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Our next Shin Buddhist Service

9:45 AM – 10:15 AM: Zen Shin Sangha Meditation: 

As we enter the last quarter of 2025 we wonder how the year went by so quickly… The power of sitting with Sangha may help us slow down time. It may offer a foundation for sitting on your own, at home. We chant, we recite, and we sit. Sangha meditation practice helps to calm our mind and body in order to focus on the present moment revealing our profound connection to all beings. With this calmness we are more prepared to hear the Buddha Dharma in the Shin Buddhist service to follow. All levels, including beginners, and families with children are welcome.

(Check out our Children’s Table, complete with coloring books)

10:30 AM: Cleveland Buddhist Temple: Rev. Anita Tokuzen Kazarian

• Shin Buddhist Service
• Shin Buddhist Memorial Service to express gratitude to ancestors who passed away in the month of October. Those attending may include the name of a loved one in our Memorial Service. Please provide names on clipboard by 10:15 AM.

Sangha Gathering:

• Following coffee and our birthday cake for our Sangha’s October birthdays, we will share time and thoughts by reading and discussing a short passage of a Buddhist text. Handouts of text provided. This is a time for experiencing the 3^rd Jewel of Buddhism, the Sangha.

Dhammapada

Dhammapada, a collection of verses of Shakyamuni Buddha

Dear Buddha Post Sangha,

What was said? What was heard?

Namo Amida Butsu

Namo Amida Butsu

Namo Amida Butsu

In Gassho

Rev. Anita

Relax, close your eyes and picture yourself riding a camel across a vast desert under a scorching sun. This tale is about a camel breeder called Big Tam and his son Goza. They were bringing a herd of camels to market when something very strange happened. Would you like to know what it was? Listen carefully to their story.

After traveling for many days, Big Tam and Goza reached the walls of the great city called Miraz. Outside the city gates grew an ancient tree with branches crooked like witches’ fingers. People said that the tree had been there longer than the city, protected by powerful spirit. As the camel train passed by Big Tam knelt before the old tree. “Oh wondrous tree spirit, please help me make lots of money selling camels today at the market. I promise a great offering to you in return,” said Big Tam. He walked round the tree three times, bowing and clapping.

What are you doing, Dad?” asked Goza. He thought his father’s behavior was a bit odd. “I’m asking the tree spirit to bless us with good luck at the market today,” said Big Tam. “My school teacher says that asking spirits for help is silly. She said you make your own luck,” said Goza. They passed through the city gates. Secretly, Big Tam rubbed the lucky coin he kept in his pocket and whispered, “Help us, little coin.” He made sure his son didn’t see.

The market Square bustled with people from many lands, the stalls piled high with fruit and vegetables, jewelry, pottery and carpets. Big Tam set to work, haggling with the camel buyers. By late afternoon all his camels had been sold. “Our luck was in, my boy,” said Big Tam, grinning. “Now let’s go home.” But, as they left the city he stopped to buy two goats. When they reached the old tree, he knelt down, grasping the goats, and pulled a knife from his belt.

“What are you going to do, Dad?” Goza cried out in fear. “I’m going to sacrifice these goats to the tree spirit. I’m giving thanks for our good luck today at the market.” “Oh no, don’t do that!” cried Goza. “Don’t hurt them!” As he spoke something incredible happened. Rain fell from the branches and turns to mist, and from the mist floated the figure of a woman. Her hair streamed around her and her robes sparkled like diamonds.

Big Tam dropped his knife. “Who are you?” He gasped. “I’m the spirit of this tree. That wasn’t rain, but my tears for these poor frightened animals. Your good luck, as you call it, at the market today was only due to your own hard work. You should listen to your son!”

Big Tam and Goza stood staring at the spot where she had floated. “Here’s a present for you,” declared Big Ten at last, giving his “lucky” coin to Goza. “Buy something special with it. I won’t be needing it any longer.” From that day on, Big Tam and Goza worked hard together to make their own good fortune.

Excerpt in gratitude from: The Buddha’s Apprentice at Bedtime. Dharmachari Nagaraja. Watkins, London, 2016.

TWELFTH CASE ¹

Tung Shan's Three Pounds of Hemp

POINTER

The sword that kills people, the sword that brings people to life: this is the standard way of high antiquity and the essential pivot for today as well. If you discuss killing, you don't harm a

single hair; if you discuss giving life, you lose your body and life. Therefore it is said, "The thousand sages have not transmitted the single transcendental path; students toil over appearances like monkeys grasping at reflections." Tell me, since it is not transmitted, why then so many complicated public cases? Let those with eyes try to explain.

CASE

A monk asked Tung Shan, "What is Buddha?" ¹

Tung Shan said, "Three pounds of hemp." ²

NOTES

^1. Iron brambles; no patchrobed monk on earth can leap clear.

^2. Clearly. Worn out straw sandals. He points to a pagoda tree to scold a willow tree.

COMMENTARY

So many people misunderstand this public case. It really is hard to chew on, since there's no place for you to sink your teeth into. What is the reason? Because it's bland and flavorless. The Ancients had quite a few answers to the question "What is Buddha?" One said, "The one in the shrine." One said, "The thirty-two auspicious marks." One said, "A bamboo whip on a mountain covered with a forest grown from a staff." And so on, to Tung Shan, who said, "Three pounds of hemp." He couldn't be stopped from cutting off the tongues of the Ancients.

Many people base their understanding on the words and say that Tung Shan was in the storehouse at the time weighing out hemp when the monk questioned him, and therefore he answered in this way. Some say that when Tung Shan is asked about the east he answers about the west. Some say that since you are Buddha and yet you still go to ask about Buddha, Tung

Shan answers this in a roundabout way. And there's yet another type of dead men who say that the three pounds of hemp is itself Buddha. But these interpretations are irrelevant. If you

seek from Tung Shan's words this way, you can search until Maitreya Buddha is born down here and still never see it even in a dream.

What's the reason? Words and speech are just vessels to convey the Path. Far from realizing the intent of the Ancients, people just search in their words; what grasp can they get on it?

Haven't you seen how an Ancient said, "Originally the Path is wordless; with words we illustrate the Path. Once you see the Path, the words are immediately forgotten." To get to this point, you must first go back to your own original state. Just this three pounds of hemp is like the single track of the great road to the Capital; as you raise your feet and put them down, there's nothing that is not this. This story is the same as Yun Men's saying "Cake"a but it's unavoidably difficult to understand. My late teacher Wu Tsu made a verse about it:

The cheap-selling board-carrying fellow

Weighs it out, three pounds of hemp.

With a hundred thousand years of unsold goods,

He has no place to put it all.

You must clean it all up; when your defiling feelings, conceptual thinking, and comparative judgements of gain and loss and right and wrong are all cleared away at once, then you will spontaneously understand.

Excerpt in gratitude from: The Blue Cliff Record. Translated by Thomas Cleary and J. C. Cleary.

SHAMBHALA Boston & London 2005

¹ https://dmzencenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Blue-Ciff-Record.pdf

Photo by Hugo Jehanne on Unsplash

Supervising Minister:  Rev. Ron Miyamura

Resident Tokudo Minister: Rev. Anita Tokuzen Kazarian

rev.anita.cbt@outlook.com

Buddha Post is published by the Cleveland Buddhist Temple, 21600 Shaker Blvd, Shaker Heights, OH 44122 

The Cleveland Buddhist Temple is an affiliate of the Buddhist Churches of America, founded in 1899: 

https://www.buddhistchurchesofamerica.org/

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