SPP2026: Sesshin Day 5: Returning to the Source

About this episode

In this episode, Senko and Sensei Monshin discuss the concept of returning to the source in Zen practice, drawing on various philosophical texts.

In this fifth-day talk, offered during the Spring Practice Period Sesshin, Senko and Sensei Monshin explore the ninth ox-herding picture, Returning to the Source — the stage where effort ceases and life simply flows. Drawing on Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, the Xin Xin Ming, and the Song of the Grass Hut, Monshin traces the difference between striving and ease, and how returning to the source is not… Source

People in this episode

Host: Joan Halifax

Guests: Senko, Sensei Monshin

Topics covered

• Zen practice
• ox-herding pictures
• Taoism
• mindfulness
• spirituality

Keywords

• Sesshin
• Zen Buddhism
• returning to the source
• effort and ease
• spiritual flow

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Tao Te Ching, Xin Xin Ming, Song of the Grass Hut

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