UnMind: Zen Moments With Great Cloud

This is UnMind, and I am producer Shinjin Larry Little.  After restarting the UnMind podcast in April of 20-23 with episode 106, we’ve met you almost every week for the past 33 weeks with fresh insights and teachings from Great Cloud Michael Elliston Roshi.  Due to multiple competing priorities at this time of year, we will take a brief and well-deserved break through the rest of the cal...

In this segment of UnMind, I would like to return to the basics of Zen, after a foray into some of the darker topics of the times, in particular the horrific conditions of global strife in which we find ourselves immersed these days. It’s a bit like being trapped in the middle of a train wreck where we cannot turn our gaze away. Life has always existed on the edge of death, aging and sickness — th...

I sometimes ask the producer of the UnMind podcast whether there is any subject he would like me to address, that he thinks is timely, and that others might find to be of interest. He sent me the following note:   I was re-reading notes I've made in a Brad Warner book (“It Came From Beyond Zen”) and he made two points that are hitting me today. He interpreted Dogen's chapter “Kannon” and the...

I hesitate to add yet another voice to the cacophony of cries of agony, suffering, outrage and acrimony emanating out of Israel, Gaza, and surrounding Arab states, exacerbated by the 24/7 chattering class. Not to mention the ongoing carnage in Ukraine, which seems to have slipped under the global radar. But I fear that if we in Zen do not try to address these terrible global realities in the conte...

In the last segment we ended with the suggestion that you, dear listener, might construct your own Noble N-fold Path based on your vision of the Noble Truths, with the proviso that you may have to articulate what the existence of suffering means to you, and how you might pursue a path to its cessation in modern times. In doing so you may discover that there are more origins of suffering in your li...

To elicit the bigger picture of the place of Zen and zazen in our world of practice, I would like to refer you to a couple of semantic models illustrating the interrelationships, or operative interfaces, of the various components of the Four Noble Truths, along with the dimensions of the Noble Eightfold Path that we all encounter on a daily basis, both on the cushion and off. Turning to Buddhism’s...

In the next two segments: number 132 and 133 in the sequence, we repeat a subject that we took up in number 113 and 114; namely the buddha nature versus human nature; some of the sameness and differences between what we refer to as “human nature” and what we refer to in Zen as our “original nature,” or “buddha-nature,” “buddha” meaning “awakened one.” Please bear with the repetition; there is new...

In the next two segments: number 132 and 133 in the sequence, we repeat a subject that we took up in number 113 and 114; namely the buddha nature versus human nature; some of the sameness and differences between what we refer to as “human nature” and what we refer to in Zen as our “original nature,” or “buddha-nature,” “buddha” meaning “awakened one.” Please bear with the repetition; there is new...

The Noble Eightfold Path, the fourth of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, amounts to a prescription for practice, an octet of dimensions of daily life to pay strict attention to, in order to bring about Right View and Right Understanding, the dyad which, in combination, comprise Buddha’s idea of Right Wisdom. Right, or correct, wisdom in daily life will come about naturally through the daily obse...

Continuing with our discussion of various turning points in living the Zen life, we will examine the Buddhist tradition of “leaving home” to become a mendicant, with its unexamined but intrinsic root question of what, exactly, we mean by “home.” The monastic ideal of “leaving home” is repeatedly praised by Master Dogen in the ordination ceremony known, in Japanese, as “Shukke Tokudo” — which trans...

In the last segment of UnMind, we touched on the typically fraught turning points in normal life of changing jobs, going through divorce, and becoming empty-nesters when and if the kids finally move out. And if they don’t move back in again. They say you should write what you know, so I am living up to that dictum.   In this installment we will touch on the traditional “marks” of dukkha: sick...

In the last several series of the UnMind podcast, we have been exploring some ways of intentionally bringing Zen practice to bear on various situations and circumstances of daily life in America. By extension these might apply anywhere on the globe today, where revolutionary changes in technology and exploding population growth have taken hold. Again, as Matsuoka Roshi would often say, “Civilizati...

Continuing with the drive-time focus from the last segment is in keeping with the current thrust of UnMind. Each segment consists of a dissertation on issues typical of the USA, and coping with the international scope of global citizenship. Such concerns as over-consumption and the cult of the individual, plus lingering hangovers from 19th- and 20th-century ideas regarding right speech, action and...

Continuing with our exploration of how to actualize a thoroughgoing Zen practice in the midst of life in the 21stCentury, we will take a closer look at one of the situations in which many of us find ourselves: the daily commute. Which would have been the furthest thing from the mind of Shakyamuni Buddha, or his descendants in India, China, and Japan — though the denizens of those areas of the glob...

ZEN AT WORK, AT HOME, AT PLAY Following on the last segment of UnMind, this one is based on questions raised by the same member of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center community. She moved here from India, and later moved out of the Atlanta area. If you are interested having in a regular online dharma dialog with me, as she does, let me know. And If you have questions regarding the integration of everyday...

ZEN AT WORK, AT HOME, AT PLAY     This segment of UnMind is based on some questions raised by one of the members of ASZC. While she moved out of the Atlanta area, she stays in touch through weekly participation in my Online Dharma Dialog program. As an aside, if you think you may be interested in establishing a dialog about your practice, let me know via email — you can find my address o...

 THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO   In one of the recent segments of this podcast, titled “What if This is Hell?” I indulged a “what if” conjecture, speculating that this earthly life may not be some kind of test, as many religions conceive of it — wherein those who pass the test go to their reward in heaven, while those who fail are condemned to an eternity in hell — but that this level of exist...

Let’s recall our initial outline of areas of interest we are using to compare and contrast the Zen life with our usual preoccupations. To refresh your memory, they were, and are:   — Lifestyle: Monastic versus Householder — Physical: Zazen versus the four Cardinal Postures — Biological: Meditative breathing versus everyday situations — Psychological: Shikantaza versus ordinary attention &nbsp...

In the introductory segment to this UnMind series, we posited that amongst the many dimensions of everyday life, there are several contrasting pairs and sets of ideas that may be usefully employed to illustrate how our pursuit of a more comprehensive Zen life might be framed, including: — Lifestyle: Monastic versus Householder — Physical: Zazen versus the four Cardinal Postures — Biological: Medit...

Continuing our exploration of what aspects of Zen training we might reasonably incorporate into our daily life activities, we turn to the aspect of breathing. This we listed under the rubric of the biological: meditative breathing versus everyday situations. With an initial caveat to remember that we are not talking about breath control, but finding and following the natural breath in various circ...

Continuing our exploration of the various dimensions of daily life in modern America, and how we might more intentionally, and mindfully, carry over the insights and influences of our Zen practice, “applying“ them in a beneficial manner, I suggested that this process would necessarily involve turning a perceived negative into a positive, converting a confrontational approach to one of collaboratio...

I have used the term “versus” for many years, without ever looking it up in the dictionary. It is defined as “against (especially in sports and legal use)”; or “as opposed to; in contrast to.” So when we speak of Zen versus daily life or vice-versa, we imply that somehow the practice of Zen is necessarily set ”against” the other dimensions of life. This issue comes up frequently for experienc...

Hell to Pay Having sown the wind, we are reaping the whirlwind. Mother Nature’s pissed. WHAT IF THIS IS HELL? The 1995 hit song released by Joan Osborne: “What if God was one of us?” reminded me of another mythical story called “The Rabbi’s Gift.” It is a tale of a rabbi visiting and giving a talk at a Christian monastery fallen on hard times, in which he suggests that one of the few remaining mon...

(A)theism Theism, okay — But not without its flip side Both is and is not. Continuing our discussion of addiction and theism, along with atheism, we will focus more tightly on alcohol, as one addiction amongst many. I contacted an associate we will refer to as Buddy C, who for some years has hosted a Taoist AA recovery group online, focusing on one verse of the Tao te Ching each week. I would join...

Addiction Addiction is real — Born of body, mouth, and mind; Not invented here.     In this segment of UnMind we return to a subject — if it can be reduced to a mere “subject” — that I explored publicly many years ago, when I gave a series of talks on addiction and Zen under the rubric of “sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll.” Which, at that time, seemed to cover the waterfront of possible addicti...