“Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.”
— Rumi

Do Zen masters dance? That was my question as I headed into a retreat with Zen master, Jun Po Denis Kelly, the founder of Mondo Zen. Mondo Zen is based on Japanese and Chinese Zen, updated for the 21st Century. It transcends the hierarchical / authoritarian, gender-biased and constraining monastic aspects of traditional Zen in favor of practical, experiential “in the world” engagement. Jun Po received his Zen Masters recognition in 1992. He was Vice Abbot and head monk as well as resident yoga teacher at Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kong Ji in the Catskill Mountains in New York state from 1987 through 1993. He wanted the teachings to be for today and not to send people off to sit in caves, only to fall apart when they come face to face with real life. His teaching is practical and immediate. And he and his partner, Mary, a medical doctor and Zen master, not only know how to control the mind, they also tango! 

As a student of many wisdom traditions, one of the things that has seemed prevalent around the world is a desire to remove the joy and the worldly from spiritual life. What fascinates me about Jun Po and Mary are their ability to embrace it all – the sacred and profane and be with it right here and now. How is it that Zen masters can dance? Aren’t they supposed to sit in a dour, stiff pose all day and stare at a wall? Well they can do that and they’ve been trained that way. But they’ve also learned to take that calm, deep awareness into everyday life and remain unruffled and in calm abiding.

This, of course, is the hard part. It can become easy, with practice, to hold the pose and be with one’s self. But the real tests come when the cashier works at a snail’s pace, rings up items at the wrong price and then takes forever to correct the mistake – all while we’re in a hurry and need to be somewhere else immediately. Here, watching the emotions that arise and deciding to laugh instead of explode in anger are choices that we can make – to be aware and learn to be in the dance of life without being dragged down by it.

When Jun Po discovered he had stage IV throat cancer five years ago, he viewed it as an opportunity. “How interesting,” he says, as he watched the feelings arise and the blisters appear on his throat from treatments. Instead of moving into self-pity and suffering, he observed and experienced the pain. He watched it come and go and observed it as part of the experience, but he remained in pure awareness and decided not to suffer. He identified with It, or what I call the Witness, that pure abiding peace that simply and ever is. The cancer is gone and Jun Po continues to travel around the world and transmit his modern day Zen teachings to captivated audiences.

At the reception for Jun Po, I asked him my question, “Do Zen masters dance?” “Yes,” he and his partner Mary, answered. They tango – which like life, they say invites one to both lead and respond to life’s shifts and changes in an exciting and erotic play.  When the Zen transmission ended, the cushions were cleared from the floor, the chairs pushed aside and Jun Po and Mary laced up their dance shoes. The tango music came on and they glided across the floor in a sexy, passionate dance. Watching these Zen masters go from sitting in their cross-legged position on the floor to dancing with grace and ease made my heart beat with excitement. Yes! This is the way to live a full and complete spiritual life, by embracing it all with passion and compassion. Namaste!

Bio: Debra Moffitt is author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life. A visionary and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind/body/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. Visit her online at http://www.awakeintheworld.com.