Not Doing Evil (Dark, Unskillful, Dumb Stuff)

Here’s Bodhi after going wild in a field on a warm day, running and dancing, and then tripping and plowing through the dry grass and getting a nice necklace of hay for his trouble.

And here’s a talk from the sesshin at Deep Spring Zen Temple near Pittsburgh from March 4. The other talks weren’t really talks – more like conversations working the material together. For the public talk on Sunday, though, I gave a more traditional presentation. Click here (and scroll down to about the fifth talk). Sweeping Zen kindly hosts a number of my mumbles, btw, so enjoy freely – and please make a big donation to help Adam continue his great sweeping.

The theme of the sesshin was Reviewing and Renewing the Buddhadharma and so we used the famous poem from the Buddha that he thought best summarized his teaching:

Don’t do evil.

Do good.

Purify your mind.

Dogen comments on this poem in Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma
Book 31 “Not Doing Evils (Shoaku makusa).”

It was inspiring to work this together with Kyoki and her Zen team and I’m grateful for the opportunity and the deepening dharma relationships.