"I take refuge in the Buddha; I take refuge in the Dharma; I take refuge in the Sangha."
The simplicity is stunning. The Three Jewels of Buddhism: Sakyamuni Buddha himself, a real person who lived and died 2500 years ago, who came to Enlightenment, renounced his titles and status, lived as a Bodhisattva and taught, died and entered Nirvana. The Dharma is composed of his teachings and those of other Buddhist teachers. At their core, these teachings consist of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path and pretty much that's it. The Sangha is the community -- any community -- of practicing Buddhists.
I was taught many years ago that "The Buddha is within you, the Dharma is you, and the Sangha is with whomever you find on the Dharma Path, even if they don't know it."
In other words, the trappings of Buddhist belief and practice are nice but not necessary, because everything which constitutes "Buddhism" is already there, present and potential, within the container you call "Me" and I call "You" and immediately adjacent to it.
You don't need Zen; Zen doesn't need you.
I'm nearing the conclusion of this practice period, and there were a number of times when I was about to quit and didn't. At this point, my intention is to stick with it to the end -- and beyond. Not so much as a Zen practitioner, although once started, it never really goes away, but as someone on a Bodhisattva path nearing the end of his journey in the material world.
I was asked what brought me to this particular virtual place at this time? I could point to a specific individual with this institution I'd encountered online with whom I felt both compassion and communion. That aside, though, my interest was spurred by my isolation over the last year and more due to the virus. I am high-risk and cannot be vaccinated before May at the earliest, probably not till June because the medications I'm given interact with the vaccine to essentially neutralize it until such time as the strength of the medication diminishes sufficiently to allow the vaccine's anti-body production to function. Etc.
In practice, this means that no matter what, I cannot socialize or otherwise engage with other people more than very quickly and at a distance. Mostly not at all. So I've been essentially homebound for more than a year, and I didn't realize how socially active I'd been previously and how important those interactions were to fulfilling Bodhisattva vows, no matter how imperfectly.
Hm.
So if I had to declare a "purpose" to participating in this (virtual) practice period, it would be renewal and restoration of a sense of sangha, community of fellow practitioners on the Dharma Path.
Hm.
How do you practice the Bodhisattva's way of life under these conditions? You can to a very limited extent, but not much beyond that. And that's OK. You do what you can within those confines. And if it means breaking free in some ways, you do that.
Zen, at least the Zen I encountered decades and decades ago, is very precise, simple, yes, but precise, and the precision is part of the practice. Suzuki Roshi would probably say precision is the whole of the practice. Get the forms right, which isn't easy at all, and you're Zenning, doing Zen. Are Zen. You see that even now, getting the forms right, practicing, practicing, practicing, to get the forms right, the signs right, the precise Japanese style, words or rather syllables, just the right arrangements of flowers and candles and bowls and statuary of just the right colors on just the right height tables. I could go on and on. Getting the style just right is practice.
