We are at Karuna Center, in Monchique, Portugal, starting our Autumn 8-day silent retreat. When we sit together in silence, what...

ei-tai ji temple, la rochette, 13 august 2000 here is a poem i presented to my teacher, ryotan tokuda roshi, on my monk ordination day...

silent retreat september 2024 / payangan, bali ______________________________________ in and out of silence words freely move where there is no in there is no out * fatal crossing juvenile serpent you are now one with the road * nighttime finding refuge in my room a fly falls asleep what tomorrow will offer you i don't know * the master's words i pray god to rid me of god invite us to silence * bouts of sleep in sleepless nights  in the land of dreams awakening is never far *

ultimately the journey makes us understand that there is no going from here to there and no becoming for us. the journey begins and ends...

" so you should view this fleeting world..." the lotus sutra so between two tides our lives this presence mirage on a shore appears shadow play of surfaces on sinking sands mirror to skies immeasurable to twinklings washed away pantai kedungu, bali september 2024

dôgo and zengen went to a house to express condolences. zengen rapped on the coffin and asked, "alive or dead?" dôgo said, "I won't say...

" anché peye āni āni / what you seek is seeking you. " - jallaledin rūmi " the fire boy comes seeking fire." - zen koan ______________________________ this poem a vastness unnamable the twilight sky call it dharma is a calling that all things passing echoes endlessly mirror mirroring recite in a silent way a calling to you the calling is you

fades away the muzzin's call as we leave port lember behind old boat rust eaten traval companion true vessel of emptiness you plough a path in the sea ferry us from island to island in search of in search of what you know there're no shores to be reached you know our thirst of crossings is an invention of waves just as our shape that brush stroke of her iridiscence suspended in mid-air and yet

pantai ann, lombok, august 2024 on reading okumura roshi in the shallows of speech water words ripple over murmuring algae where light begins to descend shimmering gains in intensity silence spreads out her stars night sky day sky they illumine the old boat's dreams can go on blazing for now

After two days and many hours of sitting in zazen, the incessant thoughts of my every day life, the distractions and desires finally...

m’illumino  d’immenso - giuseppe ungaretti at the end of your long journey, you may well take note that the journey never had a beginning...

unusual for the season, it rained all night long. you know this because of the drizzle you heard falling in your sleep. you have lived long enough on this planet to know the sound the rain makes as it falls on tinned-roofs and leafage. not one sound, myriad of sounds. how shallow your sleep has been, misty now, gains a little depth thanks to the rising waters.. dreams heavy with the fragrance of soaked rice fields. unclear whose deams they could be, provisionally you can clai

daybreak silent retreat payangan bali To sit with others in silence and stillness, what is it? An experience for each person to...

Practice and its integration in daily life cannot be about reaching a sense of perfection at some point in time. It is not that there is...

Zen Master Nansen is asked by a student about the Way. “Ordinary mind is the Way”, replies the teacher. “Do I need to direct myself...

Reading Meister Eckhart’s sermons, we learn that god is not to be found here, not to be found there. She is not to be found anywhere or...

yogi's garden, payangan, bali, march 2024 ___________________________________________ fragments from a silent retreat stepping into this...

silent retreat april 2024 welcome words before stepping into silence : ' invitation au voyage ' here we are gathered at the onset of a...

karuna center, monchique, portugal, april 2024 silent retreat ____________________________________ everywhere hills undulating on the pathless path whom or whatever we may meet we meet as fellow travelers no one walks here alone even when at times walking feels lonely treading the same footpath with ants looking up at the stars and moving thunderstorms maybe it's in their slumber that we are sleepwalking

_______________________________ " If time merely flies away, you would be separated from time. The reason you do not clearly understand the time-being is that you think of time only as passing. / uji - master dogen ___________________ ? passage of time rather we are the same time of both being the passage where time slides and the oblivion carrying its traces along... ? passage du temps plutôt nous sommes à la fois le chemin chemin par où passe le temps et l'oubli qui porte s