This Very Sesshin: June 2023

 

This past weekend we completed our June sesshin, all online on Zoom, and lasting from Friday night to Sunday mid-day, our shortest sesshin of the eleven we offer each year.  This gave a few people who were completely new to sesshin an opportunity to taste the flavor of Zen in the form of intensive practice.  In addition, many of our long-time practitioners got refreshed through practicing together.  Time seemed to be no obstacle, and also no matter.

Despite the brevity of our time together, the sesshin sangha, under the leadership of our tanto Rev. Corwyn Miyagishima, and his assistants Rev. Paul Galvin, Pierce Butler and Sabrina Miller, dove deeply into the Great Matter.  David Rōshi, Dharma Holder Alan Richardson and I looked into the kōan from the Gateless Gate, case 30:  "This very mind is Buddha."  In the story, the student Damei asks the great teacher Ma, "What is Buddha?  And Mazu answers, "This very mind is Buddha." Since one of the great discoveries we make in our study of Zen is that everything is Buddha, that is, everything is the awakened heart/mind, this short kōan gave us many pointers to knowing this for ourselves, through our actual lived experience.  

Every sesshin is named by the tanto, and this particular one was named "This Very Sesshin" by Rev. Corwyn.  Our next sesshin opportunities will be in July, August, September and October. More information can be found here:Boundless Way Zen Temple.

Comings and Goings

2005 sesshin photo at Senexet House in Connecticut

Someone sent me this photo recently.  He didn't know where or when it was taken, but I managed to identify it, from the people and the colors of the rakusus,  It was taken 18 years ago at the end of a sesshin at Senexet House, where Boundless Way folks used to meet to have our intensive meditation retreats.  Looking over the photo, I have mixed thoughts and feelings -- the first thought being: "we were all so young!"  A handful of people in the picture are still practicing with David and me in Boundless Way -- you may recognize some of those faces.  And a few more have died and many more have gone on their way to other Zen communities, or to another kind of non-Zen life.  So there is also nostalgia and some sadness.  The main teaching for me that comes from this photo is how fragile our connections are to each other, to life, and to the dharma.  Currently we have a dedicated and devoted group of practitioners in Boundless Way:  over one hundred members of the organization, and many more who come and practice together on Zoom and in person.  This morning there were nearly forty faces who showed up for dokusan, or just to practice zazen together.  How many will be with us in 20 years?  I myself, if I'm still alive, will be close to 90.  Because everything comes and goes in this delicate system of connection, I am moved to be even more grateful for who is in my life right now.  Thanks to all who are reading this, whether or not we've met or practiced together, for being here.  Many bows to you all!