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.