“The word ‘akh’ as a verb means ‘to be effective’ and the ‘akh’ as an entity was seen as a shining being who could come and go as it pleased. This means that the akh was not impelled by the forces of the universe to follow a set path but had achieved a state of freedom and ability to act in any situation.”
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from a letter to a friend
I went up to Sonoma Mountain Zen Center today, Roshi Kwong was speaking, and it was pretty good. He mentioned that it’s possible to breathe into the sitting and sit longer, but he advised not to continue if injury seemed imminent. I’ve been experiencing a variation on that, which is that the extent of the breath and the place in consciousness ...
2nd Life, The Online Sangha, and zazen
Zazen is a peculiar practice. On the one hand, it’s been associated with the cross-legged posture since the Gautamid first described the practice of setting up mindfulness. On the other hand, we have statements like “zazen sits zazen” (Shunryu Suzuki, to Blanche Hartman, as recounted on cuke.com) and “you know, sometimes zazen ...