June 2017, Issue 68

“Thus, deeply consider that without attaining balance you do not experience solidity… whether as emptiness or as forms, expression of the dream within a dream brings level balance…

The dream is the entire great earth; the entire great earth is stable.”

Dogen Zenji, Muchu Setsumu: Within a Dream, Expressing the Dream

In this Winter Solstice edition of Myoju, the second in a series addressing the topic Dreams and Visions. As Ekai Osho has expressed in previous issues, we can view winter as analogous to training, and spring as the time of flourishing.

In this issue, we continue to explore the text Muchu Setsumu. In the Dharma Talk, Ekai Osho answers a question from the audience about finding our spiritual question. He responds that it will be vague so long as we lack direct experience: that the Buddha was very clear because of direct experience. It seems to me that as we act, we begin to express our dream, and as we experience practice and training, we become more stable, more balanced – solid.

In her article Temple Gates, Naomi Richards talks about stepping down from her role as Jikishoan’s Treasurer after eight years, of transitions through different phases of life, and how those transitions may be limited by habit, or create transformation. Naomi, within the scope of her training, appears to have travelled great distances, while others in this issue speak of travelling them physically. Nicky Coles tells us of her visit to Toshoji late last year, and Liam D’hondt of his visit to Tiantong monastery, where Dogen Zenji trained and received the Dharma from Zen Master Ju Ching.

Dan Carter, on behalf of Ekai Korematsu Osho, Editor and the Jikishoan Publications Committee.

Read this Myoju (file on Google Drive)