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![]() One feature of awakening is that it’s light you can travel easily because you don’t need a lot of equipment. We find out what it’s like to be free, to live inside a mind that’s open and free-and that’s worth a lot. ![]() The important part of awakening, the fun part, is to embody the transformation and actually live in the world that’s transformed. Our members who are involved in cause-based organizations and communities turn toward practice as a way of nourishing their efforts. At PZI, we focus on the inner life as the ground for a freedom and compassion that can go anywhere like the cosmic Guanyin (Bodhisattva of Great Compassion). I vow to wake all the beings of the world.ĭifferent Zen communities have different ways of embodying and acting on these vows. We can only open ourselves more fully to the lives we have now and trust what arises in us in response.Īt the end of each gathering, we sing together the Four Boundless Vows as a reminder of the Bodhisattva path that is so deeply part of our practice: Zen recognizes that however dire or grand our personal or collective circumstances seem to be at any given juncture, we simply don’t and can’t know how things will go. Chan (Zen)-and its commitment to the great matter in each moment-was a response to those times. Our tradition began in deeply difficult and destructive times in China, and has endured countless upheavals. What is Zen’s relationship to climate change? to social justice? Read the whole poem here and in Tony Hoagland’s book, Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God One possibly lifting the other up - it would take bothĪ botanist and a psychologist to figure it all out, One seeming to possibly strangle the other, The white and purple combination of these species, That appear and disappear inside the maze of leaves Whose stalks are climbed and woven through simultaneouslyīy a different kind of vine with small magenta flowers In an unimpressive yard, in front of a house that seems unoccupied:Ī chest-high, spreading shrub with large white waxy blossoms. Like a certain shrubbery I pass each day on Reba Street The late poet and koan student Tony Hoagland dedicated his poem, “Entangle,” to Roshi John Tarrant. The Zen path turns our attention to the mysterious and deep connection we already have with the cacophony of life, and opens our eyes to ways we may be holding it off with ideas about how things are or ought to be. Many koans are themselves radical invitations into empathy and learning to see and feel ourselves in everything, and likewise seeing and feeling everything in our own being. Here we find not a hair’s breadth of distance between me and you and the world. What is Zen’s take on love and relationships? Here is a koan from one of our Zen ancestors, Baling, from Tang dynasty Chan: They help illuminate the territory of awakening, by helping us imagine our way into what it might be like. #BUDDHA SERENITY COSMIC SMALL DRAGON LANDSCAPE FULL#Koans are full of these glimpses and the images that arise in their midst. The moon is something you must discover for yourself, but the glimpses of those who have wandered ahead can help point the way. It’s often been said that Zen is like a finger pointing at the moon. ![]() Their paths have become our paths now, and, with any luck, we come to uncover their wisdom in our own hearts. Zen is also a lineage woven together through the discoveries of countless masters and adepts both known and unknown. Read more on our Koan Zen History and PZI lineage page. The teachings traveled and settled throughout Asia, and eventually migrated here to our own lands and language where we continue to uncover their wisdom and relevance to our times. #BUDDHA SERENITY COSMIC SMALL DRAGON LANDSCAPE HOW TO#Zen became a way of turning toward the great questions of human life and suffering during deeply troubled times, and evolved as a practice emphasizing how to be free regardless of circumstances. Zen is a transformative path that originated by way of Buddhism finding a home in the Chinese psyche long ago. ![]()
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