Yorktown Zen

Returning to Keizan’s Denkoroku and its transmission cases through the ancestral lineage, Tesshin Roshi took up the thirty-first patriarch—and fourth Chinese ancestor—Dōshin. Roshi shared the case: The thirty-first patriarch, Dōshin, made prostrations to the great master Kanchi Sosan and said, “With your compassion, please show me the dharma gate of…

This week, Tesshin Roshi shared mochi from the oldest Japanese confectionery in the United States, and offered a report on his recent trip to Los Angeles. He had just returned from the annual gathering of the American Zen Teachers Association, held at Zenshuji Soto Mission—the first Soto Zen temple established…

In his talk this week, Tesshin Roshi noted that we are looking at the Denkōroku (Record of Transmission of Light) by Keizan, focusing in this series on the six Chinese patriarchs. Turning today to the third patriarch, Roshi pointed out a similarity among the first three that is reminiscent of…

Tesshin Roshi thought it would be “fun” to go back to a text we looked at a while ago during the anniversary of Keizan’s passing. There is a lot happening around Keizan, and Keizan is an important ancestor of ours, a student of Dōgen. Around two years ago was in…

Tesshin Roshi began by mentioning that according to the Jewish calendar, we are in a special month of successive holidays, with the previous Saturday having been Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the new year. Following that is a ten-day period culminating on Sunday night called Yom Kippur, often translated as…

Tesshin began this week by reminding us of the tea and snacks provided to us as a gift from Houn Jeff and expressing continued gratitude. Tesshin then shared the wonderful news that Soshin successfully entered the nunnery in Nagoya this past week. The temple had informed him before her arrival…

Our dharma brother Houn Jeff in Japan wanted to express his gratitude to our sangha for the support that we have shown him, not just recently but over the years, so he sent us this gift of tea and snacks. Soshin will be leaving in a couple of days late…

Last week we looked at a very, very early Buddhist teaching and it was both inspiring and disgusting, and a little disturbing. But we could see the roots of Buddhism in it. If not the Zen that we understand, we could see the evolution a bit. Roshi wanted to jump…