Tag: genpo roshi

Dream: Roshi is promoted to the highest level of teacher

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I am back in Salt Lake City and am sitting in a café in the university and/or Avenues area. By coincidence, I catch a glimpse of Genpo Roshi wearing an odd-looking traditional Japanese outfit. He has a tall spiraling reddish wig, wears an elaborate and colorful kimono, and looks a bit nervous. He leaves. I see where he is going and follow him. As I enter the a building near the old Zen center, I see him in a room full of Japanese Zen masters. In the next room are several westerners I know from my time at the Zen center. Genpo Roshi is being promoted to a very high level of teacher, traditionally seen as having a kind of cosmic significance.

Yesterday and the day before, I saw a photo on social media from the time I was at Kanzeon Zen Center in the ’90s. I was reminded of that time, also because I saw comments from several I know from that time. Also, there is a small Zoom group of people from that time meeting regularly, and I am invited. I haven’t joined yet, mostly because of social anxiety and feeling a bit ashamed I didn’t continue that particular path. I deeply loved being there and the practice, and saw myself continuing and deepening indefinitely in that practice and path.

That did not happen. I got married and she, as she informed me the day after our marriage, refused to stay in SLC. I wanted to support her, in spite of her springing this to me after we were married and earlier having pretended she was open to stay, especially since she knew how much I loved being there. So I left what was most important to me – the Zen center, my friends there, my studies at the university – and felt profoundly and deeply off track. (I woke up with nightmares and panic for that reason for months after.) My life is still profoundly impacted by that decision and I still feel off track from it.

All of that was brought up by this dream.

What is the dream about? My old Zen teacher is receiving the highest level of acknowledgment from the traditional Zen community in Japan. It’s a level I hadn’t even heard about, so rare is it. It brings up regret in me that I didn’t continue the path. I loved it so deeply. Maybe it’s a reminder of my longing to work with a teacher and group again more deeply? Maybe it’s an invitation to connect with Genpo Roshi again and that sangha?

There is also an aspect of theater to organized spirituality and religion, and it’s very much there in Zen. Roshi’s outfit was theatrical and a reminder of this theatricality. It’s something that’s a bit fun and entertaining, but I am unable to take it very seriously. For me, it’s mostly a distraction.

What if all are parts of me? I often tell myself that what I write about and my life and orientations are not much different from how it was in my teens. I wrote about more or less the same in my journal then as I do here. My favorite composer is the same (Arvo Pärt.) My views on the world and politics are much the same. My priorities are much the same. I don’t seem to have developed or matured much since then. If anything, I had a passion and determination that I seem to have lost – from feeling so deeply off track and from the CFS.

Maybe the dream is pointing to that something in me has maturity and has matured? I don’t really see it consciously, but that may be the function of the dream.

I also remember one of my last thoughts before falling asleep last night. My (current) wife said something and it reminded me of Genpo Roshi going through a dark night while I was there. Back then, I couldn’t relate to it. But now, I definitely can. I have gone through a dark night of my own for the last several years, and what I saw in him then is what I know from myself now. Maybe the dream is telling me that this too is a kind of maturing? Or, at least, that it can be used to mature? Not that I seem to have much choice in the matter.

I don’t know. As usual, I’ll stay with the dream for a while and let it work on me, and see if anything comes up.

I told my wife about it, and she showed me The Hierophant from the Tarot. On the card, The Hierophant has a crown with the same shape as the wig in the dream. She said I often show up in readings with this card. I don’t know much about that card and plan on reading about it.

Image created by me and Midjourney

tagged: genpo roshi, own dream   

Big Mind process & awakening

moe Leave a comment

What’s the relationship between the Big Mind process and awakening?

And what is the Big Mind process?

THE BIG MIND PROCESS

The Big Mind process was developed by Zen teacher Genpo Roshi based on Voice Dialog and his experience as a Zen student and teacher.

In the Big Mind process, we take on the role of different perspectives and these are typically personal (parts of our human psyche) or transpersonal (Big Mind, Big Heart, etc.).

It’s a therapeutic process, and it can also help us shift into the “view” of Big Mind, of our nature, of what the world to us happens within and as. A skilled facilitator can help most people find their nature within minutes and speak from this, which means novices can sound like traditional Zen masters or mystics in a very short while.

WHAT’S THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BIG MIND PROCESS AND AWAKENING?

Is this awakening?

Yes and no.

The noticing itself is a noticing of our nature, and that is awakening. It’s typically a noticing free of bells and whistles and big experiences. It helps us get a sense of what it’s about and, equally important, what it’s not about. (It’s not anything distant, it’s not for special people, it’s not about mystical powers, etc.)

At the same time, for this to transform us, we need to keep noticing and exploring how to live from it.

It’s not enough to notice it once or when we do the Big Mind process. We need to keep noticing, clarify, deepen, and continue to explore how to live from it.

We need to allow it to transform us and our perception, life in the world, and the different parts of our human self and psyche.

SUPPORTED BY PRACTICE

This process is supported by different forms of practice.

The noticing itself is a form of practice and can be supported by the Big Mind process and similar forms of inquiry (e.g. Headless experiments.)

Living from it is also a form of practice and can be supported by therapeutic work. The more healed we are as a human being the more able we are to live from a conscious noticing of our nature in more situations and areas of life.

And traditional forms of spiritual practice also support us in this process.

Basic meditation helps us notice that all our content comes and goes, and find ourselves as what it all happens within and as.

Heart-centered practice helps us shift our relationship with ourselves, others, the world, and all content of experience. It helps us have a relationship with it that’s more aligned with oneness.

Training a more stable attention supports all of this and just about anything else in our life.

And so on.

MY BACKGROUND

I was at Kanzen Zen Center when Genpo Roshi developed the Big Mind process, I took part in several Big Mind workshops, and I have used it for myself since then and occasionally facilitated others. And that’s about it.

I remember some conversations about this at Kanzeon Zen Center at the time. People off the street would get koans almost immediately, even if they had no experience with Zen or meditation. Some old-timers seemed miffed that newbies, within minutes, would “get” – at some level – what they themselves had spent years on. (Which was entertaining to me.) And Genpro Roshi likened the process to bringing water down the mountain to people and emphasized that we still need practice to clarify, deepen, and learn to live from it.

As with so much else, I have been out of the loop for more than a decade due to my health so I am not sure how others see it or what the “official” take on it is these days.

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tagged: autobiography, awakening, big mind process, genpo roshi, who and what we are, zen   

Genpo Roshi: Life is very fragile, very precious

moe Leave a comment

Life is very fragile, very precious. Realizing this, we have more willingness to face whatever gift life brings us. The experience of doing that over and over again gives us faith and courage to keep going. Taking life as it comes, not knowing what will happen next, we can be fully present each moment to experience whatever it is. If it is suffering, we suffer; if it is pleasure, we have pleasure.
— Genpo Roshi

tagged: genpo roshi