KOANS UNDER THE OCTOBER SKY This Saturday afternoon, at 4:00 in Creek Bend Zoomdo—-
KOAN MEDITATION , collectively.
What’s a koan, what is koan meditation, and why do it both alone and together? Especially, why do this now, in our wild time and place? One answer is that koans are powerful, unmanageable, exasperating and delightful allies for us on the dark roads and moonlit waterways of now.This Saturday will be the first in a series of six sessions:
October 10, 17 and 31
November 7, 14 and 21.
In each session we’ll explore some aspect of the koan tradition and the non-
methodical methods of awakening to, with and through the old koan masters; And of course, we’ll do this mostly by inviting our honored guests, the koans, to have their wily ways with us.
For this first session, here’s a brief exchange for you to hang out with in advance:
When Robert Aitken was encountering Buddhism, haiku and meditation in a Japanese prison camp, he asked his teacher, “We vow, ‘Sentient beings are
numberless, I vow to save them all.’ How can we possibly do that?”
His teacher’s reply was “We include them.” The invitation for your meditation is this: What if, whatever appears “inside” or “outside” of you, one moment after the next, you simply include it? Which of course
means also you simply don’t exclude it.