Sesshin here over the weekend so no blogging, then work all day and afterwards a green tea latte with an old friend – an ex-Roman Catholic priest, retired Episcopalian minister, and now a practicing Quaker. One very chilled and wonderfully grumpy old guy. Thanks to those of you who commented on the issue of immanent and transcendent. Here’s a question from email, one that lots of Zen students have, that gets at this issue in a relationship kind-of-way: “How can... Read more

Is Zen practice about getting out of the stinking hole of human life or about finding perfection within our shining life itself just as it is? Is the Buddha way beyond the phenomenal world (transcendent) or ensconced within it (immanent)? I see no other underlying stance that more powerfully impacts our zazen and attitude toward daily life than this one. And because our life is a projective exercise, we tend to see the Buddhadharma as we are rather than how... Read more

Here are some recent questions and my responses (your comments welcome too): What is good work for the teacher-student relationship? For example, did you discuss personal issues much with Katagiri? Was he open to that? With students, can you do that–or is that kind of thing a problem? Good work in the teacher-student relationship is case-by-case, depending on where the student is at and how the teacher can serve the truth in any given interaction. Therefore, there is no such... Read more

Last night the intro class had its last session. I presented the Ordinary Mind koan with Nanchuan delivering the knock out punch: “Who would insist on affirming or denying it.” I pointed to how this practice of neither affirming nor denying holds up the practitioner, how this is the very point of practice. It occurred to me there and then that there are several meanings for the phrase – “holds up the practitioner.” Great Faith Way:Katagiri Roshi often said, “The... Read more

https://youtube.com/watch?v=t6WetxmRjYc Read more

Yesterday I spent some time working on my Last Will and Testament. I’m not sick or anything, just taking care of business. I found it quite fun, really, especially planning “my” funeral. My home crew seemed less than joyful about the topic – a good thing, I suppose, especially given the teenagerness of one significant faction. Anyway, the above old John Prine tune has been bubbling up ever since. It’s on the play list for the my funeral so if you make it... Read more

Near the end of the last comment string, Al asked, “How would you recommend cultivating seamless zazen?” By sitting zazen as not a means to an end.  Maezumi Roshi creatively spun the characters for zazen to read as “Showing Oneness.” Once upon a time, the emperor asked his teacher, “After you die, what will need?” The teacher said, “Build me a seamless monument.”  The emperor said, “Please tell me what the monument would be like.” The teacher was silent for a... Read more

Maybe it’s the turning weather – snowing again today – but I find myself reflecting on “turning” in zazen. Most translations of Dogen’s zazen instructions, Fukanzazengi, have “turn the light inward.” Literally, the text has no character for “inward” in “subekara-ku e kohen sho no tai ho o gaku” (or inelegantly, “Just learn the backward step, revolving the light around to illuminate”). An important point for practice, it seems to me. Most translations also drop “subekara-ku” or “just.” I find... Read more

https://youtube.com/watch?v=PqHxFAQLxMI Read more

At an important work meeting today I was trying to reassure various school district representatives that our school would be a good place for a program they are relocating. In my presentation I wanted to say, “Look, we have the dollars (to support funding the program).” Instead I said, “Look, we have the dharma.” I heard the word come out of my mouth and stopped and looked around the table as everyone curiously looked back at me. “Ummm. I mean... Read more