Guidance in the time of Corona #7

Dear All,

Even when we sleep at night, the inner organs work. Because of them working, that is why we are alive. Why is that so? It seems that we are one human being. We have the senses to see hear smell and taste – all of them are in the upper part of our body. When we were born, we receive a lot of data input. More and more our inner essence weakens and we desire even more information from the outside. Our thoughts increase and the essence is blocked and finally lost. We base our life upon the information from the outside. If we do not make efforts to replenish our essence, we become even more empty inside. This is our urgent need.

Our head and and arms show the part of our being which is facing towards the world outside. Then we have the belly, and we can perceive it as the head of our lower part of the body, with our legs and feet. The lower part is about our true essence and life force. It is important that we see both of these aspects.

Our organs working even while we are sleeping is due to the lower part of our body which produces the hormone of life energy. When we are born we are in inner harmony. Yet we use the upper part of our body more, receive information and start to think more. The more our essence becomes weak, the more we feel unsettled. This is the important point of our zazen: to place our focus in our tanden.

This is what the Buddha took as central, as well as the ancients before him, thus the teaching of the tanden breathing is over 4000 years old. This has been supporting our life energy all along. Yoga, Chikung, TaiChi – many different path support this inner balance. We bring the life energy back inside and raise our energy level. This is important. Keeping your awareness on your tanden, feeling the pressure there. Inhaling exhaling with the force of the tanden. Depending on our efforts, we stay with our awareness in our tanden, when standing, walking, lifting things, working and sitting. We move our body not from our head and ideas, but from our lower abdomen.

If you have some time, to sit zazen is fine. With each exhalation breathe down into your tanden. Exhale to the last point and the essence becomes stronger. Which again strengthens your tanden in return and reduces the habit to think about everything with your head.

Hakuun Shutan Zenji talks about it, how he would stay centered in his tanden, teaching is many students and doing his work from there. He would pass on this wisdom to others. We can strengthen our inner essence to the degree that our feet become warm. Hakuun Shutan Zenji would say that he felt filled with vibrant energy even at high age and could continue all of his activities.

All we need to do is to gather our energy in the tanden. If we try to do his from our head though, then we get tense in the diaphragm and cannot exhale further, not reaching the tanden. We need to make actual efforts, making our exhalation slowly longer, not getting stopped anywhere. And finally we have raise the energy level of our tanden.
Once the life energy gathers in the tanden, our blood circulation becomes more vibrant as well, the veins moving the blood back to the heart, our energy level rises even more. We can absorb more oxygen to vitalize ourselves.

There is no need for extraneous thoughts, but rather exhale one breath after the next. It is my great wish that you may continue with this inner practice, raising you level of energy so that you can stay settled and immovable within no matter what information and news may reach you from the outside.

Guidance in the time of Corona #6

Dear All,

How are you doing? We have already April, there are so many different types of news around. It is a fact that the virus is still spreading. More than 47000 people have died with this disease. Soon there will be 1 million people who have been infected by the virus. There are these facts, and then there are all the emotional talks about the situation. Thus we need to make more efforts to stay quiet within.

The breathing method has a 4000 year long history. If there is only mental understanding without a deep breath, we cannot sustain ourselves. Someone who experienced this for himself, is Hakuin Zenji.

Hakuin is teaching the method of introspection. He himself was in a mental unstable place when he receive the guidance by Hakuyu Sennin. Using this name Hakuyu to teach the breathing method which he developed himself. We breathe with our lungs, bringing oxygen and nutrition to all 6 trillion cells of our body. Human beings have become used to sitting a lot and not moving our body enough thus our breathing becomes shallow. This is the reason that the disasters nowadays have become much more intense because our breathing is too weak.

Actually there is no need to learn how to breathe, we do this naturally, but we get too involved in the information from the outside and our inside becomes empty. That is where we get stuck, and only a master of zazen will be able to breathe strongly. Our usual breathing cannot withstand the pressure put on us from the outside.

Hakuin Zenji was a great zen student, yet became sick because of too much pressure during training. From this experience, Hakuin developed the tanden breathing. When practicing introspection, we look within and exhale strongly to invigorate the ki energy. You can read about these in detail in the Yasenkana and Orategama. Yet it depends on our own efforts whether we can actually feel the change.

Now we need this practice in order to respond well to the virus disaster. And that is not all. At the same time we are being faced with many other challenges and a lot of emotional talk all around. The many political and economic regulations become pressure upon us, and our freedom is limited. Living in these circumstances, our condition becomes worse. Thus we need to actually practice. There is no mental understanding needed.

Gathering the energy within, exhaling strongly. The energy in the tanden again strengthens the exhalation and supports the flow of the energy. If we are involved in outside data, this energy rises upwards in the body and we lose our balance. So we need to return to the practice of introspection and settle our energy. This needs to be developed and it needs to ripen. Mental understanding does not help us the slightest bit.

In our life we face many challenges, not only the corona virus but cancer, heart attack, stroke – there are many sicknesses and we need strong inner energy to face these. Please look at this carefully and keep working creatively. I am not saying that you should do zazen but you need to raise your level of energy.

Please each and everyone of you, strengthen your exhalation. Use your willpower to create physical power. Please see this as most important

-Shodo Harada Roshi

Guidance in the time of Corona #5

Roshi and Chisan. Photo by Shuho Geit

Dear All,

Deepening your breathing, are you able to live your daily life in an expansive way?

During these many changes happening, it is crucial to use our body, breathing and mind well. I am sending out these messages, yet just reading them does not do the trick. You need to try it out and actually feel the change within. From the origin we do not need to practice breathing. Just like a baby naturally breathes with its whole body. We all still have this breathing in the background, living naturally connected, yet our lives become complicated, being pulled around by the media. Someone who easily feels anxiety, now is the time to take distance from the mass media.

This is what I noticed when we were in the middle of sesshin at 9/11, 52 people were sitting together, the happening was on the 6th day of the sesshin during morning break. We needed to inform everyone about this huge happening so that everyone could make their own decision on how to respond. Some people called home, yet not one person left the sesshin. After the sesshin people were deeply thankful that they could stay calm and settled during this anxiety created by the mass media. This was thanks to Zazen. If they had been at home, everyone would have seen the event over and over again, feeling that anxiety and panic created by these images. Everyone deeply thankful for having been in sesshin at that time. We may need some information, yet we need to stay solid within, only taking the information we really need.

We cannot calm our mind but we can use the medium of the breath to settle our mind. The quickly our mind becomes calm. I believe you can see the importance of the breath. Place awareness on our exhalation and making it long, while we do not place any attention or tension on our inhalation. To bring forth this breathing we sit zazen, we read the sutras.


There is also the practice of bowing. It is called Gotaitochi, or sampai, kyuhai. It means that the forehead, the two elbows and the two knees touch the ground at the same time. There are some traditions that lie flat on the ground as well. We bow in respect and in thankfulness to the Buddha. At the beginning there may be a thought added to this practice, but if we simply continue to bow over and over, we can do the bowing without thinking, the body moving by itself. The bowing does the bowing. To enter this state is important. Then the breathing can become wide and expansive. Try it out for yourself, then the mind becomes calm and soft. All extraneous thoughts beautifully disappear.

Anyone can practice this anywhere. It supports our breathing. When exhaling it is like squeezing a sponge and the water is being pressed out, letting go it again will absorb water by itself. It is said that the diaphragm moving the lungs is the second heart and the skeletal muscles are the third heart of the body. When we practice bowing, by moving our body up and down we can invigorate these three hearts, using a good rhythm of compression and letting lose again. Even someone who has difficulty practicing the breathing, when adding the motion of the body to it, it become easier to grasp. This is how we can practice in daily life.

Then there the reading of the sutras. Opening our throat wide, and in a huge voice we read the sutras. Our abs and spinal muscles need to work or else a huge voice does not come out. Matching the rest of the group, reading the sutras in a loud voice, we more and more become used to the expansive way of breathing.

When sweeping, when wiping the floor, when splitting wood, when digging in the garden use your whole body and the diaphragm becomes invigorated. Our concentration becomes stronger and our physical body refreshed.

When walking, with each step take a short breath putting some pressure on your lower abdomen. This is also how the Buddha practiced. We do not need to think about how a good breath would be, yet by moving the body, it naturally is being appears.

We live in a difficult word with a lot of information around. Especially in times like these, that which we have ignored and not applied, now is the time for us to check our essence and return to the basics of practice.

Even if we are in a small space, we can work creatively on how to practice with this. For example, if we go jogging and sweat, we feel refreshed and alive afterwards. This may not be possible now, so we can sit on a chair and practice marathon. Not moving the legs but only swinging our arms, exalting three short breaths, then taking a short inhalation. The same essence can be brought forth in this way. Doing this for 5-10 minutes a few times daily, since we do not use our legs, there is more tension and energy free to be used for the inner organs. This is how we can work on our inner essence creatively stay settled within.

I am sending you these few suggestions of how you can work on your inner energy. And from there this inner essence is brought forth in tea ceremony, flower arrangement, martial arts. We can thus continue to polish our mind and deepen within while bringing our awareness into each hand and foot motion. Which again in return also strengthens our breathing. Please use this chance now to deepen even further.

-Shodo Harada Roshi

Guidance in the Time of Corona #4

Dear All,

For us to be healthy, we need to use our body in the correct way. This is something everyone knows. It is our mind which uses this healthy body. When we feel unsettled, we get red in our face. When we feel scared, our face becomes white. The condition of our mind has a huge influence on our body. We use our awareness a lot for the outside, but what is important for us is this condition of our mind. Yet this mind has no form and receives much influence from the outside. Any change in the outside and our mind will react. According to the reaction we can become quiet or upset.

Trying to align this mind of no form is not easy. When our heart is beating fast, then we cannot calm it down by will. There is an easy way of going about it by calming our breathing. Yet it needs to be the correct breathing which can bring enough oxygen to all the 6 trillion cells we have in our body. Exhaling long and inhaling naturally. For this we need to use our skeletal muscle which are moving according to the command of the brain. The heart pumping the blood through our body which is enriched with oxygen in the lungs. When we are bed ridden, skeletal muscles are used a lot less, that is where we are not using the breathing in the best way. Thus it is good to move the body so that a strong blood flow can come about. A long exhalation will also invigorate the skeletal muscles and thus the capillaries are stimulated.

Different emotions and uncertainty as well as little physical motion weaken the blood flow. When we exhale long, we again invigorate the blood flow. The lungs do not move by themselves, but by the motion of the diaphragm. Our inhalation and exhalation move through the same one breathing pipe. If our exhalation is not deep enough, then the inner pressure of the lungs does not become less. Thus we cannot take in enough oxygen while being surrounded by it. That is our problem.

If we can exhale long, then we lower the pressure in our lungs and naturally the lungs when expanding will want to take oxygen in. Thus we do need to use our awareness to again lengthen our breathing which has become shallow and short because of the outer tensions which we absorb. This is the important breathing of zazen. If we do not take this as important, while we do have the ability, we cannot contain our emotional and psychological reactions. This is the place where we have to use our awareness well. Too much noise and weak concentration is why we need to make efforts.

Please do not stop at reading this only, but actually bring this breathing practice into your daily life. Please continue and become a master of your breathing

-Shodo Harada Roshi

Guidance in the time of Corona #3

photo by krsna das

Dear All,

Are you taking your breathing as most important?

When we were born, we would express naturally, smiling, laughing, crying. We were not involved in the outside world yet. At that time we were doing Tanden (abdominal ) breathing at that time. The abdominal pressure working well. This was our start, then our youth, adulthood and old age come along. When we are young, we can lively our daily life and can be active. Our tanden breathing is used when working, moving and using a loud voice. We do not need to learn this tanden breathing, we are able to use it naturally.

Yet we receive many energies from the outside and from our emotions, we get angry, we get greedy, we carry grudges, become jealous, sad, worried, unsettled and become captive of our emotions. Thus we lose our ability to breath with our tanden and become emotional, our breathing being shallow and a balanced breath turns into a confused breath. We lose our wide and expansive breathing. The outcome being unsettled in our mind.

Actually we do not need to learn something this complicated as tanden breathing. When we were young, we already used this kind of breathing, Once we start to protect our position and ideas, clashing with others, we confuse our original breathing and cannot use it anymore.

I am not telling you something special, but only pointing out, that we need to take this original breathing as most important. Yet during many years in our daily life we got stuck to outer ideas and made it more difficult for ourselves.

The idea of an I confuses our breathing. Let go of the idea of a self, work for others, be completely what you are doing and right there the original tanden breathing appears again. A shallow breathing without any strength makes us become heavy and dark in our mind. Living in this world with a huge, warm, loving mind and act from there, this refreshes also our breathing.

Please look at this carefully, and you can see how we should be now, how we should react – this becomes obvious. There is no need to practice a form of breathing. Rather do not get stopped by the emotions and ideas arising, by the idea of our position and self. That is what is important now.

-Shodo Harada Roshi

Tahoma Zen Monastery Temporarily Closed

Governor Jay Inslee has official put in place a ‘Stay at Home‘ order in order to try to contain the rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus. Residents of the state are now required to stay at home except for essential trips. Visits to religious institutions have not been deemed essential. While our practice is essential, it is incumbent upon us to practice on our own. To sit for our own well being and the well being of others. I trust that everyone will be mindful during this time and observe the Washington State guidelines for social distancing when one is out.

This order will last for the next month at a minimum. We will continue to update here and via the mailing list as the situation develops. But for now there are no events, no public zazen and no other activities planned here through May. We will offer various events virtually as they make sense. Again this website will contain the most updated information regarding that.

From the Washington State Governors Office

Gov. Jay Inslee spoke directly to Washingtonians to announce he will sign a statewide order that requires everyone in the state to stay home. The order will last for two weeks and could be extended.

This Stay Home, Stay Healthy order is similar to orders that other governors, in places such as California and New York, issued last week.

This proclamation will:
• Require every Washingtonian to stay home unless they need to pursue an essential activity.
• Ban all gatherings for social, spiritual and recreational purposes.
• Close all businesses except essential businesses.

“The less time we spend in public, the more lives we will save,” Inslee said. 

The proclamation states it’s still safe for people to go outside as long as they remain at least six feet from each other. Grocery stores, doctor’s offices and other essential businesses will remain open. People can still participate in activities such as bike rides, gardening, and dog walking — as long as they follow social distancing rules.

Read the rest of the story on the governor’s Medium page.

A Message from Roshi–Guidance in the time of Corona 2

Photo by krsna das

Dear All

How are you all doing?

Are you working on deepening your breathing?

We see so many news daily changing. Of course we cannot ignore them. Yet there is no news about our breathing, that is why it is up to us to make efforts. If we get moved around by the information. If our breathing become shallow, the blood flow becomes stagnant as well. That is why we need not to ignore the information we receive through our eyes and ears, but to lengthen our breathing. 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds…. 20 seconds… the more we lengthen our breathing, the further it can be lengthened…
The breathing does not happen by itself, but it is us who is creating the breathing. Looking at this carefully, we see how we use our consciousness towards outer matters, yet if our awareness which faces within becomes weak, our essence becomes empty and we easily get confused. Our consciousness becomes shallow and we get pulled around by outer information.

With each breath, exhaling down to our lower abdomen and actually feeling that taughtness in our belly. That is how we should breathe.

From the olden days it is said that in our breath dirt accumulates. You may wonder how can dirt accumulate in the breath which cannot be seen? Greed, hate and delusion. Delusion is that darkness of mind, when our mind becomes small and has not width or depth to it. This is called: Dirt of the breath.

Our breathing needs to be wide and expansive. We bring our attention back to the breathing and not looking for anything outside. Letting our breath become smooth and calm. Peaceful. Thus it needs to be expansive, needs to be majestic so that it can reach the end of the universe. Practice to let your breath expand to the other side of the world.

When our consciousness is facing outside, that is when we lose this essence in our breath. If we only follow along with outer information and do not deepen our breathing, then we are ruining our own life energy. That is a foolish thing to do.

That which supports our life is not information but our own breathing. We need this fresh breath that can reach all the cells in our body and refresh them. There is no need for a high philosophy but simply face within and align your essence.

Please do not stop your efforts, use your breathing to invigorate yourself. Then you can face with a calm mind the outer information. For this I am praying.

A Message from Roshi – Guidance at the time of Corona

Photo by krsna das

Dear All,
 
Now in this world the scary Corona Virus has infected over 200,000 people world wide, 8800 have died from this. Today in Sogenji a sutra was read after Teisho for those who have died from this virus.

Now countries especially in Europe, do not allow people to move around freely anymore. People are staying at home, not meeting others yet the direction it is taking is that the gathering of people is being allowed anymore. These political decisions must create quite some uncertainty I believe.

This worry and uncertainty weaken our health. The energy gets stuck within and this accelerates the number of people becoming sick. Yet thinking about the situation, I would hope that it quietens down by mid April. Everyone needs to make efforts to stay healthy until this time. Thus I am sending my advice to everyone.

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