So today is the official ebook birthday of my book, but one of the reasons I chose today for the launch was because it’s the birthday of my late Zen teacher, Katherine Thanas. She was one of those once-in-a-lifetime people who arrive in your life like a gift, a real teacher, and she transmitted the flavor of the Soto Zen tradition she received from her teachers with directness and compassion. I found her zendo in Monterey at a fairly difficult time in my life, and it changed me.

She has a book out now, too, posthumously, called The Truth of this Life. The title makes me uncomfortable, if I’m honest, because it sounds pretentious. And Katherine was never pretentious; her subtlety and insight deepened her students’ understanding of zen, buddhism, and life far beyond sweeping summations of “truth.” She offered her own experience, her own uncertainty and questioning that made it impossible for us to settle on too glib an answer, too facile an understanding. She modeled “don’t know” mind in a way that felt absolutely true to the spirit of the teachings.

She often used Suzuki Roshi’s phrase, “Things as it is,” which captures the flavor of that. Slightly off, poking at you grammatically, but there’s a message there, asking you to examine your assumptions about what you think you know, vs. experiencing reality.

The nature of things as it is, is that we don’t really know what that nature is. Or our own. We have to stop thinking and experience it. Or try.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Katherine. We miss you. I am so grateful to have your book, but even more grateful that I was able to experience your dharma talks and let them percolate into my life.