She means heart, compassion, and faithfulness. Hannah was trained as a sociologist and worked for many years in Chicago doing community pop and book. And she has two sons and three wonderful granddaughters and an alternative identity called Mama Bear. She's been a resident for two years here and she's the assistant social teacher and she's Well, we're hoping for a clear voice. Is this clear enough, the mic? Yeah. You know, what a pleasure it is to walk in and see all of you. This community is such a joy. For any of you who are new, I highly, highly recommend it. It's a very, very sweet place to be. I'm intending to talk today about reverent, prayerful practices, some of which we do most days of the week, but not on Saturday in the later morning, which is right now.

[01:25]

And I feel they're very important to our practice and want to be sure that if you're missing it, you know what you're missing. We have Zazen here five days a week at 540 in the morning and also at 540 in the evening. And after sitting Zazen, we have a short service where we chant various chants, some in English. and some in another language that we don't talk very much about that other language, but we love those chants. And so I want to introduce some of those things. Also, some of the echoes, the words that the Kokyo sings after the chants, also I think just comes deeply into my heart and I'm imagining also for others it's that experience.

[02:27]

And it's just a little upsetting to think that everybody in the room doesn't have this experience or hasn't been exposed to it. And maybe I'm wrong, maybe you have, but let's talk about them anyway. Also on Monday mornings, most Mondays of the month, early, it's worth getting up. There's usually a speaker. And on Friday afternoons, there's one Friday a month, a speaker. A surprising number of people get up in the morning and crowd this Zendo for the Monday morning speakers, just saying that you're missing something. There are also these times of the morning services and the services after evening Zazen are times when we offer wellbeing and memorial services.

[03:30]

Anyone who wants to request a memorial service for a dear friend, a family member, or a wellbeing service for yourself, if you're ill, if you're having a hard struggle with something, or have a friend or family member who's in that situation. We also do well-being services for people, any group of people worldwide who's experiencing extreme hardship or calamity or loss. So when we're all worried about some people, one of us will often say, let's do a well-being service. And I am the fortunate recipient of those requests because that's one of my little jobs around here. So when you need or want a well-being and memorial service, you can ask me. My contact information is right above the calendars that gets posted every month on our three different bulletin boards around here, including right outside the door here.

[04:40]

What this does for me is brings home the importance of these moments of well-being and memorial services, because I hear you say, my dear one died, or I know because a dear one has been here with us and it's time to say goodbye and wish that person well as they go beyond. Some would say that our memorial services help them release life and go beyond. Well-being services, we do if someone is having surgery or having an illness, having difficulty recovering from something, just having sometimes a really hard time for some reason, and those services I think, we think, have a kind of power to help people.

[05:46]

The services include a statement about the person and a special chant called a Dharani. I want to say also that Luminous Heart, who's sitting directly in front of me here, is beginning to help us offer in our sangha continuous prayer chanting, which is chanting for the well-being of a named person who's in a crisis or in surgery. So she will be heading up that program. There's a description in the newsletter that you're about to receive. And you can, now that you've seen her wave, you can talk to her during tea after the lecture. When I think about our well-being and memorial services, I think we're doing a Buddhist kind of praying.

[06:52]

We sometimes have the word prayer in our various things that people say. Often the Kokyo's response to something will include the word prayer, but pretty generally around here we don't talk about praying. And so I'm choosing to be provocative today because I think In this kind of crowd, prayer is a little provocative. And I think that's because of, at least for me, our history, our own histories with prayer. I grew up as a Christian with Christian prayer. How many people have had that experience? And for me, that includes important understandings of reality no longer work for me. When I was taught to pray as a child, the prayer was to ask a wise, omnipresent God, male, up in the sky somewhere, for something important that we wished for.

[08:03]

And there was also that rope prayer at bedtime. Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep a few nods. How many said that prayer? That was pretty sweet, but it's not happening anymore for me. But this kind of praying is a kind of a habit. So there's certain times in my life when I'm a little desperate. One is sometimes with sewing where we have to cut the fabric And, you know, if you cut fabric, that's it, right? You've cut it. Or make some kind of irreparable move in the sewing process of sewing a rakasu or an okesa. That's one of my moments when I say to people, and I say it with kind of, I'm just kind of kidding voice, shall we say a little prayer? Another one is up at Girl Scout camp where my name is Mama Bear.

[09:10]

We have these big granite ridges with no paths up them. And the object, and often an extremely important one, is to get from one side of it to the other. And it's very hard to tell. which is the right route to take. So I will sometimes turn to my friends and say, I guess we're gonna write here and shall we say a little prayer? Because you'd have to come all the way down and sometimes you can't get down what you got up. So it's pretty serious stuff. But I know we're just kidding. I don't think there's anybody up there listening to our prayers. But it just kind of helps me to kid a little bit about praying at that point. So to me, a Buddhist prayer is a reminder of our inextricable connection with the whole of the universe.

[10:20]

When we Buddhists pray, we know we aren't separate. We're not individuals. Our prayers, I think, send us, propel us. emotionally, cognitively, into that vast all-encompassing everything. I think we just say, you know, and that's my experience of our prayer. And I'm just dying to know what you all think and I will be asking you. I've left a bunch of copies of Maile Scott's Metta Prayer around. I hope enough that people can share and read it. I'm highly recommending this particular prayer. I thought it would help if we chanted it together. And then I hope there's enough copies that if you'd like to take it home, you can. Tan is gonna lead us.

[11:23]

in chanting. Ten is serving during lecture as Kokyo, which is a position that we have in our services, the person who leads the chants. May I be well, loving and peaceful. May all beings be well, loving and peaceful. May I be at ease in my body, feeling the ground beneath my seat and feet, letting my back be long and straight, enjoying breath as it rises and falls and rises. May I know and be intimate with body-mind, whatever its feeling or mood, calm or agitated, tired or energetic, irritated or friendly, breathing in and out, aware.

[12:35]

Where moment by moment of the risings and passings, may I be attentive and gentle toward my own discomfort and suffering. May I be attentive and grateful for my own joy and well-being. May I move towards others freely and with openness. May I receive others with sympathy and understanding. May I move towards the suffering of others with peaceful and attentive confidence. May I recall the bodhisattva of compassion, her one thousand hands her instant readiness for action, each hand with an eye in it, the instinctive knowing what to do. May I continually cultivate the ground of peace for myself and others, mindful and dedicated to this work, independent of results.

[13:42]

May I know that my peace and the world's peace are not separate, that our work in the world is a result of our work for justice. May I be well, happy, and peaceful. With a deep desire for peace, we have offered light and flowers, words and prayers. May the merit of these offerings pervade everywhere to save all sentient beings from the groundless worlds of suffering and confusion. to nourish compassion and selflessness even in adversity, to end all wars, to avert the calamities of epidemic and famine, and the destruction of fire, water, wind, and earth. to rejoice in our different ways and faiths, recognizing the interdependence of all life on this fragile planet. May we, together with all beings, realize the path of peace and harmony.

[14:50]

All Buddhas, ten directions, three times, All beings bodhi sattva mahasattvas. Wisdom beyond wisdom. Mahaprajna paramita. Thank you, Kim. We also have something called metta sutta, which is a chant in our chant book, and I think also of that as a kind of a prayer. Here's a couple of lines. May I be upright and sincere, easily contented and joyous. May I not be submerged by the things of the world, taking upon myself the burden of riches, and on it goes.

[15:53]

So some of our chants are a prayer. We have a special kind of chant in our services, which is a Durrani, and I think a Durrani is a kind of prayer. We chant them in our well-being and memorial services, and we will be chanting a Durrani in our continuous prayer circles. Durrani's are chants in a language we can't understand. in words whose meaning we don't know. Most common are the Enmei Juku Kanon Gyo, or the Shosai Myo Kichijo Dorani for well-being services, and we also chant the Daishin Dorani for a memorial service. They're often in Sanskrit words, although they're sometimes thought of as untranslatable. I think they have been more in the long-ago past thought of as untranslatable. They're believed by many to be powerful because of their sound, the sound of the words as you feel them in your body and hear them in the air rather than the actual meaning of the words.

[17:11]

I thought we're going to chant on the opposite side with Metta Prayer is the Shosai Myo Kichijo Durrani. Kaz Tadahashi has done a wonderful reference book called Zen Chance. For people who feel deeply about chanting, it's very special help to learn more. He and Jan Chosen-Bayes found what they consider the most early and accurate Sanskrit version of this chant and translated it. And I'll read that translation so you have a sense as you're saying the words what people long ago had in mind when they put these words together. Okay, is that good? Homage to all Buddhas, indestructible ones.

[18:18]

O sacred void, void. Clear away, clear away. Hum, hum. Shine, shine, shine brightly. Stay, stay. Stars, stars. Emerge, emerge. Peace and blessings. Svaha. So, let's chant the Shosai Myo Kichi Jodorani. And Greg is playing the Makugyo to help us keep time together. Okay. You want to do a clunk clunk? Namo Shamananda Motto Nanoharachi Kottosha Sononan Toji Toen Gya Gya Gya Ki Gya Ki Ununchipura

[19:30]

Harashifura, Harashifura, Harashifura, Chishusa, Chishusa, Chishuri, Chishuri, Sohaja, Sohaja, Senchigya, Shirie, Somoku, Samanda, Motonan, Oharachi, Kotosha, Sononan, Toji, Toen, Gyagyagyagi, Gya Ki Un Un Shifu Ra Shifu Ra Hara Shifu Ra Hara Shifu Ra Chi Shu Sa Chi Shu Sa Chi Shu Ri Chi Shu Ri Cho Ha Ja So Ha Ja Sun Chi Gya Shi Ri Ye So Mo Ko Saman Damoto Nanoharachi, Kotosha Sononan, Toji Toen, Gyaa Gyaa Gyaa Ki, Gyaa Ki Unun, Shippura, Shippura,

[20:35]

So this chant to me provides an eloquent example of what I mean by a Buddhist prayer. Words, oh, sacred, void, void, stars, stars, emerge, emerge. Throwing ourselves into it, we remember our inextricable connection with the whole of the universe. We know we're not separate. our prayers send us, propel us into that vast, all-encompassing everything.

[21:43]

Another Dharani, the Enmei Jukkukanangyo, which we often chant, is addressed to Kanzayon, a figure who's known as the hearer of the cries of the world. The name is also Avalokiteshvara or Kanon. Depends on where you are when you're saying her name and sometimes his name. We use this chant in well-being services and we'll be using it in the continuous prayer circle. When we chant, when we do services, we're facing an altar, and the altar has a focal figure. Our altar has a Buddha as the main figure. In Vietnam, altars often have Kwan Yin. They call her the Lady Buddha, and she's the one to whom prayers for well-being and for remembrance of family are directed.

[22:55]

in Japan. There are all kinds of figures. I can't even tell you what there are at altars. However, the most common figure at so many altars you wouldn't believe is Jizo, who is a figure of a kind of a plain looking monk. And Jizo is the One praise to Jizo for travelers, for pregnant women, for children, for wishes for children who have died, that they are doing well in the afterlife, but mostly wishes and wishes for children. And Jizo altars are everywhere. You're walking down a perfectly normal business or residential street, and there is a Jizo altar. in active use with fresh water, fresh food, fresh flowers, clearly tended to that morning and to be tended to again and again.

[24:02]

And there are altars at temples where there are thousands of Jizos. One of my assignments to myself for this week was to print up some pictures of these amazing altars and I didn't get it done, I'm sorry, but I will somehow, sometime make that available because for those of you who haven't seen it, it's quite something to see. We have a number of Jizo altars right behind the Zendo here. and we have annually a Jizo service. The altars are actively used. There's fresh flowers in them all the time. And I like to tell children who come here that if they have a worry, a concern, if they're worried about one of their friends, that they could come back there and tell Jizo about it and ask for help. with that issue that can often be, you know, pretty worrisome.

[25:09]

And that is because I believe in the power of prayer. I imagine that children having problems that they're very, very worried about are relieved by giving it over to the universe is really what we're saying. Some of us have altars at home and Those altars can be a focus for prayers and for chanting. They can be a place to take our serious concerns, our expressions of loss. My home altar is kind of crowded with focal figures.

[26:11]

The largest one, because it was given to me as a gift, is Quan Yin. hearer of the cries of the world. There are at least three Jizos and two Buddhas. and photos of my mother, of dear departed friends, and of dear departed dogs. There's also a picture of Blanche Hartman and Joshin-san, who really gave us our sewing practice of sewing okases and rakusus that is so precious to us. And I have often, for periods in my life, bowed at the altar in the morning, lit, I guess, you know, here I come here. I live upstairs and so I come here in the morning. But when I didn't live here, I lit a candle at my altar, offered incense, chanted the Metta prayer that we chanted, and

[27:19]

And did that in front of this array on my altar. And when I want to do my own well-being service, sometimes someone will say, that they're concerned and I say, is it okay with you if I do a well-being service for you? So that these altars at our homes can be in ready use. So I'm dying to know what this brings up for you. And I hope that people will talk about your experiences with prayer, with home altars, with dharanis, with services, and whether you define prayer in a way that might be helpful, that would be helpful for others to hear too, because that's just my effort to define it.

[28:35]

Yes, John? As we said, we were raised Christian. And I wonder if you remember the scripture, ask, seek, and knock. Ask, and you shall be answered. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. And when I gave up the guy in the sky, like you said you did, I realized still, knock, seek, and ask work. And why is that? This is my prayer, and I use it all the time. Because it opens my eyes, it opens my ears, it opens my heart to the possibility of my asking. It opens up the possibility of seeing, or hearing, or receiving, understanding, or response to that prayer. But because I prayed it, and because I'm open to listening. Not because I got an email from God.

[29:37]

So I wonder if you would say that prayer, or some of the Christian prayers that we value before the guy checked out, are still valuable to you? Praying in the way we do it, the way I think that we're doing it, I feel like I'm just flinging myself out, you know, when we do this, which tends to lose this um, hard, uh, skin and bones body and just like, get me out of here, but get me out into the. Yet another teaching myself. I'm not stuck in this skin bag alone, but part of everything and the power of everything to bring everybody the prayers, the wishes, the what they need.

[30:47]

You know, research on prayer has shown prayer to be extremely powerful. Prayers to people we don't know, but prayers to the name of that person have been scientifically documented to help them get well. So, we have a list of names. here for wellbeing services and people are welcome to give us names of people you'd like to be on that wellbeing list. And that image of knock on the door is so powerful. I had a rather sometimes traumatic time in my family and household as a child, and there was a woman up the block who took me to church.

[31:50]

I think she knew that we got to get that kid out of that house and into something else, you know, and very kind of her. But one day I was sick and couldn't go, and she brought me the program from that day at the church. And it was a figure of Jesus knocking at a wooden door. It's so precious, so precious. I guess I'm trying to knock at your door today and say, come chant Dharanis, take Dharanis home, have an altar, pray. Yeah, Kelsey? I'm wondering if you've had a somewhat of a journey in your understanding and full acceptance of prayer. I recently did a backpacking session with a bunch of people, and many of them beginners, and many of them really struggled with the prayers because they didn't understand them and didn't feel comfortable saying things they didn't understand.

[32:58]

I'm just curious if that's been an experience for you and if you have any thoughts on how to work with that. Well, I found this quite a piece of work to take on Buddhism and to, I mean, I'd always been very interested in philosophy of science, things like the fallacy of misplaced concreteness. I just held to my heart. But working, working, working on this not unique, separate, unconnected business has been over and over and over again teaching myself for years how that is. So one wouldn't expect I don't know if words can do it for people. Say, well, we're not separate. There's no shh up there.

[34:00]

There's, you know, we're shh, part of a schmear, you know, and we're speaking to that shh, you know. What were you using? Like, what would be an example? Well, so the Heart Sutra is our daily lesson in the fact that we're not separate. You know, it is, I mean, I think that, so the Heart Sutra, which we say every day in every Zen temple in the world, is a lesson in, it's our primer on how There is no separate anything. And then it ends with a prayer. So I don't think of it as a prayer, I think of it as our instruction.

[35:04]

You know, yes, yes, this is our instruction. And then the prayer is, Gatte, Gatte, Paragatte, Parasamgate, Bodhisattva, which is gone, gone, completely gone, whatever the next word. Yeah, so that is that prayer, you know. So I wonder how that kind of an explanation would have gone over with them. Try it. We can try it. Yeah, Mary. Well, along those lines, I can guess that the first couple of years that I came here, I always, after Zazen, left before the circle. And then someone gave a talk about how the thing that one does after zazen is a service, which is a way of taking zazen into activity, that it's a bridge between the zazen That was a bridge for me.

[36:30]

And then, at a different time, another instruction that really helped me was that, especially during the chances that are in an unintelligible language, that the point is in that moment to hear your voice blend with the voices in the room. The experience of being in the room with these voices and paying attention to the harmony in the room was kind of a literal, visceral way of making that bridge. That was really the point, it was our activity together. That's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah, Melinda? I think it's always, I mean, it's often a good idea to look at and evaluate our rituals. Not evaluate, but you know, kind of reflect on them. Yeah. It's nice to reflect on the rituals that we do, because they do carry a lot of different meanings for different people.

[37:38]

And so I admit to being a little uncomfortable with the lecture. It felt a little churchy. in higher, you know, priestly language from the Catholic Church, like bishops, and put little stripes on people's robes. And I didn't like that. And so, I get it about prayer, you know, I do my little prayers, probably in the same spirit that you do. But there is a difference in the language that The thing is, if you start using churchy language, then everybody's churchy associations get riled up, you know?

[38:44]

So, you know, we tend to use language as a vow and resolve and a fully avow, you know, that kind of thing, that intention. So, I just want to keep this question of language awake. And we discuss this. Because prayer means that other thing to so many people. Yeah. I mean, I love Meili's prayer. I would sing it at the door of death, you know, and life. But I wouldn't, this is my personality, you know, I wouldn't start spreading the idea of prayer too much, you know, like overdoing it in the language or something. And also the Japanese months, we chant things in Japanese because we got it from the Japanese month.

[39:44]

But when they chant it, they get it. It's their language. Sorry. Okay, back there. Hi, Peter. This brings back to me my experience first coming to the Represent Center. and it had some strange English translation on it as well. And I found myself relating to it, and kind of the way you talked about it with Ryan, it was very powerful for me to change this thing I didn't understand. I have to do it every day. And then I remember later on, being in practice with your SMR, I can't remember exactly, we started changing It took me a long time to get past all my English.

[40:54]

I feel now that it's coming to another realm where yes, it's English, it's concepts, and yes, it's some sense of prayer. This is a huge competition. But also, in a lot of piece work that I've been involved with, there is an ongoing tradition of how do we pray together? Which also includes, you know, people who identify as spiritual, not religious. And how, for instance, like, you know, some hip hop tune,

[41:54]

particularly what I love about this conversation, and how we also embody the chanting together, is how do we pray together? How does that, you know, you've been touching your heart a lot, and I really resonate with that when you're speaking about it, because there is a feeling And so two things that I just wanted to add were I trained quite a bit with the Zen community of Oregon. That's where I started practice. And that community founded a place called Great Bells in the Monastery. And that's just a base that we were talking about. One of the things that that community did was to come up with an English version of in their tradition, teaching everyone.

[43:56]

And then everybody starts chanting, and they actually go around the whole grounds and do this, and then come back, and then seamlessly the next group comes forward. And it is so incredible. And there are recordings of some of these. So I think that there's something really Thank you, everybody. We just got the signal that we've run out of time, which means we'll continue the conversation. You have 10 minutes. Oh. That's what you know. Oh, that we have 10 minutes. Oh, all right. Sorry. Yes, then. Hi. I just wanted to say that I hate system. Thank you.

[45:19]

Luminous Heart. So I was in a lot of context where I was asked to pray to various gods and in various situations it was very interesting to learn how to enter that space of somebody else's. And their loved ones were around them, and they would sometimes say, please pray for John to be completely healed and get completely better.

[46:37]

And he was sometimes hours away from dying. And at first I was nonplussed about how to be true, and at the same time to answer their pardon. John received the very best possible healing and I meant by that to bring myself into death or life or whatever was the right next step for John that I didn't know anyway. But that gave me a peace. And I want to thank you so much for bringing this because I love the concept of prayer. I'm raised Christian, I don't think about sleep anymore.

[47:41]

But I pray all the time, and when I'm listening to what and to whom am I praying, what am I doing when I pray? I feel like I am praying personally inward, for myself, intending that I open, that I expand, that I live in non-separation. That's really what I'm I think that language is very helpful. Thank you. Jerry. I happen to be a faith type, so I don't mind coming to a place and people chanting and just joining with people wherever I am, whatever place I go, and trusting that that togetherness of chanting together transcends everything else and transcends the boundaries.

[49:03]

some kind of chanting or some prayer type thing. And it takes us out of our mundane world into another world that we can share more broadly. So I have to have that experience. And the other experience I have with Zen is that I actually have a palpable feeling when I go through the chants and when I go through the ceremonial actions, I feel a very visceral connection to the ancestors. I feel that I'm walking the path of generations of people who are participating in some ritual motion. You came to the wrong person for that one.

[50:25]

Can anybody? Who would like to talk about it? Maybe we better deputize someone to give a talk on that subject. Well, just to say that Sojin Roshi led us in a priest meeting over a year's conversation studying this subject. Before my time, unfortunately. Darn it. That's what I mean. And so talking the language of dedication to merit is like a reminder of not trying to get it, which is such a deep practice.

[51:35]

I suspect there's a deep practice of merit in that we need somebody to talk to us about it, but I'm not able to do that. 10. I think one of the things about the dedication of merit that's really interesting, it's almost saying, Thank you. I love that. Perfect. Okay, Rondi. It's great in the highways of Missouri with little teeny, like, fortune cookie-sized strips and said, sacrifice me.

[53:38]

My younger brother and I stamped these out. This sort of came from my understanding of this and Greek and Roman history. So that was my connection. And I was in a very Jewish, secular family. Okay, I think we have one more, you or man right behind, yes. Sorry, I don't hear your name. I mean, it does help in the way a placebo helps, right?

[54:46]

When we lose someone dear and we chant the Daishindhirani, for me, it is with the impulse intention of, may they go in peace, something like that. And it's just extremely helpful to have something to do at moments like that. And I think if I myself would get organized to do, for example, the periodic memorial services that are prescribed and used in some forms of Buddhism, for those dear ones I've lost, that that focusing of my attention on that loss and the focusing of the wishes for what could it be, you know, but

[56:04]

something well-wishing kind of, would help to kind of corral that grief which can otherwise just pop up all over the place at the least opportune moments. So I'm thinking that it's a kind of a well-meaning practice to to focus our thoughts, concerns, wishes, feelings into prayer. And I look forward to talking with you all about this. Thank you very much for all your attention.

[56:53]

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