The Unsellable Condo in Vinings is now back on the market. Remember the UCV? Well, I stopped by Coldwell Banker today, and gave the realtor a key, signed way too much paperwork, and now it's back on the market again. Wanna buy a condo?

I stopped at the condo on the way home from work, first time since last December, just to see how the place was holding up. It wasn't looking very good. They're apparently in the middle of some sort of repair and painting project, so each building looks half unfinished. Plus they apparently dug up the parking lot in front of my building for some reason and left bare gravel where the asphalt once was. U-G-L-Y. I think it's going to be on the market for a while again.

On top of that, the unit right next door to mine is also apparently now up for sale, if the "For Sale" in the window is any indication. So not only is it a hard sell to start with, but now my vacant unit has to compete with a fully furnished unit right next door.

Actually, it's hard to believe that I actually lived there once. It now seems so . . . well, not me. So I ask you, what has changed? The building . . . or me?

Before Coldwell Banker, I had lunch with sensei. He shared this exchange of letters with me, which I am now sharing it with you:

Dear Sensei:

I am working up a presentation and I have run into the question as to whether "Original Nature" and "Buddha-Nature" are one and the same. I believe they are but I can't find a source that directly says they are. Can these terms be used interchangeably? If the answer is very complex, I believe I will leave it out of my presentation at this time. If the answer is both yes and no, as so many answers are, I can live with that. If the answer is silence that will be really interesting. In any event...thank you for reading this.

Gassho,
D.

Very good, Don; you will do well in your presentation.

Yes, these are virtually interchangeable, and should not be a source of confusion or debate. The former is actual while the latter is also a matter of right aspiration or view.

The buddha in buddhanature is not the historical Buddha (thus no capital) but it means "awakened nature," the same awakening that Buddha experienced and is innate in all human beings, though not in all sentient beings.

The original nature is that which we share with all sentient beings, and would be analogous to "somokushin," or hridaya in Sanskrit, the "mind of grass and trees" expounded by Master Dogen in "Hotsu-Bodaishin, Establishment of the Bodhi-Mind," chapter #70 Shobogenzo (Nishijima and Cross) Book 3, P.265. This in my opinion is one of the most important fascicles of Master Dogen, clarifying the Buddhist theoretical underpinnings of reality.

Beings with innate buddhanature do not necessarily know it. This means they have not awakened to it, but the original nature is there. Buddhanature is meaningless for all practical purposes unless one awakens to it. Original nature is skewed toward realization of buddhanature but will not necessarily realize it in this lifetime.

Another fascicle, "Bussho, Buddha-Nature," #22, Book 3, p. 1, you should probably read to understand buddhanature as action, not as a static state of existence.

Gassho,
Sensei

Family Matters

I got the following email from my Mom today:
Subject: Today
Today was my thirty year anniversary at BU. My boss bought me a rose.

followed by this one from my sister (the one in Boston):
Subject: Today
Hi everyone. Today was Mom's 30 year anniversary at BU. I think all she got was a rose so please be sure to send her an email or give her a call to congratulate her on all of her hard work and dedication to the University. I know a mention in the blog would be greatly appreciated!

After 30 years all you get is a ROSE!? Well, in that case, a little shout-out on the blogosphere isn't too much to ask for. I'll bet she can't wait until her 50th anniversary when she can get that blow to the head with a sack of flour!

Sounds to me like someone in Human Resources was asleep at the switch. What kind of Dickensian hell has the American workplace devolved to, anyway?

I can sympathize - I had to log in my contract-required eight hours today, but then went off to open up the Zen Center. Right now it's raining cats and dogs outside - the streets are already starting to flood.

Speaking of parental units, yesterday, my Dad left for Ireland. He wrote, "We're going to Ireland the 6th of March for one month. St. Patrick's Day in Dublin, Ireland. Wow, that's heaven!" And, "Ireland should be fun. I'm going to find out my mother's birthplace - someplace in Northern Ireland. They say you can get that information in Belfast. Mary Augusta Reilly. Born August 10, 1898."

(I think it's safe to post her full name and D.O.B. despite the risks of identity theft on the internet, since she's been dead for over 40 years.)

Let's see, what other family news is there as long as I'm at it? Jonathan, my nephew, is still nine years old, and is showing every indication that he plans on remaining nine years old until his next birthday. Next month, I'm going off to San Francisco to visit my other sister, not the one in Boston, but the one in, well, in S.F. I plan on taking in a few Buddhist services while I'm out there, see the sights a little, and attend to some company business. One week. I hope she can stand it.

In a non-family matter, "Anonymous" posted the following comment to my June 11, 2004 blog picture of Ray Charles today:
I really like this pic. I like how it shows him in his younger years.

Well, I'm glad that you like the pic. You and approximately 10,000 others . . .

Happy 10,000th

Frequent site visits pay off for lucky East Coast resident.

This morning, at 9:51:23 a.m., someone on the eastern seaboard of the United States of America used Internet Explorer 6.0, running on a Windows XP system, to go online through Charter.com and logged on to the Water Dissolves Water blog site.

That person, whomever he or she may be, became the 10,000th visitor to the blog.

Congratulations. As a reward, I will stop posting Jimi Hendrix pictures.

That visitor did not reach the site through a web search for Ray Charles, Norah Jones, Jimi Hendrix or Courtney Love pictures - or through any other image or word search - but logged on to the site directly. He or she most likely had the site bookmarked.

I say "most likely" because the same person also visited the site at 11:08:23 p.m. last night and 11:26:32 a.m. yesterday morning; 6:11:42 and 9:24:44 p.m. Friday night; 6:20:30 and 9:37:06 p.m. Thursday night; and 5:02:57 and 10:09:25 p.m. Wednesday night.

Persistence pays.

At the time of the 10,000th visit, I was in sesshin, sitting through the last of the morning zazen periods before the 10 o'clock dharma talk. I was probably thinking more about the pain in my knees than about who might or might not be logging onto the web site just then.

The dharma talk itself was an outstanding discussion on vijnana (consciousness) and Kyogen's Man in a Tree koan by my friend and teacher, Arthur. Afterwards, L. and I had lunch at Alon's and saw the Romare Bearden exhibit at the High Museum, during all of which we may or may not have broken up again, but at this point, I can no longer keep track (nor am I sure any more of whether or not we were "together" to have broken up in the first place). No hard feelings, no tears or remorse, just an acceptance of what is.

I don't blame the 10,000th visitor for any of this.

"Our consciousness contains all these roles and more, the hero and the lover, the hermit, the dictator, the wise woman and the fool." - Jack Kornfield

Today, Saturday, was the full day of sesshin.

13 hours.

I'm exhausted.

Sitting and facing the wall in sesshin, following the breath, the mind still wanders.

I received an email newsletter today from a conservative advocacy group "debunking" the "myth" that water might become a scarce commodity in Atlanta. "What rubbish," I thought as I sat on the cushion. The author pointed out that all the water the City consumes from the Chattahoochee River is eventually returned to the river "just as clean as when it was withdrawn" following wastewater treatment. "Really?" I thought. Has this person seen the river downstream of Atlanta? Go to the Upper Chattahoochee River upstream of Atlanta, wade knee-deep into the water, and take a deep breath of the mountain air. Remember what that smells like. Next, get into your car, drive past the city, and stand by the river downstream of the R.M. Clayton Sewage Treatment Plant. Now take a breath but try not to gag, and for God's sake, don't actually go into the water, whatever you do! Hepatitis, e coli, cadmium, chromium, nitrates, hormones and other endocrine disrupters, etc. are all in there waiting on you. "Just as clean," my ass, I thought.

But what good is an imaginary argument with someone who's not even there? And why was I having this "argument" during sesshin? So I dropped that line of thought, but shortly afterwards I found myself thinking about my upcoming travel schedule. Drop those thoughts, and another set of associations pops up. Or my mind starts humming the bass line of a Miles Davis tune, something from "Jack Johnson," I think. Or I start wondering when the bell that marks the end of the sitting period will ring.

Mr. "Just As Clean" even tried to argue that the lack of natural soil cover in the urban environment was a good thing, resulting in more flow in the river, because it allowed rainfall to return to the river faster than the slow, cumbersome and inefficient natural method of percolating through the earth and returning to the river via groundwater. I guess it never occurred to him that "more flow in the river" is usually referred to as "flooding," and a lot of folks aren't too keen on that. But, oh, I noticed, I'm apparently back at the debate again.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that the sesshin wasn't good, or that my sitting wasn't profound. In fact, quite the opposite. I'm just being honest here, and my sitting was in fact very quiet and focused precisely because I saw that these thoughts were coming up, and I just watched, and allowed them to go on, and sat with them, accepting, observant and compassionate.

Sesshin starts again in the morning. I need to go to sleep now.

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

Today is the ninth birthday of my nephew Jonathan. So, please allow me to depart for a day from the usual blogging, whatever that might be, and wish Jonathan a happy birthday.

Here's a picture of me and Johnny on Christmas Day 2003 looking through the picture book that I gave him.


The kid sure loves his Dogs. . . .

Here's the obligatory Jimi Hendrix picture (good guitar face) . . .


On that note, for those of you keeping score at home, the rankings are now Jimi Hendrix, 7 site visits; Ray Charles, 6; Courtney Love, 2; and Mount Everest, 2. Other single search-word hits include:

"dear mr. fantasy" songwriting credit
west australian time zone
aluminium company directors in malaysia @yahoo.com 2005
creation of adam
dinosaurs
how to tell which dissolves into water
huckabees chalk-b
huckabees chalkboard
messina earthquake and tsunami
old pictures of the roseland ballroom of the 1930's
pictures of mount everest
sumatra tsunami scientific research paper
taoism spirited away
tyrannosaurus rex
vettriano
what happend in 26 of december 2004 in india about earthquakes
which dissolves better in water
which soap dissolves the fastest

Also, it's worth noting that at the current hit rate, I expect to receive my 10,000th site visit this Sunday. I wonder what I should do to commemorate this event.

More evidence that global warming is man-made

From The Economist, February 24, 2005:

SOME people do not believe global warming is happening; some believe it is happening, but that it is the result of natural variation; and some believe it is being caused by human activity. A paper presented to the AAAS by Tim Barnett, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, provides further evidence that the third camp is right.

Most published research on climate change looks at the atmosphere. That is partly because the records are good and partly because it is in the atmosphere that the human-induced changes that might be causing it are happening. One of these changes, which would promote global warming, is a rise in the level of so-called greenhouse gases (particularly carbon dioxide) which trap heat from the sun and thus warm the air. Another, which would oppose warming, is a rise in the quantity of sulphate-based aerosols, which encourage cloud formation and thus cool the air by reflecting sunlight back into space. Dr Barnett, however, thinks that the air is the wrong place to look. He would rather look in the sea. Water has a far higher capacity to retain heat than air, so most of any heat that was causing global warming would be expected to end up in the oceans.

And that was what he found. In a follow-up to a preliminary study published four years ago, he looked at ocean-temperature surveys made over the past 65 years. He confirmed that the sea has got warmer since the 1940s, and particularly since the 1960s. Furthermore, it has done so from the top down. At a depth of 700 metres, things are almost unchanged. But surface temperatures in all six of the ocean basins he examined (the north and south Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans) have increased by about half a degree Celsius.

So the Earth has, indeed, warmed up over the past few decades, as most climatologists already believed. But the actual pattern of temperature change in each of the six ocean basins is different, and that diversity allowed Dr Barnett to test the idea that people, rather than natural phenomena, are the reason for the warming. He took two widely respected models of the world's climate (which couple events in the atmosphere with events in the sea, and take account of both greenhouse gases and aerosols) and played with their variables in different ways. He tried mimicking the effects of the natural variability caused by feedback loops within the climate, and also the effects of small changes in the sun's output and the consequences of volcanic eruptions, both of which affect the climate. But the only changes that produced patterns of heating which matched reality were the man-made ones. And the match was good in all six basins. Which is confirmation, in Dr Barnett's eyes at least, that the guilty party in global warming is industrial man.

Today was one of those superlative days when everything just seems to go your way. I had two business meetings in the morning, both of which resulted in significant new sales and opportunities for my firm. In the evening, I attended a Neighborhood Planning Unit meeting and then stopped by L.'s for some cuddling on the couch with her and her cats.

It's easy to feel good about yourself when everything goes your way. It's much harder to be upright and to stay in the moment when things are more difficult.

"Yeah, whatever," you're probably replying. "Good for you. But what's up with all the Hendrix pictures lately?"

Good question. Thought you'd never ask. The number of hits this little blog has been receiving has steadily increased from 88 per day (January 23) to 136 (January 30) to 195 (February 13) and on up to 262 per day (February 20). While I would like to think that the reason for this almost three-fold increase in traffic is the quality of my writing, an analysis of the site referrals indicates that the vast majority of the visits is to download a picture of Ray Charles that I posted back on June 11, 2004. The second most popular reason for visiting seems to be the previous day's (June 10) picture of Mount Everest. These are followed in popularity by a collage that I assembled back on August 14 of Norah Jones, and a picture of Courtney Love that I put up on July 15. After that, we've got a t-rex pic from July 16 and Jimi Hendrix from June 29.

Those six pictures are probably responsible for 95% of the traffic to this blog. Well, I figure if that's what the public wants, that's what I'll give them. Unfortunately, I don't have any more good pictures of Ray Charles, except for this gem of Ray with the late Artie Shaw, posted on January 4 of this year (I don't understand why that picture doesn't get more hits). Similarly, this picture of Courtney Love from January 18 is also generally ignored. But after that, I don't have any more pictures of Ray, Courtney or Norah.

So, if I'm going to pander to the public to keep increasing the number of hits, it seems that I'll have to post more pictures of dinosaurs, mountains and Hendrix, all of which I have plenty. Well, then so be it. Remember, you, the public, asked for this. I see that "Jimi Hendrix" has already tied Ray Charles on the list of most popular search words for this site since I started posting his pictures, so the strategy appears to be working. And that means that if and when I finally run out of Hendrix pictures, I'll have to start posting pics of mountains and dinosaurs.

Remember, you asked for this.

Ordinary Mind

Joshu earnestly asked Nansen, "What is the Way?"

Nansen answered, "Ordinary Mind is the Way."

Joshu asked, "Should I direct myself towards it, or not?"

Nansen said, "If you try to turn toward it, you go against it."

Joshu asked, "If I do not try to turn toward it, how can I know that it is the Way?"

Nansen answered, "The Way does not belong to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion. Not knowing is blank consciousness. When you have really reached the Way beyond all doubt, you will find it is as vast and boundless as the great empty sky. How can it be talked about on the level of right and wrong?"

At these words, Joshu was suddenly enlightened.

This koan has been read to me many times during my Zen practice. Yesterday, Arthur gave a dharma talk in Chattanooga on "Ordinary Mind," and the Sunday before that, he gave more-or-less the same talk at the Atlanta Center. I'm not complaining - if he was giving it again next Sunday (and he well might - next Sunday is sesshin, and Arthur is doshi), I would gladly sit through it again.

So why is Ordinary Mind so hard to realize? It's like Viv Stanshall's question, "Why can't I be different and original, like everyone else?"

I have been staring at the computer screen for 20 minutes wondering how I can describe Ordinary Mind. Cutting and pasting from another web site certainly won't get me there. In fact, it is beyond words.

"The spring flowers, the moon in autumn.
The cool breezes of summer, the winter’s snow.
If idle concerns do not cloud the mind,
This is man’s happiest season."

Which is to say that I got back from yesterday's trip to Chattanooga and did my grocery shopping, paid my bills, blogged, showered and went to bed. This morning, I got up, went to work, opened the zendo in the evening, came home and blogged. Tomorrow, I'm likely to shower again, go back to work, sit through an NPU Meeting and probably even blog about all of that.

Happy March, y'all!

Dokusan

Yesterday, after I got back from the recon hike up Springer Mountain, L. came over and we went to dinner at Salsa, a local Cuban restaurant. After dinner, we went to the Alliance Theater and saw "The Guardsman," a 19th-century Hungarian comedy of manners. Strange choice for an Atlanta playhouse . . .

Anyway, that was yesterday. Today, Arthur and I drove up to Chattanooga to attend the Chattanooga Zen Center's Sunday service, where Arthur provided the dharma talk and dokusan. Dokusan, or private instruction, provides an opportunity for Zen students to work directly with a teacher in a confidential, face-to-face setting. In the early days of Buddhism in Asia, interactions between Buddhist masters and their students usually occurred in public gatherings of the monastic community, or in spontaneous interchanges during work and other temple activities. Over the centuries, particularly in Japan, such interactions became increasingly private and formalized. In time, these private meetings, known by the Japanese term dokusan, became an integral aspect of Zen training.

Today in the West, dokusan is an essential element of practice for many Zen students. During dokusan, students may bring up questions relating to practice, may present their understanding, or may simply sit quietly with the teacher. Dokusan may be brief or it may last a while, the length of time being no indication of the quality of the encounter. Maintaining absolute honesty and a respectful confidentiality in the teacher-student relationship, both inside and outside of dokusan, helps to establish the trust so essential to working closely and deeply together. This unique relationship, grounded in the fundamental integrity of Mind itself, can be a great help to the student in dealing with inevitable difficulties and doubts that arise, and helps to foster a meaningful involvement with the practice itself.

Of course, driving up to Chattanooga and back with Arthur, I got the opportunity for two 2-hour dokusans, although the length of time being no indication of the quality, etc.

Anyway, as I predicted Friday, it was an eclectic weekend - a bluegrass concert Friday night (even if we didn't stay for the feature act), Appalachian Trail hiking Saturday (even if only a reconnaisance), a play Saturday night (even if a Hungarian oddity), and a Zen service Sunday (even if in Tennessee). At least I got some more folks signed up for the final hike while I was up in Chattanooga.

Hiking the Three Treasures

Today I took the reconnaissance hike up Springer Mountain. The trip is not for another two weeks, but I wanted to make sure that the Forest Roads were still open, to check on the parking situation, and to look for good spots for meditation along the trail.

The hike itself is a five-mile loop along the Benton MacKaye Trail to Big Stamp Gap, then up Ball Mountain and over to Springer Mountain (the start of the Appalachian Trail), and then down Springer on the Appalachian Trail back to the parking lot. In many ways, the hike reminded me of the Three Treasures in Buddhism (Sangha, Dharma and Buddha). The first mile or so was along the Benton MacKaye Trail, south of Forest Road 42. This section was relatively accessible and flat. However, there were a lot of downed trees and branches across the trail, which required stepping over, under, around or through, and which clutched at my clothes as I hiked.

Similarly, the Sangha, the harmonious community of Buddhists, is also very accessible and the rewards are easily achieved. The Sangha supports us in our practice and encourages us on our path. However, one can also get caught up in personality conflicts, rivalries, petty jealousies and other impediments, which are like the branches, limbs and briars on this otherwise "easy" section of the trail. There is a nice campsite along a creek at the end of this section which would make an excellent spot for the group to sit and meditate on the theme of Sangha practice.

The second section of the trail crosses back over Forest Road 42 at Big Stamp Gap and begins the ascent up Ball Mountain. Here, the branches, limbs and briars are fewer, but the trail is steeper and requires more effort. However, I was rewarded with some beautiful views and vistas, particularly on the west side of Ball Mountain, which would make the second good spot for group meditation as we sit and contemplate the second of the Three Treasures, the Dharma, while looking out over the Blue Ridge Mountains.

This section of the trail is like the Dharma, the incomparable teachings, in that one rises above the entanglements of the Sangha but must also make a greater individual effort. Although this effort is more strenuous, the rewards are also greater.

After the beautiful view from Ball Mountain, the trail begins the steepest part of the climb, the final ascent up Ball Mountain and then across to the summit of Springer. Here the trees were spaced further apart and were notably upright, and the vistas enjoyed were like the one on the side of Ball Mountain, but in all directions, not just one-sided like before. Also, I could plainly see the summit, so that it was clear where I wanted to go and what I had to do to get there, and the views opening on all sides of me encouraged me to keep on climbing.

This section of the trail is like the Buddha, the world-honored one, in that it is free of one-sided views. At this stage of our practice, the goal can be plainly seen, but great effort is still required, even more than during the Dharma practice. And then one reaches the summit . . .

Of course, the three treasures are not Springer Mountain, and one does not sequentially engage first the Sangha, then the Dharma, and then the Buddha. In one's practice, one is continually involved with all three of the treasures. Also, one does not "attain" Buddhahood like one can summit a mountain. Where does one go after reaching the summit? Nothing is "attained," because you already are a Buddha, each and every one of you.

The hike with the Zen group will be on Saturday, March 12, 2005, leaving the Atlanta Soto Zen Center at around 8:00 a.m. Please email me if you would like to go, and I will send you details about the trip.

You know that you're really getting old when you go to see Donna the Buffalo at the Variety Playhouse and you're mildly perturbed to see on the tickets that the show doesn't start until 9:00 p.m., but you go anyway and get there at 8:30 so as to get a good seat only to find that the band doesn't actually start playing until 9:30 but they're pretty good so you kick back and enjoy them until you realize that it's not Donna the Buffalo on stage but only the warm-up act and they go on until 10:00 o'clock and now it's a full hour after you thought that the band was going to start and an hour and a half since you arrived but you sit back and wait for the feature act to take the stage by watching the old hippies walking up and down the aisle for first 10, then 20, then 30 minutes, and now its 10:30 goddamnit and Donna the freaking Buffalo still isn't on stage and you've been sitting in these uncomfortable seats which smell like piss, mind you, for two hours thinking you were going to see the show at 9:00, but NO! they're taking their own goddamn sweet time and now it's 10:45 and you're thinking I have a whole weekend ahead of me and don't need to be sitting here all night waiting for Donna the fucking Buffalo to decide to finally grace us with their presence so you get up and walk out of the Variety Playhouse and drive home without ever seeing the goddamn fucking band that you came there to see in the first place.

You know you're lucky when your companion through all of this is the lovely L. and she's right there with you also thinking that it's time to leave. . . .