Descending the Mountain

As most will be aware by now, John Daido Loori Roshi has stepped down as head of the Mountains and Rivers Order and now appears to be approaching the end of his life.

I know him and his teachings through "Cave of Tigers: Modern Zen Encounters", "Art of Just Sitting: Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Shikantaza", MRO videos on-line and from the recollections of my teachers at the Western Chan Fellowship after a visit they made to him a few years ago.

He always comes across as strong and deeply compassionate and his writings are full of life and warmth. I whole heartedly recommend any of his teachings.

At this time Daido Roshi is in my mind and heart. And I keep practising. I invite you to do the same.

Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha!

Burning the Buddha

Americans like to refer to one of the old Zen stories about how a master took a wooden Buddha image, chopped it up, and made a fire, warming himself by its flames. Seeing this, a monk asked, "What are you doing, setting fire to the Buddha?"

The master replied, "Where is Buddha?"

The opposite goes on in America. In America we want to burn the Buddha images to begin with. You see, that monk was stuck on the form. In America, we are antiform, so the pointing goes in another direction. If you're attached to neither existence nor nonexistence, you manifest a sixteen-foot golden Buddha in a pile of rubbish, appearing and disappearing.

John Daido Loori in Essential Zen, edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi & Tensho David Schneider (HarperCollins)

Received as Daily Dharma from Tricycle.com on the 27th of June 2009

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And not just in America, also in England and many other places. Perhaps as a rejection of the religion we were brought up with (directly or indirectly) and coming from a cultural situation where religion and it's associated forms have lost meaning and trust.

Form and formless, internal and external are inseparable. When I saw this, I started shaving on retreat, folding my clothes before sleeping, minding my body as well as my mind. Not everything is always as tidy as it could be but my attention is a little more balanced and not so focussed on the formless at a cost to the form.