Video Library

In part two of this series, Gyodo Sensei offers further reflections on Everyday Life Koans. Koans arise in the gap between our life as we want it to be - with all its attachments and wishful thinking - and life as-it-is, unfolding all the time. When working with a koan, we let go of the analytical mind and plunge directly into the intimate, visceral experience of that gap.

Koans are a unique Zen practice of bringing meditative mind to the deepest questions and challenges of life. Gyodo Sensei offers an overview of koan practice in the Rinzai tradition and how everyday life koans go further in the realms of home, work, and relationships not covered in traditional monastic practice. Practice Leaders Sokyo and Gakyo share their experiences with everyday life koans.

Gyodo Sensei gives an introduction to the interpenetrating dimensions of the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha: the one body or absolute dimension, the manifest or historical dimension, and the maintained, or relative dimension.