Talk by Sobun Katherine Thanas

[Jundo]

A wonderful talk by Sobun Katherine Thanas, former Abbess of the Santa Cruz Zen Center who left this visible world last year. Thanks to the Santa Cruz Zen Center and SweepingZen for posting this. So clear, simple.

As a side note, at the end, she says she leans to a practice of the body over the mind. Some people are so inclined I feel. and are into the physicality, although I do not lean to any pole. I recently wrote that, for me, Zazen is thoroughly 100% a practice of the body ... thoroughly 100% a practice of mind ... all such that, Zazen is thoroughly 100% practice of body-mind dropped away.

[Myozan Kodo]

Never grasped by mind.
Gassho
Myozan

[Mp]

Wonderful talk ... Thank you for this Jundo.

Gassho
Shingen

[Juki]

Thank you, Jundo. This is very timely for me. Last night, I was sitting in a Mexican restaurant during a break from a long drive home from a work trip. I had an obscure book with me ("The Heart of Dogen's Shobogenzo" translated by Norman Waddell and Masao Abe) and I was reading Sammai-o-Zammai. I came across this passage:

"You should examine exhaustively in this way thousands or tens of thousands of such details. It should be the body sitting cross legged. It should be the mind sitting cross legged. It should be body and mind cast off sitting cross legged."

Gassho
William

[RichardH]

Thank you. In a way there is only the same talk told a thousand different ways. I can't hear it enough.
Gassho,

Daizan

[Genshin]

Thanks Jundo, lovely talk.

Gassho
Matt

[Jakudo]

Thanks Jundo, I really enjoyed the wave analogy, it is a simple one that even a simple fella like me can almost grasp. I also enjoyed seeing the P trap (a plumbing part under a sink to keep sewer gases from entering a living space) used as an element in the flower arrangement.
Gassho, Jakudo.

[Jinyo]

Thank you - lovely talk and such an aura of calm about her person.

Gassho

Willow

[Daisho]

Thanks for the teaching, Jundo. I'd never heard practice being a "body thing" or a "mind thing." For me it is mixed. I feel in my gut when my mind lets go....