Genjokoan: Fully Expressing Our Life
With Ryoshin Charles Kalmanek Hoshi
Sunday, December 7
Sunday, January 11
2:00 – 4:30 pm
In this workshop, we’ll continue our close reading Genjōkōan (link), one of the most important philosophical texts written by Dogen Zenji, a Buddhist poet, teacher, philosopher and founder of the Soto Zen school. We’ll cover Sections 5-8 on Dec 7, 2025 and Sections 9-12 on Jan 11, 2026. All are welcome; attendance at the first workshop is not mandatory.
Genjō means “to fully manifest or express”; kōan as it’s used here means “absolute truth that embraces relative truth” which Okumura Roshi describes as “a question that true reality asks of us.” Genjōkōan therefore means “fully expressing true reality through our everyday life.” It’s often translated as “actualizing the fundamental point.” I call it “the koan of everyday life.”
Our practice, when sitting zazen and in life, is to fully express and respond to the present moment, to reality-as-it-is, individually, in community and in harmony with the world. In zazen, we become intimate with ourselves and our conditioning: we see the ways in which we are caught up in attachment and aversion. When we experience moments of awakening, they have the potential to become another form of attachment. Dogen’s teaching is for us to be fully present to all of these aspects of ourselves, without causing harm to ourselves and others.
Dogen’s use of language is original and is intended to move us beyond our conventional way of thinking. When you read Genjokoan, allow the words to penetrate your consciousness, like reading poetry.
This workshop involves small group discussion and sharing among participants. As such it will not be recorded.
This event will take place online. Suggested fee of $40 ($35 members) per workshop.