Audio: Wayne Coger 2003

The following talks by Wayne Coger are available on both CD and audio tape.

Saturday Talk

Mar. 15

Can we simply be here with what is, without effort? Practice connotes a thing and a person doing it - can that sense of a listener fade? This work is not to overcome something, but simply to listen with undivided attention. The body-mind feedback loop when hooked on thought.

September 2003 Retreat

Day 2

Is opening talks by describing weather a Springwater convention, or just what's here? Listening as the basis for talking. Sustained attention revealing the "who I am and how you see me." Two kinds of listening - quiet and effortless, and "working out" what comes up. Can the two types of listening be seen as the same simple listening?

October 2003 Retreat

Day 1	Why do we sit? Who invented this sitting? The idea that zazen posture represents our true nature. Sitting: the antithesis of our usual doing, grasping? A pausing and allowing? Loosening of the conviction that you're responsible for your thinking. Is there someone who could make an effort?
Day 2	There is a sense that the looking comes from under, but truly there's no movement. We're here, not up or down or sideways: this looking is encompassing. Is a moment of openness just caprice, accident? Is there something I can do? Thought says, "I'm experiencing this openness and want more." A barrier already.
Day 3	Being a stranger: tendency to paint pictures, insidious way the images seem real. Not that we should accept other's views about hunting, etc., but see the whole person. Should I say something about someone's behavior, or just watch within? No guarantees about how criticism will be taken, but if said simply, it can be heard so.
Day 4	The desire for a salve, quick fix, for painful memory and thought. "This is too much" - is that thought itself the suffering? Not fighting with the fighting - the thing loses some of its thing-ness. Observing is without activity. The desire to be liked, the unquestioned belief that we need this reassurance.