The Inside Face

One of the things Genkō Kathy Blackman, Zenni, taught me through the practice of tea was that a tea bowl has a face. We were invited not simply to pick up the bowl and drink, but to look carefully... to experience it... to become intimate enough with the bowl to discover its face.

I have one particular tea bowl made by Genki Takabayashi Roshi. Genkō gave it to me before her death. She told me that Eido Roshi, Genki Roshi, Genjo Roshi, and she each had one of these bowls, and that the glaze was made using river stones gathered from Dai Bosatsu Mountain--the Mountain of the Great Bodhisattva.

When she gave it to me, I carefully turned the bowl in my hands, studying its surface.

Finally, I said, "I can't seem to find its face."

Genkō Ni-Oshō simply replied, "Look inside."

So I did.

Turning the bowl slowly, I noticed something I had somehow missed: a small triangle within the inner surface of the bowl.

In our Zen practice, the triangle also appears in the form of our full prostration bow. It represents the Three Treasures: Buddha... wholeness, completeness; Dharma... Reality exactly as It Is; and Sangha... community, relationship, all of us together. We place our forehead within that triangle in an embodied expression of appreciation and gratitude.

Suddenly I understood... The face of this bowl was on the inside.

After all these years, that teaching continues to open.

We spend so much of our lives arranging the face that others can see... polishing the outside... managing appearances... trying to become someone.

In my experience, the more important question is much quieter... It's the flavor of the matcha... the bowl... its quality, feel and temperature...

What is our inside face?

What remains when there is nothing to display... nothing to defend... nothing to prove?

For me Zen practice is simply becoming intimate enough with ourselves... with Reality as REALITY... to finally experience the face that has been here all along.

一We Are the Practice Itself