Ordinary Mind: Layman Pang and Maurine Stuart, Roshi

In this improvisational jazz duet-style dharma talk, Senseis Amie Diller and Kathie Fischer explore the resonance between one of their shared teachers Maurine Stuart, Roshi, and the 7th Century celebrated lay practitioner Layman Pang, who is the focus of Upaya’s spring practice period. Sensei Amie begins with a rich biography of Maurine Stuart, Roshi and both Senseis Amie and Kathie share the deep impression Maurine Stuart had on them, as one of the first female Zen masters to teach in the United States, and the only they had ever met to give big hugs and wear makeup. Like Layman Pang, Maurine Stuart Roshi believed that “daily life practice is the way.” Whether it is breaking a teapot, witnessing an innocent person be beheaded, being given a baby to raise and then being asked to give that child back, or losing multiple children in the case of the poet Issa, there exists the opportunity to completely meet our lives through letting go, feeling everything, and finding our true seat.