Muso Soseki's Life and Poetry

Muso Soseki (1275-1351) was a towering figure of Japanese Zen. He was a teacher, painter, calligrapher, gardener, and poet. For him, none of these things were idle pastimes. They were vital means of expressing what cannot be expressed.In this talk, we meet Muso and follow him from childhood into the monastery, from the monastery into the mountains, and from the mountains into the most important temple in Japan, Nanzen-ji. We’ll listen to some of his verses and consider how sharing the dharma is always a creative enterprise, and always surprising - not by design, but by necessity.