![\"\"](\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0uPSljNE9f4\/SfCd6x2IM1I\/AAAAAAAAAYc\/PPJA55abUDI\/s1600-h\/Dosho_and_Susan.gif\")
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The above photo (thanks to Barbara for suggestions and Buddhafrog for fixing this!) just in from one of the good folks at Empty Hand. Clearly, signing books just makes me so happy. Susan Jion Postal is the other priest in the photo. The fruit of her many years of steady Zen work is palpable in her community. She\u2019s a hidden jewel in the rough Zen world.<\/p>\n
And speaking of the whirl, I\u2019m back at it today after a weekend sesshin. <\/p><\/span><\/div>\n
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What is correct shikantaza? What is freedom? <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The above photo (thanks to Barbara for suggestions and Buddhafrog for fixing this!) just in from one of the good folks at Empty Hand. Clearly, signing books just makes me so happy. Susan Jion Postal is the other priest in the photo. The fruit of her many years of steady Zen work is palpable in […]<\/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-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Before leaving it all behind, though, a couple reflections for you.
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The first is about insight. I posed this issue for my students: When sitting fixedly, sometimes it seems that the objects coming at you (e.g., feelings, memories, sensory input) should be adjusted \u2013 avoid this, tamp down that, move the mind this way (e.g., back to the breath) or that (e.g., away from fantasy). <\/span><\/div>\n
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The subject, by the way, can also seem like the \u201cvictim\u201d of the advancing objects or the \u201cthruster\u201d into the objects \u2013 these also are ways to adjust the subject. <\/span><\/div>\n
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And here\u2019s the second point (really there was something else when I started this post and said there were a couple reflections but one trace of sesshin is that this aging wet-wear mind is even more forgetful afterwards) is from <\/span>Keep Me In Your Heart Awhile: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri <\/span><\/em>(when at a loss, I plug my book):
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<\/span>The thorough clarification of birth and death is the Buddha family\u2019s single great matter.\u201d This sentence begins \u201cThe Meaning of Practice and Verification\u201d (\u201cShushogi\u201d), a short essay composed of bits and pieces of Dogen\u2019s Shobogenzo selected by a group of Soto Zen priests about one hundred years ago. These priests were intent on simply and clearly expressing the essence of our school, and did such a fine job that their work continues to be studied, chanted, and sung in Japan and in theWest. <\/span><\/em><\/div>\n
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