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Steeped In Moonlight
This morning, I had the pleasure of offering a Dharma Talk to the No Barriers Zen sangha—my sangha. I’m grateful for the opportunity, and humbled by everyone’s attentive presence and thoughtful comments and questions.
The talk centers on the practice of zazen (seated meditation), “choppy waves,” how we can navigate them, and what we might find along the way. Part playful and part serious, I speak from my experience and encourage reconnecting with our bodies, all while pointing toward great trust in ourselves.
I refer to Eihei Dogen Zenji’s Fukanzazengi (Universal Recommendations for the Practice of Zazen) several times. You can read a translation of the text here.
Also, I use one of Rumi’s poems to describe how unsettled I felt in zazen during a year of transition. The poem is reproduced below.
Enjoy—and may you discover “the vital path of letting your body leap.”
The moon swooped down the dawn sky
and spotted me.
Like a falcon, it snatched me up
and whisked me across the sky.
I looked for myself, my hands, my feet,
saw nothing there.
Steeped in moonlight,
flesh and bone were invisible as soul.
Seeing only the moon,
I journeyed through mysteries,
to the highest of them all—eternity, eternal life.
Call it union. Call it shoreless light.
Sea of radiance flooding sight.
Nine spheres of heaven drowned there.
The ship of my being went down.
Reason burst back up,
bobbling through choppy waves,
babbling, boasting,
I saw this then that. I saw that then this.
The sea surged and foamed.
From every bubble, an image sprang,
a body took shape, marked by mind,
sentient, conscious,
rising from the sea for a spell—
a life—
before vanishing among the waves,
a flash.
How to soar with the moon
and drown in the sea?
Listen to Shams of Tabriz.
Shoreless light lives on his lips.
Get full access to A Phoenix’s Hut at hoantaishin.substack.com/subscribe
My study and writing about the Dharma is supported in part by you. If you benefit from what I offer here, please consider sharing and subscribing—even becoming a paid subscriber. You may also offer dāna through Paypal. I am grateful for your generosity.
If you benefitted from this offering, you might consider reading:
Get full access to A Phoenix’s Hut at hoantaishin.substack.com/subscribe
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By Taishin Michael AugustinThis morning, I had the pleasure of offering a Dharma Talk to the No Barriers Zen sangha—my sangha. I’m grateful for the opportunity, and humbled by everyone’s attentive presence and thoughtful comments and questions.
The talk centers on the practice of zazen (seated meditation), “choppy waves,” how we can navigate them, and what we might find along the way. Part playful and part serious, I speak from my experience and encourage reconnecting with our bodies, all while pointing toward great trust in ourselves.
I refer to Eihei Dogen Zenji’s Fukanzazengi (Universal Recommendations for the Practice of Zazen) several times. You can read a translation of the text here.
Also, I use one of Rumi’s poems to describe how unsettled I felt in zazen during a year of transition. The poem is reproduced below.
Enjoy—and may you discover “the vital path of letting your body leap.”
The moon swooped down the dawn sky
and spotted me.
Like a falcon, it snatched me up
and whisked me across the sky.
I looked for myself, my hands, my feet,
saw nothing there.
Steeped in moonlight,
flesh and bone were invisible as soul.
Seeing only the moon,
I journeyed through mysteries,
to the highest of them all—eternity, eternal life.
Call it union. Call it shoreless light.
Sea of radiance flooding sight.
Nine spheres of heaven drowned there.
The ship of my being went down.
Reason burst back up,
bobbling through choppy waves,
babbling, boasting,
I saw this then that. I saw that then this.
The sea surged and foamed.
From every bubble, an image sprang,
a body took shape, marked by mind,
sentient, conscious,
rising from the sea for a spell—
a life—
before vanishing among the waves,
a flash.
How to soar with the moon
and drown in the sea?
Listen to Shams of Tabriz.
Shoreless light lives on his lips.
Get full access to A Phoenix’s Hut at hoantaishin.substack.com/subscribe
My study and writing about the Dharma is supported in part by you. If you benefit from what I offer here, please consider sharing and subscribing—even becoming a paid subscriber. You may also offer dāna through Paypal. I am grateful for your generosity.
If you benefitted from this offering, you might consider reading:
Get full access to A Phoenix’s Hut at hoantaishin.substack.com/subscribe