Holy Shit: Genjokoan #2

Last night we had our first meeting of this 100-day practice for the local group and we go into sesshin tonight.

“Holy Shit” was my capping phrase for my week of practice and life. Billy first applied this expression to Zen in a recent webinar (and toned it down to “holy feces” in his blog) and it stuck with me. It’s got a nice fundamental/relative nuance reminiscent of The Harmony of Difference and Sameness, don’t you think?, but much more visceral.

And it fits what has been a really intense period with work and family. We also started the process for selling our present house and looking around for a house that will work for all our various needs. Holy shit.

After everyone shared their capping phrases and said something about how it fit, we recited the Genjokoan together and then talked about what most stood out and what seemed to be the affective message of the text.

This is the standard flow in conversations that I facilitate, based on the Art Form conversation method – what? gut? so what? now what?

We didn’t get past the “gut” last night but it still seemed complete.

What is the affective message of the Genjokoan? Or similarly, what is the feeling message Dogen delivers here?

One practitioner said that as we reached the end, she felt like the text was sweeping her along to shout “Hurray!” Another said the text left him feeling inspired by how close the truth is and simoultaneously frustrated at it’s ungraspability. Another said that he felt empathy in Dogen’s words for his own struggles and inspired by how the text illumines the road ahead.

So how about you? I invite the local group and those in the webinar 100 days to comment here (and blog readers too) during this coming week about this question: What is the affective message you feel from reciting the Genjokoan?