CHOSEI ZEN BLOG
Voice of an Ancestor
In a growing series of publications we are presenting edited versions of talks that Tanouye Roshi gave more than forty years ago in various settings, some of them quite informal while others are formal teisho given during sesshin.
Zazen Strapped To A Locomotive
There came a moment during the sitting when I was no longer in my tatami room with a panoramic view of our prairie and oak savanna. Instead, I felt myself strapped to the front of a locomotive speeding down the track toward a black tunnel.
Fall Sesshin 2021 - Spring Green Dojo
“How do we use training in Spring Green to prepare people for the severe limitations in resources that the climate crisis is bringing closer to our doors?”
A Tale of Shugyo
Greene Roshi weaves a beautiful story about a student of the shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) into a timeless tale of Shugyo.
Things Are Different At Night
I’m walking down to the ceramics kiln for my 3 am firing shift. In the circle of my headlamp’s light there are all these beautiful white flowers. Wow – how come I didn’t notice them before?
At Death; at 49 Days Later
There’s a meaningful phrase for the moment of death: when breath becomes air. I watched this moment for both of my parents – there is a breath and then there is no more. But there is also a lingering, something like the glowing embers in a dying beach fire.
The First Sesshin in Spring Green
Greene Roshi describes the first sesshin at the Spring Green Dojo in May/June 2007.
A Dojo of One
In Zen, you train alone. And that has been true long before we had the self-isolation needed during a pandemic.
The Inji Story
This Zen story asks us to explore what it means to be a leader or a follower.
Poets Teaching Zazen
It is hard to teach zazen. What makes it difficult is not the articulation of the complex neuromuscular work that goes on during zazen. What makes it difficult is the use of too many words.
"This is what I have been trained for."
It’s a strange feeling, these past twenty-four hours. Many people have described time-distortion as the normal rhythms of daily activities are twisted in strange ways by the shared experience of COVID-19.
Talk Story
I miss Hawaii. Not for the obvious reason as I look out my window onto a wooded hillside covered in six inches of snow. But because I miss sitting with friends as we talk story.