A Brief Debrief on the "Zen: One School, One Mind Workshop"
More photos below
The "Zen: One School, One Mind Workshop" at the beautiful Korinji Rinzai Zen Monastery near Reedsburg, Wisconsin, is now complete. I’ll be posting recordings of Meido Moore Roshi and my three discussions about awakening (what is it?; the focus and prioritizing required; and more) and other key issues for the Zen path today (models; pitfalls; compassion; and Zen at the end of the world) for paid subscribers, probably later this week.
If you aren't a paid subscriber, this would be a good time to make the leap, in order to view some of the almost five hours of our conversations (with assistance from the assembled students) about the past, present, and future of Zen.
Not that there really is a past, present, or future. Or that Meido Roshi and I really know what has happened, what is happening, or what will happen.
Meido Roshi and I first met in Chicago in 2009 at a dinner for Zen priests when I was giving a few talks about my first book, Keep Me In Your Heart Awhile: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri. We connected immediately. Since then, I've admired his work online and in print, and have learned a great deal from him. This was the first time we taught together. I'm honored (and humbled) to be the first Zen teacher from a lineage other than the Omori Sogen Roshi branch of the Rinzai line to teach at Korinji.
Although Meido Roshi and I have different training backgrounds – Meido Roshi in Rinzai (and, in recent years, in Tendai and Shingon) and me mostly in Soto – we share a perspective on the buddhadharma to an unusual degree. I also just enjoy Meido Roshi a lot.
As for the workshop, I found it inspiring to work together. The most important thing was to see the spirit of a homeleaver in Meido Roshi (rare these days) – and the burning Way-seeking Mind in his students.
The two groups of students – from Korinji and the Vine of Obstacles – flowed together into one group in a manner that confirmed that we are indeed One School.
The weekend workshop was an important step in the development of the Vine of Obstacles Zen's relationship with Meido Roshi and Korinji students. In addition, I hope it will help bring the broader Rinzai and Soto lineages a bit closer together.
For anyone interested in an intensive Zen residential training experience (either for sesshin or ango), this is the place. For those of you who identify as students of "Soto Zen," and so dismiss a Rinzai monastery as "other," I say, "The buddhadharma is not about sectarian divisions. Dogen Zenji's version of the kechimyaku (blood vein) emphasizes this understanding with these words: 'Observe that the Precept lineage of Sōtō and Rinzai is one track, complete, without side-roads.'”
Any Zen student could learn a lot about breath practice, wholeheartedness, letting go of self-clinging, and the traditional forms of Zen (and awakening) that go beyond any Soto and Rinzai distinction by training at Korinji with Meido Roshi. A teacher of his deep clarity is a rare and precious thing. So don't hold back!
After all, the Soto Zen pioneer, Katagiri Roshi, encouraged us to return to the Zen of the Sixth Ancestor – before the division into Soto and Rinzai.
Given the shaky condition of all worldly affairs, especially in these shoddy, shaky times, the opportunity to dive into practice and awakening is now.
