The moment I posted the last blogpost about donating to the SF Zen Center Touching the Earth Sit-a-Thon and Run for Our Sons/Parent Project MD to end Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, two bombs were set off at the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts on Patriot's Day this past Monday. How can I be considering asking for money for these causes I strongly believe in when there is an immediate, massive tragedy brought on by human violence? How do any of us make sense of this horrific occurrence? Not only that it occurred, but that we as human beings would have the physical and emotional ability to destroy and devastate so tangibly and psychologically. It makes no sense to me.
As much as I have difficulty with people and situations and I feel the emotions of anger and hurt, I find that these feelings are so unpleasant and uncomfortable that I would not want others, my fellow human beings, to spend any/as much/more time feeling them. This life is difficult enough. There is no need to impose more suffering. In fact, wouldn't it be better for all of us if we all did our share to alleviate some of the suffering? Like it or not, this is where we are, riding this earth together. It reminds me of a quote I was asked to memorize in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade for an assembly about the earth. Archibald MacLeish, the author of the quote, was writing about the first images of the earth taken from space:
"To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold -- brothers who know now they are truly brothers."
I just looked this quote up, and found it was the closing to a larger piece. It seems to me MacLeish's heart and sentiments are that of a Buddha here. Please consider his words. http://cecelia.physics.indiana.edu/life/moon/Apollo8/122568sci-nasa-macleish.html
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
Touching the Earth Sit-a-Thon
This is where I ask for your help and support, both emotionally and financially. I am participating in two fund-raising events, the first of which is most pressing as the deadline is next Sunday, April 21, 2013. That is the San Francisco Zen Center Touching the Earth Sit-a-Thon. The second event, the Disneyland Half Marathon in which I'll be running with Run for Our Sons to end Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, will happen on September 1, 2013. I would love for you to support me in both of these important and charitable events. If you can give comfortably, please consider distributing the amount you can give to both causes.
Donate to the SFZC Sit-a-Thon here at my donation page:
https://secure.commonground.convio.com/sfzc/spring2013sitathon/project.html?personalFundraisingProjectId=a1AU0000000IVotMAG&showMessage=true
Watch the live stream from the Buddha Hall at City Center from 9am to 5pm PST on Sunday, April 21, 2013:
http://new.livestream.com/SFZC/events/2035482
Donate to Run for Our Sons/Parent Project MD and my team, EJ's Ebullience here:
http://www.parentprojectmd.org/goto/lydialinker2013
The San Francisco Zen Center needs financial support to keep its three practice centers alive, running, and in good health. Why does SF Zen Center need to be supported and kept alive? Aside from the fact that I live here and it's my home, and aside from wanting to support the precept on vowing not to kill but support all life, the SF Zen Center is a place where anyone can come and sit zazen. It is a refuge for all who need a refuge.
Why is zazen so important? What is it about just sitting that is beneficial? I think that's part of practice and something that is individual. For me, zazen or sitting silent meditation, is a moment for me to be silent, to breathe, to collect myself, to check in with myself, to quiet and still my mind, to open my heart, and to just be without all the extra. It is also nice to practice lovingkindness meditation and to dedicate the merit of my practice to others or all beings. But if I was to make an argument for sitting and needing some supported facts or historical texts to back me up, Eihei Dogen strongly believed the act of sitting zazen is the mudra of becoming Buddha, and that practicing this zazen mudra and realizing the enlightenment that Buddha experienced are one and the same, not separate. That sitting zazen is practice realization.
Choosing the path of the bodhisattva, or enlightening being, is about becoming a Buddha and saving all beings. Dogen truly believed, and so do I, that the main practice of a bodhisattva is zazen. This is how we awaken and help all beings to awaken. This is a noble pursuit and not an easy choice to make. Pema Chodron describes bodhisattvas as bodhisattva warriors. There is a fearlessness about vowing to save all beings and become a Buddha. One of the ways I am practicing as a bodhisattva warrior is to fundraise to keep Zen Center running and to sit zazen for the entire day next Sunday. The sitting will be live-streamed from the Buddha Hall at SFZC City Center and I will be there from 9am to 5pm. I am dedicating the merit of this sitting to all beings as well as SFZC specifically.
And in September, my bodhisattva warrior actions will be to run this half marathon for my friend's nephew, Elijah, and for all the boys diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Elijah turns 10 years old this month (April), and it was only mid-year last year that his legs weren't able to carry him around anymore. Elijah gets around in a scooter wheel chair and although his muscles hurt him, he's usually smiling and being his charming self. The life expectancy of someone with Duchenne is less than 30 years old. When I look at Elijah and see how painful it is to be in his body, to see how he can't do half as much physically as his classmates and friends, I also see how fully he experiences his life, just as it is. I am thankful for my body, for all the pain I feel as much as for all the freedom it gives me, and I am thankful for my life. How can I not do the little bit of fundraising to help progress research to end Duchenne MD and how can I not run for a few hours in support of this research?
I thank you, dear reader, for your consideration and your support, for your reading of this blog, for your emotional/spiritual support, for your financial support, for your sharing of this blog, for your response to this blog, and for your life and practice. Deep heartfelt bows to all.
https://secure.commonground.convio.com/sfzc/spring2013sitathon/project.html?personalFundraisingProjectId=a1AU0000000IVotMAG&showMessage=true
http://www.parentprojectmd.org/goto/lydialinker2013
Donate to the SFZC Sit-a-Thon here at my donation page:
https://secure.commonground.convio.com/sfzc/spring2013sitathon/project.html?personalFundraisingProjectId=a1AU0000000IVotMAG&showMessage=true
Watch the live stream from the Buddha Hall at City Center from 9am to 5pm PST on Sunday, April 21, 2013:
http://new.livestream.com/SFZC/events/2035482
Donate to Run for Our Sons/Parent Project MD and my team, EJ's Ebullience here:
http://www.parentprojectmd.org/goto/lydialinker2013
The San Francisco Zen Center needs financial support to keep its three practice centers alive, running, and in good health. Why does SF Zen Center need to be supported and kept alive? Aside from the fact that I live here and it's my home, and aside from wanting to support the precept on vowing not to kill but support all life, the SF Zen Center is a place where anyone can come and sit zazen. It is a refuge for all who need a refuge.
Why is zazen so important? What is it about just sitting that is beneficial? I think that's part of practice and something that is individual. For me, zazen or sitting silent meditation, is a moment for me to be silent, to breathe, to collect myself, to check in with myself, to quiet and still my mind, to open my heart, and to just be without all the extra. It is also nice to practice lovingkindness meditation and to dedicate the merit of my practice to others or all beings. But if I was to make an argument for sitting and needing some supported facts or historical texts to back me up, Eihei Dogen strongly believed the act of sitting zazen is the mudra of becoming Buddha, and that practicing this zazen mudra and realizing the enlightenment that Buddha experienced are one and the same, not separate. That sitting zazen is practice realization.
Choosing the path of the bodhisattva, or enlightening being, is about becoming a Buddha and saving all beings. Dogen truly believed, and so do I, that the main practice of a bodhisattva is zazen. This is how we awaken and help all beings to awaken. This is a noble pursuit and not an easy choice to make. Pema Chodron describes bodhisattvas as bodhisattva warriors. There is a fearlessness about vowing to save all beings and become a Buddha. One of the ways I am practicing as a bodhisattva warrior is to fundraise to keep Zen Center running and to sit zazen for the entire day next Sunday. The sitting will be live-streamed from the Buddha Hall at SFZC City Center and I will be there from 9am to 5pm. I am dedicating the merit of this sitting to all beings as well as SFZC specifically.
And in September, my bodhisattva warrior actions will be to run this half marathon for my friend's nephew, Elijah, and for all the boys diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Elijah turns 10 years old this month (April), and it was only mid-year last year that his legs weren't able to carry him around anymore. Elijah gets around in a scooter wheel chair and although his muscles hurt him, he's usually smiling and being his charming self. The life expectancy of someone with Duchenne is less than 30 years old. When I look at Elijah and see how painful it is to be in his body, to see how he can't do half as much physically as his classmates and friends, I also see how fully he experiences his life, just as it is. I am thankful for my body, for all the pain I feel as much as for all the freedom it gives me, and I am thankful for my life. How can I not do the little bit of fundraising to help progress research to end Duchenne MD and how can I not run for a few hours in support of this research?
I thank you, dear reader, for your consideration and your support, for your reading of this blog, for your emotional/spiritual support, for your financial support, for your sharing of this blog, for your response to this blog, and for your life and practice. Deep heartfelt bows to all.
https://secure.commonground.convio.com/sfzc/spring2013sitathon/project.html?personalFundraisingProjectId=a1AU0000000IVotMAG&showMessage=true
http://www.parentprojectmd.org/goto/lydialinker2013
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