Teachings
-
Radiance, Valerie Forstman
June 9, 20232 min read
Just back from leading a month-long sesshin with John Gaynor, Valerie fairly sparkles to convey some of its flavor: a flavor of disparate hours, places, perceptions brought radiantly close, though no less of a rainbow for that. What are some qualities of this radiance, qualities our sitting might open onto? Equanimity, for instance, born of oneness. Equality – each thing whole, complete, and absolutely equal in value. (“How could it not be!! We’re so very...
Watch the video -
In the Seeing, Only What is Seen, Diana Clark
June 9, 20232 min read
Guest teacher Diana Clark gives loving attention to the koan-like Bahiya Sutta of early Buddhism, imaginatively walking in the protagonists’ shoes quite as one might do for a koan. The Buddha tells Bahiya: “In the seeing, Bahiya, there will be only what is seen; in the heard, only what is heard; in the cognized only what is cognized,” at which point “you are neither here nor yonder nor between the two: and just this is...
Watch the video -
Reduced Fee: 15 Day Koan Course
June 1, 20231 min read
If you need financial assistance to attend the 15 Day Wild World of Koans course, contact Sarah and work out a payment amount with her. Then, use this form to register and make the payment you worked out with Sarah (of Johanna).
Read more -
Joshu’s “Wash Your Bowls”(Case 7 in the Mumonkan)
May 29, 20231 min read
Scott Thornton brings out the gentle luminosity in Joshu’s Zen of a few words. At one level the koan’s injunction seems straightforward enough: have you eaten (tasted awakening)? Then wash your bowls (forget it, let it go, wipe it away). But in Joshu’s kind-hearted invitation into a way of being as unstinting as falling in love – falling in love from morning to night in all directions! – he isn’t instructing the monk to wipe...
Watch the video -
Spring Retreat Talk 4, Gathering the Heart Mind with Valerie Forstman
May 16, 20231 min read
Dwelling no-where, mind comes forth~ from the Diamond Sutra Heart mind directs us to the fundamental point of who and what we are. In Chinese there is one term for Heart Mind. No hyphen necessary, simply one. Contemporary Sanbo Zen teacher Migaku Sato wrote a poem with this line: In nothing at all-ness, there is endlessly everything. Out of nothing, here we are practicing, says Valerie or That thou art, says Ruben Habito. To further open,...
Listen to the talk -
Mu: the World in a New Light, Maria Habito
May 15, 20231 min read
Maria Habito offers warm and deep encouragement, and lush context, for the practice of Mu. She encountered Mu amidst her Christian doubts about God’s love in the face of an earthquake – or Auschwitz – and felt a kinship with the famous monk who asks about the dog. “Is God love?” “Mu.” She compares Mu to St. John of the Cross’s Dark Night, wherein will, memory, and intellect are extinguished: to reach the whole, one...
Watch the video -
Cause and Effect Cannot be Obscured: Carolyn Seburn
May 15, 20231 min read
Maybe a “mistake” is a characteristic of separation, while perfection is a characteristic of oneness – yet ”mistake” and “perfection” describe one and the same world. Case 2 in the Mumonkan, “Hyakujo and the Fox,” examines this contrast at different levels: of commonsense distinction, of undeniable wholeness, of intimacy bare of such explanations. If this very moment encompasses all past and future – if the sound of a bell is everything – how could there...
Watch the video -
Spring Retreat Talk 3, The Boat is on the River with Valerie Forstman
May 9, 20231 min read
Valerie explores the clarity and simplicity of Master Hogen who came to be known as the dharma eye of deep clarity. Focusing on Case 51 from Book of Equanimity, Valerie illuminates mind and consciousness through Hogan’s clarity. If you want to study buddha-dharma, everything you see is buddha dharma, a door, a window and the exquisite beauty of the boat is on the river. For Hogan there is no difference between phenomena (worldly dharma) and...
Listen to the talk -
The Essential World and Total Circumstance, Valerie Forstman (Video)
May 7, 20231 min read
How does just-sitting nourish the positive samadhi of activity? How to step off the 100-foot pole of cessation into everywhere, everyone? Ryoun Roshi says “the dewdrop world must be forgotten – but we can’t forget it, only deepen.” There is nowhere else. Hekiganroku Case 36, Chosa Goes for a Walk, speaks generously to such subtle relations, and of the beauty and thoroughgoing activity of this all-too-human, all-too-creaturely world. Spring mountains, personal tragedy, an absorbing sadness:...
Watch the video -
The Temple is Built, Valerie Forstman (Video)
May 6, 20231 min read
Our survival depends on the whole. The earth is my body. Shakyamuni Buddha attested to this right before his awakening when challenged by Mara. “I call the earth as my witness” says the Buddha-to-be as he touches the earth. We are all implicated in this awakening. For this Earth Day Dharma Talk, Valerie turns to a koan that resonates with the earth: Case 4 from the Book of Equanimity, The World Honored one Points to...
Watch the video -
Message from Scott: Knowing Yourself
May 3, 20231 min read
It’s good to sit alone Outdoors sometimes Listen to the wind…This is how to know yourself It’s also good to sit with others In the zendo deeplyFor an hour, a day, a week…This is how to know yourself Photo by Keegan Houser on Unsplash
Read more