Weekend Sesshin

Sesshin (接心) literally “gathering the mind” or “collecting the mind,” is the word for an intensive period of practice.

Common translations include “to unify” or “to touch” or even “to correct” the mind. The last rendition, correcting the mind, comes from mishearing how a Japanese person might say the “l” sound.

“Touching the mind” is too stretchy for my translation tastes as the character doesn’t seem to have anything to do with touching. What would touch the mind that was not mind?

To “unify the mind” follows the meaning of “Se” in terms of joining or welding but unifying might suggest a melding into a oneness that excludes diversity.

I prefer “collecting the mind.” The suggestion that mind collects mind expresses the experience that is common in sesshin when the great all-embracing perfection comes forward as oatmeal or coffee.

It’s like the Genjokoan‘s “To exert and verify myriad dharmas by car­rying forth the self is illusion; to exert and ver­ify the self while myriad dharmas come forth is enlightenment” (translation, Hee Jin Kim).

That’s what the weekend will be doing with us here at Yugeji, Transforming through Play Temple.

Warm regards during the coldest week of the Minnesota year.