Taking Part in the Gathering (Term 1)

  'The Character of Zen'

The opening TPITG for the year will be an exploration of our practice and our lives in the light of the Six Paramitas.   When Robert Aitken Roshi asked his teacher, Yamada Koun Roshi, ‘What is the purpose of Zen?’ Yamada responded, ‘The purpose of Zen is the perfection of character.’  

He  made no mention of ‘satori’, or ‘enlightenment’, but is this expression  of Zen in any way remote from the more usual ‘to realize and express  your true nature’? Let’s find out.   

The Sanskrit word  ‘paramita’ is usually rendered as ‘perfection’, which may imply at first  glance a completed state of some kind.  The word ‘enlightenment’ can  fall into the same trap.  But the human reality of any perfect ideal is a  verb, not a noun -- a process of ‘becoming like this’, a path of  becoming skilled, one that naturally discovers how much more there is to  realise as…