Grateful Dead, Watkins Glen, NY 7/28/73 Photo by Suki Coughlin “Sometimes we live, no particular way but our own  Sometimes we visit your country and live in your home  Sometimes we ride on your horses, sometimes we walk alone  Sometimes the songs that we hear are just songs of our own” Eyes of the World, Grateful Dead In Zen practice we find ourselves striving to seek a better way to live, a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us. This isn’t a bad intention, but it is counterproductive. We end up losing our true selves in search of a “better self”. I have a f ..read more

Notes on circumventing Torres del Paine in Chilean Patagonia, “The O-Trek.” by Madison Sokukai McClintock  Late Autumn, end of the season.  Distance: ~75 miles / 119 km.  Total Elevation Gain: ~16,309ft / 4,971 meters 8 days walking, weighted by basic survival supplies, 24+ meals worth of food, the non-negotiables – camera, watercolors, binoculars. Feeling the decision of every chosen ounce with each sopping wet step on muddy Magellanic forest trails and up steep glacial passes. Fifty pounds heavier is the new equilibrium.  Many moments to marvel at the bigness of ancient ..read more

BIRTH DEATH REBIRTH DEATH Buddha Nature is beyond imagination. Transcends and includes imagination. I will not even speak about emptiness. Nor the Being that is Non-Being. Yet I’m drawn to write. For the benefit of all Beings, All Being, all Non-Being. Sujata Buddha gave freely of the nourishment of rice milk. She had no need to say anything. Or did she? Not established on words and letters, she also manifested as the stream, and the golden bowel, and floating upstream, and the morning star. Upon seeing the morning star, Shakymuni Buddha is reported to have said, “I, the Great Earth, and all ..read more

Craftsbury, Vermont The Spring Equinox! A glorious time of rebirth of Mother Earth, trees blossoming, tiny buds opening into verdant green, tulips, brilliant blossoms! Bunnies and baby animals! A time of hope, joy, reawakening and… MUD. In Northern New England, from whence Zenho and I originate, MudSeason is perhaps the most bitched about season of the year. It falls between the bleak late winter days, when nearly all hope is lost and the last memory of the previous summertime nearly completely forgotten, and the advent of Black Fly Season, a time of year itself worthy of a poem. And yet, MudS ..read more

“Because my creativity is beyond all affirmation and negation I determine all events and meanings Because no objects exist which are not me You are beyond perspective or meditation Because there does not exist any protection other than me You are beyond charismatic activity to be sought Because there is no state other than me You are beyond stages to cultivate Because there are ni me, from the beginning, no obstacles, You are beyond all obstacles, self-arising pristine awareness just is Because I am unborn reality itself You are beyond concepts of reality, subtle reality just is Because there ..read more

 Hatō zu  (Waves) by Uehara Konen, 1878-1940, Woodblock print “Nothing is there to guard and nothing to demonstrate or practice. Whatever flies off the spindle is perfectly fashioned and equal to the task in the event. Technique is for the birds. The organism is a genius and when left alone in the natural state of being it is perfection itself.” Keith Dowman How we struggle to perfect ourselves, not realizing our inherent qualities. Right now beings engaged in meaningless activity. Karmas, like delusions in a dream. The nature of mind, all encompassing, all creative, unborn ..read more

KARMA Awakening this morning. Dawn windy. Macintosh apple crisp. Solitary light… Star? Planet? Plane? ET? Within Infinite black emptiness. Not here. A moment ago. Flicker of dawn. Not gone. A moment Neither late nor early. Just this song. Dozens of finches. At the birdbath’s Rimed edge. -Zenho _______________________________________________________________________ Schedule 3/3-3/10 Monday: 6:30 AM Zazen at the Teahouse, Andy opening Tuesday: 6:30 AM Zazen at the Teahouse, DOKUSAN WITH ISSAN SENSEI Wednesday: 6:30 AM Zazen at the Teahouse, Andy opening Thursday, 6:30 AM Zazen at the Teahouse ..read more

Wu-Men Kuan, Case 24: It All Outside Words A monk asked Wind-Source Mountain: “Word or silence- either way you cross over into its all broken between Presence and Absence, the differentiated and the undifferentiated. How do I avoid that transgression altogether? Master Wind-Source replied: I always remember, south of the river, that third month: mountain-partridge calling out, hundred blossom scents. Are you approached? Resting in silence. Nothing said, nothing done, no words spoken or sutras read, no teaching given, no beings as teacher or student and nothing other than the reality of flawle ..read more

the moon in the pines looks cold cloud after cloud drifts up ridge upon ridge unfolds the view is for ten-thousand miles and the pool in the gorge is clear like looking through a mirror treasures of a magic terrace the seven gems can’t match you ~ Pickup “From Temple Walls, The Collected Poems of Big Shield & Pickup”, trans. by Red Pine, 1984 Pickup, circa 784CE How far we go to see, straining to look. Let be your eyes. How hard we listen to hear. Let be your ears. How we babble to find clarity. Let rest your tongue. How far we travel to arrive. Remain in stillness. Too much of this and t ..read more

“The wisdom that is harmonious is self-evident. We see that we are children of the Buddhas. We look at all the Bodhisattvas as our kindered.  We are blessed by the dakinis. No Matter where we arise Or where we are born, We will practice this vehicle forever.”      The Great Jewel Blossom Tantra __________________________________________________________________________ How will I respond to this? How will I make this my own? Not mine really…that which is trying to manifest through this. This. Wisdom yes. Wisdom attentive to this manifestation. Compassion Compassio ..read more