[Challenging Times] -(16)- Showing Up in Troubled Times - Pat Enkyo O'Hara

[Jundo]

Dear Fellow Rafters,

In this very insightful essay, Rev. O'Hara offers an inspired interpretation of both the traditional image of practice as a "raft" upon which we cross to the other shore, and of the famous opening sentences of Master Dogen's Genjo Koan, all connected to our engagement with the problems of this modern world.

In fact, we recently focused on the opening lines in the first talk of our series on the Genjo during Zazenkai (about 1:50:00 mark here) ...

OUR MONTHLY 4-hr ZAZENKAI - Genjo Koan (I) - The Key to Dogen's Zen
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...to-Dogen-s-Zen

... also available as audio in our Treeleaf Podcast: https://treeleaf.podbean.com/e/july-...koan-series-1/

I found that O'Hara Roshi's presentation melds right into what I was trying to present there. Lovely.

O'Hara Roshi's essay begins on page 178.

For those who do not yet have a copy, I have made a PDF version available here for those waiting for their ordered book, or those unable to afford or obtain the book (second half of the book):https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yQV...usp=share_link

Feel free to jump into the readings and discussion even if you have not read other chapters.

Gassho, Jundo

stlah

[Tairin]

Thank you Enkyo Pat O’Hara.

Side note: it is interesting to read the different teaching styles that show up in these essays. Some writers use a very personal approach presenting their teaching, by reaching into their own lives to surface their central point. Others, such as O’Hara take a more “academic” approach. Both are good.


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Alina]

A poignant reminder of the sad and beautiful mystery of life, the preciousness of each moment, the necessity that we live in the multiple realities, the two spheres and doing that, we live a fully human life.

For me, this was the most striking paragraph of the essay, and also "Genjokoan" as "Showing up". I enjoyed the clarity with which Enkyo Pat O’Hara writes.

I read this chapter while my kids were practicing gymnastics, I was sitting outside the gym, where all parents wait for their kids.

There was a mother with a baby, and he was learning to walk, so he was walking along the bench, using it for support. He was discovering the whole place, and figuring out how to move forward, how to turn around, how to go back to his mom... it was clear in the baby's face that he was so focused on "the issue at hand", each step, each turn, each movement...

Like Tairin said, sometimes we approach these subjects in "academic" ways, and it actually is every step, every breath...

I am grateful for that baby, I still feel the wonder I felt watching him explore the room.

May we all see the wonder of life in all the little things.

Thank you Treeleaf Sangha.

Gassho

Alina
ST