Intimate Understanding

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 9/21/25 – Awareness is an essential aspect of being alive, and quite essential for doing good actions to bring healing to our troubled world. In Genjokoan, however, Dogen says a buddha doesn’t need to be aware of being a buddha. What does this mean? Is it a lack of awareness, or something else? Our entire world of experience centers around self-awareness, and a sense of “something” there, even when being truly selfless. This exploration by Shugen Roshi shows how this seeming duality can be a gate to our freedom, by closing the distance between us and them, this and that, self and other. (Fall 2025 Ango – Genjokoan Series of Talks Part 3)