A woman tells me on the first night during my introduction instructions that although she didn't know anything about Zen, she came to the retreat because, she said, she told herself that if she didn't like it she could leave. I smiled and said, yes, that is true. I didn't say, however, that this practice [...]
Ritually rich, in and out of order As was requested, I will try to say something about the forms and rituals of this practice. Before that question came up this morning, I had been writing in a new notebook. It has lines on the pages, unlike my previous notebook. Sometimes my notebooks have lines and [...]
Ready to "go" again. Retreat in Portugal this time. After all these years, I still love (or am in love with?) the idea that any number of disparate individuals choose to come together from their very singular lives and sit down as one for awhile. Day after day. And acknowledge that we're all in this [...]
Amid the bustle of worldly affairs, summer is hot and cool, dry and wet, clear and overcast, day and night... I'm like that, too, one activity, another activity, and another... The papers are full of it, and the garden, too, in full bloom, and me. News arrives by phone of a sudden grave illness in [...]
Back now from retreat. Return after a week away to find the city relaxed, moving step by step, unbound. Recall the mist on the green morning hills outside my window before a first sitting. Night had been filled with fitful sleep. I drank it all, then turned to dress. The entire week was like that: [...]
Off for a week, in retreat. Keeping in mind the words of Obaku, one of the ancestors: I don't expect anything. I just bow. And so I do, to one and all.
Listen to the silence. Then Leonard Cohen last night. How marvelous: Everything has a crack; that's how the light gets in.
Summer in the city. I'm just going through the day, hot and sunny, blue-sky fine. What else is there to do? Somewhere across the Atlantic, Madoff gets 150 years in prison and the talk is still about Michael Jackson. And not just across the ocean. How strange that the saddest man made so many happy. [...]
Living in occupied territory? Revolt! Sit down and vacate with the Wild Flower Sangha. Practice, study, experience the art of everything-is-practice. Beginners welcome. Two summer retreats, in France and in Portugal: Aug. 1-8, Portugal info and registration: wildflower.pt@gmail.com Aug. 21-28, France info and registration: zenscribe@free.fr
Summer's good tonight. Not a cloud in the sky. The day birds are making their last calls, night birds not yet starting up. One of the orchids on my table - the bonus plant, I call it, a root replanted from another pot - lost a blossom this morning. It was time to go. Over [...]
Le Web carnet de Amy Hollowell Sensei, fondatrice de la Wild Flower Zen Sangha et successeur de Catherine Genno Pagès Roshi dans le lignage Zen Soto de Taizan Maezumi Roshi, fondateur du Centre Zen de Los Angeles.
The Web notebook of Amy Hollowell Sensei, founder of the Wild Flower Zen Sangha and dharma successor of Catherine Genno Pagès Roshi in the Soto Zen lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, founder of the Los Angeles Zen Center.
Alexis says:
Alexis says:
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