"Incredibly Naive", number 166 of 188 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

One minute we feel superior the next we are dead. What good is this superior feeling now?


I'm reminded about the Seung Sahn saying "you must become stupid" as a way of practicing. What we call intellect and reason only get us so far down the path. At some point they become barriers. When death approaches, intellect and reason will be of no use. This become stupid is not a become ignorant. Instead it is becoming more open, less rigid.

don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know... don't know...

Looks stupid but is intimate in ways knowledge and reason could never be.

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John Daido Loori Roshi, successor to Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi, founder of the Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism, and abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery, and one of the most influential Zen masters in the West, died at the Monastery in Mount Tremper, New York on Friday, October 9th.

It is a sad day. Zen has lost a giant. Hand together in gratitude. I have a picture of Daido that I'll carry with me for 49 days.

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