Hope and hopelessness & Hope and hopelessness

When I got my orders to Okinawa I was initially thrilled at the idea of meeting up with a Sangha, one that would hopefully be more accessible than the one that I had been with down in Portland.

I had heard stories from veterans that they were introduced to Zazen in Okinawa.

Things change, and a quick google search, followed by some pretty intensive google searching revealed that there just isn't much in the way of Buddhism or Buddhist practice in Okinawa at all.

That is what gave me the "idea" of starting the Okinawa Zazen Group. After all, I have the fancy lobster bib, shave my head and took those vows that made me promise to save all sentient beings.

Since no one else appeared to be stepping up, I felt obliged to.

That, and the increasing popularity of Buddhism in the west, There being a pretty large number of westerners around here, and meeting three people who professed to be Buddhists "Too" in my own unit. It seemed like the thing to do.

Today, after kinhin, I was joined by the cat. Who decided to use me a a cushion despite there being several available. I sure did appreciate that.

I have asked the wife to ask google about Buddhist groups in Japanese.

I'm pretty hopeless about that turning anything up too.

The Schedule for next week's Saturday morning Zazen Group is as follows:

0930- Introduction and Instructions for sitting and Zen hall etiquette,
1000- Heart Sutra recitation
1005- Zazen
1030- Kinhin
1040- Zazen
1110- If you show up, we'll talk about practice. If you don't show up, I'll probably write another blog post.

You should know that even if all the buddhas in the ten directions, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges River, together engage the full power of their buddha wisdom, they could never reach the limit, or measure or comprehend the virtue, of one person's zazen.

~Dogen