This month, March 13, marks one year since we began online daily zazen together. Tricycle magazine commemorated the anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic with an article documenting the difficulties faced by different Buddhist communities and featuring the Virtual Dojo as a bright spot in a bleak year.

On the occasion of our anniversary, celebratory sentiments don’t quite fit when we remember that the Virtual Dojo exists because many people are dying of COVID-19: 500,000 nationwide, 2.5 million worldwide, and climbing. Black and brown people are dying at higher rates than white people because of deep-rooted inequities that have been painfully laid bare. We all feel this constant weight, and the question “how do I stop the suffering?” is driving our training deeper.

Each of us has a multitude of conditions and events that led us to train together in this way, at this point in time – like a web spreading back over generations. We can label these events “good” and “bad,” but more important is to humbly remember that each event led us here. Likewise, let’s behave now as if we’re impacting future generations – because we are.

When asked, “Why do you train in Zen?” we may each offer different reasons. But, one simple answer is: “I train because I have to.” This sentiment is borne out of remembering that “I” is the root of whatever suffering we face – whether arising from fear, greed, hatred, or delusion. We never need to look far. The author, Henry David Thoreau, reminded us:

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.

We train because we remember our interconnectedness and take responsibility for tuning this body and whatever we’re sending out into the world. In the words of Ginny Jiko Whitelaw Roshi, “The only way we will make use of this time, or be of use to others, is if we remember who we are. If you forget, remember how to remember.”

See you in the Virtual Dojo.

Photo credit: Kushner Roshi.