Zen and Budo, written in 1968 by Omori Sogen Rotaishi, is one of the core texts for priests and lay practitioners at our dojo. The short text of 23 pages challenges us to resolve the duality of life and death and to achieve the exacting standard of “giving fearlessness.” Many students, like myself, who lack deep familiarity with swordsmanship and the felt experience of concepts like aiuchi (mutual killing or striking) and ainuke (mutual passing), may struggle to feel the resonance of the text in our daily lives.

Last October, Gordon Greene Roshi gave us a lecture during priest seminar on Zen and Budo. The lecture was memorable and engaging to those of us who participated.

Several things raised by Greene Roshi struck me in terms of bringing Zen and Budo to our modern lives:

• We are all alive because someone/something died — the side salad you ate for dinner, the soldiers who died so that your parents might live.

• Every human interaction is an opportunity to affirm life or not — who you are during chance encounters, phone calls, and store check-outs all counts.

• Our Zen training should be judged by the quality of what happens around us. Are we taking away the fear and anxiety of others, or not?

I’ve struggled quite a bit with how to bring our physical brand of Zen training to my work as an epidemiologist in the Global Health field. But, this talk gave me a lot of fodder for considering the right and wrong way to do things in my every day.

For example, most of us have experienced death by PowerPoint and many of us may have inflicted it as well. As I shift in my career from doing to teaching, the standard of “giving life” in these opportunities seems like a good one. In diplomacy, I’ve long admired those who are skillful enough to make their point without leaving the impression that someone won and someone lost. This is one I haven’t mastered yet, as years of Zen training have left me with a slight sharp edge that I need to get beyond.

Finally, as a public health practitioner in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zen and Budo’s “giving fearlessness in the midst of a calamity of any kind” feels like a palpable need. I’ll continue to train towards this standard.

I encourage you to check out Greene Roshi’s lecture on Zen and Budo to explore what it brings up for you. We’re lucky to be able to share a transcript here with you publicly. To purchase Zen and Budo, please contact info@wisconsinzen.org. For other books from our Zen lineage, please see the Chosei Zen Dojo Bookstore.