The "Need" to Describe and Define

I'm doing a little experiment today. Instead of a written blog piece, I recorded a few thoughts on what we are currently studying at my zen center - Chan Master Sengcan's dharma poem "Trust in Mind." You can read a translation of the poem by Robert Clarke here.

As part of the current practice period, I'm also chanting a version of Trust in Mind every night before bed. Maybe, by the end of November, when the practice period is finished, I will have chunks of the poem memorized. Having learned nearly a dozen chants by heart over the years, and large parts of others, I have found this internalization of teachings to be most valuable for my practice. No matter where I am, or what I am doing, little pieces of the dharma are always there.

I hope you enjoy the video above. If anything, it allowed me to practice using another feature of my computer, and to try to speak about the dharma through a different format.