Shohaku Okumura: A Good for Nothing Life
( June 23, 2020) Explore the practice of zazen ("sitting meditation") and Soto Zen Buddhism with Abbot Shohaku Okumura and hear why shikantaza or "just sitting," facing a wall, transforms the lives of those who dare to do nothing.
Abbot Shohaku Okumura was interviewed by Interior Mythos Journeys in April of 2017 at the Sanshin Zen Community: sanshinji.org.
American Roshi Brad Warner on Abbot Shohaku Okumura
- New interview: youtu.be/wo2K4kiKItE
- Interior Mythos Journeys: youtube.com/c/Interior...
Short clips from this interview can be found here:
Zazen is Good for Nothing.
- We exist as interconnectedness
- Wake up to reality
- Thinking is the problem, let go
- Experience and language - not so simple
- The fiction of time
As we solitarily and collectively claim the force of a relevant contemporary mythos, we are delivered to the possibility of a life lived in depth, that is, the possibility of an authentic life. This is the path beneath the surface.
The Transformative Encounter: The Practice of Contemplation
In the current age this transformative encounter, as well as the practices that deliver us to this encounter and the personal connection that flows from this encounter, is seldom the focus of our lives. Many of us wander disoriented through life, often on a self-destructive path, in a world seen, understood, and measured primarily by the external environment. We are disconnected from the Connecting Myth.
We are disconnected from the interior depth to which the Connecting Myth might deliver us. Ironically, we have come to understand myth as a lie rather than a symbolic and metaphoric gateway to a deeper truth.
#interiormythosjourneys #zazen #sotozen
