Addressing the tension between sitting and social engagement
Why do you keep sitting when so many poor people, sick people, need your help? Awareness and acceptance of how others are, enables you to meditate.
Dissolving the distinction between sitting and acting
Standing up and doing things is straying around, sitting in full lotus is straying around, everything is straying around. But in your act of doing, you express your existence, which is not straying around.
Finding wisdom in chaotic circumstances
Still, in a chaotic, confused world, splendid wisdom exists, if you are able to see it. On top of Everest flies exist. Cold, jewel-like rain hits the drunkard's head, too, in cold winter. This is the whole body of you.
Buddha's counter-intuitive path as true engagement
Shakyamuni Buddha's life, before ripening, was like that. The current was against him, but for him it was not against him. He kept coming back against the flow. To follow the flow would have been against the flow. To leave from people was never leaving from people.
On the innate right to existence, in context of world conflicts
Every being has an essential right to exist. Nobody has the right to destroy others for any reason. This right to live is a strong belief, embedded in us.
Calling for inner revolution alongside social change
What is needed is an inner revolution of oneself and the society. Society seems to be going toward health, but the direction of energy is such that we might end up in a big pit all together.
Personal reflection on being shaped by temple upbringing
In terms of my upbringing, I have to say I didn't want to be a Zen person. I only look like one. We call it square bamboo. There are very excellent bamboo growers, as the bamboo grows they do some trick, some kind of bonsai work, putting a cast on growing, growing wild bamboo.
Kobun's reluctance about institutionalizing Zen in America
I have lived with you for some time, but I have never talked about Zen. This is the first time. When you speak of starting an American version of Zen, I see hundreds of problems.
On the desire to transcend all identity and form
There is a problem of wanting to be always new, and hopefully, utterly new, and utterly unrecognizable. I don't know if this is only me, or if some of you feel this way. It is a little bit scary.
Personal anecdote about receiving simple advice
A very good friend always suggests to me, when I am going through a very difficult time, "Take it easy. Slow down and take it easy." I never could believe that taking it easy made things go easier.