Earth Dreams: Zen Buddhism and the Soul of the World Amy Kisei

This talk is part of a series of talks exploring the Engaged Buddhist Precepts of Thich Nhat Hanh and the Order of Interbeing. In this talk we explore how to practice with the suffering we encounter in ourselves, others and the world—recognizing that our suffering isn’t separate from the world’s suffering.
The concept of the World Wound comes from Joan Halifax Roshi’s book A Fruitful Darkness, quoted below.
As the environmental aspects of our alienation from the ground of life become increasingly apparent, the social, physical, mental, and spiritual correlates rise into view. We all suffer in one way or another. Consciously or unconsciously, we wish to be liberated from this suffering. Some of us will attempt to transcend suffering. Some of us will be overwhelmed and imprisoned by it. Some of us in our attempts to rid ourselves of suffering will create more pain. In the way of shamans and Buddhists, we are encouraged to face fully whatever form our suffering takes, to confirm it, and, finally, to let it ignite our compassion and wisdom. We ask, How can we work with this suffering, this “World Wound”? How can our experience of this wound connect us to the web of creation? And how can this wound be a door to compassion and compassionate action?

The talk ends with a guided version of Tonglen practice, where we pay particular attention to how we feel and experience suffering, spaciousness/interconnection and compassion on a somatic level.


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In the Buddhist tradition we are invited to look into the nature of suffering. To do this we have to be willing to turn towards it. While this may seem obvious—we all have habits + behaviors for avoiding what is right in front of us, especially if what is right in front of us is painful, unpleasant or uncomfortable. For even a single-celled organism moves away from a painful stimulus.
And yet, what teachers and practitioners throughout the tradition have found is that this moving away, fighting, resisting what is happening actually causes more suffering!
To meet what is happening with openness and embodied curiosity—allows us to actual see what is going on here, to feel our feelings, the seemingly uncomfortable sensations in our bodies and minds and to realize that we actually have this capacity. This capacity to feel anxiety, shame, discomfort, doubt, rage. And when we feel the sensations and feelings without getting into the story about them—inevitably they change, they reveal more what they actually are, the fleeting movement of energy moving through a spacious awareness.
Our capacity to turn towards our own discomfort and suffering with curiosity and openness, allows for a compassionate response to our own suffering—which also builds our capacity to turn towards the suffering we find in the world.
In actually all suffering is connected, because our being is shared being. The systems of injustice, greed and hatred that seem to perpetuate suffering in our world, affect us all as individuals. This talk is an exploration of one of the foundational precepts of engaged buddhism.
Do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering, including personal contact, visits, images, and sounds. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.

It is an invitation to turn towards suffering in our lives and the life of the world. It is an invitation into the deep realization of our shared being, our interconnection. It is an exploration of living a compassionate response as a practice of staying engaged with the heart of the world.


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The path of Zen meditation is a path grounded in love and the deep realization of our shared being, we often call these two aspects of the path—wisdom and compassion.
During this Podcast Episode we meditate on the koan from Yunmen.
What is Zen?
An Appropriate Response.
This question and response runs deep. An appropriate response isn’t something we find once and for all, and then live by it. It is an ongoing, alive inquiry that happens in the very situations of our lives, in our soma, our hearts, minds and being.
In the Zen tradition we have the practice guidelines or inquiries that we call the Bodhisattva Precepts. Thich Nhat Hanh and the Order of Interbeing also devised the Engaged Buddhism Precepts as a way of helping us contemplate how to respond to injustice and suffering in our world.
This talk also explores some methods for practicing with the precepts.


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Greetings!
I am sending this Podcast Dharma Talk that I recorded last Monday, after viewing the Total Solar Eclipse. Which was spectacular, really beyond words, eerie, beautiful, humbling, I was struck with a deep sense of awe and gratitude.
Below is the written version of the Dharma Talk. The exploration inspired by the eclipse is an active contemplation of the koan, Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha.
Sending blessings with this post for your own transformations, and transformation in our world. May we continue to see love and compassion.
Eclipses are viewed mythologically, astrologically as times of transformation. 
Perhaps something in the shadows of our psyche, unconscious to us–rises to the surface or is able to be seen more clearly. Making the unconscious, conscious is crucial for transformation to occur. 
And there are other transformations possible in the spiritual alchemy symbolized by the kissing of the sun + moon.
I want to share a koan
KOAN:
Ancestor Ma was sick. The superintendent of the monastery asked him, “How have you been feeling these days?” The Ancestor said, “Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha.”
—Blue Cliff Record Case 3 (translation by John Tarrant & Joan Sutherland, titled Ma’s Sun Face, Moon Face Buddha)
Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face BuddhaWhat kind of people where the ancient ancestors!For twenty years I have struggled fiercely;How many times have I gone down to the Blue Dragon’s Cave for you?This distress is worth recounting;Clear-eyed bodhisattvas should not take it lightly.
—Xuedou’s Commentary on BCR Case 3

I have always loved this koan. I think of the eclipse as a time when the sun-face buddha and moon-face buddha meet—In ancient Chinese and Indian cosmology the eclipse was thought to be caused by a dragon eating the sun, other cultures in the Americas believed it was a monster or a squirrel who ate the sun. In alchemy we have the image of the green lion eating the sun.
It does look like someone is taking bites out of the sun, like the sun is a giant cookie, and the moon is taking bigger and bigger bites out of it. Until it is completely swallowed and night dawns in the middle of the day.
Perhaps it is in blue dragons cave—in the belly of the monster– where the light of the sun is restored. Where our original light is realized.
In this koan we have Ancestor Ma.
Ma is a sound that corresponds to mother, in many languages–which is interesting in its connection to pre-axial religions, where mother goddesses ruled the heavens and the Earth.
Sophie Strand in her research on the history of myth traces the monsters that emerge like the minotaur as having their roots in a mother goddess culture, where this goddess had energy like Kali meaning she could give life and take it away. Which is something that we say of Zen teachers or people with realization—they have the power to give life or take it away.
For realization in Zen is more of a losing than a gaining. We see through our self and delusions to the point of realizing that we are everything and nothing belongs to us.
The Sun and Moon archetypally play different roles in our collective imagination.

Sun Face Buddha
The Sun illuminates the day. The sun is connected with knowledge, the ego, clarity, our uniqueness, how we shine, vitality, consciousness, the mind–our knowing. 
If you look at the Sun card in the Rider-Waite-SmithTarot you see an image of a bright luminous sun, a naked baby so vibrantly full of life, riding a horse as sunflowers bloom all around. The Sun looks directly back at us. Bright and straightforward in its life-giving radiance.
The sun you could say is what we know about ourselves.
In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition the clear light of the sun is used to describe our true nature. There is this enduring, life-giving quality to the sun. 
Awakening is allowing the clear light of our nature to shine through us. 
Awakening dawns in us, as us—with the recognition that this light does not belong to us

We are in the midst of eclipse season. And while it happens twice a year, many of us living in the US are living close to the zone of totality or traveling to a place that falls in the zone of totality. During this dharma talk I explore the Zen teachings of the dark/light. Included is exploration of practice of bowing or touching the earth, the Dark Night of the Soul and the Koan: Everyone has their own Light. Here’s an excerpt
…
Touching the earth, is a practice of humility, grace, receptivity. It allows us to temporarily set down the weight of our aloneness, the weight of our needing to be someone—a unique light that shines out in such a special way. It allows us to blend our light with the light of the world–to see how we depend on each other, how we interbe together.
Often as we are going through our days, we give a lot more attention to the light. Light is vitality, life. Without it we die. And yet, the light of day, the light of knowing, the light of the Sun or our egoic selves, obscures another more foundational light.
Within darkness there is light
In darkness it is most bright
When faced with darkness, whether that is the darkness of night, winter, eclipse, depression, non-doing of zazen, sleep
Where is the light?
What shines forth still, no longer shadowed by the light of the sun?
Everyone has their own light, says Zen Master Yunman, when you look for it, it appears dark or dim. What is this light?
…
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See below for up-coming in-person and online group meditation events and retreats. I also offer 1:1 IFS-informed Spiritual Counseling and Meditation support. I incorporate dream work and hakomi skills in my sessions, you can learn more about my 1:1 work here, feel free to reach out with any questions.
This talk is recorded during my weekly Online Monday Night Meditation and Dharma event. This event is open to anyone, you can drop in anytime. Meditation begins at 6P PT / 9P ET. Click here for more information and the zoom link.
Other Upcoming Events
DreamSky: Community Dream Circle—Sunday, April 14th 3P PT / 6P ET
This drop-in online dream group is open to anyone with an interest in exploring dreams with community. You don’t have to be having profound dreams or even be remembering your dreams to join. Please contact me if you are interested in attending.
Retreats in Oregon at Great Vow Zen Monastery
May Zen Sesshin: The Light of Our Ancestors May 13 - 19 at Great Vow Zen Monastery in Clatskanie, OR co-led with Zen Teacher Patrick Bansho Green
During this 5-day silent Zen meditation retreat we will connect to the ancestral light of awakened nature. Drawing inspiration from the stories and practices of our Zen ancestors, fellow human beings who felt the call to practice the spiritual path of insight, love and presence.
Love & Spaciousness: A Weekend Loving Kindness Retreat May 24 - 26 at Great Vow Zen Monastery in Clatskanie, OR with Dharma Holder Myoyu Haley Voekel
With wonderment on our side, and in relationship with all that is, we recognize the inherent compassion that naturally arises from deep and sustained presence. Held in a container of zen forms and the vibrant dance of a monastery waking up to spring, we will explore the nature of being anything at all! Love and Spaciousness are two qualities of our true nature. This retreat we will practice recognizing and opening to them.
Love and wonderment,
Kisei


This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amykisei.substack.com/subscribe

I always consider it quite a blessing to have found my way to the Spiritual Path. I didn’t always feel this way. I remember early on in practice wishing that I could just be satisfied with the flow of everyday life—tv, movies, music, entertainment, a regular job. As an 18 year old, I wished that the urgency of my spiritual angst wasn’t so pressing. That I could go back to normal.
I’ve heard this sentiment echoed a lot since the beginning of the pandemic. A desire for normal. When is it going to go back to the way it was? When will it go back to normal?
In Dharma practice we are encouraged to bring curiosity to the desires and pulls that arise in our minds. We are invited to ask:
What is normal?
An illusion. A phantom. A dream.
Can we ever achieve it? Is it even desirable?
When my younger self dreamed of normal, it was a dream of going back to sleep—back to the ignorance and bliss of youth. It was also a dream of finding ease within the pressing weight of my existential doubt.
My Zen teacher would often say, “the only way out is through.” There is another side, beyond the doubt, fear, confusion of the present situation. But running away, going to sleep, forgetting about it is not the way to the other side. It is only through acceptance, through being with, accompanying our apparent suffering, or our reaction to the suffering in the world, that a larger, more inclusive view emerges.
Our struggles, our challenges can be fuel for a deeper intimacy, a more enduring love, a fiercer compassion and boundless wisdom to emerge. Our desire for normal, may be a wish for a raft, some ease or ground in the midst of transformation—some reassurance that we will survive, that we will be OK.
In my experience, dharma practice offers such a raft—that develops into an embodied trust that we are held in the enduring pulse of the universe, in the spacious embrace of our true nature.
At the beginning of the year, I took up the Ox-herding pictures as a teaching inquiry and exploration for our Monday Night Online Zen Meditation group. This podcast episode is the 5th of the Ox-herding pictures, entitled—Taming the Ox.
These pictures are the stages of awakening in the Zen tradition, where we are OX and ox-herder. The OX being our true awakened nature, and the herder being our mind of both practice and habit energy.
So when we say we are herding the OX we are really herding ourselves.
And when we say the fifth picture is taming the OX, we are talking about the stage of practice where we are taming ourselves in our realization of our true nature. Despite the wonder, peace, satisfaction and beauty of awakened awareness, our habit mind seeks pleasure in fleeting desires and follows trains of thought that lead to despair, division, pain and suffering.
We are learning here to recognize our true nature, the source of ultimate happiness and to stay in or stabilize this recognition. I shared a few stanzas of The Little Prince as a way of connecting to the spirit of taming in Spiritual Practice.
"Please--tame me!" he said.
"I want to, very much," the little prince replied. "But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand."
"One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me . . ."
"What must I do, to tame you?" asked the little prince.
"You must be very patient," replied the fox. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me--like that--in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day . . ."
The next day the little prince came back.
…

And he went back to meet the fox.
"Goodbye," he said.
"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is