act as we take each step
with
we we face because you don't know what's gonna happen in reality the way in buddhist thinking we don't know what's gonna happen for the next step every every every step as an act of faith so i'm facing when i'm taking a walk i'm facing when i jump in the ocean i have no idea what's coming next and if
i if i actually thought about that if we upset if we actually thought about the fact that we that we actually have no idea what's coming next we would probably not do anything
be too afraid we'd lock ourselves up and a hermitage you know like the old hermit dead and just stay in there in the door come in we'd be safe but we're out in the world and every step we take is the new one and a state and it's it's and it's the faith in our practice it allows us to be able to take that step
waste for me
ah
i'm judy and then
peter

it's jumping off the hundred foot path over
itself is taking the next step each step takes each step is a step of faith and courage
it's face it's just walking along the way
and
knowing that anything can happen
there's that there's nothing and we have to be able to be okay
with whatever with it what with whatever comes not not okay in the sense that we agree with it
but we're not expecting something different so evil things happen good things happen neutral things happen stuff happens
and we are faith is face that will meet them
and that takes
that takes courage
a belief deeply held
ah
yeah jumping off the pole i mean we are but we're doing that all the time i remember when i
you know when i was talking to i mean i'm i was working with that during during my ordination process it was like what there's nothing all you know is that you're going to take that step no guarantees
that's it
do taking each step and and were not aware when i'm vicky about that all the time of it would be hidden away somewhere but
it's way it is so we're were courageous beings taking each step

yeah it's anything right now we're facing
did i oh yes peter

yeah i remember that
yes it's the same feeling

you
they're all practicing in their way
that's why we say we're practicing with all beings even though we don't know what those beings are doing right now they're eating spaghetti you know they're playing basketball
and there are whole practice together with us k one more and them
denise

haha

hmm

who

confessing and repenting constantly constantly have to do it constantly because it's a

i thank you
ah k we to it was there one more if you want to do one more we should wear it we're we're we're just at time
but okay time