This morning I came across pictures of Bodhi trying to thread a stick horizontally through a world of vertical obstacles. Sound familiar? I remember taking the pictures about a month ago. The determined Bodhi struggled through about fifty yards of undergrowth in this manner. At first I laughed at him … and then encouraged him to drop the stick – but he was steadfast. After “Drop!” didn’t save him, I related with his predicament and just stayed with him. He... Read more
Yes, I’ve jumped into the online world, determined to offer the best Zen training possible. I’m not excluding in-the-flesh work at all but offering the Vine of Obstacles as part of the mix, depending on the person and their circumstances, intent on utilizing the available technology to facilitate practitioners’ practice-awakening projects through a personalized approach. Another post-traditional aspect of this work is my teacher role. Especially in this format, I see myself more as a coach and trainer and not... Read more
Recently a Zen student who had been working with one of the koans in the Mu series, “Explain mu to a baby,” send me an email during his duty-day as a chaplain. He’d just walked out of a hospital room where a woman lay in bed, holding her still-born infant daughter. Our Zen practice, whether of the just-sitting shikantaza or koan frames, is about authentically negotiating the Way in each a specific dharma situation (aka, daily life). Even the really... Read more
One of the themes that’s been coming up lately for practitioners in these parts (yes, both for Wild Fox in-the-fleshers and newly rolling Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training) has been the role of witness consciousness in practice. When arousing the way seeking heart by contemplating impermanence (like I suggested in this recent post) of both the things of the world and the self, it becomes clear that there seems to be somebody watching this process – as... Read more
“Taking Refuge in Evil Buddhas?” What you say? In my last post, I discussed this odd practice based on a talk that Jiryu gave a Green Gulch last month. Talking about refuge in evil Buddhas online and here at Wild Fox, sounds like one of the catches is about “refuge” – what is it? Very nice question, worthy of sitting calmly and contemplating so I won’t get all preachy here. This is just a little post with a bit about... Read more
In a recent fine talk, Absolute Refuge, Jiryu Mark Rutschman Byler shares the practice of taking refuge in evil Buddhas. We had a lively conversation about this during our last Monday night Dogen study here. Turns out it’s a theme that riles some folks up. Gentle Jiryu’s riling talk, by the way, is one of the audio dharma talks that we’ll use in the Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training. Jiryu has studied an old Buddhist school in... Read more
What is the Way Seeking Heart? Sometimes it is referred to as the “thought of enlightenment” and in Sanskrit, bodhicitta (click here for the Wikipedia entry). In Guidelines for Studying the Way, Dogen takes up this issue, saying the various names for the Way Seeking Heart all refer to “…one and the same mind.” The same and one mind. Hmmm. What mind is that? The first piece of reflection in the just-launched Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training... Read more
“Practice intimately, working within, like a fool, like an idiot. If you can achieve continuity, this is called the host within the host.” – Cave Mountain Virtuous Servant Overview This post-traditional Zen training is designed for practitioners living at home who yearn to realize and actualize the great matter of birth and death. “Vine of Obstacles” acknowledges the difficulty of following through with our practice aspirations in the midst of daily life and the truth that this very bind... Read more
Sweeping Zen Audio now has a couple more talks, “Expressing a Dream in a Dream,” from the sesshin at Deep Spring Temple in Pittsburgh last month. Click here. And below is the excerpt from Dogen’s “Expressing a Dream in a Dream” (Tanahashi translation) that I was working with: The path of all buddhas and ancestors arises before the first forms emerge; it cannot be spoken of using conventional views. This being so, in the realm of buddha ancestors there is... Read more
The other day I was talking with some of my Zen teacher buddies about the recent demise of the last of the Zen “patriarchs” in America. “The kings are dead,” I said, “and thank God.” And what a mixed legacy they leave behind. It seems to me that the traditional, feudal power models that the Japanese Zen pioneers brought with them served to rapidly establish practice, enlightenment and institutions in the West AND led to serious abuses of power. Worse... Read more
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