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<\/a><\/p>\nAs a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.<\/span><\/h1>\n
<\/span>Attributed to Henry David Thoreau<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nOne of the blogs I regularly visit is Brad Warner\u2019s <\/span>Hardcore Zen<\/a>. Brad presents as Zen\u2019s bad boy, and can be a fun read. While he veers off the rails upon occasion I think in general what he has to offer is valuable (Much less so the unmoderated comments section. About those I give any possible reader a fair warning: they mostly demonstrate considerable ignorance of the Zen way and are in fact frequently vile in tone as well as in content\u2026).<\/span><\/p>\nAnyway, I was intrigued by Brad\u2019s recent rumination on the Buddhist precepts<\/a>, a subject anyone who visits here regularly knows I think about a great deal. Brad offered his opinion that the precepts need to be treated as <\/span>koan<\/a>. Like many people who have not formally trained in that particular discipline, he doesn\u2019t quite get what a koan is. On the other hand like many people who have sat deep and long he has an intuitive insight into the deeper matter to which koans point. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\nKoans are a type of meditative discipline in which one takes a word, or a phrase, a brief anecdote or a fairy tale as an \u201cobject of meditation.\u201d Now for it to be a koan this word or phrase or brief anecdote or fairy tale must contain an expression of reality, some sense of the great empty and our creative precious passingness within that great empty. As such the word or phrase or anecdote or fairy tale becomes an invitation to an intimate encounter with a spiritual director, and really, and most importantly, with ourselves.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Attributed to Henry David Thoreau<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
One of the blogs I regularly visit is Brad Warner\u2019s <\/span>Hardcore Zen<\/a>. Brad presents as Zen\u2019s bad boy, and can be a fun read. While he veers off the rails upon occasion I think in general what he has to offer is valuable (Much less so the unmoderated comments section. About those I give any possible reader a fair warning: they mostly demonstrate considerable ignorance of the Zen way and are in fact frequently vile in tone as well as in content\u2026).<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, I was intrigued by Brad\u2019s recent rumination on the Buddhist precepts<\/a>, a subject anyone who visits here regularly knows I think about a great deal. Brad offered his opinion that the precepts need to be treated as <\/span>koan<\/a>. Like many people who have not formally trained in that particular discipline, he doesn\u2019t quite get what a koan is. On the other hand like many people who have sat deep and long he has an intuitive insight into the deeper matter to which koans point. <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Koans are a type of meditative discipline in which one takes a word, or a phrase, a brief anecdote or a fairy tale as an \u201cobject of meditation.\u201d Now for it to be a koan this word or phrase or brief anecdote or fairy tale must contain an expression of reality, some sense of the great empty and our creative precious passingness within that great empty. As such the word or phrase or anecdote or fairy tale becomes an invitation to an intimate encounter with a spiritual director, and really, and most importantly, with ourselves.<\/p>\n