perfection

Shame & blame

There are koan stories that obliquely look at blame, shame, getting it wrong, embarrassment and a host of other possible difficulties that every human being, perfectly imperfect, experiences every single day, that reveal how a Zen person is with this stuff.  Does a Zen person blush with shame?  Quake with anxiety?  Flutter with insecurity?  If not, why not?   Gillian Coote, roshi looks into a couple

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What is not a mistake?

Today I’m sitting at home feeling quite fatigued. My partner and daughter Lily both have Covid and I potentially have it. Apart from tiredness and the occasional cough, we are all doing ok. I’m feeling a great sense of gratitude to all those scientists, researchers and all the other people that worked so hard in a short amount of time

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Perfection

There’s a saying in English “Practice makes perfect”, but in our Zen practice we actually drop ideas of perfection and non-perfection. We practice just to practice, without any gaining idea. I make this point because it’s so easy to get caught up in the emotion of “that was a good sitting” (pat on the back) and “why can’t I concentrate?!!

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