Teachers: Sokaku Kathie Fischer & Zoketsu Norman Fischer
Four Thursdays, September 4–29, 7:30–9 pm PT
Xin Xin Ming (“Text on Faith in Mind”), attributed to Sengcan, the third Chinese Zen Ancestor, is one of the foundational texts of Zen, and a guide for understanding how and why we practice zazen.
Its opening lines, “the true way is without difficulty, just avoid picking and choosing,” are the subject of several Zen koans; they require sincere reflection and practice to grasp.
In this four-week course, senior Soto Zen priests Kathie and Norman Fischer will do a deep dive into this text, with special emphasis on how we can apply its message to our practice in the contemporary world.
The text’s main theme is the nonduality of relative and absolute, and the painful folly of our human preferences—which we can never entirely avoid.
In a world full of confusion and contradiction, the Xin Xin Ming reminds us that equanimity is not found in perfect clarity, but in a deeper trust in the unfolding of mind itself.
