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Filed in Zen (Chan)

Washing Out Emptiness

In our own impermanent bodies, we face our deepest fears and aversions. Drawing on Dogen's writings and her personal experience as a nurse, Sallie Tisdale challenges us not to look away, but to practice in this most intimate realm.

Sallie Tisdale

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Blue HandsAfter my mother-in-law's recent funeral, my husband Bob and his two sisters, Bonnie and Val, took her ashes to the bank of her favorite creek and sprinkled them in. They hiked back with ash-dusted hands.

“I hate to wash,” said Val, rubbing her mother’s powdered body into her palm. “It’s Mom, you know?” I could see the dusty gray ash on her knuckles.

“Were there any big pieces?” I asked. “A few chunks,” she answered, as she turned toward the sink.

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