Programming Notice: Off to Japan

Jikan will be away from the blog and out of town (in Japan actually) until late Saturday, back in time to lead next Sunday's service. 

Coming Events: Potluck at Chez Jikan

I hope you can join us for sangha togetherness and sangha food at 6pm on Sunday, 8 December, at our residence in Alexandria.  What to bring?  Yourself and, if you like, some food (meatless dishes please).  Please RSVP to Jikan at JikanAnderson at gmail.com and ask for directions to our place if you need them.

This is how we will commemorate Rohatsu this year.

Contemplation: Leading...

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your object of contemplation:

The Tathagatas of past, present, and future intrinsically lead sentient beings to be exposed to the Buddha's knowledge and insight and attain the patience which comes from [realizing the truth of] non-arising.  [The Buddha] appears in this world due to the conditioned co-arising of his great deeds.

Great Master Chih-i, quoted in Paul L. Swanson's Foundations of T'ien-T'ai Philosophy, p. 248.

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Find here:  many helpful resources for beginners

Contemplation: What is there to Gain?

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your object of contemplation:

Wandering beings, thus, resemble dreams
And also the banana tree, if you examine well.
No difference is there, in their own true nature,
Between the states of suffering and beyond all sorrow.

Thus, with things devoid of true existence,
What is there to gain, and what to lose?
Who is there to pay me court and honors,
And who is there to scorn and to revile me?

Pain and pleasure, whence do these arise?
And what is there to give me joy and sorrow?
In this quest and search for perfect truth,
Who is craving, what is there to crave?

Santideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva, p. 158

Contemplation: Generate This Wisdom

After reviewing the guidelines for practice, take the following as your object of contemplation:

 All these branches of the doctrine
The Powerful Lord expounded for the sake of wisdom.
Therefore they must generate this wisdom
Who wish to have an end to suffering.

Santideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva, p. 137