Dharma Talks

As our calendar turns from freeform Koan Summer to the study of the Genjokoan, Seido encourages us to carry koan mind into the discipline of Ango. The koan mind pierces through familiar narratives and storylines. During Ango, when we refresh our commitment to zazen and to pondering Dogen’s ancient text, we care for what we love.

Traces of birds. Hearts of fish. Footsteps of Buddhas. The strains of Dogen's Yuibutsu Yobutsu softly played throughout the recent Cultivating the Way Sesshin at the Empty Field Zendo.

Our bowls are a deep teaching. They are the bowls of receptivity, of accepting whatever is coming, moment after moment after moment—bitter, sweet, salty, sour—yes, yes, yes and yes. In this koan (Mumonkon Case 13 and Book of Serenity Case 55), a student publicly chides his master for prematurely appearing for the meal. The master receives his student’s correction without complaint, turning and taking his empty bowls back to his room. A beautiful teaching of acceptance. Yet th

Case 5 from the Mumonkan offers a corrective to those of us who’d prefer to hang out on the cozy cushion of samadhi, saying nothing. With its two equally untenable opposites, we’re invited to let go of ordinary speech that deflects, hides, or performs and open to the unknown. Trust in the fall.

Water streams through this trio of koans from John Daido Loori’s book featuring the koans of Zen Master Dogen. The first koan evokes spiritual thirst and hunger—a longing and a feeling of separation—that inspires us to seek the way. The second koan ponders the deep stillness at the heart of movement that can be touched in zazen. The third koan illustrates the free and spontaneous flow of practice: just pouring, just tipping the jar; no-one pouring, no-one tipping the jar.