Monthly Archives: July 2022

[AUDIO AND TEXT] This is the first talk given by Nona Strong Roshi at the June 2022 zen sesshin at Mercy Center Burlingame. “To have it all stripped bare, just experienced directly, naked: this is sesshin.” (Roko Sherry Chayat, Rinzai Zen master, Syracuse, NY, in Sitting with Koans, p. 337) This means staying awake whileContinue reading “staying awake”

[AUDIO AND TEXT] This is the second talk given by Nona Strong Roshi at the June 2022 zen sesshin at Mercy Center Burlingame. In the Heart Sutra, we read: Form is no other than emptiness; emptiness is no other than form. Form is exactly emptiness, emptiness exactly form. The Diamond Sutra has the same factContinue reading “awakening ain’t thinking it”

[AUDIO AND TEXT] This is the third talk given by Nona Strong Roshi at the June 2022 zen sesshin at Mercy Center Burlingame. So, we have the essential world (emptiness), and we have the phenomenal world (form). They may not seem so, but they are co-equal. In fact, according to the Heart Sutra, they areContinue reading “keeping it simple”

[AUDIO AND TEXT] This is the fourth talk given by Nona Strong Roshi at the June 2022 zen sesshin at Mercy Center Burlingame. Despite the sensation we have of time passing, from life’s beginning to its end, life – especially our own life – is really a never-ending story, isn’t it? When we call upContinue reading “the never-ending story”