BETTER TO DRINK TO OBLIVION

The Ten Grave Precepts conclude with

(10) I take up the way of not slandering the Three Treasures. (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha)

I ask you, “Why is this the culminating precept?”

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Case 33 of The Book of Equanimty

Sansheng said to Xuefebg “The golden carp is out of the net! Tell me, what will it feed on?

Xuefeng said, “When you have got out of the net, I will tell you.”

Sansheng said, “The renowned teacher of fifteen hundred monks cannot find even one word to say about this topic.”

Xuefeng said, “I am the chief abbot and have much to attend to.”

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My house is torn up right now. Water got into two bedrooms destroying the carpet. A leak detection service came and determined that the water was coming from cracks near the bottom of a walk-in shower. I met with three different shower replacement people, and decided on a local company. They came and ripped out the old shower tiles. And found black mold surrounding the shower. I called and met with an adjustor for the insurance company. I called a mold mitigation service. There guy came out and assessed the damage; he then removed all the black mold, and found that the rugs in the two bedrooms could not be salvaged. I went to Home Depot and met with a woman there to replace the carpet. That night, while the mold removal man was there working, there was a huge puddle of water in the bedroom – clearly not coming from the shower. I dug a trench outside along the wall and found no water accumulation. A plumber is coming tomorrow. We still have no idea where the water is coming from.

What I experienced was meeting a group of hard-working people. It is clear that they have each had lives that were not easy. And here they are helping me. Probably living paycheck to paycheck. I enjoy their company. Digging the trench is hard work. And I enjoy it.

I had a dream the other night. “I am being driven by someone in some kind of unusual vehicle. We are traveling across fields and meadows and rivers, no roads. I am aware that change is about to occur. After a while, we turn and head back. I think it is the way that we came. The fields and meadows are torn up, revealing earth and rocks. The underbrush in the forests has been cleared out. I jump to the conclusion that some people have recklessly torn up the Earth. And then I realize that I see no other humans, no digging equipment. I settle in and am immediately in a new realm of consciousness. Not knowing.”

Slandering goes hand-in-hand with “knowing.”

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BETTER TO DRINK TO OBLIVION

“Ocean Green” carpet, smelling vaguely of a treasure

Of Saturday Evening Posts left (by who) on the mossy 

Field stone foundation of a Vermont barn as this

Eight year old looks for the best hiding place ever

Puddling water no where near deep enough to hold

Minnows for wading and strangely clear enough to

Drink on a night when the heaves and shakes take hold.

Burgeoning black mold a relative, but infrequent visitor,

To psilocybe and Aminita, so perhaps marketable

In these times as unique Shamanic roots facilitator.

These gap-toothed grins, and Marlboros, and faded ink

Home-made, perhaps jail house tats, warm my heart

With no shower for days, the low angle sun dazzling my vision

As I begin with sweat from head and back and eyes

Softening the Earth to slightly less hard than the red rock

Sentries that watch silently from all around curious as this

Trench digging is foreign to their rigid outcroppings and we

Both know the sweet dark odor of this earth thumping 

Beneath feet and ledge and serpentine root the yielding

Metamorphosis glacial comparing with an over-winter

Crysalis or seven year Colorado River toad emerging with

Change for a dollar on its back

If you call this a net, come and sweat with me and

The toads and the jail house songs drowning you

With roiling ocean water

If you call this no net, greet these grizzled souls

When eyes spark upon returning home with meager paycheck

And too many mouths to feed

Impossible to feed one, without feeding all

And slander one, without slandering all

Better to drink to oblivion

                                               Than to slander the Three Treasures

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SCHEDULE  May 21 – May 27

MONDAY, 6:30AM, ZAZEN AT TEA HOUSE, DAVID KEKANSAN OPENING

MONDAY, 7PM, DREAM KOAN AT THE TEA HOUSE OR ZOOM

Drag your body to the Zendo, or Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81182899201?pwd=UVU4MnJhMG1ZUGJaOHhaSndwQ2dYQT09

TUESDAY, 6:30AM, ZAZEN AT THE TEA HOUSE OR ZOOM, WITH ZENHO. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86265616603?pwd=WHZEQWNDQnZPS1VicDl6VVlEdmxFZz09

WEDNESDAY, 6:30AM: ZAZEN AT THE TEA HOUSE OR ZOOM WITH ZENHO 
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89605039197?pwd=VTVubW5pUnBCNFBqQjBieERvNDd5QT09

THURSDAY, 6:30AM: ZAZEN AT THE TEA HOUSE, ANDY OPENING DOKUSAN WITH ISSAN SENSEI 

THURSDAY, 6:00 PM, Tokudo Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84887771423?pwd=a05lejNqWXJKRUpZZlpUc2c4bllFZz09

FRIDAY, 6:30AM: ZAZEN & SERVICE WITH ZENHO AT THE TEAHOUSE  DOKUSAN WITH ZENHO SENSEI

8 DEEP BOWS

Zenho & Issan