Practice Meeting Notes Hastily Scribbled

During a recent bunch of practice meetings with students in Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training, I started taking some notes – just a phrase or two that struck me.

Here’s the list of things I could read afterwards:

“I don’t have anything earth shattering to report.”

“Oh, I had kind of a weird experience in zazen today….”

“I was just sitting singing the song of poor me….”

“All day sitting.”

“Working with koans just makes me happy.”

“Okay, what’s the deal with koans?”

“A Korean master told me once, ‘Respond before you think or your psychology will cut you down.’”

“I don’t know what I should bring up and what I should just figure out on my own.”

“The pointlessness of self analysis….”

“Oh, that’s just like Jane Hirshfield’s poem, ‘Inspiration.'”

“I’m experiencing existential vertigo….”

“It’s really confirming….”

“…eating silence….”

“Letting things have their own shape….”