We have largely been conditioned to believe that we need to constantly push ourselves very hard and make strenuous efforts to attain, achieve, or become this or that. We often bring this same mentality to our spiritual practice, believing that we must make strenuous efforts to awaken and realize our true nature. Dogen Zenji described practice as the dharma gate of ease and joy. He emphasized diligent and wholehearted effort, just sitting, not trying to become or attain anything. In Zen, this is often referred to as wise effort or effortless effort. We will examine this dharma gate of ease and joy.

Eihei Dogen, the great master of Soto Zen, taught that when we know something intimately, it ceases to exist in the old way and, as a result, so do we. Dogen was a lover of nature. He built his monastery deep in the mountains near streams. In the Mountains and Rivers Sutra he wrote about the mountains and rivers, the wind and clouds, as direct expressions of the great body of the Buddha, the whole earth body as well as your body, and my body. These mountains and rivers of the present are the manifestation of the way of the buddhas and ancient sages. Each abides in its own, dharma state, exhaustively fulfilling its virtues. What Dogen is pointing to is the immediate, non-dual experience of our lives using the language of our natural world.

What does it mean to practice the Noble Eightfold Path's 'Right View'? How do we walk the Buddha's teaching of the Middle Way? ​ Master Shitou shared his deep insight into these questions with two profound poems that became the foundation of the Soto Zen School: The 'Sandokai' and the 'Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage.' We will look into maintaining this life of balancing the Absolute and the Relative, not two.

When we embrace a practice like Zen, we realize how difficult it can be to stay on a path that is so radically different from how we have been conditioned to show up. Deep inside, we know that we are not truly being our authentic selves and we consciously decide to search for something that can lead us to be who we naturally are. This practice is not for our personal development or growth. However, that is something that naturally happens. This practice offers the opportunity to show up in the world the way we are truly meant to, and when we do this, we are transformed and liberated.

For those touched by awakening, the complexities of existence allow for words to be molded like clay… and so poetry lends itself to the wonderful mysteries of what lies beyond the temporal and transitory…not allowing the reader to fully put their finger on it, for it would just be another case of the finger pointing at the moon. Each time the Dharma is composed into intellectual and coherent vocabulary, it wrangles the reader into a fury of grasping at concepts and the tangible world. Poetry on the other hand, invites curiosity and depth as well as an openness that allows room to breathe.

How does one practice without attachments to goals or gaining anything? Zen does not place an emphasis on advancing through stages of practice, or expectations of achieving anything. But when one embraces this path wholeheartedly, we mature as a result of opening the heart, seeing through delusions, and directly experiencing the transformative fruit of practice in our life. ​ Unobstructed, the primordial mind naturally sees the Way. The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures poetically captures this transformation of mind to heart as we travel and mature along this path.

Much like creating music, life is of the nature of change and flow. Just as chord changes and progressions constantly create and re-create the flowing rhythms of music, life too unfolds and is constantly in creation according to the ever changing nature of life's flowing rhythms. When we wrestle against that unfolding flow, then life, like music, becomes stagnant and its natural evolution and creative aspect is diminished within us.

In our current state of the world we witness how misinformation spreads like a virus. We witness again and again how easy it is to manipulate others, create division, and spread hatred through wrong speech. In the eight fold noble path the Buddha instructed us on the importance of right speech. When we pay close attention to our words and use them skillfully we can create heaven on Earth. Let us understand and realize the power that lies in the word and how to utilize this power for the benefit of humanity.