Zen is sometimes equated with philosophy, but the two are very different. The former is "thinking about thinking," according to the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, and the latter is a path beyond words and silence. Accordingly, philosophy texts and Zen Buddhist texts differ in at least one fundamental way. Philosophy texts seek to say something new in the usual way while Zen Buddhist texts seek to say the usual in a new way. Put another way, a philosopher's task is to refute or complicate previous understanding through the use of logic while a Zen student's task is to allow body and mind to drop away and see with Buddha's eyes and hear with Buddha's ears--to experience directly what her teacher and the many thousands of ancestral teachers, monks, nuns, and lay practitioners over the past 2500 years have realized, and make it her own.

John Daido Loori Roshi (1931-2009)

In 2008 the Denver Zen Center dedicated the June sesshin to John Daido Roshi who had just started aggressive chemotherapy for lung cancer. I happened to be jisha and so called Zen Mountain Monastery to let them know of the dedication. Daido's assistant said that earlier in the day he had joked about people not realizing that the cure was killing him, not the cancer. I never had the privilege of meeting him, but I wasn't surprised to hear that he hadn't lost his sense of humor.

In one of his teishos, Daido Roshi talks about Huike, disciple of Bodhidharma, who famously cut off his arm and stood in the snow to prove his mettle and be accepted as a student. Daido then addresses us, here in the 21st century: "Save your arm. Double your sitting." Easy to say, tough to do. Tougher, in some ways, than cutting off your arm. And that's an aspect of Zen: easy to talk about, but demanding to realize. As a teacher of Zen, Daido seemed somehow both innovative and uncompromising: a blend of old-school and avante-garde. From my vantage point in Colorado, he loomed as one of the few true dragons on the east coast. Thanks to his tireless commitment and creativity, Zen Buddhism--in the ten directions--has been and will be immeasurably richer and deeper.
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gate, gate, paragate, parasam-gate, bodhi-svaha!
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