Heroes....

Taking about what Japan means to me, 

and my heroes.....

One of my heroes once said;

" An individual that knows Dharma can be compared to a lamp that lights up the darkness. 

One who is close will see clearly, while those further away will see less clearly. 

After a period of time the lamp's light may go out or be extinguished, but then, from time to time, the lamp will be relit, again providing illumination."

Why do we allow the light to grow dim or even to extinguish?

Why do we seek a path other than one within ourselves?

Maybe we hang on to old programs, hang on to what we believe is our birthright. 

Hang on to our teaching from past experience.

Stale lessons that are no longer relevant. 

The secret is to let go.

Don't recall;     

Let go of 

what has passed

Don't imagine;       

Let go of

what may come

Don't think;  

Let go of what is happening  now

Don't examine;       

Don't try to

figure anything out

Don't control;      

Don't try to make

anything happen

Rest;     

Relax, 

right now, 

this second....

Japan, for me, 

is a great teacher.

A great reminder.

A great undoer......

Nathan 

Sent from my iPhone and

http://www.dharmamaster.com

With love

New year

First thoughts from Japan....

First for a New Year.....

"Once in a while

I just let time wear on

leaning against a solitary pine

standing speechless,

as does the universe!

Ah, who can share 

this solitude with me?"

Ryokan

Thank you for your poem.

And yes, who can share with me? 

This wonderland, full of love, in every snowflake, every smile. What joy.....

There is a Dharma in Ryokan's

poem for me.

Please let me share...

When we left our home for Japan we thought of retirement, meditation, solitude and peace.

What we actually got was a magnificent ski lodge situated on a mountain with an uninterrupted view down the valley.

Attached to the lodge is a twenty seat restaurant  that hadn't operated for more than ten years.

Our requirement for a residents visa to stay in Japan, is that one has to work!

So it's off to work we go, and what's more simple than opening a restaurant. It couldn't be that hard......

I remember in Zen (cha-an) there is a teaching; 

I Chi Go , I Chi E 

(each ee go, each ee ay) 

In Japanese this means ; 

"One time one meeting". 

This means that everything in this life should be unprecedented and irreplaceable. 

My plan now, is to make sure everything we do is based on this.

So we went to a local sushi restaurant to test out whether the teaching works.

It was as usual, outstanding, 

the rice was perfect, 

the vegetables in the sushi roll just amazing. 

The chef had a new one; 

avocado, he told us, that was sublime. 

The wasabi cleared the nose. 

The next plate was also sushi, with asparagus tips all sticking out, the same length, like soldiers standing to attention . 

We sat at the counter where the chef prepares the food. 

I asked the chef who speaks English,

"how do you do this so perfect, every time and don't you get sick and bored with the repetition?" 

His answer to my question was as surprising as his food and the message I got was this dharma. 

He said,  

"I don't get bored with the repetition." 

"The meal might look the same to you, but no two meals are the same, no two pieces of sushi are the same, no two plates are the same ." 

"Everything I do is vibrant unprecedented and unrepeatable." 

"You think they are the same, they even look the same." 

"To me, they are all different." 

"This is because I am not in a habitual thought pattern. 

I don't think "same old same old", 

"I don't think this is boring and is the same as yesterday and will be the same tomorrow ." 

"With that thought my food will be stale and old in a few days. 

"Most people get into a routine of doing something once and repeating it a thousand times, until the mind becomes numb." 

He said 

"I don't think this way." 

"Every sushi is different to me . 

Every mouthful full of love, 

full of flavor." 

When I heard this it was like a thunderbolt in my head. 

I knew what was meant when we become enlightened on the spot. 

                So.....

Everything should be fresh and new and vibrant. 

Every meeting unique. 

It will not occur again. 

Each moment precious. 

It will not occur again. 

All encounters, 

every breath, 

every prayer, 

will never be the same again. 

They may seem the same. 

It all depends on our way we think!

We started to practice and found new tastes, new sounds, new smells, new feelings, that we had never had before. 

When we start to practice 

I Chi Go, I Chi E 

"one time. one meeting" 

like the sushi chef, 

we suddenly freed ourselves from habitual thought patterns and feelings. 

We allowed our world to reveal itself to us as it really is and reveal who we really are. 

Vibrant, unprecedented and unrepeatable . 

We are not all the same. 

If we are treated all the same, it would be a very boring world. 

It is not the samenesses that are important, but the differences that tell us who we are. 

Who we really are is vibrant, 

unprecedented and irreplaceable. 

Come and visit....

Nathan 

http://www.dharmamaster.com 

Sent from my iPhone and 

http://www.dharmamaster.com 

With love

Amazing experience

An amazing experience...

I have just had the most amazing experience.

Last week on the 22nd I felt ill. At 4am I went to the local hospital emergency area.

I was met by a doctor who spoke English and tried with drugs to treat me, but it didn't work.

The next twenty minutes are a blur, but I remember being taken by ambulance to a major hospital in Urasa one hour away.

It's now 5:30am and I am met by the doctor in charge who speaks English and many nurses who use iPhone translators to talk to me. My pulse rate is over 210, dangerously high. 

The doctor decides that as drugs didn't work to bring my pulse down, I should have shock treatment.

I am sedated and awakened 15 minutes later, my pulse is normal. 

I am admitted to an emergency bed. I meet with the professor in charge who speaks English. He tells me I have pneumonia and have had a heart attack. 

Five days later and after many tests and blood letting and drain things in every orifice I am feeling great. Apparently I also had a blood and kidney infection. All fixed. 

The hospital is fantastic, all first class, world class. The food, even the room I was given on the seventh floor had a view down the valley to my home. 

My own TV. 

Constant supervision, almost hourly visits by a doctor or nurse. Most had mobile translator apps or spoke a little English. 

Unfortunately I have no insurance and even if I had travel insurance, old heart defects make it impossible at my age.

I got a surprise when a social worker told me that she could speak to the Governor and ask for his help if I could not pay.

Of course I paid the account.

Including all medication, anti biotic and saline drips every few hours, CT scans, echo things, X-Rays, I paid under $3000. 

Not to be too dramatic but what price does one put on a life.

Thank you Professor Takaaki Ishiyama and all doctors and staff for your care and compassion. May you all be guarded and guided.

Nathan

On a lighter note......

For those who love fortunetelling......

In hospital I am reading a book  

'In Ghostly Japan' 

by Lafcadio Hearn. 

He writes Japanese stories about different times, of unusual rituals and ceremonies, places and people.

This story is about the famous Chinese fortune teller who in Japan is called Shoko Setsu.

He is written about in the divination book Baikwa-Shin Eki.

While still a young man Shoko Setsu obtained a high position by reason of his learning and virtue. Within a short time he resigned and went into solitude so that he might give his whole time to study. 

For years thereafter he lived alone in a hut in the mountains; studying without a fire in the winter, without a fan in the summer; writing his thoughts on the walls of his room, for he had no paper, using only a tile for a pillow.

One day, on the hottest day of summer, he felt overcome with fatigue and lay down on his bed, with his tile under his head.

Scarcely had he fallen asleep when a rat ran across his face waking him with a start.

Feeling anger he threw his tile at the rat, he missed the rat, but his tile was broken. 

Shoko Setsu looked sadly at the fragments of his tile and reproached himself for his hastiness. As he picked up the fragments he saw on the exposed part of the clay some Chinese writing. 

He saw to his amazement seventeen characters obviously written some days before the tile was baked.

The characters read 

'In the year of the Hare

 in the fourth month, 

on the seventeenth day, 

at the hour of the Serpent, 

this tile, after serving as a pillow, will be thrown at a rat and be broken'

Now the prediction was fulfilled at the hour of the Serpent, the seventeenth day of the fourth month in the year of the Hare.

Greatly astonished Shoko Setsu

again looked at the tile and saw the seal and the name of its maker.

At once he left his hut, and taking the pieces of the tile, went to the neighbouring town to find its maker.

He found the tilemaker in the course of the day, showed him the broken tile, and asked its history.

After careful examination, 

the tilemaker said;

This tile was made in my house, but the characters were made by an old man-a fortuneteller- who asked permission to write on it before it was baked.

Do you know where he lives?

asked Shoko Setsu.

He used to live not far from here and I can show you where, but I do not know his name.

replied the tilemaker.

Having been guided to the house Shoko Setsu presented himself and asked to be bought before the old man.

A student asked him to come into the apartment and was shown to a room filled with students. As Shoko Setsu took his seat the students all bowed very low. The one who showed him in bowed low and said

We are sorry to tell you our master passed away a few days ago. But we have been waiting for you because he predicted you would come on this day to this house at this hour.

Your name is Shoko Setsu and our master told us to give you this book which he believed will be of service to you, please accept it.

Shoko Setsu was surprised and delighted, for the book was a manuscript of the rarest and most precious kind containing all the secrets of divination.

After having thanked the young man and properly expressing his regret at the death of his master 

he went back to his hut and immediately proceeded to test the books worth in regard to his own fortune.

The book suggested to him that on the south side of the hut at a particular spot good luck awaited him.

He dug at the spot in the corner and found a jar containing enough gold to make him a very wealthy man.

.......

My friend Shoko Setsu left this world as lonely as he had lived in it.

Last winter whilst crossing a mountain pass he was overtaken by a snowstorm and lost his way.

Many days later he was found standing up at the foot of a pine tree, eyes closed and hands in meditation pose. A statue of ice.

I suppose he had fallen asleep in meditation and the snow drift had risen over him.

Hearing of his strange death I remembered the old Japanese saying; 

"Uranaiya minouye shiradzu"

"The fortune teller knows not his   own fate."

My thanks to Lafcadio Hearn

1850/1904

Nathan

Sent from my iPhone and

http://www.dharmamaster.com

With love

Our choice.......

Our choice.......

Every moment of every hour of every waking and sleeping day, we make conscious and sub-conscious decisions.
These decisions affect not only ourselves, but all around us.
It is our actions and re-actions that create the situations we find ourselves facing.
These situations, pleasant and unpleasant, are of our own doing, and no one else's.
Should we not like our present circumstance, then we have the power to change.
Should we not believe we have this power to change, then we must realise we are the cause, and find the strength to change.
When we change, our entire world changes. All around us also changes.
The choice is ours.

Nathan




Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love

Friends and relatives ask;

Friends and relatives ask;

How was your trip to Japan?
Was it successful?
Did you like the food?
Etc etc...
The questions don't stop.
So in answer to all,
I offer the following....

What would you do if you had sold your business, moved from your home, and had no place to live!!!!!

Would you leave the comfort of what you know and move to another country and to another environment?
That would be so totally different.
You don't even speak the language!!!

What a change that would be.

Well, that's what we did.

We have not only met the challenges but embraced them and purchased a home.

Jodi saw a small booth on the side of the road. The signs are in Japanese and of course we don't read Japanese.
One sign said rice and 100yen.
There was also a 10 kilo sign.
Jodi could read those.
Inside the booth there was a chute, so she put her $1 or 100yen in the slot and put a plastic bag under the chute waiting for the 10 kilos of rice, or at least one kilo. Maybe the sign meant 100yen per kilo. Maybe not. Anyway....
There was much whirring and the sound of cogs and machine type noise. Then all of a sudden out plopped four grains of rice.
Jodi yelled, you ripped me off!
No rice and I lost 100yen.

We found out later, after complaining to a local who speaks English, it is a rice washing machine!!!!!
The farmers put their unwashed rice into the machine.
Duh!
Back to the supermarket for Jodi.

Then there is the Onsen culture.
An Onsen is a public bath house. One for males and one for females.
I don't know what goes on in the female one, but the male one is fabulous. The super heated spring water that is pumped from underground, does wonders for aches and pains.
I could hardly walk with arthritis in my left ankle and heel.
Two visits to the Onsen and a new form of massage, and I am pain free. The massage is magic.
The masseur told me, using his translator on his iPhone, that my chi is blocked causing my toe to be numb and pain in ankle and heel!!! How did he know!
He then proceeded to remove the bad chi.
I don't know, but it worked.

I love Japan, its people, culture, food, and of course the magnificent scenery.

Did I say we bought a home?

Well it's actually a ski lodge on an actual ski slope with three different lifts and some four to five meters of snow that keeps building up daily in winter from somewhere in Russia.

It's now summer so the snow is gone and it's a jungle out there, and it's warm.
The monkeys come to pick fruit by day, and at night Mr Badger and other creatures visit.

Should you feel inclined,
come over, and visit, and see
Mr Badger, and us, in person.

We have a spare room.

Nathan
Hiiragi Lodge
Ishiuchi
Japan



Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love

"The path to awakening.."

"The path to awakening.."

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Sensei is the head of Mountains and Rivers Order and abbot of the Zen Center of New York City, Fire Lotus Temple.

He explains that ordinary mind is the path itself, and that we can only see this truth if we look through unconditioned eyes.

To understand ordinary mind,
we have to understand Tao.
To understand Tao, we have to go beyond all knowing.
So to do this, we should look to the ordinary mind,
with unconditioned eyes.

Chao-chou once asked Nanchuan, "What is Tao?"
Nanchuan answered
"Ordinary mind is Tao."
"Then should we direct ourselves toward it or not?" asked Chao-chou.
"If you try to direct yourself towards it, you go away from it."
answered Nanchuan.
Chao-chou continued,
"If we do not try, how can we know that it is Tao?"
Nanchuan replied,
"Tao does not belong to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is illusion;
not knowing is blankness.
If you really attain the Tao of no-doubt, it is like the void,
vast and boundless.
How then, can there be right or wrong in Tao?"

At these words Chao-chou was suddenly enlightened.

My next question.......

'What are we doing when we sit in meditation?"

Practice is not mechanical, it's not a method or technique, it's not blank consciousness.

Buddhist meditation emphasises quieting the mind and incisive thought.
Ultimately we realise they are inseparable.'

Wu-men's commentary says,
"Nan-chuan shows us that the tile is disintegrating, the ice dissolving and no communication is possible."
"This is true intimacy" he said.

"Hundreds of flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
A cool breeze in summer,
and snow in winter,
If there is no vain cloud in your mind,
For you it is a good season."

When Wu-men wrote this poem, he was talking about a life well lived, full and free, attending to what is needed but without a cloud in the mind.

The final question....

"What is Tao?"

It is at the very heart of Zen practice.
Tao means a passage, a path, a way. It also means the essential truth, or the underlying principle of our universe.

In Buddhism the path to awakening is not separate from enlightenment itself. As we travel the path, we practice living as an awakened person.
We tend to think of practice as a preparation for a time that hasn't arrived, however there is no future moment that we are preparing for.
Practice is living, cultivating virtue is being virtuous.
Practice is life.

Sensei tells us;
"The way is vast and boundless.
The way is not apart from this mind. Study, train, and realise your original mind, the mind of all beings, sentient and insentient."

My thanks to
'Buddhadharma,
The practitioners quarterly.'

Metta
Nathan



Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love

Thus I have heard:

Thus I have heard:

The Buddha said;

If you speak or act with a kind
bright heart, then happiness
follows you,
like a shadow
that never leaves.
Dhp 1-2

He
insulted me,
hit me,
beat me,
robbed me,--
for those who brood on this, hostility isn't stilled.

He
Insulted me
hit me
beat me
robbed me,--
for those who don't brood on this,
hostility is stilled.

Hostilities aren't stilled
through hostility,
regardless.
Hostilities are stilled
through non-hostility :
this, an unending truth.

Unlike those who don't realise
that we are here on the verge
of perishing,
those who do,
their quarrels are stilled.
Dhp 3-6
..................

"Did you know that some people just exist to spoil others joy?
Ones whole life should not be dictated to, or even bullied by another, albeit someone mentally ill.

I suppose when one sees ones time is finishing, fear starts to take over. Unfortunately there are those who refuse to accept that this type of suffering can be overcome.
What to do?

Mental illness is so sad.
To be compassionate,
so hard.
What a lesson!

When we learn to let go of the minds rubbish, we start to see reality. We don't add extra rubbish, to the rubbish,
that's already there.

"Why does this happen to me?
What's wrong with me?
Maybe it's my fault?"
Etc, etc, etc.

We let go and avail ourselves of the wonders that are around us.

So......

"Out of every seed of adversity, comes a benefit."

When we sow seeds,
we reap huge benefits.
Hostility is stilled,
Quarrels are stilled.
Metta
Nathan
..............


Sent from my iPhone and
http://www.dharmamaster.com
With love