Oct. 11-17

“The need to know, the need to understand is sometimes like a mountain that we have to climb over or move through before we can rest here. We have a habit of needing to know and thinking that if we can’t know what this is, then we have no means of relating to it.”

-Peter Fenner

Practice Meetings

Friday Oct 16, 7:00pm

This Week’s Koan

Blue Cliff Record #2: Jôshû’s “Supreme Way”

Jôshû, instructing the assembly, said, “‘The Supreme Way is not difficult; it simply dislikes choosing.’ But even if a word is uttered, it is already an action of ‘choosing’ or of adhering to ‘clarity’. This old monk doesn’t dwell in clarity. Do you monks want to keep a firm hold on it or not?”

At that time a monk asked, “You say you do not dwell in clarity. If so, what is there to keep a firm hold on?” Jôshû said, “I don’t know, either.” The monk said, “If you, Master, don’t know, why do you say that you don’t dwell in clarity?” Jôshû said, “You have already asked amply. Bow and withdraw.”

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