KESA SESSHIN

The kesa is zazen. It is our skin in zazen. It is our flesh in zazen, our bones and our marrow. It is all that constitutes the zazen that we practice.

In the zazen that we practice there is not only a pure side, there also exists and appears in zazen the whole side which is the conditioned production of our existence, our karma that we let pass here and now during zazen.

One does not have to have merits to carry the kesa, but when one carries every day the kesa in zazen, infinite merits appear. They are not the merits good or bad, pure or tainted, exact or wrong. They are not merits born of discrimination and duality. They are like the merits of a baby at birth. To be born is the zero point, the point of creation, the infinite point. The merits of the kesa are infinite. They are what make us to be born to the Way, to awaken to life.

Barbara Kosen.

Sesshin on July 8 and 9 at Shorin-Ji. Arrival is on Friday evening, July 7.

In this sesshin the samu time will be devoted to kesa sewing practice, and we will continue to practice zazen intensively as usual.

The sesshin will be led by our teacher Barbara Kosen, who picked up the transmission of kesa from her teacher Taisen Deshimaru, a transmission that from time immemorial goes from Buddha to Buddha to the present day.

The price of the sesshin is 70 euros. Those who are not members of the Association Zen Taisen Deshimaru Taisen will have to pay 20 euros more for registration, valid for one year.