Events

RMC Zen Online: That we perceive a wall between us and others is the fundamental delusion that causes us difficulty. Perhaps Yunmen is bringing our attention to that fact. If there is no wall, my neighbor’s light is my light because my neighbor is me.

Register PZI Zen Online: I noticed I found myself gravitating towards children. Something about the way an infant or toddler reaches, apparently just for the sake of reaching, that felt more in the spirit of what Yunmen was saying about reaching. The questioner is asking about reaching the light, and Yunmen tells him to forget about the light. Forget about having an object of your reaching, just reach!

PZI Zen Online: Register – Spending time with this koan recently, a few things occurred to me. First, I took it as an invitation to relax.What’s wrong with being a non-attained Buddha? What’s wrong with being who I am, now, in this moment? Nothing, really. And yet…

RMC Zen Online- Recently I called a friend and confessed having difficulty with an unsolvable problem. This is a habit—to see my problem as unsolvable, and to see it as “a problem.” (And here I am, at it again.) In response, my friend read me Shitou’s Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage (a Chan ancestor.) Hearing it was an immediate balm!

RMC Zen Online- Not thinking our way to becoming awake, but becoming awake to our thinking. Waking up and smelling the roses.

Register: In the case of koans, inviting someone to fill a sieve with water is something that is suggested knowing that the person can accomplish the task and may even have already accomplished it, though they don’t know it themselves. The task is our life and we are always living it, whether we notice it or not.

Registration links for all PZI wide events are now found on the PZI Calendar. Linked here. This page will soon go away so do check the new setup to stay connected. RMC local zoom sessions will be published in the newsletter and online.

RMC Zen Online – I sometimes think of myself as a connoisseur of delusions, a sort of sommelier of mistaken thinking. My meditation practice feels like the ongoing training in the never-ending refining of my of my ability to better appreciate the ‘sight’, ‘nose’, ‘palate’ and ‘finish’ of different delusions.

RMC Zen Online- This koan showed up like a well that has not been dug—out of the blue, not seeking it, or digging around, it appeared before me.  Oh!  This one, I thought to myself.  Something I have been seeking most of my life is ease and here it was.

RMC Zen Online – A valley supports life, feeds the animals who live there and provides fertile earth for agriculture.  It can do this because it is empty.  Being low, and humble it accepts the flow of the river.  Not filled with anything to block the light, it receives the warmth of the sun.  In its supporting of life the Valley does nothing and this doing nothing is an important aspect of the process of Daoist transformation,  as it is an important aspect of Chan/Zen meditation.