Michael gave a series of dharma talks on the Ten Ox-Herding Pictures during a silent meditation retreat in the summer of 2015. These profound talks range from Buddhist philosophy, Zen koans, psychological insights, references to Allen Ginsberg, and personal stories about Michael. We’ve transcribed, edited, and compiled the talks into a beautifully designed digital booklet and are sharing it with Patreon supporters as a gift.
Download the eBook by becoming a supporter on Patreon.
Here is an excerpt:
“I have these moments where I feel like I’m in aristocratic France, and warm baguettes just show up. Then I’m in a little cottage like this and I feel like I’m in Kyoto, and then I have moments, for example in the next building, where I feel like I’m in Sri Lanka. Is anybody else having this
experience? It’s just like, where are we? My favorite part so far is the sounds. I think this is how “beautiful” sounds.
The door to intimacy is always open. We are intimate with ourselves, but for some of us, we have so many walls up. So many constructions. Maybe you don’t think of them as saboteurs of intimacy but actually when you sit there and your mind becomes compulsive this is called a “wall
of the mind” in the Heart Sutra. Remember we chanted that this morning? Walls of the mind. And the Heart Sutra is actually a text about letting go of fear. The line is, “With no walls [hindrance] in the mind. No walls [hindrance] therefore no fear.”
Some of us, when we come into an environment like this, feel like we’re in high school again, or whatever it’s called in your country, and we like certain people and don’t like certain people, and wonder if they like us. And then it’s hard to open up to the experience of sangha because we’re
just in our theories about our reality. I see it in my relationship with many of you. It takes so many years for trust to build so we can have an intimate connection with each other. If we can’t discern the dharma in our relationships, we can’t discern it anywhere. So there’s no difference
between these teachings and how they come alive in our relationships.”
Available to our supporters on Patreon.