Archive

Anything we put our trust in, anyone or anything outside ourself, and even our self, will eventually at some point really let us down. Nothing can live up to the expectation we put on the self or others, or things. So the best we can do with trust is, trust in nothing.  And that’s not so difficult, because it’s not so difficult to trust nothing. Just flip the emphasis on…

Every successor in the lineage of Zen is a Buddha/Patriarch.  That is the beauty of the Zen lineage, I would say.  There are beauties to every lineage, but the Zen lineage really truly acknowledges that every ancestor, or patriarch as we call it, is a Buddha, and every Buddha is a patriarch or an ancestor.  In other words, there are no patriarchs apart from Buddha, and each has the power…

In the beginning of our practice we may have a glimpse of absolute equality.  Dai-kensho is when we truly realize that there is nothing to realize.  This is the true realization of absolute equality, that there’s no one higher or below us, and we’re not greater or lesser than anybody else.  That’s very important, because otherwise we keep elevating others and making others into some kind of god-like creature, guru,…

[By Genpo Roshi, excerpted from a live video conference, November 22, 2020]

 . . . If there’s a koan — “How do you stop suffering?” — of course many of us can pass the koan, we just be suffering.  That’s passing it, but between that and doing it completely, it’s the difference between a kensho and dai-kensho.  You know, I sometimes feel the only thing that’s going to take care of this for many people is dai-kensho.  And I come back to our roots, which is what the great masters say.  There’s all this fiddling around with the leaves and the branches of the tree, but until we get to the root of the problem — uprooting, that is the dai-kensho, the great opening — until we do that we’re just going to keep fiddling around with the branches and the leaves.

 Sometimes it feels almost like — too much.  Because I know what it takes to have dai-kensho. . . .

(Genpo Roshi recorded during the “Masters & Mensches II” Retreat, August 4, 2020)      Let me say something about what you brought up, about idealizing, because I do feel it is something we work through. We do do that, we project on our teachers a certain greatness and a certain way of being, and when they don’t live up to that of course we’re disappointed. Now how we take,…

(Genpo Roshi recorded during the “Masters & Mensches” Retreat, June 8, 2020)      I remember over and over again when Maezumi Roshi was going through his hard times like back in the end of 83, he said to me, “If, if, everything falls apart, I lose everything, if you get it, if you learn from this what you’re supposed to learn, it will be worth it. It will be worth…

(Genpo Roshi recorded during the “Masters & Mensches” Retreat, June 9, 2020) I think it is really important that we realize we are a part of a lineage. I don’t really know or understand how it all works. I don’t think anybody does, but there’s something very real, and you hear it. You heard it in Genno Roshi’s comments; you hear it in others, like Chris sensei’s comment. There’s something…

Renowned Colombian guitarist/music producer and longtime student of Genpo Roshi, Santiago Jimenez, has created a unique rendition of Roshi’s chanting the Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo. By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy.Learn more Load video Always unblock YouTube