“Even a delicate movement of your dualistic thought will prevent you from entering samadhi, the Palace of Meditation. The practice of meditation is not a method for the attainment of realization but enlightenment itself.”
Dogen, translation by Senzaki and McCandless.
I first heard of Daily Zen in a yoga class taught by a friend and read the journal entry for February 7, 2013, Full Awareness of Breathing – Anapanasati Sutta; it is still a favorite. It was a couple of years before I opened it again. This happened on a road trip.
Most summers we escape the heat of Texas in the Rocky Mountains. A favorite spot is the Blue Lake Ranch, a rustic style resort in Hesperus, Colorado. Among other amenities, it has a splendid view of Mt. Hesperus.
One morning, needing something to do, I made a small pot of coffee. The way I see it, if you’re going to get up, you might as well have coffee.
If you’re going to have coffee, you may as well sit. If you’re going to sit, why not zazen? I fashioned a sitting cushion and thought, it would be nice to have a timer.
At that moment, I remembered Daily Zen and found the Zendo and also the epigraphs and the Journal. After forty minutes of sitting, I made my way to the main building for the Blue Lake breakfast buffet, hosted and attended by a great hearted Navajo lady who resembled Joan Baez but with brown eyes. Since then, Daily Zen and its invisible sangha have been my companions and guides.
My formal practice was in the main with Sasaki Roshi at Mt. Baldy Zen Center and Jemez Bodhi Mandala. I went to sesshin twice a year through the 1970’s and 1980’s, except when I was in law school.
In the early 1990’s, my family advised me that it was time to quit using vacations for sesshin. Since then, I have been a vacation traveler, and I have been many places in the world.
For years, I was part of a Saturday morning zazen group, following the liturgy and schedule of a Rinzai-Ji practice period. But the group finally scattered as people are wont to do. Roshi died in 2012 at age 107. He was in the direct lineage of Lin Chi and Hakuin. I am contentedly ronin now, and I enjoy my daily practice with the invisible sangha.
