Appamada

2026-06-09 I Inquiry I Plight thee my troth I Flint Sparks by Appamada

For the last two Sundays, we investigated the ditches of comfort and striving. This week, we turn to what’s between them, what some describe as effortless effort.

Joko Beck describes this as pure activity:

Pure activity is very rare. There's nearly always a shadow, a film over it. We may not be aware of that; we may just be aware of some tension. There's no tension in pure activity, beyond the physical contraction required to do the activity itself.

This activity is something altogether different from our comfort-seeking and striving. It arises and unfolds.

This Sunday, we explore it together.

2026-06-01 Depth In Practice | The Sutra of Hui-neng Grand Master of Zen by Appamada

2026-06-02 I Inquiry I Wandering and Wondering I Josh Gifford by Appamada

Last week we sat with the cost of comfort. Today, we turn to comfort's restless cousin: striving.

Most of us have a complicated relationship with achievement — driven by it, exhausted by it, quietly convinced that enough effort will finally get us somewhere.

Dogen had thoughts. He opens the fascicle Bendowa with a puzzle: "This Dharma is abundantly present in each human being, but if we do not practice it, it does not manifest itself, and if we do not experience it, it cannot be realized."

Not a permission slip for striving, nor a dismissal of it either, Dogen points to something stranger: the Dharma is already fully here — and yet it requires us. What kind of effort is that? And what does it mean for those of us who arrive on the cushion with an internal scoreboard already running?

We explore together today.