Dogen’s Storehouse of Treasures (MK66)

All the ways we try to get out of awakening! It becomes a real burden, to not let some piece of life touch me or penetrate. These things become very clear in retreat; it becomes hard to ignore what’s there. And all the efforts to snare it, charm it, or steal it from someone else, including a past or future versions of oneself … despite these efforts, we can’t hold off awakening.

How does it feel to be here? The bath is that which contains us. We go in together—enter here. There is something marvelous about letting it all go and letting the imperfections of life appear. Feeling that subtle touch. The universe is at play: let’s see it playing, and let’s let it see us play.

What is this life? The nature of what appears is always changing—it’s something we feel together in ‘the bath. Prajna, or wisdom, is learning to recognize and see accurately. We can suddenly see that everything is okay and here, and yet it’s a dance. We find it; we lose it again. In practice, as in life, lost things return or cycle in and take their leave again.

Summer Sesshin: Into the Blue Dragon’s Cave – Sunday morning talk. Small things, small moments of rest, peace, & awakening, like “thank you.” Appreciating discarded treasures. The very things that imprison us hold the freedom, if we can host them—being at home with them. The storehouse ONLY opens by itself—no prying or forcing. “Returning” in meditation. Leonard Cohen sings How the Light Gets In. As recorded on July 28, 2020.

Summer Sesshin: Into the Blue Dragon’s Cave – audio excerpt from David’s sesshin talk on the Storehouse of Treasures, flipside of the Blue Dragon’s Cave. It can’t be forced open, and the very things I fear most, that imprison me, are actually the treasure. How many times have I missed the door opening on its own? As recorded on June 28, 2020.

PZI Zen Online -‘From the very beginning, nothing has been withheld.’ See Audio: Stinginess & the Storehouse of Treasures. The covid prompted hoarding, the contagion of ‘not enough’, but there are subtle ways our responses change and generosity appears. Without withholding, we allow even ‘disaster’ to unfold in a project as the universe in flow & at play. As recorded. (Tess begins with reading from Marie L. Von Franz -see text file)May 26, 2020.