Zen practice is the way of true intimacy, the falling away of self and other dichotomy and dualistic ways of seeing the world.  Awakening can happen in so many ways, with a true encounter.   Includes Stories of true encounters; Shakyamuni Buddha’s awakening experience with the morning star, Mahakasyapa – twirling of the flower, Kuei-shan, encountering the live coal in his heart, Dong-shan – crossing the stream.  It’s knowing the depths of your heart-mind before your parents were born, where every day is a good day.  Then the quality of joy, love and connectedness bubbles up out of the ground of your being.   I call it the causeless joy of being.  It comes with the mind is quiet and the heart is open and at ease.  The footprints and fingerprints of your eternal nature are all around you.  

This teisho was given by Subhana Barzaghi, roshi at Autumn sesshin 2025 at Kodoji.