Minnesota Zen Meditation Center
  • Home
  • Programming
    • Zoom Program Links
    • Introductory Class
    • Sunday/Tuesday Talks
    • Calendar
    • Classes
    • Retreats and Workshops
    • Daily Meditation
    • Curriculum
    • Affinity Groups
    • Mentorship
    • Youth Programs
  • Resources
    • Sunday Talk Archive
    • Chants and Services
    • MZMC Authors
    • Sewing Practice
    • Books and Links
    • Spiritual Care
    • Equity and Inclusion
    • Library
    • Ceremonies
    • Primers
  • Community
    • Council Process
    • Race and Climate Justice Action
    • Pastoral Care &Mutual Aid
    • People of Color Dharma Group
    • Waking Up to Race
    • LGBTQ+ Dharma Group
    • Tara Dharma Group
    • Yoga Class
    • Volunteer/Work Practice
    • Buddhism and Recovery
    • Joyce Food Shelf
  • Katagiri project
    • Katagiri Project
    • Biography and Lineage
    • Books, Photos, and Videos
    • Audio Archive Project >
      • The Dainin Katagiri Audio Archive
    • Tomoe Katagiri
    • Blog
  • About MZMC
    • About MZMC
    • Teachers
    • Board
    • Ethics
    • Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
    • History of Inclusivity
    • Initiation and Priest Training
    • Building Project
    • Contact
  • Support
    • Become a Member
    • Donate
    • Planned Giving
    • Donation-Only Programming
    • Volunteer



Tim's Blog

The Pilgrimage Through Not-Knowing to Intimacy V

12/3/2021

0 Comments

 
At the height of Chinese Zen’s primacy from about 650 to 1100, monks and nuns traveled on foot from one monastery or teacher to another, which is where the verse "To drift like clouds and flow like water” comes from. And, of course, clouds and water do not know where they are going or what will happen to them; they just move.
And a little over a hundred years later, the Zen teacher Dogen broadened this emphasis by saying that external travel is not necessary at all because the true nature of pilgrimage is within, and our original place is always right here, even though all of our thoughts and feelings inside are also always moving or traveling. Dogen suggested we can be like “Nanyu, who, one by one and episode by episode, encountered the myriad delusions, and saw through, and beyond, to the flesh of the teacher’s face.”
If we follow trails within our body/mind, we come to realize “The whole Universe in the ten directions” is the whole human body.
 
Even though it is unlikely that John Muir, the American 20th century trail blazer was exposed to Dogen, he wrote, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.  Keep close to Nature’s heart... and break clear away, Wash your spirit clean.”  And in the 19th century, the Japanese Zen poet Basho wrote about traveling into a wild part of Japan seemingly untouched by humans and hearing songs being sung as farmers planted rice. As Basho listened, he wrote, “rice planting songs in the innermost part of the country.”
 
If we go farther and farther into the innermost part of our being, letting go of any attempt to get anywhere, we may be surprised to discover a song of its own emanating from our heart-mind.
But we can only do this through the “stupid zazen” my second teacher talked about.  Stupid zazen is all about walking the trails of feeling and sensations inside you, letting yourself be turned sideways, upside down, or even inside out.  The trail into the center of heart-mind is not linear.
 
As serious pilgrims, each of us can move deeper than the limitations of our conscious mind. The best way to do this may be, as Dogen said, “letting our fists and noses take the lead. Once the fists and noses have all taken up residence in the halls of the monastery, they hang up their traveling bag in their place for the duration of the retreat.”  
Can we allow our fists and noses to fully explore the wilderness we encounter below the surface chatter of our minds? Even when there is no cairn, no trail marker at all, can we marry ourselves to our breath as it courses through our body?  When Aristotle coined the term “good spirits” in Greek, he must have been well aware that the word for spirit is also the word for breath.   
 
As I write this piece, folks are engaging in Zen center’s longest annual retreat, Rohatsu, honoring the historical Buddha’s final phase of pilgrimage. At Zen centers/temples all over the world people will be sitting silently doing absolutely nothing except following their breath/spirit for a week. This process of allowing the crust of our ego and defense mechanisms to crack open inevitably results in tapping into our deeply joyful heart-mind, the heart-mind of the universe. Due to my illness, I will not be joining but I will be in good spirits anyway, as each of us is, whether we realize this or not, as long as we are breathing.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Tim Burkett, Guiding Teacher

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

SEARCH THIS SITE

Our location

Picture
  • Home
  • Programming
    • Zoom Program Links
    • Introductory Class
    • Sunday/Tuesday Talks
    • Calendar
    • Classes
    • Retreats and Workshops
    • Daily Meditation
    • Curriculum
    • Affinity Groups
    • Mentorship
    • Youth Programs
  • Resources
    • Sunday Talk Archive
    • Chants and Services
    • MZMC Authors
    • Sewing Practice
    • Books and Links
    • Spiritual Care
    • Equity and Inclusion
    • Library
    • Ceremonies
    • Primers
  • Community
    • Council Process
    • Race and Climate Justice Action
    • Pastoral Care &Mutual Aid
    • People of Color Dharma Group
    • Waking Up to Race
    • LGBTQ+ Dharma Group
    • Tara Dharma Group
    • Yoga Class
    • Volunteer/Work Practice
    • Buddhism and Recovery
    • Joyce Food Shelf
  • Katagiri project
    • Katagiri Project
    • Biography and Lineage
    • Books, Photos, and Videos
    • Audio Archive Project >
      • The Dainin Katagiri Audio Archive
    • Tomoe Katagiri
    • Blog
  • About MZMC
    • About MZMC
    • Teachers
    • Board
    • Ethics
    • Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
    • History of Inclusivity
    • Initiation and Priest Training
    • Building Project
    • Contact
  • Support
    • Become a Member
    • Donate
    • Planned Giving
    • Donation-Only Programming
    • Volunteer