Welcome back everyone! If you are just joining us feel free to catch-up or just jump in where we are.

This week we will look at Chapter 5 pages 64-74. I do want to give a warning for the first pages of the chapter there is discussions of eating disorders. If you would like to skip that section start instead at page 68 the first paragraph, which begins “Xinggang’s formal training with old Master Cixing…..”

This section of the chapter takes us through the life of Chinese Dharma Heir Zhiyuan Xinggang. The author asks many questions throughout, comparing her path through training with some of the same challenges female practitioners encounter today. As such I’m going to highlight a few quotes which really struck me from this section.

“Because the Zen school is based on meditation practice, it is not dependent on literacy or knowledge of scriptures. Mastery of meditation does not favor males or females and is not inherently related to educational advantages, power, influence, physical strength or wealth.”

“The questions of what to do when the institution fails to turn toward its blind spots, or when the rules and committees fail us, needs to be addressed by each practitioner. For practice to deepen, we need to understand that disappointment and problems are part of our growth”

“She believe that seeking liberation, which we associate with renunciation and hardship, is actually joyous. Xinggang offers this kind reminder for Zen trainees and other spiritual practitioners: the hardship we experience is not a result of the practice or its inevitable physical difficulties. Our suffering is caused instead by our inevitable human desires for having things our own way, and by our addictions to worldly pleasures that only result in more suffering.”
Having recently finished Ango, do you relate to the experience of giving up something as being joyous?

Please reflect on the above, or whatever strikes you from this section.

Please talk amongst yourselves here too, comment on each other’s comments, and allow time for others to comment. This is a book discussion group, so let’s make it a conversation.

Gassho,
Shoka
Sat