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3/18/2010

Online koan practice?

8 Comments

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Not everyone can get to a teacher or a sangha.  Everyone can read books on Zen, and if you have a computer, you can download dharma talks.  I want everyone to be able to work with koans.

I have worked with koans for years now, but PZI does something innovative (actually, historically, PZI is returning to the way koans were worked in China before you were born) by making the koans a public case.  John Tarrant holds koan seminars, in which people are invited to discuss what the koan is doing for them AT THAT MOMENT.  For me, hearing people work through koans gave me confidence that I was not doing it wrong, and in fact, that I was doing it exactly right for me.  I want others to have that gift.  Not just those in Santa Rosa or the Bay Area of California, but for all our readers in India, Norway, Germany, England, Ireland, Spain, France, Bolivia, Japan, and most of the 50 united states (I am looking at YOU North and South Dakota.  And New Hampshire.  That's right, I know you are ignoring me). 

My idea is to post a koan online twice a month.  On occasion, there will be commentary by a Zen Roshi.  Anyone who reads this blog can participate, and post what they notice in the comments section.  This koan group would be open to anyone, and the comments public to the world.  In this way, your practice can touch the whole world, and the whole word can touch your practice. 

"In general I'd like you to think of the Dharma as something to be passed around and encouraged, more than as a secret property" - John Tarrant

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8 Comments
Roger Jordan
3/18/2010 07:10:32 am

Michael,
I like the look of your homepage. But the type is almost unreadable, both as I'm typing it and as I try to read it in light blue.

Thanks, but I like that you are breaking away from Zen as so many bells and robes.

Roger

Reply
Michael
3/18/2010 07:47:22 am

Roger,

Your wish is my command. I changed it to white. Thanks for inspiring me to figure out how to do this.

Reply
Jesse
3/18/2010 09:02:59 am

Sweet! When do we start???

Reply
Ishara
3/23/2010 07:04:58 am

I think this is really great, and look forward to it.

Reply
Rebecca del Rio
3/23/2010 07:14:39 am

Count me in. Nothing better than portable teachings/sharing.

Reply
Jan B.
3/23/2010 12:35:39 pm

Love the website and the audio Dharma talks.
Love to get a video of David on a Wed for you
to try on the site. Let's plan.
ohhh,
you have to add to your movie choices,
Alice in Wonderland. Full of wonderfun and
koanspeak...there is muchness to it!

Reply
Jenny Wunderly link
3/25/2010 08:53:51 am

Hi Michael,

I am interested; please count me in and alert me of when, where, how....

Jenny Wunderly

Reply
radii shoes link
2/25/2011 03:58:27 pm

It is nice to know this. Thanks for the time and effort. It is well appreciated. More to come.

Reply



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    “A Course on Koans” is the delusion-riddled work of Chris Kufu (“Wind in the Void”) Wilson, who began practicing Zen in 1967. He regards Taizan Maezumi, Robert Aitken, and David Weinstein as his root teachers. Each of them pecked at his shell until he “completed” the never-ending koan curriculum of the Harada-Yasutani lineage.

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