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A certain approach to Zen

“Every day is a good day. What a beautiful koan! What a beautiful goal! … so easy to say … so difficult to truly embody … if we don’t want to lie to ourselves, if, beyond the happy moments of conviviality during the courses, we seek to change our view of our daily lives, or even to change them! All that remains is to ‘become the ocean’, as Leonard Cohen says, who, it should be remembered, was a Zen monk for five years: ‘If you don’t become the ocean, you’ll be seasick every day’. This, then, is the radical ambition of Zen meditation as I understand it. It guides both my teaching and the spirit of this place I have created. More traditional approaches to Zen practice as well as mindfulness practices are also offered at Le Moulin de Vaux.” Gilles Poulain