.
Her other root teacher was BZC Founder
Mel Weitsman, a direct transmitted disciple of
Shunryū Suzuki, who also founded two affiliated temples,
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center and the
San Francisco Zen Center). For the weekly Saturday Dharma talk, Abbot Linda as she is referred to, extolled the virtues of
Theravada Insight Meditation, also known as
vipassana, stating that while it is different than Zen's
shikantaza, it is just the same. That is to say, they coordinate and aid one another to bring about the same
realization (
kenshō) or “clear seeing.”
Vipassana literally means “
special or clear seeing.”
Is
satori “
insight”? Not quite but not altogether different, both being a kind of iteration of wisdom (
prajñā), clearly
seeing into the true nature of experience -- directly perceiving what is ever-present but usually unseen:
The Three Marks of Existence.
These weekly Dharma talks, and we've attended a few now, generally amount to nothing, doing nothing, accomplishing nothing, but seeming very deep for their Taoist-style nothingness or pointlessness. It may just be that they land later, filled with wisdom and no rush to make any obvious point. Last Saturday (8/22/26), an elderly Zen abbess from Santa Cruz, a long-time professor at
UC Santa Cruz (
UCSC.edu), gave a wonderful talk about social suicide, literally. She discussed her intimate familiarity with plagiarism and academic scandals in the social sciences as brought up by the tragic case of an accused person-of-color at Cambridge University in England. Accusations by a right-wing troll led to an investigation of Black Prof.
Jason Arday (RIP), who was humiliated by the accusation and chose to end his life in ignominy. This is tragic, our Zen speaker explained, because far worse is done by seasoned senior white professors who weather the storm, which usually comes to nothing, no retraction, no dismissal, no punishment. It seems to be the way of hubris and academic progress. She would know because she sat on many a committee to deal with such issues as well as being part of the peer-review process, which even when it turns up plagiarism by professors usually comes to naught.
But this talk was different, better, more substantive, less fluffy white rice, more solid and
gomashio-sprinkled
tofu, as it were. Why? The jokes keep coming, little nudges about this and that, never getting too heavy to "stink of Zen," but at the end of it was a reverie about the newest, latest to be recognized
bodhisattva,
The Dali Parton. Everyone giggled and enthusiastically nodded along in recognition of the recently passed country music star, humanitarian, lover of humankind, and philanthropist. This is in accord with the local NPR affiliate in the Bay Area playing the first of a 9-part
Radio Lab (by the great Jad Abumrad) series on
Dolly:
Creator of 'Dolly Parton's America' podcast discusses her life and legacy | KALW
What's so great about Buddhist insight?
 |
| When one knows-and-sees, the heart lets go. |
Then a longtime member of the
sangha asked, "What do they do in
vipassana meditation?" Abbot Linda perked up and outlined the fourfold setting up of mindfulness the historical Buddha talks about in the two
Satipatthana Suttas, the greater and shorter "Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourses." One make the heart/mind serene by sitting and attending to the breath until it is concentrated [and absorbed or in a
zen state called
jhana if possible. Then one emerges and turns attention to other aspects of the body]. One then progresses, turning attention to feelings (the three categories of sensation, pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral). Thereafter, attention is placed on mind.
 |
| No, Bart, just sit! Don't you dare have a goal! |
Finally, one gives one-pointed attention to dhammas or mental phenomena usually categorized in Buddhist lists like the Five Hindrances and Four Ennobling Truths. [This is generally the way vipassana is understood, cultivating liberating insight by clearly seeing these four categories of "things." For in seeing them clearly, it is very difficult to identify and remain attached to the wrong views of self, satisfaction, and permanence. One instead sees things as they truly are -- hurtling towards destruction, unable to ever satisfy or fulfil, and utterly impersonal. In seeing this, the heart/mind lets go, stops clinging and grasping at ephemeral phenomena, and arrives at release, sometimes glimpsing the awe-inspiring freedom of nirvana. That's satori, that's kensho, that the first stage of enlightenment the Buddha called stream-entry.]
Sitting with Gil Fronsdal
This September 2026
vipassana retreat offers an experienced Zen and Insight (
Vipassana) meditators a period of intensive residential practice guided by Gil Fronsdal. The teaching and practice orientation will be “
Shikantaza Through the Support of Insight,”
Shikantaza or “
just sitting” being the core Soto Zen practice. The schedule will include mindfulness in complete noble silence with morning, afternoon, and evening
formal sitting (
zazen); formal
ōryōki mindfulness meals (taking the least amount of food); work periods; and daily meditation instructions and nightly Dharma talks. There will also be formal and informal meetings with teachers. Participants commit to stay on for the duration (except by arrangement or emergencies). The retreat includes a 30-day
sesshin (接心, lit. means “
gathering heart/mind” but is usually translated as “Silent Zen Retreat Intensive”).
No comments:
Post a Comment