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
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
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?!!
