Dharma Talk, "Pillow Talk" by Mark Shishin Gelula

In this In this Dharma talk titled "Pillow Talk," Mark Shishin Gelula explores the nature of unprompted compassion through the lens of Case 89 of the Blue Cliff Record and the Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo. Drawing on personal encounters—from Kosho Uchiyama Roshi’s wartime practice to an emotional moment before a statue of Mary in Rome—he examines how true compassion is an immediate, bodily response that precedes thought and fear. The discussion highlights how meditation practice helps us notice and drop our internal obstructions, revealing our inherent oneness with Avalokiteshvara in everyday life. Shishin's talk emphasized Compassion as the Absence of Obstruction and Oneness in the Everyday.