Return to Winter/Spring 2002-2003

ZM Buddha Birthday Toast!

Steve Cohen, JDPS

What we are celebrating today is the birthday of our teacher, ZMWK. More specifically, we are celebrating his generosity as a teacher. With extraordinary consistency for more than two decades, he has so generously taught us …. to keep a clear mind by attaching to nothing. So, fundamentally we are celebrating this “nothing” teaching. In fact, I still remember a few years ago at a Buddha’s Enlightenment Ceremony at PZC, Soen Sa said, actually this “nothing” is not nothing, it is more like the “nothing” in the Gershwin song from the P&B opera, “I got plenty of nothing…. and nothing’s plenty for me.”

Having fully embraced and digested this teaching, Soen Sa, we decided to give you a little “nothing”…. actually, a weekend of nothing--nothing to do but relax with Brenda and enjoy yourselves at Mohonk Lodge in upstate NY.

And maybe as we segue into the next “big” thing on the program, for those of you who recall what ZM Un Mun responded when asked what kind of speech goes beyond the Buddhas and Patriarchs? CAKE!!! And Happy birthday to you…..