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unearth the mountain

There are mountains hidden in treasures.  There are mountains hidden in swamps.  There are mountains hidden in the sky.  There are mountains hidden in mountains.  There are mountains hidden in hiddenness.  This is complete understanding.

Therefore investigate mountains thoroughly.  When you investigate mountains thoroughly, this is the work of the mountains.

Such mountains and waters of themselves become wise persons and sages.

Dogen

Sometimes the immensity of my inner experience is too much.  Too huge, too wide, too concentrated.  Like that mountain just beyond the trees in front of the townhouse we had rented somewhere in Alberta.  It curved over me with intense curiousity as I stepped off the porch for a hike down to the little town.  Having spent vacations hiking the trails in the Crow’s Nest Pass and driving the winding roads across Vancouver Island, I’m familiar with that gut-clench mountains evoke.  Having spent some time approaching the cushion, I’m familiar with that same gut-clench.

How does a bag of empty husks tower over me with such inquisitiveness?

Please keep practising,

Genju


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follow the stream

Be soft in your practice.  Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall.  Follow the stream, have faith in its course.  It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there.  It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices.  Just follow it.  Never let it out of your sight.  It will take you.

Sheng-yen (in Essential Zen by Kazuaki Tanahashi & David Schneider)

Entering this week of practice for Rohatsu, I made the commitment to be fearless in my sitting.  It felt like I was about to attack the zafu with a vengeful pounce for all the times it met my efforts with undiscriminating silence.  Be soft?  Do I know how?

Sometimes I have a waking dream of falling, falling backwards into the ocean.  Arms outstretched, legs, fingers, and toes splayed open.  Whatever the height I am falling from, there is not a ripple, not a sound as I am absorbed into a vast, liquid, supporting cushion.  Be soft.  It’s worth a try.

Please take the time to practice softly,

Genju