This morning I sipped coffee on the deck and waited for the kids to get up to make Fathers’ Day breakfast. I picked up the Summer 2009 issue of Tricycle that a student had left for me. There I found a couple interesting letters to the editor about Big Mind, one from Seigaku Kigen Ekeson Osho and a response from Genpo Merzel. In about 1990, I participated in a week-long priest training with Maezumi Roshi at Dogen’s original temple, Koshoji,... Read more

On Saturday my kids and I went whitewater rafting on the St. Louis River up north near where I grew up. I have fond memories from my days as a boy on this river and so wanted to expose my kids to it. You can’t step in the same river twice, of course, but we had a great time. The top photo shows a small rapids, btw, with me cringing in the front. The Google Earth shot is of a... Read more

I’m back into it today after a wonderful sesshin. Some reflections about that below. It’s my first day of summer break (wholehearted Whoopee!) so I get to focus work on some dharma projects, futz with the house, enjoy time with my rapidly growing kids (including the advanced practice of dodging teenager mud balls [or getting hit in the back of the head with “equanimity!”] ), connecting with some old friends, and taking a couple vacations too. Ahhh, sweet life. During... Read more

It’s been a transitional week here. The school year ended and I offered a meditation training for educators for the first time as part of my “coming-out-as-a-Zen-teacher party” in my work. And in a few hours we begin a five-day sesshin. Much of the prepatory work is done, including my selecting the teaching focus. I’ll be encouraging the participants to work with a classic Mahayana system that I discovered quite a while back while studying with Katagiri Roshi. Especially in... Read more

Sweeping Zen The Definitive Site“A broad resource covering Zen and Buddhist topics: Biographies, glossary, Dharma videos, meditation instruction, Zen practice, history, quotes, and more!” Here’s a resource that I just learned about. It seems to be just getting started and shows promise. You’ll find some good stuff, including a zazen instructions video (that I’ll link to in my summer blog overhaul) to help those new to this practice. Under “media” you’ll find e-interviews of James Ford, Barry Magid, and one... Read more

(Photo from Bald Eagle Lake, 6/8/09: New reeds burst forth into the space of the remains of last year’s reeds.) The school year is done today. Phew! and whoopee!I work in a school for teens with “behavior issues” and yesterday at our awards ceremony when I was introduced as the “lead teacher,” a student called out, “Port ain’t no teacher, he be the re-enforcer.” Now the young man may have meant, “the enforcer” because my role is much like the... Read more

A good friend for more than 30 years came out for dinner last night. We first met when we studied together with Katagiri Roshi and our friendship has endured. One of my friend’s great gifts is his capacity to ask questions. And that’s how we became good friends. In the early 80’s we worked together one day digging some of the post holes for a big tent platform that became the zendo still standing at Hokyoji. We were supposed to... Read more

Usually on Fridays I post a summary of the discussion from our Thursday night Dogen study. Last night we spend more time sharing capping phrases and discussing an article from the NYTimes (I’ll probably blog about it soon), to do the much of the planned Genjokoan summary. So instead I’ll discuss another angle on practicing our insights. A Zen teacher friend recently pointed out the following passage from Dogen’s Instructions for the Zen Cook: Getting to eat a single grain... Read more

In our Dogen study group, a student mentioned how Dogen often seems hell bent on knocking the old teachers off their pedestals. He further seemed to be suggesting that Dogen is the ultimate authority. Take the following passage, for example, where he assails his old nemesis, Dahui (although my personal favorite is when he calls various Zen saints “dreg slurping dogs”): Some stupid illiterates say…. This view does not compare with that of the scholastics of the Lesser Vehicle; it... Read more

Blog Consumer Warning: This post is especially for Dogen-ophiles! Others read at your own risk. However great his personal religious charisma while alive, Dogen was never prominent. After his death, he soon faded into obscurity. He would have remained forgotten but for several specific ritual techniques that brought his memory back to life, imbued it with mythic qualities, and then exploited its power. William Bodiford writes the above as part of his introduction to “Remembering Dogen: Eiheiji and Dogen Hagiography”... Read more