To Our Dear Sangha

We’re starting a newsletter! The purpose is to support your Zen practice and we also appreciate it as a chance to touch base with you once a month. Please feel free to share it with anyone you think might find it helpful.

Each newsletter will have basically 3 sections:

1. Announcements with schedule information

2. Matsumoto-san’s “Today’s Dharma Talk”

3. Memo from Madoka: a short something from me.

So here is Newsletter #1! It’s exciting to connect with you in this new way!

Announcements

New Newsletter! 

Please feel free to share the link to subscribe to our newsletter with anyone you think would benefit.  Here it is:   https://zen-online.beehiiv.com/subscribe
It is also possible to unsubscribe at any time from a link at the bottom of each newsletter.

Overview of Zen—website update

If you would like to read about the basics of Zen as explained by Matsumoto-san, please see “All About Zen” on our website.

Upcoming Online Zazenkai Schedule (Japan time):

Zazenkai with Matsumoto-san:
Nov 10 (Sun) 18:00-22:00
Nov 25 (Mon)  9:00am-13:00
Dec 8 (Sun) 18:00-22:00
Dec 16 (Mon) 9:00-13:00

Wednesday Zazenkai with Madoka:
Every Wednesday at 9:00pm-10:00pm Japan time.  
The purpose of these is to provide an opportunity to sit with other people online. I don’t give instructions unless someone hasn’t yet attended Matsumoto-san’s zazenkai. Anyone is welcome to join in and sit!

Convenient Time Converter
There is a great time converter where you can input multiple cities with specific dates so there are no mistakes (especially around daylight savings changes) when calculating the time difference between where you are and Japan. We have no affiliation with this site, but use it all the time!  https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

(Translated by Madoka)

Someone said to me, “Truth is clear to me now, but for some reason I still don’t feel clear.”

This happens when cognition does cease, but it kicks back in before what is real has made itself absolutely clear as itself. Essentially, it means that Truth has not become absolutely clear yet (i.e. it was not satori).

I’ve experienced this myself. One day when I was watching TV, I suddenly became aware that there had been a period of nothing. When I became aware of the TV screen, I thought, “ah, there was nothing!” (Thinking there had been nothing means I had turned nothingness into an object=there was still a sense of self and other= I was not completely clear.)

But at the time, I thought this was what it was to “forget the self.”

I thought I had forgotten self, so I left it at that for a while, but after some time, doubt crept in. Was this really it?

Even though there had been nothing, I still thought things in front of my eyes existed and there was still a sense of self and other.  So whenever doubt crept in, I went to dokusan (one-on-one Q&A with a Zen master). There, my doubt would disappear. I continued like this for quite some time. (I was tired of sitting, so I was hoping I could resolve it by asking questions in dokusan. That was laziness.)

Then at some point, I finally understood—more like decided—that continuing like this was pointless, and I started sitting again. (It’s obvious, right? If one is trying to resolve doubts conceptually through Q&A, the only option left is to sit.) All you have to do is sit until whatever it is you want to resolve is really gone.

Then one night, TICK.  All doubt was resolved.

Since then, there is only the way the real thing now is. There is no sense of self, but only the way what is real is. There is no feeling or notion that self and other exist. It’s even unimaginable how there could have ever been a sense of self and other.

What there is, is only what it actually real now.

What is “what is actually real now?”  It’s (say it out loud) :  “ah” 

Sometimes, people come to check if something is satori (enlightenment) or not. After they share a few words about what happened, it becomes evident whether it is or isn’t. Satori is the clear manifestation (for lack of a better expression) of what is actually real—the real thing itself. So the presence or absence of the real thing itself in what the person says makes it evident. If it is not satori, there is no mention of what is actually real itself, with only explanations from start to finish. So it’s soon clear it was something else.

Zen Master Inoue Gien once said in a lecture:
“From the very instant of forgetting the self to the instant of realizing enlightenment, there is a hair’s breadth between whether the self arises first or the Dharma arises first. This miniscule fraction of an instant determines whether one becomes a śrāvaka (a hearer of the teachings) or realizes Buddha’s wisdom (one’s original face).”

Thank you for reading our first newsletter! If you have any requests or feedback regarding content, please feel free to let me know.

Just quickly, I want to bring your attention to the pages on our website that Matsumoto-san wrote, explaining Zen, zazen, delusion and satori. 

My first exposure to Matsumoto-san was at his zazenkai in Tokyo back in 2016, where I heard his instructions in person. Later, I looked at his website. I remember thinking I was so glad I heard his explanations first, because if I had tried reading them first, I probably would not have gone to his zazenkai! Things make so much more sense in person.

So if you haven’t spoken to Matsumoto-san yet and find what is written hard to understand, I strongly encourage you to sign up for a zazenkai with him. I say this as a fellow seeker. Asking him questions and having him show you the answers makes a huge difference. It makes total sense to me now why Dogen Zenji also emphasized the need for an enlightened teacher. Even if you question the need for a teacher, if you really want to know what is real and be free of the delusions created by human cognition, I’d recommend speaking to Matsumoto-san at least once. 🙂 He doesn’t have to be your teacher. His goal is simply to enable you to sit (zazen) and conclude your search.

Love and Gassho _/\_