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<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n This week we\u2019re looking at \u201cforgetting the self\u201d and I\u2019ve asked the people in the practice period to comment on one of their dharma<\/a> insights and how they\u2019re actualizing it. Now, of course, we all fall down and are imperfect in our application of what we\u2019ve realized to our everyday life.<\/span><\/p>\n One insight that we might apply is to forgive our bumbling selves and others as we walk along together. <\/p>\n To clarify what I said in the last post, I\u2019m thinking that \u201cbalance\u201d between practice and verification is less important (as well as \u201cdualistic\u201d and static) than to focus on the dynamic-practicing-verification conversation with ourselves, our teachers and our community. I\u2019d call that Integrated Zen. <\/span><\/p>\n The Ten Ox Herding Pictures and Five Ranks and much of Shobogenzo<\/em> (and lots of other sources) point to the importance of this aspect of practice. I find Ox pictures 4 \u2013 6 particularly instructive and contrary to most students\u2019 expectations \u2013 after a glimpse, then the ox metaphor shifts so that greed, anger and ignorance become the ox that must be dealt with.<\/span><\/p>\n This is also where the difference between our glimpse of the truth and our everyday life is nauseatingly apparent and ego dystonic! \u201cIn that gap,\u201d Katagiri Roshi often said, \u201ccold wind blows.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n I remember having dinner with a friend (now a priest and teacher in the altered state of California) during one such period in my practice and confessing that I couldn\u2019t stand seeing how stinky I was. \u201cOh, well, so Dosho isn\u2019t perfect,\u201d she teased. \u201cYou goin\u2019 quit or something just because of that?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
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