Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
Mary Oliver
Hello TTS Members and Friends,
One of the simplest instructions I was ever given when starting my Zen practice was “Sit down, shut up, pay attention.” Of course, I have read many words since then that have been written to give more details and to cover the subtleties of zazen, but all those words boil down to that short and simple invitation to pay attention.
Through this unadorned practice we have the opportunity every minute to welcome reality and be astonished, to experience wonder, surprise, and awe. The author David James Duncan writes:
Maybe wonder isn’t something we grab, but rather something that grabs us. And once we’re grabbed, we lose the ability to remain unchanged. The capacity to be surprised bleeds into the capacity to be transformed.
This capacity to be transformed is set forth in the Heart Sutra:
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, practicing deep Prajna
Paramita, clearly saw that all five skandhas are empty,
Transforming all suffering and distress.
TTS exists to facilitate the transformation that is born from paying attention. We strive to create an environment where we conspire to forget ourselves and pay full attention to the matter at hand. In doing so we create the possibility of seeing through good and evil, sacred and profane, red and blue, and of playing in that field that takes our breath away and blows up our concepts and ideas of who we are.
We bring our experiences and insights from paying attention into our daily lives and into this fractured and troubled world by acting like the bodhisattvas we are, by living our vows and walking the eight-fold path together. Our practice is a continual cycle of paying attention, touching that which is beyond heaven and earth, and actualizing and embodying the Way in our daily lives.
TTS provides the space, the guides, and a community in which we can sit down, shut up and pay attention. This year we sponsored two sesshin, monthly zazenkais, and daily and weekly sitting. We are excited about sponsoring our first residential sesshin since the COVID-19 pandemic which will happen in March 2025 and be led jointly by Jack Duffy and Lee Shields. Please check out our Calendar page for details about any of these activities.
TTS continues to exist as an organization only through the generosity of all of you. I invite you to give what you can to support the Sangha. More importantly, let’s honor ourselves and all beings by giving full attention to this moment, abandoning our ideas of how things should be and allowing whatever comes forth to open us up to that place of childlike wonder. The morning star itself is paying attention.
I will end with these encouraging words from the French mystic, philosopher, and political activist, Simone Weil:
Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.
With Love and Gratitude,
Larry Keil, for the TTS Board
Donations can be made by sending checks to: Three Treasures Sangha, P.O. Box 12542, Seattle, WA, 98111 or through the donation page of this website.