Zazen back home: Berkeley Zen Center

BASIC ZAZEN INSTRUCTION Founder Sojun Mel Weitsman Roshi (berkeleyzencenter.org)

What were we expecting for a Dharma talk? Something more like (San Francisco Zen Center) "Beginner's Mind" by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, archived Dharma talk, Nov. 11, 1965

WHAT HAPPENED?

Why'd I come from the West?

A group of seven meditators gathered Saturday morning at 8:40 am on Russell St. between MLK Jr. and Adeline at BZC. Zen Joe welcomed us into the Zendo for instruction, which is also online (Zoom). We were oriented on how to hold our hands, where to walk, where not to talk then got instruction on how to sit and hold ourselves erect. We got a short sit, walked out, came right back in for a full session of zazen. After that, following last week's lay entrustment ceremony, Sue (Ju'en Soetsu), 83, gave a Dharma talk, with precious little Dharma and lots of pablum, ordinary chitchat, very down homey and a whole lot of air. One was reminded of seeing Thich Nhat Hanh in one of his last visits to the Pasadena Auditorium, possibly his very last, articulating next to no words, just giving darshan, uncomfortably, with 5,000 or so onlookers hanging on his every exhale, singing songs, feeling so very in the moment, smiling, settling...until Thay finally made the point that "a flower is composed out of all non-cloud elements," an instruction meant to show [the impersonal nature of] emptiness (shunyata, anatta) that all we take to be so special about flowers is actually water from clouds, nourishment from mud and atmospheric gases, solar radiation, and so on. All that disparate stuff gives us flowers, just as the Five Aggregates give us living beings, who rarely if ever realize they are ultimately only that. One had to think, unless one had been inducted in the Zen cloud of not expecting anything, "Is that all there is, Cristina?"

Instead here, when Sue made some uber-generic observation, one of the helpers signed at the magnificence of the simplicity of her utterance. When we set up no expectations, it's hard to be disappointed. When we do, watch out. Some men in the audience of 40 tried to ask some deeper questions, Sue brushed them off as if she had been studying how to be a difficult Zen interviewee. "Yes," she answered to a multiple-choice question about the meaning of life. "Will you ever answer my question," the audience member persisted, "Yes." - "Will you do it now?" - "Don't worry about it," was her retort to the gleeful squeals of others in the know. Linda Roshi, the committee-selected BZC abbess of the last two years, gently nodded as if in approval. "What are we here but body, breath, and brain [mind]?" she asked rhetorically then quoted Woody Allen of all people, "Showing up is 80%." More heads nodded, and all we could think was, "This is a 'Dharma' talk?" Someone was viewing it on Zoom, so maybe it's recorded for anyone to review. We asked Zen Joe afterward, "Was that a normal Dharma talk?" He shrugged his shoulders and answered, "Yeah, pretty typical."

What's shikantaza ("just sitting")?

(Zen Fields) What is Shikantaza 1 (6 minutes)

Maybe all she said was a big "Zen" lesson?

"Some say that to speak of the meaning of the coming from the West is already wrong."

"People these days all make unconcern an understanding. Some say, 'There is no delusion or enlightenment: it's not necessary to go on seeking. Even before the Buddha appeared in the world, before Bodhidharma ever came to this country, it could not have been otherwise. What's the use of the Buddha appearing in the world? What did the Patriarch still come from the West for?"

All such views -- what relevance do they have? You must have greatly penetrated and greatly awakened: then as before, mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers, in fact all the myriad things are perfectly manifest. Then for the first time you can be an unconcerned person." - Roshi Reddit

We think that if we were to ask Sue what she meant, she would rightly say to us, "Don't worry about it."

• Ep. 144: "Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?"
• Review: "Why Has Bodhidharma Left for the East" by BYK

Zazen (sitting meditation) instruction

In-person Zazen instruction and beginner orientation

Why did Bodhidharma come?

BZC now offers Zen meditation instruction and orientation every Saturday morning, at 8:40 am. Visit BZC at 1933 Russell St., Berkeley by the Thai Theravada temple, next to the library.

BZC shares how we meditate and also some details about how to move around in the zendo (meditation hall) and join services (bowing and chanting).

Zen Master Bodhidharma | Quizlet

After orientation, participants are welcome to join the next period of zazen in the zendo (9:40 am) and a lecture at 10:15 am. The Saturday program ends at 11:30 am. There is no need to sign up. ALL are welcome!

Online instruction is no longer offered live. Please check out the link to Sojun Roshi’s instruction. Or explore the Teachers Page to make an appointment for a one-on-one zazen instruction.

More about zazen instruction

A 45-minute video meditation instruction from BZC's late Founder Sojun Weitsman Roshi: Sojun’s Roshi’s Sept. 2020 Zazen Instruction

• Abbot Hozan Alan Senauke 2020 essay: My Zazen
• Sojun Roshi: Dead or Alive? | Berkeley Zen Center

Hakuryu Sojun Roshi (Mel Weitsman)

ABOUT: Hakuryu Sojun Roshi (Mel Weitsman) began to practice at San Francisco Zen Center on Bush St. in 1964. In 1969 he was ordained by Suzuki Roshi as resident priest at the Berkeley Zendo. He received Dharma Transmission from Suzuki Roshi’s son and successor, Gyugaku Hoitsu, at Rinsoin Temple in Japan in 1984 and was officially installed as abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center in 1985. Along with his responsibilities in Berkeley, Sojun Roshi helped train students and teachers at several affiliated temples. From 1988 to 1997 he served as co-abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center. He gave Dharma Transmission to numerous students... More

Why Zen is the 'easiest' path to satori

Whatcha doin, SpongeBob? - Just sitting. - You mean shikantaza? - Uh, what? I mean, yeah, that.

Why Zen is the EASIEST path to enlightenment (but few understand it)

Can we speed this up? I've got things to do.

(Cinematic Bible Lore) May 16, 2025: 🌿 Is Enlightenment (redefined in Zen as satori or kensho rather than bodhi) really about effort, rituals, or sutra study, or could the simplest path be the most powerful?

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

• 0:00 What is Zen? [It's not monkey mind]
• 0:45 Bodhidharma: The Origin of Chan
• 2:48 Dōgen Zenji’s awakening
• 4:55 Why zazen is not meditation
• 6:58 Living [in] the present moment
• 8:20 Zen in daily life
• 11:08 How to practice zazen
• 16:41 The power of just sitting
• 18:49 Zen is Now

Don't think, Monkey. Zen mind is beginner's mind

This video dives deeply into the essence of Zen Buddhism — a tradition that goes beyond concepts and leads to direct experience of awakening through simplicity.

Discover the story of Bodhidharma, the teachings of Dōgen Zenji, and why zazen (seated meditation) is not just a technique — but a way of mindfully living in the here and now.

Whether new to Zen or deep in practice, this guide reveals why Zen is the easiest — and most overlooked — path to enlightenment.

🧘 LEARN:

• Why Zen rejects dogma, rituals, and intellectual striving
• The power of zazen: how “just sitting” (shikantaza) becomes awakening
• How Dōgen’s teachings dissolve the illusion of time and ego
• Why the present moment holds everything we seek
• How to bring Zen into daily acts like washing, walking, or breathing

💬 Question: Ever felt fully present — free from discursive thought, self, and striving? Share the experience in the comments.

📺 Explore more: 🎥 The Deepest Teaching of Buddha 🎥 The Secret Behind Zazen Meditation 🎥 Buddhism vs. Zen – What's the real difference?

👉 Like, share, and subscribe to join in weekly journeys through the world’s deepest spiritual traditions. 📌 Hashtags #ZenBuddhism #ZazenMeditation #DogenZenji #SimplePathToEnlightenment #PresentMomentPractice #ZenExplained #Mindfulness

• Cinematic Bible Lore; May 16, 2025; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Instructions to the Cook: Zen life lessons

Shambhala.com; CC Liu, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Samu: The Dynamic Expression of Zen Practice (Roshi Joan Halifax's Upaya Zen Center)

The recipe for Zen cooking from Being Magazine (wellbeing.com.au)

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Instructions to the Cook (shambhala.com)

Zen [Japanese, from the Pali word for "meditation" and "meditative absorption" or jhana, Chinese chan] is not just about what we do in the meditation hall, but what we do in the home, the workplace, and the community.

That’s the premise of the book Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master's Lessons in Living a Life That Matters: how to cook what Zen Buddhists call “the supreme meal” — life.

It has to be nourishing, and it has to be shared. And we can use only the ingredients at hand.

Author Zen Master Bernie Glassman

Inspired by the 13th-century manual of the same title by Zen Master Dogen, the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen school, Instructions to the Cook describes the innovative business model American JuBu Roshi Bernie Glassman developed to revitalize a poverty-stricken section of Yonkers, New York.

Co-author Rick Fields

Using his own story as a base, Roshi Glassman and his co-author Rick Fields (How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America) shows how social engagement can be used as a spiritual practice to promote both personal and societal transformation. More

CO-AUTHORS

• Bernie Glassman (born 1939) is a Zen master and the first dharma successor to Taizan Maezumi Roshi, founder of the Zen Center of Los Angeles (ZCLA). He is well known for integrating Zen practice with social, economic, and educational initiatives, author of Bearing Witness: A Zen Master's Lessons in Making Peace and Infinite Circle: Teachings in Zen. More
• Rick Fields (1942–1999) is the author of several books, including Chop Wood, Carry Water and The Code of the Warrior. He has served as the editor of The Vajradhatu Sun, an international journal of Buddhism (now called Shambhala Sun), and as the editor-at-large of Tricycle: A Buddhist Review. More

Jewish Buddhist LOVE: Zen (Shinzen Young)

Shinzen Young (YouTube); CC Liu, Pat Macpherson, Ananda (DBM) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

After Enlightenment? Love deeply and act effectively - Shinzen Young

What do these ten pictures represent?

(Shinzen Videos) Los Angeles JuBu Shinzen Young weaves stories of the famous Ox Herding pictures and various impressive bodhisattvas ("beings bent on supreme enlightenment") -- including a Holocaust survivor and Buddhist activist, and a "marathon monk" he has known and been influenced by, to get to the true point of this Buddhist practice.

• For more about the Ox Herding pictures

I'm a Jewish Buddhist (JuBu).

Go to shinzen.org for more information on Shinzen Young and his teachings -- including meditation retreats, blog, speaking engagements, and writings.

Home Practice Program includes live monthly phone teachings. Life Practice Program includes live 45 minutes of Shinzen Young guiding practitioners to help their lives. 

Core Free Introduction to Unified Mindfulness recorded and edited by Stephanie Nash: strategicmindfulness.net youtube.com

• mindfulnessarts.org/blog
  

This is a re-posting of a video that was added on 7/7/17, which had over 400 views in less than 20 hours, but a slight edit had to be made, and this repost is the new video.

ZEN: How to "do" Zazen (BMZC)

Beginner's Mind Zen Center (beginnersmindzencenter.org); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

​How to do Zazen​

“To study Buddhism is to study the self;

to study the self is to forget the self.”

- Dogen

​How to Sit

What Bodhidharma knew we shall know (ACZC)

Zazen (sitting  Zenmeditation) instructions are available for everyone upon request. Please contact BMZC for details.

To "do" meditation [if such a thing can be "done"] is to set aside time to be the real us. Meditation without any goal helps us see that who we consider our “selves” may not be who we truly are.

All things change.

But the self of our thoughts and feelings cannot always accept change. So we suffer.

Meditation helps us experience things as they really are and ourselves as we are. Through meditation, we can forget the self and free up space to care for others in the world. The 14th Dalai Lama has said that the point of Buddhism is to become kind. We become more joyful as well.

​How to Begin

​If we want to try sitting by ourselves, we find a place at home where we can sit without being disturbed or distracted. Don’t sit in a very light or very dark room. Pull the shades or close the blinds or leave on a light. Turn off the phone. Light incense if it pleases.

Soto Zen Buddhists generally sit facing the wall. This form began with Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism. We can sit on a chair, on a cushion, or any substitute (such as a small bench made for this purpose). Even a folded blanket works.

• If one sits on a chair, sit straight up on the chair.
• If one sits on cushions, sit with ankles crossed, under, or to one side.
• If it is possible, we can also sit in half lotus or full lotus position.
• If one is sick or dizzy, we can meditate lying down.

Rest the left hand on the right hand so that thumbs touch lightly above the fingers, forming an oval shape. (This is called a mudra). Let the hands rest comfortably against the lower area of the abdomen about three inches below the navel.

​How to Breathe

We sit upright to breathe fully. Our shoulders should be directly over our hips. Our ears should line up with our shoulders.

Keep the mouth closed and pull the chin in slightly. Look down at a 30-to-45-degree angle. Let the eyes partially close, without focusing on anything.

Relax the neck. Imagine a line running from the bottom of the spine to the top of the head – and on up to the ceiling.

Now inhale deeply through the nose. Breathe all the way in through the nose. Then exhale naturally — slowly and completely — through the nose. Our inhale will take slightly less time than than our exhale. If breathing seems too shallow, put a slight weight on it. As the exhale ends, one will naturally inhale.

Count the breaths. Near the end of the exhale, say silently “one.” Repeat this. When reaching “ten,” start over again with “one.” But if one loses track (which is easy to do), that's fine: Just begin again with “one.” Whether we ever reach “ten” or not is unimportant.

​What to Think About

​Thoughts and physical sensations may pull at our attention. Don’t focus on them. Don’t try to get rid of them. “Let thoughts come in and go out,” Suzuki Roshi would say. Just “don’t serve them tea.”

We are solely with our body and mind. It may be our first awareness of body and mind completely together.

​When to Sit

​Any time is a good time for sitting.

Some like to sit in the morning just after rising, or just after getting back from work, or just before going to bed. These are easy times for one to schedule.

The important thing is to decide when to sit. Then stick to it. We mostly belong to our habits. If we don’t make a commitment to meditate a certain number of days a week at the same time (or times), we are much less likely to continue.

​How Long to Sit

​Starting with five minutes is fine. Eventually we may get up to 30 or 40 minutes. This is the amount one would be sitting if one sat with a group. At first, just sit for the length of time determined. Set a kitchen-timer or something similar to know when the period is over.

​Sitting with a Group

Meditating alone is fine. However, sometimes it is better to sit with others. When obstacles appear, it is oftentimes harder to continue regular meditation when we are sitting alone.

It is good to have the help of others when meditating. It is helpful to be able to observe someone who has been sitting for some time. It is important to have people who can answer our questions about Buddhism and encourage us. The example of peers will greatly help us with our practice.

The people we choose to practice with becomes our sangha (spiritual community). Our sangha helps us keep going when things become discouraging.

Find a group near enough to attend at least once a week.

If we are very fortunate, we will find a group with an experienced meditation teacher.

We may have a choice of different groups with different styles of meditation. It is not unusual for someone to study several schools of Buddhism (Theravada, Vajrayana, Mahayana, Pure Land, Esoteric, Mantrayana, Tantra, etc.) before settling on a group that feels comfortable.

No matter where one sits or how one sits, all are always welcome at Beginner’s Mind Zen Center. More

• Fridays PM Zazen (Meditation), Friday, September 9, 2022, 7:30 PM | Meetup

The Zen of Farting (Alan Watts)

Alan Watts (alanwatts.org); Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

The title is far better than the book, a bad joke gone too far. Better to hear Alan Watts:

The Buddha Laughs: Zen and the Comic Spirit

Sasha's Reviews, 7/7/15 (goodreads.com); Dhr. Seven, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

REVIEW: The Buddha Laughs: Zen and the Comic Spirit by Rev. Dr. M. Conrad Hyers, Ph.D.*

Zen and the Comic Spirit is OK. Hyers attempts to explain Zen humor might be well intended, but in the end the book lacks structure, consistency, and tries too much to find a Western equivalent to it all.

It blurs the line of Congdao/Soto and Linji/Rinzai Zen and is a bit too much in the line of Suzuki Zen to find a proper definition of what Zen humor entails.

It does have interesting and insightful bits and pieces, but as a whole it glosses over too many different concepts and presents it as a unit.

*ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Conrad Hyers was an American writer, lecturer, and ordained Presbyterian minister. He received his Ph.D. in theology and philosophy of religion from Princeton Theological Seminary. Before retiring he was a professor of religion at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota from 1977-1997.

Meditation: When it's "Just Sitting" (Zen)

Kirk McElhearn (The Loop Magazine #28); Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

Just Sitting: The Zen Practice of shikantaza

Once or twice a day, I sit facing a wall in my home.

• In the Sōtō Zen tradition, one meditates with the eyes partially open, facing a wall. This is to minimize the distraction of seeing other people while you meditate. Many other traditions involved closed-eyed meditation, and you can sit anywhere.

Zen enso or circle: empty zero?

I just sit. I sit for 20 minutes, a half-hour, sometimes more. But I just sit. I sit and think not thinking; I do that by non-thinking.

 

This is the Zen practice of shikantaza or “just sitting.” You sit, cross-legged if you can, and let your mind alone.

When you stop thinking, you reach a point of non-thinking. It’s one of the typical paradoxes of Zen that makes your brain try and twist around those words, “not,” “non-,” and “thinking” to figure out what they mean.

 

Zen Crossword Puzzle (bizarro.com)

Unlike other forms of meditation, shikantaza doesn’t involve concentrating on an object, such as your breath or a mantra.

It is “objectless meditation,” where you focus on everything you experience [and therefore not objectless as one shifts to what is salient in the internal and external environment] -- thoughts, sounds, feelings -- without attaching [clinging] to any of them.

When you get there, you know what it is.

Instruction

Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form.

“Once you have adjusted your posture, take a deep breath, inhale and exhale, rock your body right and left, and settle into a steady, immobile sitting position. Think not-thinking. How do you think not-thinking? Non-thinking. This in itself is the essential art of zazen.”

- Master Eihei Dōgen, Fukan zazengi

  

I’ve been practicing meditation off and on for about 25 years. After following the Tibetan tradition [Vajrayana] for a while, I drifted among other forms of practice, notably Theravada insight meditation [vipassana], before settling on Zen.

There are many different schools of meditation, and even in Zen, there are two main currents, Rinzai and Sōtō. It is the latter, Sōtō Zen, founded by Eihei Dōgen in the 13th century, that feels right to me. It’s the one whose main practice is just sitting. More

• For more about shikantaza see The Art of Just Sitting: Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Shikantaza. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind is one of the best books for an introduction to Zen.
• Look for a local Sōtō Zen center, or visit Treeleaf, an online Zen community that has members all over the world.

"And what are you supposed to be?" "Anthony Weiner." Happy Halloween! (bizarro.com)

How to meditate Zen (Master Dogen)

Ven. Eihei Dogen's Fukanzazengi (1227), Soto Zen Text Project, Stanford University (translation); Jeff Albrizze (PasaDharma.org), Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Carrying firewood: First the ecstasy then the laundry...but someone forgot the ecstasy.

"Learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward." - Dogen

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Universally Recommended Zazen Instructions

This pivotal Zen text, which was written in 1227 by Eihei Dogen, the Japanese monk who brought Zen from China to Japan, was one of the first pieces he wrote when he returned.

It opens with an introduction that answers the question that led him to go to China in the first place: 

If we are originally endowed with the Buddha nature [the potential for enlightenment], why is it been necessary for us to seek enlightenment or even to engage in spiritual practice?

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The Way is originally perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent on practice and realization? The true vehicle is self-sufficient. What need is there for special effort?

Indeed, the whole body is free from dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from this very place; what is the use of traveling around to practice?
 

Stare until the heart-mind settles.

Yet, if there is a hairsbreadth deviation, it is like the gap between heaven and earth [lofty space and firm ground]. If the least like or dislike arises, the mind [heart] is lost in confusion.

Suppose you are confident in your understanding and rich in enlightenment, gaining the wisdom that knows at a glance, attaining the Way and clarifying the mind, arousing an aspiration to reach for the heavens.

You are playing in the entrance way, but you are still are short of the vital path of emancipation.
 

Start sitting with a group; it's easier.

Consider the Buddha: although he was wise at birth, the traces of his six years of upright sitting can yet be seen. As for Bodhidharma [who brought Buddhism to China from South India], although he had received the mind-seal, his nine years of facing a wall is celebrated still. If even the ancient sages were like this, how can we today dispense with wholehearted practice?

Therefore, put aside the intellectual practice of investigating words and chasing phrases, and learn to take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your original face will manifest. If you want to realize such, get to work on such right now.

Roshi Jeff Albrizze

For practicing Zen, a quiet room is suitable. Eat and drink moderately [not so much as to become dull and drowsy, not so little as to be restless and hungry]. Put aside all involvements and suspend all affairs.

Do not think "good" or "bad." Do not judge true or false. Give up the operations of mind, intellect, and consciousness; stop measuring with thoughts, ideas, and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. How could that be limited to sitting or lying down?

At your sitting place, spread out a thick mat and  put a cushion on it. Sit... More

• Want to teach Buddhist meditation in LA? Contact us.

How to solve Zen koans (cartoon)

CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Gia Yesu, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly, with instructor Betsy Enduring Vow (ZCLA) and Grayson and Roshi Jeff Albrizze (PasaDharma.org)

IF koans (Zen Buddhist "riddles" from the Japanese word for "public case") are not for intellectually "solving" or "deciphering," what are they for?

ZCLA is an oasis of diversity (Obon)

We went down to the Zen Center of Los Angeles today with Roshi Albrizze (PasaDharma.org) to see Roshi Tenshin Fletcher (zmc.org) and took ZP-1 (Zen Practice, Module 1, ZCLA's intro class). 

Noah Levine (breitenbush)

Author and Theravada insight meditation (vipassana) practitioner Noah Levine, co-founder of Dharma Punx/Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, was on hand with us for basic training. We learned to sit up straight, bend down to bow fully, hold our hands with opposing thumb-tips on our laps, walk as slowly as humanly possible, and were given some insight into "working with koans." Fortunately, Noah pressed and pressed to get at the point of koan practice. The example Betsy gave was:

 

Yes I do, Joshu! We all do.

A monk asked Zen master Joshu, "Does a dog have Buddha nature or not?" The Zen master replied, "Moo!" (Japanese mu, negation, "not," "nonbeing").* Betsy went on to explain that this would be like the Archbishop of Los Angeles asking the Italian pope, "Is there a God?" and the pontiff answering, "Hell no!" A paradox, because surely a figurehead like the leader of the Catholic Church believes in his deity, so why would he negate the archbishop's question? Thinking will not arrive at an answer, but there is a way to find out. How does one solve it and, moreover, what would be the point of solving it?

 

*This famous question comes from a fragment of a koan (Case 1, The Gateless Gate). Paradoxically, another koan (Case 18, The Book of Serenity) presents a longer version, in which Joshu answers "yes" in response to the exact same question asked by a different monk.

Noah, did it blow your mind? It did ours, like a rake in a rock garden! (buddhistmedia)

Homer goes to hell for a day (Avici), and Flanders is the devil.

 

How to solve koans

Pick a finger (Gutei)

There is no thinking, grappling, ruminating, or pondering involved. That is surely a dead end. An answer/solution arrived at in this way, if it is good and particularly pithy, will "stink of Zen." The bell will ring, and the interviewer (for dokusan or face-to-face meeting) will yell, "Next!" 

 

Of course, "Next!" is what s/he'll yell even if the Zen practitioner gets it "right." But s/he won't do it with a twinkle in his or her eye acknowledging that you were onto something this time, and it is now appropriate to move on to the next public case.

Instead of "thinking," a koan is successfully resolved by grokking, that is, by a semi-subconscious remembrance of the case without straining to get anywhere in an effort to solve it. Rock/grok it gently like a baby at heart level. In this way, illumination dawns, an epiphany (satori) occurs, and a deep certainty arises that one has understood what the conscious mind could never have hammered out by mere reasoning.

Roshi Jeff Albrizze (PT)

So when Bart Simpson was asked, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" the answer was not to slap his digits against his palms producing a muted clap. It was, instead, a way of opening the boy up to a world of conscious possibility, an awareness or knowing beyond thought and wit and reason. 

 

"Intuition" is a name for it, but it is very misleading due to the connotations we've layered on. "A knowing that surpasseth all understanding" is a Christian translation for the phenomenon that seems to approximate the wordless experience. "Direct knowledge" unmediated and unencumbered by the thought process might be a New Age way of stating it.

Budai: Fat, Happy Homer "Buddha" Simpson statue (Kidrobot)

 

"Japanese Yosemite" (Kamikōchi), Nagano Prefecture, altitude 4,900 ft. (1,500 m). The kami or kanji 神垣内 of Kami-ko-uchi are the shapeshifting mountain monsters of Japan. This water soaked site resembles the flooding Yokoji ZMC near Idylwild, California, experienced after a wildfire annihilated the earth-retaining forest all around the center.

  

Dharma talk: Zen Mountain Center to rebuild?

Fire dragon of flames (privet.ru)

Abbot Tenshin, Yokoji Zen Mountain Center (ZMC): Tenshin's "Dharma" talk was brief and to the point: There was a fire, but a fire crew made up of convicts/volunteer firefighters, who had learned to meditate at Yokoji, refused to give up when ordered to abandon ZMC by the fire department.

 

Their heroic efforts saved the Yokoji. Proving there's no such thing as karma, or that there is such a thing as karma, but that it rarely -- as happened here -- turns around to benefit one so clearly and tangibly.

 

However, karma works in mysterious ways: What fire could not do, Nature obliged the rains to take care of: Five days of California monsoon weather (due, we think, to climate chaos and our deteriorating environment) washed down tons of muddy debris on ZMC, covering most of the site under three feet of silt and ashes. Maybe it will be dug out, maybe it won't. Trees' lives hang in the balance.

Tenshin Fletcher (zmc.org)

Although the trees are all hearty redwoods, they cannot bear to have their trunks sunk underground. Donations of time, effort, and funds would help, but Tenshin is reluctant to say so. For the one thing he has learned through all of these ordeals is that he and his family will survive. Life may be full of ups and downs, but we can remain relatively steady in the ebb and flow, wave and trough, high and low. Abbot Tenshin Fletcher -- who received helpful advice from Tassajara in Big Sur (San Francisco Zen Center), which famously survived a California forest fire -- previously lived and worked at ZCLA years ago and has remained a vibrant Dharma friend of the current ZCLA Abbess Wendy Nakao and many of the center's older and disproportionately Jewish-Buddhist (JuBu) residents.