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Ekyo's Blog Sharing form the heart
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Misogi After midnight... |
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December 27, 2007 The first time I did hear about misogi was during Anniversary Sesshin last year. This was a very special sesshin to commemorate 30th anniversary of dedication of Dai Bosatsu Monastery. In one of his teisho Roshi talked about ceremony which was going to be conducted by Shinto priests at the celebrations. Benzaiten diety was going to be enshrined while misogi chant would be chanted. I remember hearing, that while this chant is being shouted we all will be bathed with compassion… Great! I thought, compassion is what is needed much here, but how can it descend upon us for heaven during chanting? Nevertheless, I wanted to be as close to the act as possible, so I took a sit near altar, to see and absorb… The ceremony look to me very esoteric but the chant was mind blowing. It was VERY loud and the power of it so strong that I thought the roof of zendo will fly and walls will burst. That did not happen of course, but my head burst… Big mistake to sit so close, I thought. Misogi was chanted by Aikido practitioners, and our venerable Fujin. Last few years there were several people from Brooklyn Aikikai coming to sesshins at Dai Bosatsu. They come more often to New York Zendo. Their serious and fearless look prevented me from even talking to anyone of them. But I was very impressed how they clean wooden floors, entire building in a few minutes. I am sure this is due to good training in Aikido dojo. I do not practice misogi and cannot say much about it. Yuho, Aikido man, gave a Dharma talk in New York Zendo, which was published in our newsletter. Two pages with information about this powerful purification practice are included in Blogroll. In Rohatsu sesshin we had a group of Aikido students and their teacher Sensei Savoca. He is called Ryugan now – Dragon Cliff. Ryugan transformed himself into Subuthi, while reading Diamond Sutra. During seventh day of our Rohatsu formal zazen continued till midnight. Wake up for eight day was planned at three am. I decided to sit through entire night, and many others too. There were some people MU-ing loudly at Sangha Meadow, the cemetery. Suddenly about one o’clock the noise volume magnified… and magnified. Heaven was shouting! It was impossible to continue zazen, so I took one hour nap… First I was unhappy about leaving zendo, but later grateful for it. Our Aikido group gathered together with others at Benzaiten Shrine, which by now was moved outside and is located between Beecher Lake and cemetery. They chanted misogi for one hour, purifying heaven and earth… Thank you warrior Bodhisattvas!
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