Kobun's wonder at Western practitioners
My greatest, most exciting experience is to sense this practice here as something utterly new to me. Each of you is certainly different from any Japanese or Indian or Tibetan. It is a great thing to see.
Embracing diversity of belief within sangha
I finally conclude that we are participating in religious anarchy. Everybody has their own unique belief, and I feel very good about it.
Defining kensho as recognizing original oneness
Kensho means that while you struggle between the ideal self, and this limited poor thing which is here, they are actually one. They are not uniting or becoming one. It was originally one, and it is always one.
What happens in the moment of kensho
You don't go anywhere from kensho. Seeking to know yourself ends, and time starts. The future doesn't exist in the future, and the past hasn't gone yet. Your ordinary dualistic knowledge of everything ends.
Quoting Dogen on body-mind dropping off
Body and mind of one's own self, body and mind of others' own selves, drop off... to be conveyed by all myriad dharmas.
The paradox of identity and non-identity after kensho
"You are actually myself," you say to any single thing, or even any abstract existence. You say, "You are nothing but myself, but I am not you. I am not yourself." And the same words you hear from another person about yourself.
Defining sesshin as embracing mind
What "sesshin" means is "embracing mind." Whoever is sitting, that person's mind embraces the whole situation, centered in that person. So you have full responsibility and full understanding, by yourself, of what sesshin means to you.
Radical acceptance in sesshin practice
Nothing is missed, nothing is needed to be changed in you, as you are. You actually are living how it should be although there is no such "should." Even the effort to become Buddha, you set aside.
Kobun's farewell concern for students
When you go back where you came from and become invisible from my sight, I wish my mind could go with each one, to help you be strong and not get destroyed.
Closing of sesshin, the seriousness of practice
When the ferry boat arrives on the other shore, you say, "Goodby," to the other passengers, and don't know when you are going to meet again. If this practice together is not touching the key point, it's all my fault! And it's all your foolishness, so it's very serious.