Last night, Phoenix was hit with a major storm. Today, December 8, 2009, there are many people without power.
This tree is at the front of my complex. Had it fallen the other way, it would have smashed into my neighbors’ bedroom.
I always liked this tree when I walked past it to the grocery store. According to one of the old timers who were gathered around this morning, the tree was planted in 1968. The year I was born. We were the same age.
They are cutting it up now and taking it away. It is no longer considered a tree. The police officer on the scene referred to it as a road hazard.
It went down around midnight last night. Midnight last night I was asleep in my bed, like my neighbors. I am happy the tree fell in the road and not on their bed. Two people ran into the tree this morning with their cars, one at 4:30am and the other around 6:00am. No one was injured. One car needed to be towed. At 4:30am I was sleeping in my bed. At 6:00am the first bell rang for sitting on our zendo.
There is a giant eucalyptus tree hovering behind our house on city land. I have been asking that it be trimmed for three years. If it were to ever fall due west, it would land right on our bedroom.
Today is Rohatsu. On this day, 2,500 years ago, Siddhartha Gautama dropped his hand to the ground, looked up at Venus in the early morning sky, and understood that we are all Buddhas. And so the Dharma wheel turns and our tradition has grown over time to this day of Rohatsu, December 8, 2009.A tradition that Shakyamuni Buddha said would end in 2,500 years, which is right about now.
This tree fell in the the garden next to the clubhouse where we used to hold zazenkais. It will be cut up and hauled away soon too. Hopefully, it will be used to create something new.
We no longer use this space for zazenkais.
Today, December 8, 2009, was the first weekday morning the Sitting Frog Sangha sat together in our new space. I anticipate sitting in the mornings as a sangha for many years to come.
BEFORE heading up to Spirit Rock in the morning for Martine and Stephen Batchelor's Halloween weekend workshop called The Secular Buddha, I'm hanging out in Sausalito. I flew into San Francisco International Airport and took a commuter bus up to the Spencer Street Exit. It's a trip I've made may times and normally it takes about a half hour.
BUT with the Bay Bridge out, every one has to head North over the Golden Gate Bridge to get to the Richmond Bridge further north to get to the east bay. My flight was almost two hours. This time the drive from the airport to Sausalito was also about two hours.
AND driving in Marin County is nuts right now because everyone from the other side of the bay must pass through here to get to and from the city. Hopefully, its good for businesses along the 101. And hopefully the weekend will be better traffic wise. And hopefully they will open the Bay Bridge soon.
BUT that is not why I'm posting this. I'm posting this to show you what I'm looking at as I type these words. The view behind this picture taken by Helene in October of 2008 is what I see right now, give or take 295 days or so.
"It's a snake's nature to move in a crooked fashion. But if you put it in a bamboo tube, it becomes straight. The control of the mind through samadhi is also like this." Nagarjuna
Last Spring three of my friends went off to do a three-month training period at Yokoji-Zen Mountain Center.This happened to coincide with Tricycle Magazine’s The Big Sit 90 day Internet Ango.I wound up going to Mountain Center at least once a month to sit for long weekends and trained in my own householder way for 90 days.This fall, I decided to take the concept of a prolonged training period, create some group commitment areas and individual commitment areas, get a small group of non-Buddhists together to work with me, and call it 90 Days of Great Determination.So far, I’m sucking at this big time.
One of my commitments last winter and spring was to blog on a regular basis.I think I did alright.Summer rolled around and I slacked off a bit, but I was going to start at it again as part of my 90 training period commitments.So here I am two weeks into this and all I feel like is a failure every day.I intended to meet with my three participants at least once every two weeks.We can't seem to meet.I intended to keep a daily journal.It’s been weekly at the most.I am keeping up with SOME of my commitments but my small community component has so far crashed and burned.Still, I’m seeing how I should have begun it differently and when I do next January, I’ll make changes.
That’s not very specific, I know.For now, that’s all I can type.
One of the cool things about 90 days though is how long it is.Yes, I have been dragging my ass on several commitments from day one, but every day I look at my training schedule and see them shouting at me to get started.Hence this post.
And what has been coming up for me also is reflecting on how I would be handling this in a more traditional Zen training schedule.I used to think that just going to the zendo and following the schedule day in and day out was enough.Now, I see that I was always a failure.There was never a day when was present for the whole time.There was never a ceremony where I didn’t make some sort of a mistake or drift off in the middle of chanting.
I once said to Tenshin Roshi that I was enjoying just digging in and surrendering to the schedule.He smiled and said that we are always surrendering to the mountain’s schedule first and our Zen schedule second. I got this a little bit when I woke up last April one morning to a blanket of powder.Sandals in the snow made for a cold day.But how was I to know, it had been 90F in Phoenix when I left and 70F on the Mountain the day before.By the next day, the snow had melted and my feet were warm again.
And after an endless summer of 110F days I would happily walk barefoot in snow right now.
I suppose last spring was a honeymoon period or beginner’s luck.Looking back that 90 days seemed so effortless.But I can only be at where I am.I surrender to the mountain that is my life first and then dig in, surrender to the schedule, and keep moving forward through the tube.Hopefully, the pressure of this first post will press me on to the next.
If you are an artist or represent an artist and your virtual travels have brought you to my little cyber world, welcome. If your song is up on my blog, it’s because I like your music.
I tend to only post songs that you have already put out there on places like MySpace. And if the mp3 has been posted by me directly, I put in purchase links whenever possible. Also, I tend to take down my mp3 links within a few months of posting them.
But, I am always happy to take down any links at the artist or artist’s representation’s request.
This tree is at the front of my complex. Had it fallen the other way, it would have smashed into my neighbors’ bedroom.
I always liked this tree when I walked past it to the grocery store. According to one of the old timers who were gathered around this morning, the tree was planted in 1968. The year I was born. We were the same age.
They are cutting it up now and taking it away. It is no longer considered a tree. The police officer on the scene referred to it as a road hazard.
It went down around midnight last night. Midnight last night I was asleep in my bed, like my neighbors. I am happy the tree fell in the road and not on their bed. Two people ran into the tree this morning with their cars, one at 4:30am and the other around 6:00am. No one was injured. One car needed to be towed. At 4:30am I was sleeping in my bed. At 6:00am the first bell rang for sitting on our zendo.
There is a giant eucalyptus tree hovering behind our house on city land. I have been asking that it be trimmed for three years. If it were to ever fall due west, it would land right on our bedroom.
Today, December 8, 2009, was the first weekday morning the Sitting Frog Sangha sat together in our new space. I anticipate sitting in the mornings as a sangha for many years to come.
