Noah Kodo Roen & Matthew Kozan Palevsky: Turning Toward the Light

As we approach winter solstice, the darkest night of the year, Sensei Kodo and Sensei Kozan explore the meaning of light in the dharma through Dogen’s fascicle “Radiant Light”. As Dogen writes, “The entire world of the ten directions is the radiant light of the self”. What is this radiant light? And how would we treat others and ourselves if we remembered we are all radiant light, Sensei Kodo asks. Perhaps we might pause and truly connect. And yet, we so often forget our radiance. Sensei Kozan: “This seems to be our habit, which is to look for radiant light instead of being radiant light. Being just as we are”. Kozan reminds us that we are part of a single Buddha body, which is the whole world. Thus, this radiant light is everything: “the Buddha Hall, the kitchen, the monastery gate”.