Living Zen Series: A Special Year-Long Program of Study and Practice
The monk Zuigan used to start every day by saying to himself out loud: “Master, are you there?” And he would answer himself: “Yes sir, I am!” Then he would say, “Better sober up!” Again he would answer, “Yes sir! I’ll do that!” Then he would say, “Look out now, don’t let them fool you!” And he would answer, “Oh no, sir, I won’t! I won’t!”
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In this year-long series of courses we will explore Zen approaches to meeting the challenge of human life. Each course will focus on one of the three questions that the ninth-century Chinese Zen monk Zuigan asked himself each day.
Fall 2016: Zen Awakening “Are you there?”
It is easy for us to not be present—to miss our appointment with life. But we can turn toward aliveness—we can discover how to wake up. This course will look closely at the actual process of awakening, strengthening our familiarity with this practice and this potentiality of human life.
Winter 2017: Zen Action “Better sober up.”
We tend to become intoxicated with our opinions, our prejudices, our moods, and our projections. These then condition our actions in the world. This course will focus on how our actions can be stable, upright, and beneficial to ourselves and to others, even—and especially—in the midst of challenging circumstances.
Spring 2017: Zen Insight “Don’t let them fool you.”
The main source of fooling ourselves is ourselves, even when it seems to come from others. In this course we will explore vivid and expansive expressions of wisdom, cultivating an orientation to our experienced reality that encompasses deep truth.