February's Koan with Step 2

Dear Friends,

Less than two weeks before we meet again, on February 8th.

Here is something to sit with until then...


Step 2:  Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.



Koan: The storehouse of treasures opens of itself. You may take them and use them any way you wish.


From Dogen’s “Recommending Zazen to Everyone” and a part of the Misc. koan collection.



Bill K.

Falling For Step One

Step 1:  We admitted we were powerless over something -- that our lives had become unmanageable.

Same Koan, different translations:

1) James Green’s version: Viewing the Snow:  Layman P’ang pointed to the falling snow and said, “The snow is so beautiful; each flake lands in the same place.”

2) Ruth Fuller Sasaki's version: "Flake after flake does not fall another place."

3) Blue Cliff Record case 42: "Good snowflakes -- they don't fall in any other place."

4) Yamada's translation is: "Beautiful snow flakes! They don't fall on any other place."

5) John & Joan's translation: “Beautiful snowflakes! They don’t fall in that other place.”

6) Sekida's translation: "Beautiful snow- flakes, one by one; but they fall nowhere else."


Even though we are using koans in a nontraditional way, none-the-less, they are still koans; so I remind you that every koan is about you.

Yes, Layman P’ang is talking about snowflakes and these snowflakes are you.  Here are comments that bring us all into the koan.

1) James Green’s version: Viewing the Snow:  Layman P’ang pointed to the falling snow and said, “The snow is so beautiful; each flake lands in the same place.” …and then we realize Step 1 is the best thing in our life…this same Step works for anyone; we’re in that same place.

2) Ruth Fuller Sasaki's version: "Flake after flake does not fall another place." Here we are, at (a place in time), Step 1.

3) Blue Cliff Record case 42: "Good snowflakes -- they don't fall in any other place."As alcoholics or otherwise, if we’re lucky, we find ourselves falling at the feet of Step 1.

4) Yamada's translation is: "Beautiful snow flakes! They don't fall on any other place."Beautiful alcoholics. We don’t fall on any other place that is outside the possibilities of recovery (Step 1).

5) John & Joan's translation: “Beautiful snowflakes! They don’t fall in that other place.” Once we fall onto Step 1, with our sponsor we then begin to fall into Step 1.

6) Sekida's translation: "Beautiful snow- flakes, one by one; but they fall nowhere else."Beautiful alcoholics, we fall nowhere else than where we are.


With this koan and Step 1, there’s something absolute here. This is it! “We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics,” (Page 30).

The argument is over as to where I might land. No equivocation.  I know I will land somewhere, if I continue drinking. For some of us, it was this thought that helped lead us to the 12 Steps.  It was in my case – I could see where I was heading and it didn’t look good. I will land somewhere after I stop drinking, too. I will land somewhere when I stop drinking and work the Steps. These are the somewhere possibilities:



·      Death

·      Institutions

·      Lose it all

·      Or stopping somewhere before the above

If we’re lucky enough to find ourselves at Step 1, we have a chance for a better life.

Every day we don’t fall in any other place.  But more important than where we fall is what we do in this place.

Dale couldn’t be with us so he told me about his experience with this koan.  “I start every day ‘in the same place’ with my morning prayers and meditations, acknowledging (1) that I am an alcoholic and (2) am powerless over just about everything.”

John talked about the snowflakes surrendering to their conditions, falling, blowing about, even melting.  “In Step 1,” he said,  “I’m surrendering to my conditions, too.

Elsie said, “We come from all directions, we come from all densities, as we fall into the program.  Step One is a Universal Truth for us, ultimately bringing us to the spirit of peace.”

Then our conversation somehow diverged into birth and death. And it wasn’t macabre at all – there was an openness, lightness, and healthy acceptance with it all. The phrase “not one, not two” came up regarding how to look at birth and death non-dualistically.

Can’t we say that dying is a form of “landing”?

…each flake dies in the same place.
…they don’t die in any other place.
…they don’t die on any other place
…one by one; but they die nowhere else.

When we do the 12 Steps, our old ways die off -- we are reborn.

I love it how our conversations can cake a 90 degree turn without any of us turning the wheel. I think the koan was doing the steering.



Bill K.