The Power of Breath

I wonder how many sets of lungs have passed through the San Francisco Zen Center and, maybe, breathed the world in a better direction. 300 Page Street is a solid 1922 Julia Morgan building that went from being a residence for young Jewish women to being the first Zen Buddhist temple in the U.S. in 1969, thanks to Suzuki Roshi. <img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*d2HsXRD7dAdhcUMW63iBEA.jpeg" style="height:938px; width:700px" /> The courtyard A recent Saturday from 5:25am to 6 pm, I sat in the temple’s zendo with about 30 others in silent meditation. Breathing in and out, sitting upright, facing a blank wall were the dominant activities of the day. I wonder, was our breathing synchronized or syncopated as we co-created the world, as we chanted form is emptiness, emptiness form in the unpunctuated Heart Sutra, which comes to us from Siddhartha, Bodhidarma, Dogen—our respective Indian, Chinese, and Japanese Buddhist ancestors. <a href="https://camillecusumano.medium.com/the-power-of-breath-ac38d3b10bef">Read More</a>