Summary: Episode Description: Sensei Kaz opens this second talk of the sesshin with a brief discussion about authenticity in Zen. The word "authentic" implies both a truthfulness to tradition and a truthfulness to ourselves and our culture. In the first sense of the word, we practice Zen forms that derive from 12th and 13th Century Japan, and from even earlier in China. In the second sense of the word, we accept our responsibility to create a practice that meshes with our time. In this way, Zen can flourish as a rooted, dynamic organism. In the second part of the talk, Roshi Enkyo takes up the topic of "coming home." In order to come home to ourselves we often need to go somewhere else, such as on pilgrimage or to Upaya on retreat. We "move through space to find ourselves." Any pilgrimage or retreat is challenging; we encounter constant "thorns." We also realize that what we seek in our journey is "never far away from where we are right now." Roshi Enkyo shares a couple wonderful stories about Zen Master Yuan Wu, illustrating this idea that what we seek is, "after all, always so close," if we can only "drop the gates" and come home to "just this." Roshi Enkyo ends the talk with a gatha, or short verse: "It is always so close, so close we can miss it. How do we recognize it? Breath by breath. Winter vegetables, and morning star." For teacher BIOs, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Rohatsu: Morning Star Series: All 6 Parts
