Learning To Swim

Genjo Mainello Osho recently gave a teisho called "The Foreigner has No Beard," from the fourth case in the "Gateless Barrier." My teachers Dharma discourse had a deeply meaningful impact on me as he talked at some moments very subtly and other times very profoundly on learning how to so-called "swim," in one's life and not drown amid our life circumstances. It was so "straight on" in fact that my eyes found tears, because I knew precisely what he expressed.

Early in his teisho, Genjo Osho said, "…With only dokusan once a day, even for Dharma Teachers, that's a lot of sitting and a lot of time to face who we are, sit after sit after sit. And to come across all the potential, you could say delusions and distractions that we might call hindrances. But learning how to swim in all these potential distractions, delusions and hindrances is how we really become, I think it's right to say, mature students of the way. It's because we are able to swim and not drown and not so-called down in distractions, hindrances, delusions, attachments, longings, dreams, fantasies, pains, sorrows… fatigue. And as we become mature enough to swim in this really diverse and choppy ocean we become more capable of settling into what might be called our true self or deep self.

I don't like (the word) true-self as it contrasts as a false self to a true self. There is no such distinction. Even self itself is a distinction that divides self from other. It's hard to find language but suffice it so say that when we learn how to swim in the surface waters we then become more comfortable or accessible to the depths. And sesshin (silent retreat to gather the mind) of any kind, whether it's a half-day mini sesshin or eight-day Rohatsu is a time to experiment, with nothing else to do but to learn how to swim. There is no other agenda but to learn how to swim in the midst of what we might think of as adversity."

Learning to not only swim, but being able to do so in the "choppy waters," of life requires a variety of skills, practice and determination. There's much to do with so little time.

Genjo goes much further on developing the skills and confidence, in learning to so-called, "Swim." If you would like to listen the complete teisho, it's available at no-cost at Choboji Podcast site or iTunes. I hope that you take the time to listen as his words provide a kind of "North Star," that can help to guide our practice.

Your In Zen,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
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