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Articles by Joseph Bobrow Roshi
True No-Self
“Just sit with it,” many teachers used to instruct; when letting go gets gnarly, the gnarly get going. They took as given what is not a given: the capacity to stand affliction. It’s painful to face fixed, emotionally charged, repetitive storylines that exert such a grip, not to mention unhitch from them. We’ve ingeniously constructed them to keep traumatic experience at bay, so we’re seriously invested: Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. True divestment takes time and practice.
The Transformative Power of Wise and Compassionate Action
Joseph Bobrow is a Zen teacher, psychoanalyst, activist, and Roshi of Deep Streams Zen Institute in Los Angeles. He is the author of four books, including his latest, A True Person of No Rank: Awakening Buddha’s Dream to Save the World. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Maybe we could start with your background. How did Zen, psychotherapy, and activism come together for you, given that they play such an important role in your teaching?
Enter a Person of No Rank
The world is burning. People are destroying it. Some are stoking the combustion by fanning the flames of hate or violence, amplifying and manipulating our deepest anxieties, preying on a set of deadly multidimensional crises, exploiting public shock and anguish for private gain. The most toxic and corrosive psychic fuels are intensified and spread like wildfires with purposely false information.
Purify Your Motivation
Photo by Diego Guzmán | https://tricy.cl/3lhu5JO The 9th-century Zen master Linji Yixuan said, “There is a true person of no rank who is always coming and going from the portals of your face.” Who is this true person? Through Zen practice, I came to realize that this person is someone who can bring dhyana [meditation], prajna [wisdom], and sila [ethics] together so that they are informing one another. That’s the Buddhist ideal.
The True Person of No Rank: A Zen Story for Our Troubled World
Dharma Talks Jun 2020 Joseph Bobrow Roshi Dharma on your desktop (and your phone, too) Actually, it’s dharma wherever you are with our online dharma talks, available when you subscribe. Unlock Tricycle’s treasury of video teachings by over 70 teachers today. Subscribe Now Playing 1 of 4 Who is the True Person of No Rank? Download Transcript It has been edited for clarity.
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