Zen Buddhism emphasizes meditation as the means to study ourselves and understand who we truly are. The Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism (MRO) was founded in 1980 by American Zen Master John Daido Loori, Roshi. The MRO is an organization of associated temples, practice centers, and sitting groups in the United States and abroad. Daido Roshi is the abbot of the MRO's main house, Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, NY, and Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Sensei is resident teacher at the MRO's New York City affiliate, Zen Center of New York City: Fire Lotus Temple. The MRO seeks to provide modern training that integrates spiritual practice with daily life. Dharma talks are an essential aspect of Zen training, and the talks offered here were given at both Zen Mountain Monastery and the Zen Center of New York City.
Babe Ruth hit 704 home runs, but no one ever mentions that he struck out about 3,000 times. In our goal-oriented culture, we tend to forget that you can't hit home runs unless you strike out; we think that failure is something bad, and as a result we become afraid to take action. Daido Roshi encourages us not to be distressed by failure, and not to be delighted by success. Rather, we should accept falling as a healthy part of life, and realize that difficult circumstances offer a wealth of insight. Each of us is born with internal wisdom, and as we begin to tap into this wisdom we learn how to fall and rise with grace and dignity. By using the power of awareness to see our thoughts, our conventional idea of ourselves drops away and we find ourselves in a new relationship to the world around us. Roshi also describes how resilience is essential for spiritual practice, and how in Zen Buddhism failure is an important teaching method.
