Vine student comments
about our summer practice session on
Dogen's Guidelines for Studying the Way
Gateway to the path
- from our summer sesshin at the North Carolina Zen Center
- from our summer sesshin at the North Carolina Zen Center
I have noticed an increase in body and mind harmony which leads to deeper samadhi states and insights. When the habit energy & thought patterns are let go of or just run out of juice, I can feel a shift in life.
- HK
I have experienced more awareness of the way that I protect this non-existent self and the way I play out familiar patterns... I deeply appreciate being a student on the Vine.
- MM
I have felt a growing sense of continuity in my daily practice... I was grateful for the check-in practice (that little extrinsic motivation certainly helps) and pleased to see that I could meet my commitments most weeks without burning myself out in the process. This continuity seems to make me a more stable father and husband, too.
- FL
I am surprised, humbled, and grateful for finally realizing that fellow practitioners' perspectives and insights can open things for me in unimagined ways. Habitually stubborn and independent, I have resisted learning from others, thinking it is up to me to "figure things out". My practice is my responsibility, but it's enriched and enlivened by others.
- MR
Being the kind of busy I am, I found the structure that the Vine imposes on my day to be almost sesshin-like. To participate in the Vine, I have to get up every day, and start it with zazen, chanting and study. It creates a container for the rest of my day. There is a “let go and follow the schedule” quality to it that reminds me of sesshin. Additionally, the summer practice period was about how to practice. So my days were centered within my practice that was focused on how to practice. Through it all, the process reminds me daily to focus on what is truly important to me.
- SZ
At the beginning of the [summer] period I was struggling more to organize my time and to devote specific time for Vine work. At the end, I understood that there is nothing to think about. There is just doing, so I started doing it and just fulfilling my commitments.
- EC
Trusting the body and letting go of the mind’s grip. Today I took a walk and allowed the autumn morning to fill me with joy. I didn’t have my usual worry that summer was over and winter is coming. I just received the fresh air and beautiful colors as they were. I think I understood this idea intellectually before, but through this [summer] practice period I came to understand it more physically…. It was never going to be the right time to start, and I am so glad I did.
- NR
I feel like I have a much clearer understanding of Dogen’s ideas about practice and enlightenment. The guidelines are direct, cutting to the quick. And the rigor of the summer session, along with my now regular sitting in the morning sessions, has given my practice more focus. I feel like this practice is something I inhabit throughout the day now...
- JD
I'm as committed as ever to the Buddha Way... this summer has revealed to me how tired I am of the perpetual, hamster wheel identity center story bullshit; it's exhausting. And I can sit in silence with a group of people on Zoom and in a zendo out in the woods and become intimately connected with them through space and time.
- MK
- HK
I have experienced more awareness of the way that I protect this non-existent self and the way I play out familiar patterns... I deeply appreciate being a student on the Vine.
- MM
I have felt a growing sense of continuity in my daily practice... I was grateful for the check-in practice (that little extrinsic motivation certainly helps) and pleased to see that I could meet my commitments most weeks without burning myself out in the process. This continuity seems to make me a more stable father and husband, too.
- FL
I am surprised, humbled, and grateful for finally realizing that fellow practitioners' perspectives and insights can open things for me in unimagined ways. Habitually stubborn and independent, I have resisted learning from others, thinking it is up to me to "figure things out". My practice is my responsibility, but it's enriched and enlivened by others.
- MR
Being the kind of busy I am, I found the structure that the Vine imposes on my day to be almost sesshin-like. To participate in the Vine, I have to get up every day, and start it with zazen, chanting and study. It creates a container for the rest of my day. There is a “let go and follow the schedule” quality to it that reminds me of sesshin. Additionally, the summer practice period was about how to practice. So my days were centered within my practice that was focused on how to practice. Through it all, the process reminds me daily to focus on what is truly important to me.
- SZ
At the beginning of the [summer] period I was struggling more to organize my time and to devote specific time for Vine work. At the end, I understood that there is nothing to think about. There is just doing, so I started doing it and just fulfilling my commitments.
- EC
Trusting the body and letting go of the mind’s grip. Today I took a walk and allowed the autumn morning to fill me with joy. I didn’t have my usual worry that summer was over and winter is coming. I just received the fresh air and beautiful colors as they were. I think I understood this idea intellectually before, but through this [summer] practice period I came to understand it more physically…. It was never going to be the right time to start, and I am so glad I did.
- NR
I feel like I have a much clearer understanding of Dogen’s ideas about practice and enlightenment. The guidelines are direct, cutting to the quick. And the rigor of the summer session, along with my now regular sitting in the morning sessions, has given my practice more focus. I feel like this practice is something I inhabit throughout the day now...
- JD
I'm as committed as ever to the Buddha Way... this summer has revealed to me how tired I am of the perpetual, hamster wheel identity center story bullshit; it's exhausting. And I can sit in silence with a group of people on Zoom and in a zendo out in the woods and become intimately connected with them through space and time.
- MK
