In this retreat talk, Jogen explores the inner disturbance that drives spiritual practice and the ways mistaken perception, fixed beliefs, and self-image shape our suffering. Drawing on Zen teachings, poetry, and personal reflection, he examines how we live in mental representations rather than direct experience, and how practice invites us to shed accumulated knowledge and see more clearly. The talk points to deep yielding and decisive, wholehearted engagement as gateways to freedom, inviting practitioners to soften resistance, question the reality of the separate self, and fully inhabit the living moment of practice as it unfolds. This is talk 4 of the 2026 Dharma Gates Retreat.
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