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Vorige citaten:
Making Visible the Invisible: Liturgy
John Daido Loori
[...]
All of our services in Zen training are an expression of gratitude and thanksgiving. The question is, gratitude to whom or to what?
The first morning service at the Monastery each day is dedicated to Shakyamuni Buddha and expresses our identification with him.
Shakyamuni Buddha is not dead—a hall full of Buddhas identify with him.
But what does “Buddha” mean? What does “enlightenment” mean? Is enlightenment something that you get or that is given to you?
Of course not.
This is why we say that there are no Zen teachers and there is nothing to teach, pointing again to the fact that we already have what we seek.
This
first daily service expresses that wisdom. It is an identification with
what we already have—our Buddha nature, the intrinsic enlightenment
of each one of us.
The service is also an expression of gratitude for the teachings of the historic Buddha, for the fact that after he realized himself, he didn’t just take off for some mountaintop retreat with the attitude, “Well, I got what I was seeking for the last eight years—to Hell with everybody else!”
Instead, he stayed in the world for forty-seven years, teaching the unteachable, so that this incredible Dharma could be transmitted mind-to-mind through successive generations from India to China to Japan, and now to America.
[...]
From:
John Daido Loori
The Eight Gates of Zen: A Program of Zen Training
Boston & London, Shambhala, 2002
P. 118
De visie van Bill
De AA-levenwijze
1.
PERSOONLIJKHEIDSVERANDERING
“Men zegt dikwijls van Anonieme Alcoholisten dat we alleen belangstelling
hebben voor het alcoholisme.
Dat
is niet waar. We moeten het drinken te boven komen om in leven te blijven.
Maar iedereen die de alcoholistische persoonlijkheid uit de eerste hand kent, weet dat geen enkele echte alcoholist het drinken voor altijd zal laten als hij geen diepgaande persoonlijkheidsverandering ondergaat.”
Brief, 1940
We dachten dat ‘omstandigheden’ ons naar de drank dreven, en toen we die omstandigheden probeerden te veranderen, en ondervonden dat we dat niet tot onze volledige voldoening konden doen, liep ons drinken uit de hand en we werden alcoholisten.
Het kwam nooit bij ons op dat we onszelf moesten veranderen om die omstandigheden aan te kunnen, wat ze ook mochten zijn.
Twelve and Twelve, blz. 47
2. IN GODS HANDEN
Als we terugkijken, realiseren we ons dat de zaken die ons overkwamen, nadat we ons aan God hadden toevertrouwd, beter waren dan wat we zelf ook konden hebben gepland.
Alcoholics Anonymous, blz. 100
Mijn depressie verdiepte zich ondraaglijk en uiteindelijk leek het mij alsof ik op de eigenlijke bodem van de put was terechtgekomen.
Op dat ogenblik was het laatste spoor van mijn koppige trots verpletterd.
Opeens hoorde
ik mezelf uitroepen: “Als er een God is, laat hem zich openbaren!
Ik ben bereid om alles, alles te doen!”
Plotseling werd de kamer verlicht door een helder wit licht.
In mijn geestesoog leek het me dat ik op een berg stond en dat er een wind waaide, niet van lucht, maar een spirituele wind.
En het overviel me dat ik een vrij man was. De extase ebde langzaam weg.
Ik lag op het bed, maar nu bevond ik mij voor enige tijd in een andere wereld, een nieuwe wereld van bewustzijn.
Overal rondom mij en door me heen was er een wonderbaar gevoel van Aanwezigheid en ik dacht: “Dit is dus de God van de Predikers.”
AA Comes of Age, blz. 63
3. PIJN EN VOORUITGANG
“Jaren geleden had ik medelijden met alle mensen die leden. Nu heb ik alleen medelijden met degenen die lijden in onwetendheid, die het doel en het uiteindelijk nut van de pijn niet begrijpen.”
Brief, 1950
Iemand heeft eens opgemerkt dat pijn de toetssteen is van de geestelijke vooruitgang.
Wij AA’ers zijn het volkomen met hem eens, want we weten dat de pijnen van het alcoholisme vóór de nuchterheid moesten komen en de emotionele chaos vóór de sereniteit.
Twelve and Twelve, blz. 93-94
“Geloof intenser. Hou je gezicht naar het Licht, zelfs als je op dit moment niet ziet.”
Brief, 1950
[...]
Uit:
De Visie van Bill
De AA-Levenswijze
(Geselecteerde teksten van de AA-medestichter)
Algemeen Dienstbureau, Antwerpen, 2002
Blz. 7-9Oorspronkelijke uitgave:
As Bill Sees It
Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.
New York, N.Y., 1967
Millions of people are affected by the excessive drinking of someone close.
The following
questions are designed to help you decide
whether or not you need Al-Anon:
1. Do you
worry about how much someone else drinks?
2. Do you have money problems because of someone else’s drinking?
3. Do you tell lies to cover up for someone else’s drinking?
4. Do you feel that if the drinker cared about you, he or she would stop
drinking to please you?
5. Do you blame the drinker’s behavior on his or her companions?
6. Are plans frequently upset or canceled or meals delayed because of
the drinker?
7. Do you make threats, such as, “If you don't stop drinking, I’ll
leave you”?
8. Do you secretly try to smell the drinker’s breath?
9. Are you afraid to upset someone for fear it will set off a drinking
bout?
10. Have you been hurt or embarrassed by a drinker’s behavior?
11. Are holidays and gatherings spoiled because of drinking?
12. Have you considered calling the police for help in fear of abuse?
13. Do you search for hidden alcohol?
14. Do you ever ride in a car with a driver who has been drinking?
15. Have you refused social invitations out of fear or anxiety?
16. Do you feel like a failure because you can’t control the drinking?
17. Do you think that if the drinker stopped drinking, your other problems
would be solved?
18. Do you ever threaten to hurt yourself to scare the drinker?
19. Do you feel angry, confused, or depressed most of the time?
20. Do you feel there is no one who understands your problems?
If you have answered yes to any of these questions,
Al-Anon or Alateen may be able to help.
You can contact Al-Anon or Alateen by looking in your local telephone
directory.
www.al-anon.alateen.org/questions.html
www.aa-nederland.nl/alanon.htm
Only you
can decide whether you want to give
Alcoholics
Anonymous a try — whether you think it can help you.
De zen en alcohol-pagina van deze website.
Eindelijk thuis. De levensgeschiedenis van een vrouw die ophield met drinken.
Shingi or Absolutely Basic Zendo Etiquette
Introduction & Arrival
Going to sesshin? If you are looking at your first encounter with a meditation retreat please do not be alarmed!
Instruction will be available to help you become acquainted with the ways and methods you may encounter.
If you feel you are already familiar with our Sangha please read anyway because you never can tell!
The following is a very rough guide as to how to conduct your person whilst in the zendo (meditation hall).
It is by no means anywhere near complete and definitely not completely accurate but may help you to feel a little more comfortable, so here we go!
After you have arrived for a sesshin and found your room, you can go to the zendo and, when seats are not assigned, choose a seat.
But first things first - before entering the zendo please remove your shoes.
If you are particularly keen on sitting in a particular spot pick one early as most seats are available on a first come first serve basis.
Find a zafu (cushion) on a zabutan (mat) that looks unclaimed.
[...]
Read the
whole Shingi.
Visit
Zen River, Uithuizen
(Gr.). Year Round Buddhist Training.
Flowchart
of Events of Interest to Members Of The Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous
by Miles M.
William Griffith Wilson [later known as Bill W.] born Nov. 26, 1895, in a small room behind a bar in East Dorsett, VT., to Gilman and Emily Wilson.
1901 - Professor William James lectures at University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Lectures published as The Varieties of Religious Experience in 1902.
- Bill’s father, Gilman, deserts the family.
- Bill’s mother, Emily, moves to Boston and becomes an Osteopathic Physician. Bill and sister Dorothy live with maternal grandparents, Fayette and Ella Griffith.
- Bill’s first “success” making a boomerang - “a fitting irony”.
@1907 - About age 12 Bill “leaves the Church” over a required temperance pledge.
1908 - Oxford
Group begun as A First Century Christian Fellowship.
Frank Buchman, Founder.
They espoused the Four Absolutes:
Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness and Love.
They practiced the principles of:
Self-survey, Confession, Restitution and Service to others.
1909 - Bill begins secondary education at Burr & Burton Academy.
1911 - Ebby Thatcher and Bill first met.
1912 - Bill’s “first love”, Bertha Bamford, dies after surgery in New York. Bill began a three year depression.
1914 - 1918, World War I.
[...]
Read the whole Flowchart.
Read the The Jack Alexander Article from the March 1, 1941 issue of The Saturday Evening Post.
Seven Points of Practice
Kosho Uchiyama Roshi (1911 - 1998)
- Study
and practice the buddha-dharma only for the sake of the buddha-dharma,
not for the sake of human emotions or worldly ideas.
- Zazen
is our truest and most venerable and only teacher.
- Zazen
must work concretely in our daily lives as:
the two practices (vow and repentance),
the three minds (magnanimous mind, nurturing mind, and joyful mind),
and as the realization of the saying, “Gaining is delusion, losing is enlightenment.”
- Live by
vow and root it deeply.
- Realizing
that development and backsliding are your responsibility alone, endeavor
to practice and develop.
- Sit silently
for ten years, then for ten more years, and then for another ten years.
- Cooperate with one another and aim to create a place where sincere practitioners can practice without trouble.
From:
Kosho Uchiyama Roshi
Opening the Hand of Thought:
Approach to Zen
Arkana, Penguin, 1993
Pp. 152-152