Practice Period Invitation: The Movie

There’s a train leaving nightly called “When All Is Said and Done”— Keep me in your heart for a while - Warren Zevon AFTER MY DEATH I will come back and haunt over you, checking your practice.” Katagiri Roshi said this frequently, teasing me and my fellow students at the Minnesota Zen Center. I trained under his guidance for thirteen years, from 1977–90, but training is really a moment-by-moment activity. Frankly, some moments I took it up wholeheartedly and some moments I squirmed in order to avoid his direction toward realizing the vast sublime beauty of this life. At times it was just too much. But as more time passes, I begin to see more and more the indelible imprint Dainin Katigiri left on my heart; increasingly I see the truth and power of his Zen, and that “his” Zen and “mine” are not two things....