in the Cloud

Heaven and earth collapsed and were reduced to dust. All my karmic sins were extinguished as if in a bolt of lightning.  —Yamada Koun, poem upon his awakening.

Description: Henry continues exploring Hakuin Zenji’s Song of Zazen. We look at suffering as portrayed in the “six realms” of existence. Henry asks, What makes us take a step toward a better way to be human?  The first ox-herding picture represents this first step, where we begin to seek our own mind, our original nature, which is incomparable to anything we normally experience. The Song of Zazen encourges us to cultivate the six perfections, including dana (generosity), sila (ethical conduct), kshanti (patience) and virya (energy). Keep sitting and practicing, zazen encompasses the whole universe!

Post Image: Row of Six Jizo Bosatsu, by Paul Trafford, CC BY 2.0.

Featured Image Credit: #zazen, by toufeeq hussain, CC BY-SA 2.0.

If we have not been able to make a relationship with our suffering, frustration and neuroses, the feasibility of transmission is … extremely remote. We have not even made a proper relationship with the most basic level of our experience.  — Chögyam Trungpa

Description: Henry explores Hakuin Zenji’s Song of Zazen during this year’s Rohatsu sesshin. In this first of five teishos, Henry introduces us to Hakuins’ tremendous determination to find out who he really was. Henry describes Hakuin’s history, his fear of hell, his early practice and training and his first powerful experience of awakening.  Henry uses Hakuin’s experience to illustrate the profound nature of Zen “experience” or kensho, yet to also stress that it’s critical that the experience be grounded in a clear path of practice and training.

Post Image: The Way is Home, by Hartwig HKD, CC BY-ND 2.0.

Featured Image Credit: #zazen, by toufeeq hussain, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Description: In this illuminating teisho,  Henry explores the core of Zen training, using stories about Master Hyakujo and Winston Churchill, along with quotes from Muso Soseki  and Master Sheng-Yen, to elucidate Zen’s fundamental root.

Post Image: Morning Dew Drops, by David Saddler, CC BY 2.0.

Featured Image Credit: Zen Garden, by Rennette Stowe, CC BY 2.0.

Description: In this eloquent teisho, Henry talks about the necessity of courage in Zen practice.  When we sit, we divest ourselves of our habitual views, which block us from seeing clearly what’s going on within. During meditation practice, a multitude of feelings and thoughts may spin through our minds. Feelings of fear, sadness, anxiety, etc. bubble up to our surface awareness. Facing these often troubling feelings, requires courage—defined as an “attitude of acceptance” toward fear.  Once we offer this attitude of acceptance to fear, the energy of courage peals away a layer of our heart, which allows us to be vulnerable and humble.

Henry explores how courage relates directly to the three essentials of zen training:  great faith, great doubt and great determination. Courage may be the key to all of these.  It takes courageous faith and determination to point the beam of awareness onto our habitual preoccupations ,and it takes courageous doubt to ultimately question that little felt-sense nugget of “I” which we each believe to be “me.” To radically feel or see through that nugget is frighteningly disorientating and requires heroic and determined courage.

Post Image: Antelope canyon, by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0.

Featured Image Credit: What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?, By Manoj Vasanth, CC BY 2.0.

Description: Henry finishes his discussion of Unmon’s Mt Sumeru. In addition to cutting through our thought streams, Unmon’s powerful short phrase teachings also “ride the waves and sail the swells.” Henry describes how Unmon’s words go along with each student, reaching directly into the student’s understanding. Henry reads from Dogen and talks about the need to fully meet life—metaphorically, both at the peak of the mountain and in the depth of the ocean.

Post Image: Sunset Ride, by Ron Kroetz, CC BY 2.0.

Featured Image Credit: Sunrise of Tengger Caldera, by Jean-Marie Hullot (edited), CC BY-SA 2.0.