In Relationship (Myosho Ginny Matthews)

Relationship is meeting what arises with full feeling and consciousness. Dependent co-origination means that our consciousness arises at the same time as all consciousness. Lost in inner dialogue, we do not experience true relationship. Zazen (sitting) is an opportunity to meet what arises in the moment in a silent, unmoving state. Myosho Ginny Matthews describes practices of zazen, chanting, and samu (work) which were engaged in her sangha and with her teacher, Sasaki Roshi, who came to the U.S. from Japan and lived into his 108th year. We can learn to dissolve through work practice, but it is harder to dissolve into the complexity of work in the world. A teisho is a spontaneous commentary on a koan, which is an enigmatic question used in Rinzai Zen Buddhism to open to a state beyond the fixated self. There is the opportunity to manifest true beingness in koan practice. We can’t stay dissolved in the Absolute as a human being—we go in and out. Mystical traditions say our relations come out of the womb that birthed us all. Sweat lodge is an experience of going into the womb of the Earth. Practice is to make relationship with whatever is in our world. We’re not in relationship if we’re not present and attentive. Death is not an isolated event; it is a complement to the ongoing reborn quality of each moment. We can learn to hold opinions lightly. If we make relationship with the reality of the moment, it’s usually not as difficult as we think it will be. In grief, pain lives with us. Suffering is holding onto pain beyond its reality as it changes into something else. We can disappear in a moment of bowing. Myosho Ginny Matthews was a student of Joshu Sasaki Roshi for 40 years. She took lay ordination in 2000, leads retreats on practice, is a dance teacher and choreographer, and is featured in the book, The Unknown She: Eight Faces of an Emerging Consciousness.