(the recorder didn't work this night. Abi offered this synopsis:)

Mary Mocine explained a Koan to us about ordinary mind. A koan is a public case but relates to the particular as well (like Roe vs. Wade in legal circles). There was some discussion about how a koan in a sense is like a poem...the poet may have an idea, a message, but it is interpreted by the reader of the poem, and may or may not be the message that the poet intended. The idea behind this particular koan was that ordinary mind is the way (of Zen, or the path); not unordinary mind, which is convoluted. We do not need a special mind, anything unordinary in order to practice. Unordinary mind often has qualities of grasping, leaning towards an objective - a concept only separates one. Enlightenment/wisdom is not an intellectual, conceptual event, but body-mind knowing....knowing without thinking, "feeling in your bones". Language is useful, but only as a pointer. Do not get hung up on pointers/concepts.