Yesterday in sitting I see it: My thoughts wander, and "I" follows, running in aimless circles along trails that just double back onto themselves. This is going nowhere, blindly, incessantly yearning to come and arrive. Then for a half-second "I" turns to find in a still clearing the silent face of death looking back, unmasked, [...]
"La vulnérabilité des choses précieuses est belle parce que la vulnérabilité est une marque d'existence." Simone Weil, La pesanteur et la grâce (Plon, 1947) "The vulnerability of precious things is beautiful because vulnerability is a sign of existence." Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace (Routlegde Classics, 2002)
"Pour les Anciens comme pour les mystiques, ce champ qu'ils s'accordent à reconnaître comme celui de la divinité se situe au-delà du plaisir et du déplaisir, au-delà du bien comme du mal. Quiconque veut y pénétrer et s'y aventurer, doit consentir à s'y perdre." Catherine Millot, La Vie Parfaite (Gallimard, 2006) "The Ancients and the [...]
If you knew there was nothing to get, would you keep grabbing? If you open to the abundant nothing, what is there left to grab?
In the garden this morning, I am looking where I always look. Blossoms stand ghostlike in abundant tree foliage. A dead leaf hangs captive in the frayed strands of a flag, flit-flapping. Undergrowth and overgrowth fill the day's holes with unknowing. I watch. New faces of color and light emerge. The more I look, the [...]
Two days of Zen practice in Paris with the Wild Flower Zen Sangha and Amy Hollowell April 6 (Sunday) May 17 or 18 (Saturday or Sunday, date to be confirmed) 9h30-17h30 Beginners and experienced practitioners welcome. Registration (required) and information: zenscribe@free.fr
"...ce secret n'est que la présence intérieure, silencieuse, insondable et nue, qu'une attention toujours donnée aux mots (aux objets) nous dérobe..." Georges Bataille, L'expérience intérieure (Gallimard) ("...this secret is nothing but the inner presence, silent, unfathomable and naked, which is hidden from us by our constant attention to words (objects)...")
I might say that having never left, I am back again. A long weekend in Portugal and now return to Montreuil, Paris, Neuilly. There was a second jukai ceremony, with photos to come, either here (soon) or on Wild Flower Zen Sangha-Portugal site: http://sanghazenpt.wordpress.com. Also gave a conference at the Literary Circle of Porto, "Shikantaza [...]
Have been off in the North Sea, on a windswept island, in an unending swirl of the 10,000 things, studying with my teacher's teacher and the extended Great Maha Sangha. Thus, my silence here. "There's no language that isn't the Dharma," Bodhidharma said in his Wake-Up Sermon.
Weekend de méditation, 8-10 février/Meditation weekend, Feb. 8-10 Au cours de ce weekend, pour la première fois je vais faire une cérémonie de jukai, en présence de mon maître, Catherine Genno Pagès Roshi. Recevoir jukai c'est recevoir les précepts; c'est reconnaître sa vrai nature. C'est une étape importante sur le chemin pour un pratiquant et [...]
Le Web carnet de Amy Hollowell Sensei, fondatrice de la Wild Flower Zen Sangha et successeur de Catherine Genno Pagès Roshi dans le lignage Zen Soto de Taizan Maezumi Roshi, fondateur du Centre Zen de Los Angeles.
The Web notebook of Amy Hollowell Sensei, founder of the Wild Flower Zen Sangha and dharma successor of Catherine Genno Pagès Roshi in the Soto Zen lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, founder of the Los Angeles Zen Center.
