DP #1 Samu: Nothing Extra

Recorded at Upaya Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006. This talk by Roshi Joan Halifax looks at the four practices in Zen: zazen (sitting meditation), teisho (teachings), dokusan (interviews), and samu (work practice). She then concentrates her talk on an exploration of work practice. She notes that our spiritual practice does not function in isolation. It must translate into the activity of living and working in our daily everyday lives. A daily caretaking period and formal work practice offer the opportunity to explore labor that is nourishing to ourselves and others. Samu provides a way of taking one's practice off the cushion into one's daily life. Samu practice is not a substitute for sitting meditation. It is rather the extension of meditation to its function. Samu and sitting meditation are therefore highly interrelated and interdependent. She then explores the koan "Sweeping the Ground."In this talk, Roshi Joan explores samu, work practice. She begins her talk with an amusing story about the calligrapher Kazuaki Tanahashi and his humbleness, and Brother David Steindl-Rast and his "nothing extra" way of being. She speaks of the appreciation of the differences, the importance of diversity, as well as the appreciation of the ancestral continuity of the Zen Buddhism that is practiced at Upaya. Roshi then drops into her theme, the richness of work practice and opens this wonderful subject for all of us as she explains how samu supports the monastery as well as our mind. How to listen to this Podcast (revised 4/10/2006): Click on the icon next to the show title to "Stream" the show. Click on the player to listen to the Podcast. Soon you will be able subscribe via iTunes, which makes it very easy. To download the MP3 audio file, click on the Direct download link below. Install iTunes: In preparation for subscription and playback of the Dharma Podcast, click here to download and install iTunes. Notification list: We also suggest you JOIN the notification list. This way you will receive a notice when a new Podcast has been posted. Links EMAIL Upaya JOIN our notification list Dharma Podcast site Upaya Zen Center