This week, Yorktown Zen held its annual Fall Sesshin—a period of intensive meditation and practice. Throughout this period, we explored the theme of forgiveness, continuing our ongoing study of this profound and often misunderstood concept. Roshi began by noting that everyone recognizes emotions like fear and understands the process of overcoming them. Entire industries—books, movies,…

This week, Roshi’s aim was to bring provisional closure—to “put a period,” as he put it—on our exploration of Wholesomeness before we enter Sesshin. Those of us who have gone through Jukai have already wrestled with this concept. At first, we tend to think we understand it: wholesomeness is good; unwholesomeness is bad. Simple enough—or…

This week, Roshi reminded us that we are just two weeks away from our annual Sesshin. To help us prepare, he turned our attention to a fascicle near the end of Shobogenzo titled “On the Mind’s Search for Truth” (Doshin). (see text below) Roshi explained that Do means “Way,” and Shin means “heart” or “mind.”…