John Fraser
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Mountain Still Still – Kusen collaboration with John Fraser
John’s Kusen We are told that we should sit like a mountain. Zazen is described as the still-still state, the mountain – still state. The mountain is the ground made visible. Just because the mountain endures and accepts everything, we cannot say it has no feeling. Because it is the ground made visible, it is
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Myriad – Kusen collaboration with John Fraser
John’s Kusen A principal way in which we maintain ourselves in delusion is imagining that our life and practice should be something other than it is. We locate delusion in the wrong place. We imagine that our transient thoughts and emotions are obstacles, and if somehow we got rid of them, we wouldn’t be deluded
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A million fragments unfragmented – Zen Master Dogen’s mirror koan
Koan from The Shinji Shobogenzo, Book 3, Case 19When Master Kyozan Ejaku was master of Tohei Temple, Master Isan Reiyu sent him a letter along with a mirror. The package arrived at the temple and Master Kyozan took it with him to the Lecture Hall, held up the mirror and said to his assembly: Students,
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Dogen’s Waka: 2 Poems, 2 Commentaries
First poem and commentary by John Fraser: My free translation of Master Dogen’s poem Shobogenzo: 波も引き風もつながぬ捨小舟 月こそ夜半のさかひ成けり In the heart of the dark The moonlight holding A small boat drifting Unmoved by the wind Unthrown by the waves Dogen’s poetry – because it is imagistic – makes it easier to express apparent paradox than prose. We
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Dogen’s white heron poem: a Zen commentary by John Fraser
I have been thinking quite a bit recently about the mindset and visuals of Japanese Waka/Tanka and (the shorter, short song) of Haiku which came later. By good fortune at Zazen recently, during his Kusen my friend John Fraser recited and talked about this poem by Soto Zen Master Dogen Zenji (1200-1253), which takes the
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Artist Book – ‘Grey Torn Alloy and Other Exerpts’
Have been pretty busy with exhibition prep not to mention an artist book I started to develop a wee while ago and had to get really stuck in to get it finished. This is the first time to self publish and has opened up plenty of new creative possibilities and the process of investigating bindings