Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘In my training, the Roshi would just look at me and grunt and smack his tanden when he saw me.  Tanden was day one in the monastery, but also day 1000. Learning to orient bodily though the tanden was cooked into every aspect of the life there. From raking the garden to washing the rice, the tanden was everywhere. Not to mention two or three individual meetings a day with the Roshi in which he demonstrated and transmitted tanden energy to us. At first it’s not something we have a radar for. Over time, it naturally begins to permeate everything we do.

Much of the training is not explanatory.  It is purposefully not explained.  It falls more into Kuden, oral instructions.  Mostly physical demonstration.  We literally learn through osmosis.  Mostly as under the table transmission in sanzen (the 1:1 meeting with the teacher). We are taught to keep the lower body substantial, grounded, sinking into the earth.  And the upper body, floating up to the heavens.’ (from the Texture of Life Substack)