Jikan Taking a Leave of Absence

Greetings all,

I wanted to let everyone know that I have requested of the Board of our sangha and our leadership at the New York Betsuin a brief leave of absence.  I will resume the leadership of our regular activities in January of 2016.  In the interim, the sangha's bi-weekly meetings and other activities will continue under the excellent direction of Junsen Chris Nettles, who has my every confidence and is my trusted friend and collaborator. 

This leave is necessary because I am on a strict deadline--one that caught me off guard--to complete my dissertation.  And this deadline has me working, working, working at all hours I can manage.I am in good health and in good cheer, but for being stuck in a chair most of the time.

Thank you all for your goodwill, patience, and understanding during this time.

Yours in friendship and gratitude,
Jikan Daniel Anderson

Upcoming: Day of Mindfulness and Contemplation

Save the Date:  22 November 2015

Join us for a full day of meditation and sharing the Buddha's teachings.  We will get started at 8am.  This event will take place in the upstairs studio at Yoga in Daily Life, on Mt Vernon Avenue in Alexandria.

If you have any questions or would like to join us, email Jikan at JikanAnderson@gmail.com .  You can also follow and help promote this event by sharing this Facebook link, if you use Facebook.

I hope to see you there.

Contemplation: Not a single sight or smell

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

There is nothing that is not true reality. When one fixes the mind on the dharmadhatu as object and unifies one’s mindfulness with the dharmadhatu as it is, then there is not a single sight nor smell that is not the middle way.

From Zhiyi's Endonsho

Contemplation: Rare to Meet

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

Such an unsurpassed, marvelous teaching is rare to meet,
Even if we count the many lifetimes we have waited.
Now I have a chance to discern and listen to the Dharma.
I wish to understand the real intention of the Tathagata.

Kaikyoge, as recited at Tendai Buddhist Institute

Contemplation: The Pure Land

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

The Pure Land is Now or Never

--famous calligraphy of Thich Nhat Hanh

Contemplation: Threefold Refuge

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

Respecting all, I take refuge in the Buddha.

Now I wish, together with all sentient beings, to master the great path and arouse the unsurpassed will.  I take refuge in the Dharma.

Now I wish, together with all sentient beings, to enter into the profound teachings, containing wisdom as deep as the ocean.  I take refuge in the Sangha.

Now I wish, together with all sentient beings, to guide the multitude, to attain the non-attachment of all.

Sanrai, as recited at Tendai Buddhist Institute

Contemplation: Nonsectarian Sectarianism

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

Many people think and say that everyone is supposed to be open, but though the doors of their mouths are open, the gates of their minds are tightly closed with their rusty, iron ego's latch.  This pseudo-nonsectarian attitude actually feeds ego.  Often these people only want to use Dharma ideas for building self-aggrandizing positions rather than for enlightenment.  Yet a sign of nonsectarianism is not holding any position of this or that.  Even though these people call themselves nonsectarian, they try to support their own position by intellectualizing their misunderstanding, institutionalizing their desires and beliefs, reducing sublime qualities to ordinary, marketable art, and using Dharma as capital.

Thinley Norbu, White Sail, p. 45-46 (highly recommended reading)