Our theme for this year’s Ango practice period is “Appreciate Your Life as the Awakened Life.” Our practice, indeed, is this very life. We have everything we need, right here, right now. We work with what we have, and we wake up to it. Your life, just as it, is the Awakened Life, already.

The second chapter from Maezumi Roshi’s “Appreciate Your Life.” focuses on the fundamentals of the practice of zazen (sitting meditation.) While it may seem largely practical, these basic instructions are the whole of Zen practice and point to something much deeper.

Dainin Katagiri Roshi wrote that “when you touch this basic nature of life, you feel relief. This is your final abode, your terminal station… a new life opens up, everywhere, in all directions.” What would it be like to feel this kind of boundlessness and fearlessness? Is my life not open in all directions already? How is it not?

In the White Plum Zen lineage, we receive the sixteen Bodhisattva Vows when we formally commit to the Zen path in a Jukai ceremony. But making the intention to live by vows is available to all of us. As Jan Chozen Bays says “Vows act like a conduit for our life energy.”

Eon Zen Senior practice leaders Geoff Shōun O'Keeffe, Lisa Gakyo Schaewe, and Sam Sokyo Randall share their own paths into Zen practice, followed by questions and discussion.

Dharma holder Geoff Shōun O'Keeffe offers reflections on practice during our June Sesshin. What is it that we do together in retreat? It may seem like not much is happening, but it is utterly extraordinary.

Eon Zen Dharma Holder Geoff Shōun O'Keeffe shares about the Three Tenets of Zen Peacemakers: not-knowing, bearing witness, and taking action that arises from not-knowing and bearing witness. He offers Roshi Eve Marko's recent reflections on the violence and fear in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine as a profound practice of the three tenets.

In Zen retreats, we practice walking meditation. We carry the same focus and awareness of our sitting meditation into movement. Thich Naht Hahn said to “walk as if your feet are kissing the Earth.” What did he mean by this? How can we connect with our lives in the deepest way possible?

It’s a common human tendency to overthink, to have and hold onto opinions, to seek meaning, to categorize and analyze. Our brains do what brains do. And ideas and concepts are very enticing. They can also be useful, at times. Our practice is to hold them lightly — to not identify with our thoughts or to get too caught up with them. We have all we need to practice being who we are.

Be still. Look and don’t turn away. Listen to what your heart tells you to do. The Three Tenets are a core Zen practice. It is about waking up to the reality of the oneness and interconnectedness of all life, and then doing everything we can to relieve suffering in a suffering world.