In this Zazenkai Day talk during Upaya’s Fall Practice Period, Sensei Kathie Fischer offers her reflections on the simplicity and depth of Zen practice. She begins by exploring the role of language in understanding Zen, noting that “the purpose of a word is to create a boundary.” Kathie reflects on our intellectual and creative tendency to collect, compare, and update expressions of practice or enlightenment over time—sharing her curiosity for the word actualizing, —yet reminding us that “thinking and conceptualizing are actually outside the boundary that actualizing conveys.”
Kathie emphasizes that we cannot capture this practice through words alone; instead, these great questions must be lived and explored through our own bodies. In the end, Kathie, like Dōgen, points us toward the practice of shikantaza—“just sitting”—as the way to embody our pursuit of awakening. Her talk offers a timely reminder that our practice is our own, and that reading, analyzing, or striving for understanding can sometimes distract us from the simple act of being present.
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