Kaz Tanahashi & Joshin Brian Byrnes: Primordial Wholeness and Maturing Realization (Circle of the Way Sesshin Part 4 of 4)

Summary: Episode Description: It's natural that self-centered concerns should preoccupy us when we first sit down to meditate -- after all, we live in the neighborhood of our body and mind all day. But as we settle, an abiding dimension of life comes into view: where the distinctions between big and small, self and other, momentary and timeless, even life and death, fade to obscurity and insignificance. Kaz and Dogen say even the clumsiest practitioner experiences this reality -- whether she notices it or not. And yet there is such a thing as maturing practice; and anyway enlightenment is not a static state, a possession, but a total process, actualizing this moment without remainder. Joshin, too, thinks the "circle of the way" is more than going in circles -- as Dogen himself hints, when he writes of an unnoticed power of practice that "confirms" oneself and others, and affects heaven and earth in the ten directions. Joshin explores what this maturing power might look like. He plumbs Jack Kornfield's list of mature qualities: non-idealism, kindness, patience, ordinariness, and being in relationship with all things -- seeing all things as worthy of relationship. And a great hindrance to most or all of these qualities, especially in our culture, is shame. For Kaz's Bio, please visit Part 2, and for Joshin's Bio plus series description, please visit Part 1. To access the entire series, please click on the link below: Circle of the Way Sesshin Series: All 4 Parts