that Mark had brought for me the week before (about the same day that Barry posted Alan\u2019s tune over at OxHerding).
<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nOne practitioner playfully (I think) challenged me for using somebody else\u2019s offering as my own capping phrase. That\u2019s the life of a so-called zen teacher. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\nAnyway, we finished up the firewood and ash section of the <\/span><\/span>Genjokoan<\/span><\/span><\/i>, examining Bokusan\u2019s commentary and especially this passage:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nA teacher of old said, \u201cAs I have great power, I fall down when the wind blows.\u201d<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2026Great power is to fall down all the way at the time of falling down\u2026. You are all cowards and paralyzed so you are already dead before you die.<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\nI\u2019m fond to his kind of edgy teaching \u2013 maybe because I\u2019m the kind of horse that responds bests after the whip has penetrated.
<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThe very important point, though, is the way of being that\u2019s pointed to here is so vulnerable and intimate \u2013 living without mask or pretense or struggle \u2013 in the midst of so much misdirected striving in this world.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nFor a recent related talk by my dear old friend, Yvonne Rand, with her observations of Suzuki Roshi\u2019s kindness practice (\u201cNever say too late\u201d), <\/span><\/span>click here<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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