![\"\"](\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0uPSljNE9f4\/SrGgyxCwSnI\/AAAAAAAAAl4\/u5j_dzgchek\/s1600-h\/101_1063.JPG\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMy old friend (and a true one) Yvonne Rand , also a successor of Katagiri Roshi, used to say that there\u2019s a Zen saying that every good Zen talk included at least one story about shit and death.<\/span><\/p>\n Roshi used to talk a lot about death. One of his most frequent comments: \u201cWhen the airplane starts to fall from the sky, maybe even a Zen master will scream. There\u2019s no guarantee.\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of shit, his main thing was to mindfully use toilet paper to wipe his butt. \u201cJust use one square\u201d was one of his practice suggestions, one that I haven\u2019t followed. Yes, I\u2019m just too big of an asshole.<\/p>\n But I think my almost 13-year old son reached a new stage in development the other day, what Piaget called \u201cwaking up to shit.\u201d Dogen may have had the same breakthrough in mind when he coined the phrase, Genjokoan<\/span><\/span> <\/span>of shit <\/span><\/span>(or in English, <\/span>just plain shit<\/span><\/span>).<\/span><\/p>\n After getting home from work I was flipping through the mail when I stopped and uttered, \u201cShit!\u201d <\/p>\n My old friend (and a true one) Yvonne Rand , also a successor of Katagiri Roshi, used to say that there\u2019s a Zen saying that every good Zen talk included at least one story about shit and death. Roshi used to talk a lot about death. One of his most frequent comments: \u201cWhen the airplane […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cYup,\u201d I said, \u201cWelcome to adult life.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n