by John Greer | Apr 25, 2009 | Uncategorized, Zen
Lost Coin has been discussing and presenting the role of arts in practice. These practices in Zen are often referred to as “Ways”. They include painting, tea ceremony, martial arts, and many other forms – in this case poetry. As Zen establishes itself in the west our contemporary art and sciences will merge with and become vehicles for the practice of the way. This fine entry by John Greer is about the famous wandering poet and Zen practitioner Ryoken and about the contemporary experiences of Anthropology Professor and Lost Coin practitioner John Greer. – Doen
Going out to beg this spring day
I stopped to pick violets—
Oh! The day is over!
This poem was written by the 18th century Japanese Zen hermit monk and poet Ryokan. Ryokan wrote a lot of poetry on the subject of his day to day experiences as a Zen hermit who, however, lived a life, not of complete solitude, but of interpersonal interaction withthe people of a village not far from his hermitage. In particular, he loved to play with children and he developed regular relationships with individuals from whom he received his livelyhood. He made his living by begging. He was a Zen master, though he was never the head of a monastery or temple and never even taught students formally. But it looks to me that he taught through his interaction with the people he met in the market place of the village.
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by Daniel Doen Silberberg | Apr 13, 2009 | Uncategorized, Zen
The arts can be ways of expressing insights in a direct intuitive way. They can speak to the emotional intelligence as well as conveying understanding and realization. There is a history of this in Zen and in the Fourth Way. We intend to develop this aspect of practice as part of Lost Coin. As a first offering this is a short piece of music named Sun Buddha, Moon Buddha – a Koan in The Blue Cliff Record. It presents a reconciliation of the dualities of long and short time and the positive and negative of life experiences.
Many of us tend to favor our intellect in our quest for “knowing.” Conscious art can inform the emotions and body. We could call this fuller knowing “understanding.” Understanding has greater potency and is more likely to inform our being and actions.
sun-buddha-moon-buddha
by Daniel Doen Silberberg | Mar 10, 2009 | Uncategorized, Zen
The Lost Coin Blog is almost 3 months old. So far we have established our goals and identity by posting talks and videos. We’ve noticed a steady increase in traffic, subscriptions, and video views from all over the world. Thank you to all who have taken time to view posts and subscribe to this blog; we appreciate your support.
It is our hope to establish a broader culture. We will be doing more collaborative posts as well as including other aspects of Lost Coin’s shared interests. To that end we will be presenting things of interest from other sources as well as our own members and hope to utilize the Internet to the fullest of its emerging abilities.
We are interested in collaboration, exchange, we invite your input and participation. In essence you might say we are creating a culture, one that is broad, contemporary, and open. We invite all those interested in the development of spirituality, science, art, and business to be part of our emerging culture.
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