Rev. Master Koten is a senior monk of our Order who I greatly admire and respect. He lives with his disciple, and others, at Dragon Flower Mountain in the interior of British Columbia, Canada. See the temple website for more teachings by Rev. Master Koten – there are photographs too.

They say the first thing one learns in a Zen monastery is to put one’s shoes straight and at least in Japan there is always a sign to that effect right at the front door. It is even said that this is the first koan assigned to a trainee because if this point of first mind can be thoroughly understood the whole point of Zen training can be accomplished.

Too many people think that the whole idea is to regiment one’s life as if the army would not do a better job of teaching this. No, no, no, a thousand times no! The purpose of the first koan is the calm and compassionate consideration of others, of all beings, always including oneself. Indeed, this is the point of mindfulness training as well.

To watch what one is doing as well as what one’s mind is doing is the perfection of Bodhisattva practice. This manifests in the smallest of ways. When we take the time to replace the toilet paper roll that has run out, when we place our empty tea cup down carefully where it will not be knocked over, when we put down the toilet seat when we are done peeing, we benefit beings by helping to free them from the miseries of frustration, anger and judgmental mind. So easy and so wondrous!

Our ability to see what needs to be done and to do it arise out of the practice of mindfulness and calm compassion and it is this that makes the life of a community, whether of one, two or twenty-five possible. This is why the putting of one’s shoes straight is the first thing.

In gassho,
HKoten

Very many thanks for permission to publish this article which also appears on the temple website. It is the first guest post by a monk of the Order.

Two images remain with me this evening. Images of two people on the bus that carried me from Hexham to Allendale this morning. One of an elderly man, the other of a young man – late teens early twenties perhaps. Do you want let off at road end, or the bus stop? The driver called to the old chap as he lurched up the bus, bent over with but a tenuous relationship with gravity. Nothing about him was inspiring ambulatory confidence. My confidence and probably not his either. Even with two crutches he waved perilously as he proceeded. Road end! cried the elderly gentleman. The bus stopped and he stepped out onto a snow bank! He just stood there waiting for the bus to move. I didn’t look back.

All the while, as we drove onwards, my eye kept on returning to a young man. I had a three quarters view of him as he texted – yes probably texting. He was curled over in a C shape. I could see him in the same shape at his computer. He was the same shape as the elderly gentleman.

It strikes me we are a bit like memory foam. We take a shape be it while sitting, standing, lying down, walking and while moving generally, out of habit. However, unlike memory foam, when we move we forget to change shape in response to the new, and ever changing, circumstances we find ourselves in. Too bad. Goodness knows the consequences that flow from ones mind adopting a shape and then not changing shape in response to ever changing circumstances. Food for thought.

Tomorrow Ayse (Dealings with Pain) will be in hospital having surgery and can use all the good thoughts and best wishes we can muster. So let us muster well! For obvious reasons of respecting privacy the details of her surgery are withheld.

Of all the great cities of the world you will not find one that has had so romantic a beginning as Montreal. The stories sent home by the Jesuits had stirred all France, and made the more pious and enterprising spirits more than ever resolved to teach the wicked redskins (ahem!) a lesson in Christianity and plant the fear of God in their hearts. The French said they did not believe in treating the savages (double ahem) of the New World in the cruel way the Spaniards had done in Peru and Mexico; They preferred to win them over to civilised ways by kindness and the force of good example.

There we have it. What can I say? Sorry Canada. If we knew then what we know now, things may well have turned out differently. Hopefully.

When Iain returns to his wife and home in Japan at the end of the month I will come back to the books, and house. If all goes to plan I will manage to carve out about six weeks of rest/renewal/retreat time before flying to…Canada! So my labours of the past week are of mutual benefit.

This post is for Tom in Canada who loves books.