Monthly Archives: October 2009

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pebble zazen

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ocean1

Dainin Katagiri was given to me by a flyfishing buddy from Hawaii. Returning to Silence: Zen practice in daily life gave me a sip of healing broth I needed at a time in my life when almost everything seemed totally out of control.  In the middle of the chaos, Katagiri’s words were a refuge.  I don’t recall having any great insights or feeling filled with awe about Zen.  What I do remember is a sudden moment of realization as I was playing with my daughter that this form was evidence of our relationship – in this moment.

Our daily life is just like casting pebbles into an ocean that is very serene.  Every form, every action is just like this.  The moment when the pebble becomes one with the ocean you can immediately see the ripples. These ripples are called “form” – form of washing your face, form of having a meal, form of doing gassho, form of walking, form of doing zazen….  Ripples are the form of action.

ocean2

Out of contact emerges relationship.  In relationship all things are one.


Thank you for practising,

Genju

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borrowed truths

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I am caught in a web of intrigue.

spiderThere are the stories I tell myself about me.  There are stories I tell myself about others.   There are stories I tell myself about me reflected in others and they in me.  These stories sometimes are woven intricately, threads so tightly intertwined as to be inseparable.  Sometimes the threads are loose and tenuously linked, snagging on some external point or edge that unravels it all.

All stories are a refuge from the truth of who I am.

Thich Nhat Hanh writes beautifully about the joy we feel when we watch a friend emerge from “the chaos caused by the annihilation of his last refuge.” (from Fragrant Palm Leaves: Journals 1962-1966 by Thich Nhat Hanh). This is to be my work: to burn down the huts of my delusions, the books of my illusions.

I knew early that finding truth is not the same as finding happiness.
You aspire to see the truth,but once you have seen it, you cannot avoid suffering.
Otherwise you have seen nothing at all.  You are still hostage to arbitrary conventions set up by others.

It should come as no surprise that I live my life based on the measure of others.  I don’t mean the negotiated truths we all use to create relationship.  Nor the conventions that ease the flow of a day.  I mean the objects that signify what should ring the bells of praise and blame.

Truth cannot be borrowed.  It can only be experienced directly.
The fruit of exploration, the suffering, and the direct encounter between one’s own spirit and reality –
the reality of the present moment and the reality of ten thousand lifetimes.
For each person, it is different.  And it is different today than it was yesterday.

Thank you for practising,

Genju