Prairyerth Zen Center

Upcoming Events At Prairyerth Zen Topeka, KS
July 5, Sunday 3:00 pm
Regular Sunday practice will be held, but Senior dharma teacher interviews have been canceled for this month due to family commitments.

July 25, Saturday 12:00 noon - 2:00 pm
- Sangha Meeting & Potluck at Dennis's house (more information to follow). Help us discuss our agenda and set dates for Winter events. Please bring a dish to share. Everyone is welcome.

July 28 - August 2
- Five-day retreat ("Gentle Prairyerth Zen" - Come and sit in meditation when you can. Leave when you must.)
The retreat begins Tuesday evening at 6:30 pm with special chanting, Temple Rules and a 30 minute sitting.
Wednesday - Saturday starting at 7:00 am, Rebecca will be doing prostrations and chanting meditation in the morning and then sitting meditation and walking meditation throughout the day. Please join her as your schedule permits. You may sit all day, every day or come just for 30 minutes for 1 day. The retreat is informal, but mostly silent. If you are coming over the lunch hour, bring a sack lunch with you. Each day ends at 5:00 pm with Kwan Seum Bosal chanting. Registration is not required and there is no fee, although donations are appreciated in person or on our website.

SAVE THE DATES
August – no retreats this month
September 5 - One-Day Retreat
October 16 - 18 YMJJ Two-Day Retreat

https://prairyerthzen.org/

When Suffering and Love Become One
By Rebecca Otte, JDPSN

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
There is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
The world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’
Doesn't make any sense.

Rumi

The slightest distinction splits heaven and earth.
To see the truth, don’t be for or against.
Likes and dislikes are the mind’s disease.
If you miss the deep meaning, it is useless to still your thoughts.

Tseng Ts’an, Third Patriarch

I have always found it interesting that different spiritual paths seem to come up with the same teachings. Rumi was a 13th century Sufi mystic. Tseng Ts’an was a 6th century Chan master, a student of Hui K’o, descended from Bodhidharma. Two different masters, two different spiritual paths, one teaching - both of them pointing to this space before we decide in ourselves what is good or bad, right or wrong, clean or dirty, deep or shallow, up or down and all the other ways in which we judge and categorize.

I am reminded of a story told by Zen Master Seung Sahn about a famous work of art shown in Paris. When he got close to what he thought was a painting, he discovered it was a pair of dirty socks with holes in them hanging within a gilded frame. Everyone was impressed with this work of art and someone had paid quite a bit of money for it. Don’t we usually think of art as beautiful? Why dirty socks? If we let go of our distaste, we can see that these socks reveal the life of the person who wore them - the hard work, the fatigue at the end of the day, the sweat and toil. These socks conveyed the suffering of a human life. Letting go of our judgement, we can feel empathy for the human who wore these socks. We understand their life, their work, their suffering. This is connecting to that mind before thinking - the field beyond ideas of right and wrong - that field of empathy and deep compassion. I’ll meet you there.
prairyerthzen.org

A Tiny Wind
By Rebecca Otte, JDPSN

Su Dongpo was a famous calligrapher and poet in the Song Dynasty and he was friends with Zen Master Foyan who lived some ways away. Su Dongpo, believing himself enlightened, wrote a message to Zen Master Foyan saying that he was no longer moved about by the Eight Winds ( in Buddhism the eight winds are loss and gain, praise and blame, fame and shame, pain and pleasure), but could maintain equanimity in all circumstances. Zen Master Foyan, upon receiving this message, took a brush and ink and wrote “FART” across the message and sent it back to Su Dongpo. When Su Dongpo received it, he was furious! Containing himself no longer, he picked up the message, marched out the door and headed to Zen Master Foyan’s temple. He bursts through the door ready to shout at his friend for such an insult! Zen Master Foyan looked up and calmly said, “You said the Eight Winds could not move you, but a tiny little wind brings you to my door!”

A number of years ago I was giving a talk at our Buddha’s Enlightenment Day ceremony. There were quite a few people there and I was trying to make an impression and so I was being quite solemn and serious with my talk. At that time, there was a family with 5 children who came occasionally to the zen center and they were at the ceremony that day. So here I am, speaking with great seriousness about the enlightenment of the Buddha, when one of the children farted and then giggled slightly. I ignored it and went on, but the next child started giggling. I continued to ignore it, thinking they would settle down in a moment or two. Besides, they were ruining the seriousness of my talk! The next child started giggling. Someone in the sangha started laughing which of course started the rest of the children to start laughing and then everyone was laughing!!! I gave up all the seriousness and began laughing with them.

Sometimes farts bring wonderful zen lessons.