Genjo Koan—
The Koan of Everyday Life
Self-Paced Practice Course
with Zenki Dillo Roshi
About This Course
The Genjokoan is often considered the pivotal text of the Soto Zen tradition. It can serve as a key to all of Dogen's other teachings. It was composed nearly 800 years ago (in 1233) yet it has a timeless quality and is surprisingly relevant to our lives as practitioners today.
The text was originally written for a lay practitioner, for an ‘Everyday Bodhisattva’ like us. However, it is difficult to understand. It uses both poetic and philosophical language to point to the most fundamental aspects of our lived lives.
GENJO means ‘to complete what appears’ and KOAN can be understood as the ‘simultaneity of the particular and the field’ or the ‘undividedness of uniqueness and universality.’
At the heart of our existence is a seeming paradox that Dogen encourages us not just to understand but to express and live out in every facet, every relationship, every action of our daily lives. How can we express our uniqueness in each action in such a way that it serves the community of all beings? In this course, we will explore what that means in our own experience.
Suzuki Roshi said that “each one of us must find our own true way, and when we do, that will express the universal way. This is the mystery.”
The original course took place over a 12-week Everyday Practice Period from January to April 2024, led by Zenki Roshi, at the Boulder Zen Center.
What You Will Learn
- Gain clarity that all transformational practice happens right here, right now—by “completing that which appears” (the meaning of GENJO).
- Discover that much of your dissatisfaction and stress falls away when you accept your experience as it is—as a unique expression of the totality of all being (the meaning of KOAN).
- Receive a line-by-line interpretation and commentary of Dogen’s Genjo Koan that shows how relevant and applicable his teachings are to your life in today’s world.
- Be amazed how a difficult text like the Genjo Koan is not completely out of reach, even for new practitioners, and how it helps you to articulate insights you are ready to have.
- Treat teachings not as truths that need to be understood but as antidotes to dysfunctional views and habits that need to be practiced.
- Stop trying to transcend your humanity and instead feel encouraged to arrive more fully in it.
- Understand the teaching of non-self as the practice of “being actualized by the 10,000 things” (giving up control and tapping into genuine wisdom).
- Appreciate delusion as the way the human mind functions and learn to see realization (enlightenment) as the ability to see through delusion (not the attempt to get rid of it).
- Gain insight into how your body and mind and the whole universe are an undivided activity.
- Clarify the meaning of Buddha-nature and how it is actualized through your own appropriate action moment by moment.
- Discover how Dogen’s poetic images and nature metaphors are precise descriptions of how we exist.
- Feel empowered to approach other Dogen texts on your own.
What You Get
The course consists of an Introductory talk and 9 modules (see curriculum below), each consisting of a video dharma talk, the audio recording, and written materials to deepen your study. Altogether you will receive:
- 12 Dharma talks and Zazen Instructions originally given to a live audience
- All Dharma talks in audio format for easy download, so you can use the recordings while on the go
- Access to the koan text translations pertaining to each module
- Lifetime access to the course
Plus:
- 1 free practice meeting with Zenki Roshi to discuss questions about your practice.
Course Fees:
$90 - Member Price
$120 - Non-member Price
Curriculum
Introduction: Everyday Bodhistattva Practice
1. To Complete What Appears — A Practice-oriented Interpretation of the Title GENJO KOAN
2. Flowers Fall, Weeds Spread
3. Letting The 10,000 Dharmas Come / Great Realization of Delusion
4. Studying and Forgetting the Self (incl. Zazen Instructions)
5. Way-Seeking Mind
6. No Before and After (with a Commentary on Buddhist Notions of Time and Transmigration)
7. Moon in a Dewdrop
8. Life is a Bird, Life Is a Fish
9. Buddha-Nature in Action
Zenki Roshi’s dharma talks are awesome. He has a wonderful way of bringing Zen teaching to the heart of real life. If you’ve ever wondered how to fully and completely engage with your life, these talks are for you.
Zenki Roshi has a unique aptitude for weaving traditional Zen teachings into contemporary personal and cultural challenges. [He] tactfully uses the exploration of language and anecdotes to eloquently articulate Zen approaches to transformation, realization, wisdom and compassion. What’s more, these teachings are appropriate for the newcomer to Zen practice and the decades-long veteran, alike.
There is nothing aloof or distant about these teachings; they are made personal and relatable by how Zenki Roshi delivers teachings within the context of his own experience as a decades-long practitioner of Zen. I also very much appreciate his precise and concise use of language to point listeners to deeply explore the richness of their own bodily experiences.
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