On the first full day of Rohatsu sesshin, Sensei Kaz Tanahashi and Roshi Joan Halifax open practice with teachings on non-division and “undivided activity.” Kaz reminds practitioners that Rohatsu marks the Buddha’s awakening—“birth, enlightenment, and passing, celebrated in one day”—and points to the core insight that “all things have absolutely no separation.” He describes emptiness as “all things are zero,” not nonexistence but “zero of divisions,” a way of seeing that reveals the world as fundamentally one. From this understanding arises the bodhisattva ideal: to embody non-division is to “help awaken everyone,” placing service at the heart of practice. Quoting Dōgen, Kaz emphasizes the paradox that practice begins with enlightenment itself: even one moment of upright sitting makes “the whole world…Buddha’s mudra.”
Building on this foundation, Roshi Joan reflects on the Avatamsaka Sutra and its teaching of “undivided activity.” She brings this vision into urgent ethical reality, insisting, “We’re not separate from Gaza. We’re not separate from Ukraine.” Citing Thich Nhat Hanh after the beating of Rodney King—“I wasn’t only Rodney King, I was the policeman beating Rodney King”—she challenges practitioners to see directly that “we are not separate.” Through the forms of sesshin—bowing, walking, and handling oryoki—practitioners are trained out of “hyper individuality” and into embodying “one body,” where precision, care, and dignity express the bodhisattva vow to give.