Online Only

Genjokoan: Fully Expressing Our Life

Sunday, October 5
2:00pm — 4:30pm

Genjokoan: Fully Expressing Our Life

With Ryoshin Charles Kalmanek Hoshi

Sunday, October 5, 2 – 4:30 pm

In this workshop, we’ll introduce Genjokoan, one of the most important philosophical texts written by Dogen Zenji, a Buddhist poet, teacher, philosopher and founder of the Soto Zen school.

Genjo means “to fully manifest or express”; koan as it’s used here means “the heart of the matter”. Genjokoan therefore means “fully manifesting the heart of the matter” or fully expressing the meaning of our 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 our 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 donation $40.

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