Stoep Zen

The Dharma of dogs, mystics, philosophers, funerals, Zen koans and Just This. Does a dog have Buddha nature?

Zen Dharma is conveyed most directly in action, but also through words and images. Among the images discussed here is that of living from the inside, deep within the dynamic flow of this very life.

We watch to see what's coming up the track and on the periphery there is the vast emptiness of what may yet happen. Both of these are included in our practice of paying attention.

The activity of self fills our life and leaks into our Zen. By practising with no idea of gain or enlightenment, self has already fallen off and we are left in the vast field of Just This.

Inside or outside of retreat, we are forever moving between attention and distraction. When we learn to embrace both, we find that this is the ground of our practice, one that already contains care, intimacy and connection. One we can trust.

In our practice we stop, drop from our head into our body, pay attention and connect to our world. What we call compassion is not an ideal to be pursued as much as an expression of being awake.

When our default mode of self becomes porous in Zen practice, what is left is All-inclusive life experienced as Just This.

We are the closed fist. We are also the open hand. These are the inbreath and outbreath of our practice. How will we use them?

When life looks difficult, it is. But that is not all; there is also this - to take the broom and sweep the yard with no hesitation. Make this your year for a Zen retreat!

When we come into ourselves, we are naturally awake and the world naturally meets us. So selfless, so simple.