‘Middle Way does not mean halfway. Nor does it mean some sort of watered-down, defeated compromise or shallow eclecticism. Rather, Middle Way means to accept this contradiction of impermanence and cause-and-effect within your own life. To accept this contradiction means to forbear and overcome it without trying to resolve it. At its every essence life is contradiction, and the flexibility to forbear and assimilate contradiction without being beaten down by it nor attempting to resolve it is our life force.’ (From The Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment)
Even though my current talks in San Rafael are focused on the Bodhisattva vows, and I am spending this week thinking about what I will be offering as teachings at Tassajara, I have one eye on my forthcoming classes on the Tenzo Kyokun, and I dug out Uchiyama Roshi’s commentary on it. I was only mildly surprised to find that several passages I had noted in the past have already appeared here.
