When you reach this point of “no stink of enlightenment” where there is no trace, you vow with great determination to let the absence of enlightenment continue long, long, long like a single rail of iron for myriad miles. This is Great Practice that encompasses the entire future. – Bokusan As the old saying goes, “Zen is like soap. First we wash with it and then we wash it off.” In this post I’ll focus on the Great Practice aspect... Read more

We’re moving into the last couple weeks of the 100 days. By the way, I’m planning to offer another virtual training in the fall and am exploring some internet options for a video conference class. Thoughts on how to do that would be appreiciated (please use the email on the sidebar). For now we’re wrapping up our work with the following passage from Dogen’s Genjokoan (variously translated, I’m inclined to “Unfolding Truth” these days): There is a trace of realization... Read more

My interest in this question resurfaced during my holiday re-reading of Mark Rowe’s article, “Where the Action Is: Sites of Contemporary Soto Buddhism (Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 31/2 2004). Provoked by this article, I’m wondering again how “Soto” American Soto Zen really is. More on that in a moment. First, Rowe’s done some good work here but his title is misleading. The “action” is about so-called funeral Buddhism (a huge issue in Japan) and its effects on Soto Zen.... Read more

We enjoyed Memorial Day Weekend at one of our favorite places – the North Shore of Lake Superior. On Monday morning we were walking Bodhi in 50 degree weather at Kitchi Gammi Park when we spotted the above guy out on the lake (in a wet suit, thank goodness) trying to ride on a surf board – sometimes standing, sometimes sitting – using a canoe paddle. I can only hope that he wasn’t a blog reader, pushed to the very... Read more

The first water lily leaves are showing themselves on Bald Eagle Lake. The leaves are imbued with oil so much so that they rise out of the water while being an expression of the water itself. Once while canoeing on a still, still backwater of the Mississippi, I set a full can of water on a one such leaf and it hardly bobbed at all.Speaking of bobbing, we’re working through a passage from Dogen’s Genjokoan, accompanied by Dogen’s challenging call... Read more

I’ve got a couple things for you today. First, a lovely, evocative poem from today’s Writer’s Almanac, “Durum Wheat,” with some “forgetting the self” overtones. And that’s the second offering – some study resources related to what I mentioned a few days ago – Sen’ne said that “forgetting the self” was “knowing without touching things,” a reference to a line from Hongzhi’s “Zazenshin” poem. Below that you’ll find Dogen’s comments on Hongzhi’s poem. Dogen suggests that knowing without touching things... Read more

This week we’re looking at “forgetting the self” and I’ve asked the people in the practice period to comment on one of their dharma insights and how they’re actualizing it. Now, of course, we all fall down and are imperfect in our application of what we’ve realized to our everyday life. One insight that we might apply is to forgive our bumbling selves and others as we walk along together. To clarify what I said in the last post, I’m... Read more

Struck by lightening, burned, split apart, holes pecked through and yet this tree keeps growing. Some kinda thing you can never kill. We’ve been working on “what is the self?” in these parts and that tree sure shows something – the self forgetting itself in inadvertent enthusiasm. To study the Buddha Way is to study the self; to study the self is to forget the self. Finally our practice is simple. Studying the self, becoming more and more intimate with... Read more

The next Genjokoan post will move from “studying the self” and “the nose inadvertently in the hand of the self” to “studying the self is to forget the self.” Practice period participants, please begin reading, reflecting, and manifesting this passage and the commentary, p. 10-11, especially the Sen’ne line, “To forget means to know without touching things.” I’m going into sesshin tonight so I’ll be posting some comments and points of inquiry for this late Sunday or Monday. For today... Read more

Above is the crab apple tree in the Yugeji front yard, blooming so fully and briefly just now. With the air filled with aroma, memories come of sitting under the apple trees in my parents’ front yard as a boy with my dog Tippy and of the apple tree that I’d pass walking to the zendo and back when I trained with Katagiri Roshi. Are such sweet memories the self? Is there anything that is the self that is constant... Read more