“We have to release the clamp of our own jaw around our suffering. The uniqueness that we want to hold on to is usually not our actual uniqueness. We get into a habit of holding on to some gunky old stuff that I call ‘me’. We maintain this strange altar of our own suffering and make steady offerings to it.”

In this moving dharma talk, Koshin Sensei delves into the koan offered in the forty-first case of the Blue Cliff Record. In it,  teacher and pupil inquire what happens after one experiences the ‘great death’. Koshin uses this case to discuss letting go of our habitual selves and the extraordinary capacities that become available when we are willing to take an unconventional approach to our lives. 

ZENTALK NOTES

Sensei Koshin Paley Ellison, MFA, LMSW, DMIN, is an author, Zen teacher, Jungian psychotherapist, and Certified Chaplaincy Educator. Koshin co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

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The post Running On the Edge of a Sword | Koshin Paley Ellison appeared first on New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.