MT KONOCTI AND SNOW MTN

7000ft Snow Mtn in the distant right is the highest point in Lake County. A ridge of Cobb Mtn is the highest in Sonoma County. In the center are Mt Konocti and Mt Hannah, which along with Cobb, Sieglers, Boggs and some smaller knobs make up "the Clear Lake Volcanics" actively erupting 10-17,000 years ago according to geologists. In geological time, 10-17,000 years is like yesterday. There were natives living here at that time. Clear Lake (which is barely visible to the left and right of Konocti) is said to be the oldest lake in North America. But its configuration was changed when a massive landslide during the time of the volcanics blocked the outlet creek which emptied into the Russian River to the west. Clear Lake then filled up until it found a new outlet in Cache Creek which runs east into the Sacramento River. From an airplane flying over, the most prominent mountain is Konocti, jutting out into Clear Lake and rising 3000ft above. Cobb, though 500ft higher than Konocti, is less prominent since it rises only 1000ft out of the Mayacamas Range. However, this 1000ft of grey volcanic ash serves like a sand filter for the snow and rainwater, creating pure and delicious drinking water which various companies bottle and sell.

A Verse of the Shakujo

Below is the 6th of the "Nine Verses of the Shakujo." The shakujo is the Buddhist priest's staff with metal rings at the top, usually but not always six rings in number. The six can represent either the six types of existence in the Samsaric world, the world which we see, hear and feel; or the rings may stand for the six paramitas (perfections) of the bodhisattva. For the priest travelling by foot, he sometimes announces his presence by the sound of the shaking of the sakujo. And also while he is walking through the forest, especially at night, the rattling sound will warn small animals to avoid getting stepped upon.

The Nine Verses of the Shakujo is in the daily chant book of Tendai priests, and its content is quite interesting, covering the whole wide range of living beings. It addresses the Dharmakaya of the Buddhas; heavenly and earthly dieties which Shakyamuni Buddha controlled; the beings in the realms of absolute truth, relative truth, and the middle way; the bodhisattvas practicing the six paramitas, the sangha members striving to overcome their faults; those beings causing others to suffer; and the suffering beings themselves, who dwell in the three lower realms of existence.

The sixth verse concerns us sangha members, and as I recite it I reflect on my own faults, and how those faults should be replaced with beneficial actions, thereby aiding sentient beings and eliminating obstacles to enlightenment.

I PRAY THAT ALL BEINGS EVERYWHERE HEAR THE SOUND OF THE SHAKUJO

THAT THE LAZY BECOME ENERGETIC

THAT THE PRECEPT BREAKERS BECOME VIRTUOUS

THAT THE UNTRUSTWORTHY BECOME RELIABLE

THAT THE STINGY BECOME GENEROUS

THAT THE ANGRY BECOME MERCIFUL

THAT THE FOOLISH BECOME WISE

THAT THE ARROGANT BECOME HUMBLE

THAT THE INDULGENT BECOME PRACTITIONERS

AND BY COMPLETELY CULTIVATING SKILLFUL MEANS

THEY CAN BECOME FREE FROM ALL OBSTACLES

THEY CAN TAKE HEART

AND QUICKLY ATTAIN ENLIGHTENMNET

MT LASSEN

Mt Lassen, the last active volcano in California in 1917, can be seen from Cobb Mtn 135 miles away. Mt Shasta is our equivalent of Japan's Mt Fuji, and although 3700ft higher than Lassen, it is hidden from Cobb by intervening mountains.

As for Fuji and Shasta, try this if you have an opportunity. Given the season and weather, it is an exhilerating experience to take the non-stop flight from Osaka to San Francisco (left window seat) and pass by Mt Fuji in the late afternoon light, the last sight of Japan, then the next morning see Mt Shasta as the first sight of America.

by the Dalai Lama

THE PARADOX OF OUR AGE

We have bigger houses but smaller families;
more conveniences, but less time;
We have more degrees, but less sense;
more knowledge, but less judgement;
more experts, but more problems;
more medicines, but less healthiness;
We've been all the way to the moon and back
but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.
We built more computers to hold more information to produce
more copies than ever, but have less communication;
We have become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;
tall man but short character;
steep profits but shallow relationships.
It's a time when there is much in the window,
but little in the room.

FIRE

This is a goma by the sennichi kaihogyo ajari Gyosho-sama, burning the goma-gi (prayer sticks) of believers, asking for such things as health, safety, and "heart's wish be realized."

Porfiry Ivanov (1898-1983)

Go to: http://www.geocities.com/parshek/engl.htm

to see how Ivanov, chiefly by the practice of enduring the cold, gained healing powers and entirely by himself created a system of religion in the midst of the religion-prohibiting Soviet Union. Ivanov's example dispels the notion that religion is a long-outdated accretion of no relation to the modern world, and that the opposite is true, that the religious life can be created anew at any time by a single individual, with immediate benefits to the society.

Through experimenting with ascetic practices he developed the will power to control his own body in relation to the forces of nature, and to attain a higher consciousness with thoughts of the infinite universe and the sufferings of all creatures. He learned that the power of healing would not work without a code of conduct, formulated in one instance as "do not drink alcohol, smoke, or use other drugs (narcotics); abstain from sexual excesses, swearing, violence, lies, gambling, bragging." He taught people to heal self and others, to love people and to love work, to aid the poor with their needs, and to live without fears, doubts, aversion or irritation.

SNOW

Saicho and the Medicine Buddha

20 years old and after receiving the full precepts in Nara, Saicho left that center of established Buddhism and built a meditation hut on Mt Hiei. There, praying in seclusion, he vowed to realize a better and more sincere way to benefit the people, to carry out his bodhisattva intentions. For an object of offering and concentration, he carved a statue of the Medicine Buddha, and performed his prayers and meditations facing it.

His efforts were successful. The Emperor followed Saicho's example when several years later he moved his capitol from Nara to Kyoto at the foot of Mt Hiei. The two became friends, and subsequently Saicho was able to travel to China, absorb the Dharma in Mt Tien-tai and other places, and upon returning to establish the Tendai sect which flourishes to this day.

Due the intensity and sincerity of Saicho's original prayers in front of the Medicine Buddha, Tendai priests still today make the curing of peoples' sufferings their number one responsibility.

LAPIS LAZULI

Lapis lazuli is found in a variety of colors -- blues, whites, purples, greens, as well as clear -- but the most common is a dark blue, shading toward purple. This is the color associated with the Medicine Buddha. He lives in a world of lapis lazuli and emits a healing light of that color.

Gozen-sama as Shaman

My teacher Gozen-sama appears three times in Carmen Blacker's classic "The Catalpa Bow -- A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan," first published in 1975. Though at Sekizan everyone knows him as Gozen-sama, in the book he is called either "The Ajari Enami Kakusho" or "The abbot of Mudo-ji on Mt Hiei."

Ishibashi Hiroko, to whom the book is dedicated, facilitated the contact with Gozen-sama in 1961, and he then gave Blacker permission to experience the kaihogyo, or mountain-walking meditation, for herself.

Kaihogyo and many other ascetic practices are described in detail in The Catalpa Bow, but notwithstanding the variety of practices, the resulting spiritual power of shamanism is almost exclusively used in HEALING people, of both their spiritual and their physical sufferings. This is true not only in Japan but throughout the world.

Nowadays, shamanism is most often associated with ethnogens (psycho-active plants), ritual drumming, and endurance of cold, but in Japan of these three only the last is employed. In addition, the Japanese shamans emphasize chanting, fasting, fire, and marathons. Here is Professor Blacker's report on Gozen-sama:

"[Though most of the shamans in Japan are Shinto or Shugendo adherents, occasionally] a fully ordained priest of the Tendai, Shingon or Nichiren sect may fulfill exactly the requirements of the ascetic life. After a long and severe regime of austerites performed directly under the aegis of this sect, he dedicates himself to the task of healing spiritual maladies. The Ajari of the Tendai temple Mudo-ji, on the slopes of Mt Hiei, is a noteable example of an ascetic in full Buddhist orders....The Ajari Enami Kakusho, the incumbent of the Mudo-ji at the time of writing, described to me in 1961 the nine-day fast he had undergone in the course of the ascetic exercise known as kaihogyo. For nine days he had performed without a break, in an enclosed and sealed hall, a continuous series of goma fire ceremonies. Not once had he descended from the goma platform and not once had food or drink passed his lips. He showed me the photographs of his ceremonial emergence from the hall at the end of the nine days. Emaciated, pale, so physically weak that he had to be supported on either side by stalwart assistants, he was yet so imbued with sacred power that the crowds which lined the path prostrated themselves in reverence on the ground as he walked by."

(note: Blacker's telling has mixed two separate nine-day practices, one of fasting and two years later, one of fire.)

It is a remarkable sidelight that 46 years later Gozen-sama still leads the Tendai ascetics, which parallels Shakyamuni Buddha's 45 years of teaching following his enlightenment.

COLLAYOMI VALLEY

From the top of Cobb Mtn through sugar pines and ponderosa pines.

The Buddha and Ananda in the Lotus Sutra

The balance between study and practice is an important topic in Buddhism. Both are necessary, however Shakyamuni puts the emphasis on practice in this teaching from Chapter 9 of the Lotus Sutra, describing a past lifetime when they were fellow disciples.

"The thought of the highest complete enlightenment once awoke simultaneously in Ananda and myself in the presence of the Buddha Dharmagaganabhyudgataraja. Ananda always wanted to hear a great deal about the Dharma, while I always made diligent efforts. For this reason I have succeeded in attaining the highest complete enlightenment, whereas Ananda is the preserver of my teaching."

HOT SPRINGS CREEK

Fumeroles on west side of Cobb Mtn.

Difficulties on the Bodhisattva Path

In the Gandavyuha Sutra ("Entry into the Realm of Reality," Thomas Cleary, tr.) the young Seeker named Sudhana consults with 52 bodhisattvas before mastering the Path. The 14th bodhisattva, Vidvan, tells him the following:

"It is good that you have aroused the aspiration for supreme perfect enlightenment. Rare are those who aspire to supreme perfect enlightenment, and rare are those who, having aspired to enlightenment, are tireless in seeking the practices of bodhisattvas by meeting spiritual benefactors, who do not weary of going to spiritual benefactors, who are not pained by attendance on spiritual benefactors, who are not depressed by the difficulty of approaching spiritual benefactors, who do not give up seeking spiritual benefactors, who do not turn away from the sight of the countenance of spiritual benefactors, who do not get discouraged in the path taught by spiritual benefactors, who do not tire in the service of spiritual benefactors."

CAVE SHRINE

Shrine placed in a cave on Cobb Mtn, circa 1985. Shrines were placed around the mountain in five spots, with the wish that the mountain be opened up for spritiual practice, in particular for the practices of kaihogyo (meditation while circumambulating the peak) and goma (ritual fire offering). These wishes were realized in 2005, and amplified by the practices of takigyo (meditation under waterfalls) and shikan meditation (calming and insight).

Wm Blake's Task

Friends forgive my wanderings. I rest not from my great task!
To open the Eternal Worlds, to open the immortal Eyes
Of Man inwards into the Worlds of Thought, into Eternity
Ever expanding in the Bosom of God, the Human Imagination.

CINTAMANI

This is the ornament atop the goma-do, during the construction stage. In Japanese it is called HOSHU, treasure gem, and symbolizes the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha) in One.

The Lotus Sutra and Mt Hiei

The Tendai sect on Mt Hiei has been venerating the Lotus Sutra for 1200 years. I look at Mt Hiei today, and find a passage describing it quite closely in the Sutra (Ch 17). It seems that the monks, by continuously upholding the sutra, by venerating it only and without considering the resulting environment, have actually created the condition for that result to manifest. Here is that passage, from the Kosei translation:

[FOR THOSE WHO] KEEP THIS SUTRA,
IT WILL BE AS IF THE BUDDHA WERE PRESENT
AND THEY, WITH OX-HEAD SANDLEWOOD,
BUILT MONASTERIES TO SERVE HIM,
CONSISTING OF THIRTY-TWO HALLS,
EIGHT TALA TREES IN HEIGHT,
WITH SUPERIOR FOOD, FINE GARMENTS
AND BEDDING ALL COMPLETE,
WITH ABODES FOR HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS,
WITH GARDENS, GROVES, AND BATHING POOLS,
WITH WALKS AND MEDITATION CELLS,
ALL BEAUTIFULLY ADORNED.

(This is how it is experienced by the monks living on Mt Hiei, not the tourists)

LILY

Near a spring at the source of Anderson Creek on Cobb Mtn

The Lotus Sutra and Esotericism

There is nothing secret or esoteric in the following. It is the completely OPEN TEACHING of the Lotus Sutra: you can become the "Buddha in this lifetime." Here are two quotes.

"I (Shakyamuni Buddha) am always thinking: how shall I cause all the living to enter the highest path and quickly acquire the body of a Buddha"

The above is at the end of the 16th chapter, and below is the end of the 21st chapter.

"This man (i.e., follower of this sutra), while working in the world, can disperse the gloom of the living, and cause innumerable bodhisattvas to ultimately abide in the Buddha Vehicle. He who accepts and upholds this sutra assuredly will attain the Buddha Way. Of this have no doubt."

This accounts for Dengyo Daishi's assertion that the Lotus Sutra and the Mikkyo are equivalent in their result.

GOMA-DO AND TOYON

The Lotus Sutra and Hakuin Zenji (1685-1768)

The following quotes and paraphrases are from Yampolsky's translation of a letter by Hakuin Zenji.

"[When I was 16 years old I noticed the great veneration people had for the Lotus Sutra.] There must indeed be profound and mysterious doctrines in this sutra. . . . . But in my study of it I found that . . . the text was [mostly] concerned with parables relating to cause and effect. . . .Why should this particular sutra be so highly esteemed? My hopes were completely dashed."

"[When I was 40 years old] I took up the Lotus Sutra [again]. Suddenly I penetrated the perfect, true, ultimate meaning of the Lotus. The doubts I held initially were destroyed and I became aware that the understanding I had attained up to then was greatly in error. Unconsciously I uttered a great cry and burst into tears."

Lizard and baby rattlesnake on rockpile next to goma-do

Saying #4 (Dengyo Daishi)

"By holding grudges and repaying with hatred, hatred never ends; but by repaying with virtue, hatred is completely exhausted. Rather than bearing grudges about things happening in this long-night's dream called the world, cross the boundary into the dharma realm of the true Buddha."

The confluence of Anderson Creek and Homestead Creek after a winter storm.

Saying #3 (Dengyo Daishi)

"A devout believer in the Buddha's Dharma, if he also has wisdom, is obliged to point out to his students any false doctrines, even though they be principles of his own sect. He must not lead the students astray. If, on the other hand, he finds a correct doctrine, even though it is the principle of another sect, he should adopt and transmit it."