Blog

I am studying Shohaku Okamura's Realizing Genjokoan and have made a small step forward in my understanding of "to study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by all things. To be verified by all things is to let the body and mind of the self and the body and mind of others drop off..."

My daily meditation or zazen is the time when I study myself to forget myself, in spite of the myriad thoughts that whirl around me. I am realizing that through zazen I can begin to feel the interdependence of all beings. We are living in times of rapid climate change which must inevitably mean that our relationship with the earth, with nature, with animals and fellow human beings must become one if we are to survive. Sitting in zazen is not a time to contemplate these things, but a time when one realizes the dropping off of the separation between oneself and others - others being other human beings, animals, nature and the planet.