Monshin Nannette Overley: Agency, Karma, and the Four Noble Truths

In this honest and courageous talk, Sensei Monshin Nannette Overley investigates the relationship between recalling our intention and where we delegate our attention, especially in lay practice. How do we divide up our lives into trivial and sacred, difficult and easy moments? She explores Lingzhao’s comment about studying the sutras: “Neither difficult nor easy. It’s like the teachings of the ancestors shining on the hundred grass tips.” Despite holding the dharma so dear and teaching it wholeheartedly to others, Monshin openly shares her recent difficulty with living by such truths as “nothing is ever out of place” given the suffering in her and her husband’s life. She talks about how she wants to “curl up” or “contract” around her suffering. She also shares a moment of remembering to open to her suffering and reflects on the brightness she felt. To conclude, she explores the Threefold Training of sila, samadhi, and prajna, which summarize the fourth noble truth and each encompass aspects of the eightfold path, the path to “freedom beyond hard and easy.”