Flowers in the Sky: Aitken Roshi Dies

Well versed in the Buddha way,
I go the nonWay
Without abandoning my
ordinary person’s affairs.


The conditioned and 
nameandform,
all are flowers in the sky.


Nameless and formeless,
I leave birthanddeath.

Layman Pang

The following was posted today at Robert Aitken Roshi’s blog, presumably by his son Tom. “Aitken Roshi passed away today, Thursday, August 5, 2010, at around 5:30 pm at Straub hospital in Honolulu. He was 93.”

Aitken Roshi was one of the pioneers of Zen come west. My principal Zen teacher’s Zen teacher. Indirectly, through his writings and the influences of his heirs and theirs, a teacher for most of the Western Zen sangha.

A scholar as well as a lay Zen teacher, a social justice activist…

I can’t go on…

Words fail

Grief washes like waves

Coming and going

Just this