“If we know we are going to die, then we are right where we are supposed to be.”

In this dharma talk from our recent Winter Sesshin, Chodo Sensei explores three of the Buddha’s first five remembrances – that we are of the nature to grow old, to become ill, and eventually, to die. He describes his own aging and encourages us to ask: How do we experience growing older by the second? Finally, Chodo speaks about Zen as an embodied practice. What does it mean to be in this body in this, and every, moment? His remarks conclude with a powerful chanting of the Evening Gatha – it’s final line hangs in the air like a sign at the threshold of existence: “Do not squander your life.”

ZENTALK NOTES

Chodo Robert Campbell Sensei is a co-founder of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care and is part of the core faculty for the Buddhist Track in the Master in Pastoral Care and Counseling at Zen Center’s education partner, New York Theological Seminary.

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Heart Sutra by Kanho Yakushiji –  Buddhist priest and musician of the Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari, Japan. In 2003, he formed “KISSAQUO”, a songwriting duo based in Kyoto.

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