Rengetsu wrote:
Snow on water
I see it dust the river wind
then vanish.
Fragile snow
Disappears from my sight.
Last week five of us made the drive out to Garrison New York to participate in a wed - sun zen intensive retreat (called sesshin) with Myotai Sensei. Chuck Greer became a formal student of Myotai Sensei, and Erik Knap did his first retreat. Hopefully they will be posting some reflections on their experience shortly.
As for myself, I am gratefull beyond words for the opportunity to practice in this way, and you can count on me to continue to encourage all of us to travel out to join future retreats as much as possible. The schedule is posted at the hermitageheart website.
It seems that while I was away, the sangha that gathered on our usual wednesday evening were accidentally locked out of the dojo! Oops... In spite of this, Kristi reproted to me that all had a fun time talking in her car for several hours, and that a need to facilitate more communication between us all became even more apparent. I hope that this site helps!
- Chikyo
Last week five of us made the drive out to Garrison New York to participate in a wed - sun zen intensive retreat (called sesshin) with Myotai Sensei. Chuck Greer became a formal student of Myotai Sensei, and Erik Knap did his first retreat. Hopefully they will be posting some reflections on their experience shortly.
As for myself, I am gratefull beyond words for the opportunity to practice in this way, and you can count on me to continue to encourage all of us to travel out to join future retreats as much as possible. The schedule is posted at the hermitageheart website.
It seems that while I was away, the sangha that gathered on our usual wednesday evening were accidentally locked out of the dojo! Oops... In spite of this, Kristi reproted to me that all had a fun time talking in her car for several hours, and that a need to facilitate more communication between us all became even more apparent. I hope that this site helps!
- Chikyo
7 comments:
I have done Zen training for a number of years, which means nothing except I am a persistent so-and-so. But the sesshin that I did a year ago and the one we just did were among the most meaningful things I have done in my life, no hyperbole intended!
Becoming a formal student was not something that I wrestled with or had a lot of talks with my 'self' about, but rather something that just suddenly 'made sense'.
Tangaryo, (dawn-to-dusk zazen) that is part of becoming a formal student, was a bit of a hill to climb, but was a profound experience on top of the already profound experience of sesshin.
I would encourage others in the sangha to look at the schedule posted on the Hermitage Heart website and think seriously about doing this, provided Chikyo thinks you are at the right stage of your practice.
In Gassho-
Chuck
to be clear(er), I am encouraging you all to experience sesshin, and not to become a formal student, although that would be awesome, too!
liked how you put it "just suddenly made sense",what a good way to know the right time. Congratulations Chuck!
Safe journey
juju
During our "sitting" (that would be in my car chatting rather than meditation in the zendo) on Wednesday night, Anne-Marie mentioned that the Dalai Lama was coming to Madison, Wisconsin in May. I found out his holiness will be at the UW May 2,3, and 4th. Wed, Thurs, and Fri will be "teachings" and Friday afternoon will be a "public talk". I personally am planning to make the trip, and Anne-Marie has said she is up for Friday. Neither of us is able to be in the zendo tonight, but we are looking for other sangha members to road trip with us. Who's up for the adventure? The teaching tickets are currently available through ticketmaster. The public talk tickets will be sold through the Kohl Center, but are not yet available.
I am glad you all had a safe and memerable experience at seshin. congrats to you, Chuck!
Kristi, thank you for posting this. We talked about this tonight at zazen. I would be interested in going.
Here's a link to more information, not sure if it is the "official" site:
http://www.deerparkcenter.org/
-Michael
Michael,
That is the site I was using. I wish I could have been at the zendo tonight. What did you guys discuss? Are you thinking of attending Wed-Fri? or just the public talk on Friday? JuJu e-mailed me and said she can't make it as did Hydie. Anne-Marie said she's up for Friday. I'm open to either I think. I'm just excited for the experience.
Kristi
Sesshin Experience,
After many years of sitting, this was not only my first experience with Sesshin, but with Dokusan (face to face private interview with Myotai Sensei) as well. As I explained to the participants of Sesshin during sozan (where everyone shares experiences and feelings about Seshin), no one warned me what lay in wait for me there, that it would be 400 degrees and I was forced to turn myself inward in a way that I had never been before. Though these encounters are intimate in their very nature I want to share with you my experience. Though wednesday night we were shown the form of Dokusan (when to bow, how to bow, enter the room etc.) nothing was mentioned of what you do when you're on the cushion in front of the teacher. So on thursday I was presented my first opportunity to meet Sensei face to face in this way. Outside of dokusan with Myotai's gentle eyes, and pleasent demeanor, you might meet her on the street and it would be like meeting an old friend. However, in that room, in that proximity she takes on a quality that is undescribable and incredibly powerful. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to speak, or what to do so we just sat for quite some time. This was right, to just sit, and in that sitting it was powerful and a bit overwhelming. That night in Teisho Myotai discussed "Perfect Moments", how each moment whether good or bad was in a word, perfect. (Snow on water talk, on hermitage heart website) Something jarred inside. Determined to have a little more to discuss in dokusan this time, friday I once again sat with Myotai Sensei and discussed (and I 'll generalize this and my thoughts) these moments, of my teachers that I left behind (Ages 12,4,2), of my search, of the seperation so many feel. Her response was so gentle, so Zen, so of the essence of exchanges that you often read about in the lineage of experience between the zen masters and their students. Tears came to my eyes and we laughed together and I had never felt so whole as at that moment, a precious moment. That night the karmic irony was lost on no one that it snowed. We had some time to walk outside and as I walked in the snow, I looked behind and saw my footprints. I realized what i was looking at and was filled with more than a bit of wonder. Recorded in the snow were relics, impressions, of moments, each perfect and complete. I could walk back over those footprints, but they would never be the same, I could start from where i had been and try to retrace those footprints, but they would never be the same. Those too would be their own, new, precious moments. So after several days of looking at others feet, I bowed to my own footprints in the snow. Chikyo, Zuihan, thank you for your compassion and your practice. Chuck, the extra 3 hours of being lost was perfect. Thank you to everyone in the Toledo sangha for allowing us to walk this path together. Gassho, Erik
Post a Comment