Editorial
The following is an excerpt from this issue:
“Everyone is engaged in practice. We need to have an understanding of practice that is broad and down to earth. If we are not careful we can see our practice very narrowly.
Human beings are basically narrow minded, so practice may mean just sitting and nothing about the kitchen. Don‘t you think that‘s the way you feel when you first come to retreat? The kitchen may be the last place you want to be practising! Very narrow minded – it‘s not like that. Particularly the style of Bendoho retreat we do where everything, each and everything, is nothing but an opportunity for practice. If we pay attention to the details there‘s no such thing as somebody is practicing, somebody is not. You are here practicing, everybody is practicing, whether they be in the Zendo or in the kitchen.
Don‘t just think ―I’m practicing in the Zendo, coming to meditation every week, my wife is [not practicing] reading at home, checking emails‖ – or something like that. That is very, very narrow-minded. If you are practicing, everyone is practicing.
We need to broaden and be able to meet one another in that way, in that practice. So the usual discriminative thinking drops, seeing everything on absolute equal ground, absolute value. The concrete forms of practice, the fundamental ones, are the three forms…” (Continued on page 1)