The Future of Buddhism

Shohaku Okumura is a Zen Buddhist Abbot in the Soto Zen tradition. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana and teaches in the Sanshin Zen Community: www.sanshinji.org/
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Our Mission: The curriculum of Interior Mythos Journeys is a quest to explore contemporary mythic language that is in harmony with the 21st Century, Global, Quantum Scientific, and Universal Reality in which we all actually live. Learn more at www.interiormythos.com/
As we solitarily and collectively claim the force of a relevant contemporary mythos, we are delivered to the possibility of life-lived-in-depth, the possibility of authentic life. This is the path beneath the surface.
The Transformative Encounter: The Practice of Contemplation
In the current age this transformative encounter, as well as the practices that deliver us to this encounter and the personal connection that flows from this encounter, is seldom the focus of our lives. Many of us wander disoriented through life, often on a self-destructive path, in a world seen, understood, and measured primarily by the external environment. We are disconnected from the Connecting Myth. We are disconnected from the interior depth to which the Connecting Myth might deliver us. Ironically, we have come to understand myth as a lie rather than a symbolic and metaphoric gateway to a deeper truth.
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[@Erebus.666.]

Where is this guy from? The accent has me confused.

[@Interiormythos]

Erebus, Thank you for the question. Shohaku Okumura is originally from Okinawa Japan. As a young Zen student, he was assigned by his teacher to bring the Soto Zen tradition to the West; in particular the United States. He has spent a lifetime fulfilling this mission. He most recently has served as Abbott in the Sanshin Zen Community located in Bloomington, Indiana where he continues to reside, write, and teach. His message is sprinkled throughout the Life Journeys series you will find on the homepage of the Interior Mythos Journeys RUclips Channel. Please check it out. GO Deep!

[@Erebus.666.]

@@Interiormythos Thanks for the reply. My journeying within the dharma began almost 40 years ago, a bit of an amalgamation of Theravada and Soto flavours. At the end of the day, if you look under the robes, they are all essentially the same. I mean, didn't the Buddha hold up a flower, and only Mahakasyapa understood sunyata on that dusty Indian morning.

[@Interiormythos]

Erebus, thank you for this profound commentary. Yes, may we all learn to “look under the robes” today. The human family needs us, once again, to hold up a flower! We are grateful for your active voice on this channel; which understands looking under the robes and holding up a flower as its only mission. GO Deep!