Organ Mountain Zen



Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Truth

With palms together,

“The Roshi makes shitty coffee.” a poem by a Zen student and gift to me.

Sometimes our truth is simple and straightforward. Not always so. Sometimes our truth is muddy, lurking in the muck of a swamp. We don’t always have the clarity of the student poet, but we always have a direction we must follow, even if it’s through the mud.

Zen practice is the practice of taking a step with the deliberation of an arrow speeding to its target. Equivocate not, just do. So too, our truth: it’s always with us, but it’s up to us to have it see the light of day. There is a time for silence, a time for speech, and a time for action. Prajna is knowing which is which.

Gassho