Arrival in Oslo, April 30:
Greeting Homa and Yogi (cofounders of Zen House, longtime collaborators, and co-sponsors of this and 17 of my other 19 teaching trips to Norway since 2009):
First meeting with Homa and Yogi to get an update on the upcoming four-day intensive retreat, and to review again the teaching schedule for this trip:
After a quick coffee and meeting in the train station, departure directly from Oslo Sentraal Stasjon for seven-hour train trip to Stavanger:
First meeting, walkabout, and conversation with the core members of the local Stavanger Zen Sangha, including its cofounder and head, my student Trond “Kåei” Pettersen:
Meditation, Dharma talk, and Q&A with the members of the Stavanger Zen Sangha:
Public Dharma talk in Stavanger. The Zen group there was just started some months ago, and is completely new in the city. This is our first public event, getting started slowly from nothing:
Some local sightseeing with Kåei just outside Stavanger. Lots of wild natural beauty, and – – of course – – some Viking swords must be encountered:
Seven hours of train back to Oslo:
Return to Oslo:
On returning to Oslo, our retreat group was enlarged by the arrival from Germany, LA, and Greece of several other members of our meditation family. And it really is that — a practicing family. Not a “family” in the exclusive or tribal sense of that word, and inside/outsider concept. This speaks merely to the exceptionally pure and clear connection developed by these disparate identities, forged in silent retreats, which makes it some kind of experience of group-joy and mutual appreciation such as I have rarely seen anywhere in my life. It all comes out of practice: these are not “social” bonds over a shared hobby or political or religion;igious view or job or “kids” or neighborhood or tribal history or values. It is merely the effortless flowing of the spirit of “don’t know”. As I heard Zen Master Seung Sahn say once, “True Self immediately recognizes True Self.” Like air meeting air when a window is opened, the connection of substance-with-substance is automatic, seamless, complete: the infinite love of Sangha, the Third Jewel of Buddhism, and nothing less.
Zen Jam
We all met again at Zen House, Oslo, where Yogi’s monthly “Zen Jam” was scheduled to occur. This is a gathering of musician-friends of Yogi who meets to allow spontaneous expressions of musical transcendence to occur. Nothing is planned or rehearsed, and there isn’t any “known” tunes or pieces that appear. Just a few notes or sounds from one musician or another, then the syncing together of another sound or tune happens, and the disparate expressions coalesce naturally and spontaneously into an experience” which truly cannot be described. They do not “perform” for anyone: they merely hear each other deeply, with natural awareness, and then they “let” some musical movement emerge from the separate contributions, not leading to any sort of goal or predetermined “set”, but to present itself as an utterly new and irreproducible experience. It is one of the most extraordinary experiences of the musical consciousness which I have ever experienced in this current rebirth. Yogi and friends have been doing this for some 24 years, with musicians flowing in and out of the arrangement over the years as life-0changes cause their attendance naturally to change and evolve.
During the Jam, they requested that the monk-visitor please add some spontaneous “Zen” contribution. There was nothing prepared. They just gave me a “live” mic, and trusted my contribution to emerge whenever and however it occurred to me, in the Moment. I initially held back for a while, to hear them and intuit my “place” whenever it became clear to me.
The “result” was basically a sort of “under-chant”, coming deep from deep my center. I added some teaching-words at one point, repeated over and over again as a “hwadu”: “Where did you come from?” “Do you know where you can from?”
The Dharma Room at Zen House
After the Zen Jam, our group went upstairs to bow to the Buddha in the Dharma Room which has been the site of some 12 or 13 intensive silent retreats I have led at Zen House since 2009. The Buddha was donated by followers in Korea some seven or eight years ago, and I had it sent over and installed in this lace of true practice, from which many lotus-hearts have bloomed.
We bowed to the Buddha and did Evening Practice — straight to sitting Zen:
As always, there is often much work for this low-class Zen monk to do, with correspondence and Zen Center administrative obligations a pretty constant feature, even when teaching on the road. So, every coffee shop visit usually becomes a part-time office. One day, there won’t be these responsibilities anymore (it is hoped).
The next morning, departure for the 4-day intensive retreat:
Then, don’t-know’s infinite Silence…
After four days of such non-dual deliciousness in don’t know, silence is broken. Tea, fruit, and bye-bye:
Back to Oslo, and farewell:
세계일화: The whole world is a single flower.
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