Category: Zen Philosophy

Satori is like a thief breaking into an  empty house. There is nothing to steal. —Kodo Sawaki It’s just like at the office when no one else shows and there’s a box full of Krispy Kreme all for me. This morning an empty dojo full of zafus and zazen all alone with the cosmos more…

Richard Collins at the Fall Equinox Eclipse Sesshin 19-21 Sept 2025 My senior year in high school in Southern California I failed two classes, English and Social Studies. Two teachers, Mrs Holman and Miss Lahewn, made me a proposal: if I promised not to attend their summer school classes, they would give me a passing…

“Demand not that things happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do, and you will go on well.” –Epictetus Preston Thomas Jul 27, 2025 I want to go a little deeper on a point from last week: the need to “give up hope,” as Charlotte Joko Beck recommends in Everyday Zen.…

Kusen by Richard Reishin Collins New Orleans Zen Temple 12 October 2025 You have all seen depictions of the Buddha in zazen, with his hands in the meditation mudra, as yours are now. I am sure you have also seen depictions of the Buddha with one hand raised in the mudra of reassurance or “no…

Richard Collins, Abbot of Stone Nest and the New Orleans Zen Temple QUESTION: I am wondering if you would be willing to offer some commentary on the Eightfold Path from a Soto perspective. Or maybe you can direct me to some foundational interpretations, possibly from others in the Deshimaru lineage? ANSWER: I won’t speak broadly…

Kusen by Richard Reishin Collins, Abbot New Orleans Zen Temple Winter Sesshin Saturday, December 28, 2024 There is much to misunderstand in Zen teachings. Never take any instruction or description or pronouncement to be absolute—including this one. Here and now, for example, does not mean just here and just now.  “Without benefit of words or…

The attrition rate of some professional schools — law schools or nursing, for example — is high. But not as high as the attrition rate in Zen training. Of course, the payoffs for those professional schools are tangible, bankable. There are no such promising returns on investment for the Zen student.  Still, it always surprises…

So, today I want to talk about demons (or yokai, in Japanese).  You might have heard me refer to the threshold to the dojo as the demon-tripper. This is a traditional way of describing the purpose of the raised piece of wood that separates the dojo from the rest of the temple.  Of course, we…

For the past couple of months I have been practicing with the Sewanee Sangha, a student-led sitting group at the University of the South. Sam Kearley leads the group with great commitment, and the university has been very supportive, dedicating space in the Meditation Chapel of the beautiful All Saints’ Chapel. We sit for only…

Sewanee Zen will open for the first time on April 2, 2023, with an Introduction to Zen Practice at the new Stone Nest Dojo at 3818 Sherwood Road in Sewanee, Tennessee. The three-hour workshop will provide the basics of Zen practice: zazen (sitting concentration), kinhin (walking concentration), and dojo etiquette. Background on Zen Buddhism and…