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<\/a><\/p>\nIn about 1990, I participated in a week-long priest training with Maezumi Roshi at Dogen\u2019s original temple, Koshoji, near Kyoto. Genpo also attended. He and I hit it off and snuck off grounds at least once for a beer, sharing and comparing our experiences training with our teachers. Complaining about them too \u2013 although Katagiri Roshi had died recently so I wasn\u2019t too whiney. Anyway, Genpo ain\u2019t no sock monkey (readers of Brad Warner\u2019s blog know what I mean).<\/p>\n To simplify the arguments in the Tricycle letters, Seigaku voices the traditionalist view that doubts Big Mind can lead to the same enlightenment as our Zen ancestors \u201c\u2026who sweated blood for decades before realizing its truths.\u201d<\/p>\n Genpo, the innovator voice, says that students using Big Mind \u201c\u2026have shown more openness and compassion in their daily life as well as less of the rigidness that often occurs in traditional Zen training.\u201d<\/p>\n Sounds better than sweating blood, no?<\/p>\n Big Mind comes from the <\/p><\/span>Voice Dialogue<\/span><\/a> process of Hal and Sidra Stone. Genpo and others in the White Plum lineage worked with them and have modified- or perhaps gone beyond \u2013 Voice Dialogue and applied it to Zen work. The method is quite controversial in Zen circles and my sense is that a majority of teachers (including at least some in the White Plum) are critical.\n Genpo argues that the Big Mind experience creates the same kind of kensho experiences (<\/p><\/span>see this video on the Big Mind site, for example<\/span><\/a>) as does years of zazen.\n
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