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<\/a><\/p>\nI\u2019m back at it here and have a few stray themes tonight, tied together with fire.<\/span><\/p>\n First, sesshin turned out rather weird. I got a nasty, nasty flu in the wee hours of Friday morning and am still only at about 75% usual energy.<\/p>\n And tomorrow I go back to my day job. That\u2019s one fire I\u2019ll be jumping into.<\/p>\n Another fire I\u2019m trying to start is through webinars. I\u2019m offering another Keep Me In Your Heart Webinar <\/span><\/span>tomorrow night, 8\/24, at 7pm CST. <\/span>Click here<\/span><\/a> for more information. The theme is about going beyond self-consciousness \u2013 very important for this human life, imv. There are seats available so register soon \u2013 probably best to send me an email and I\u2019ll add you to the list (wildfox@gmail.com).<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m also trying to decide which other fire to jump into next \u2013 write a book on Zazenshin<\/span><\/span> (English: <\/span>The Healing Point of Zazen<\/span><\/span> or <\/span>The Precept of Zazen<\/span><\/span> or more usually, <\/span>The Lancet of Zazen<\/span><\/span>) and buying a house in the city and starting another practice center. Doing both well doesn\u2019t seem possible given the other things that I\u2019ve taken on \u2026 so what do you think?<\/span><\/p>\n I usually go around chewing something like this from all angles, listening to others\u2019 ideas, and finally jump into it. Anyway, it\u2019s a tough one for me but I must like tough one\u2019s like this because I find myself doing it a lot. As one wise friend put it, \u201cSeems like creating a big risky conversation is prime discovery ground for having something to say.\u201d<\/p>\n And speaking of fires and big risky things, how about Zen training? We\u2019re going to be starting another 100 day practice on September 12 (or September 10th for you hearty folks who show up out here from time to time).<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the details for those practicing from afar via the internet:<\/p>\n The purpose of these virtual 100-day practice sessions is for home-based practitioners to use the internet to focus, deepen and sustain practice with a virtual community and teacher. The specific practice recommendations fall into 3 categories: zazen, study, expression.<\/p>\n Zazen<\/span><\/b> Study<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/span>Firewood turns to ash; it cannot become firewood again. Still we should not regard ash as succeeding and firewood as preceding. Note that firewood abides in the dharma\u2011situation of firewood and has pre\u00adceding and succeeding; although there is before and after, it is cut off from before and after. Ash abides in the dharma\u2011situation of ash and has succeeding and preceding. Just as firewood does not become firewood again after it has been turned to ash, human being does not return to birth after death. Accordingly, it is a traditional way of the Buddha\u2011dharma not to say that birth becomes death; for this reason birth is called \u201cnot\u2011arising.\u201d It is also a tradi\u00adtional teaching of the wheel of the dharma that death does not become birth; hence death is called \u201cnot\u2011perishing.\u201d Birth is the state of a time; death is the state of a time as well. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Expression<\/span><\/b>: It isn\u2019t complete to sit and study without finding a way to share and express our heart. It doesn\u2019t need to be long. Find something to share that connects the study with your life and speak from the first person, take the student seat, play. <\/span><\/p>\n
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