No Other World Sesshin

photo by Pierce Butler

 This past weekend, in the midst of our recovery from the US presidential election, we had a deep and community-building on-line sesshin.  Our tanto, Jenny Smith, assisted by Pierce Butler, Sabrina Mills and David Linshaw, named the sesshin "No Other World."  This was in honor of the text the teachers (Dharma Holder Michael Herzog, David Rynick, Rōshi and me) used as the theme of the retreat, and also a poem by Gary Snyder that I read and commented on called "Why Log Truck Drivers Rise Earlier than Students of Zen" which ends with the line "There is no other life."  Our text came from a dialogue in the Record of Xuansha:

A monk said, “I’ve just arrived here and I beg the master to point out a gate whereby I may enter.” Xuansha said, “Do you hear the sound of the water in the creek?” The monk siad, “I hear it.” Xuansha said, “Enter here.” 

In these wild times, Xuansha's teaching remains relevant and inspiring.  Whatever we may feel: grief, anger, fear, happiness, joy...and in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, the teaching of the Great Way invites us to enter into this life as it is.  Here we can find the way to being a bodhisattva in this burning world.  And, there is no other world.