The Emily Dahl Foundation along with Emilie recently visited Rev. Master Koten and Rev. Owyn at Lions Gate Buddhist Priory in Lytton, BC.

Pictured is Emilie presenting Master Koten with a hand made bracelet from Christine Dahl from Lytton – Emilie’s Grandmother. 

Emilie is nine years old and is a bright light full of energy and love. She shared with the priory monastics her view about happiness and sadness:  “I am just happy by nature, but what does make me sad is when others are not doing well.”

This perspective that Emelie has on thinking of others is often discussed in the theology of detachment and the non-dualistic understanding that all people are united in the same divine ground. In this way, true love for others is not a selfish or sentimental emotional state, but a result of being detached from oneself, allowing one to see and serve others as one’s own self. 

What Emilie is teaching us is that one should learn to love, esteem, and consider all people like yourself, viewing their joy or pain as your own. This perspective removes the distinction between “self” and “other”.

In the highest state of consciousness, the distinctions that create “us vs. them” vanish, as all people share in the same divine, formless, and, in a sense, impersonal ground. 

Master Koten also shared his teaching on controlling the multitude of thoughts that tend to occupy our minds on a daily basis. 

Master Koten said: “Just let your thoughts go out the door. Allow them to come and go.” 

This can be thought of as the “doors method”. During meditation, you allow thoughts to enter the mind and leave on their own, rather than resisting them or pushing them away. “Don’t Serve Them Tea”: This is the crucial part—it means do not engage with, analyze, or get attached to your thoughts. If you “serve them tea,” you are allowing them to stay and dictate your mental state.

Rev. Owyn prepared a lovely lunch, and it was a wonderful visit!  

Lions Gate Buddhist Priory is a branch of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives (OBC). The practice is Serene Reflection Meditation (Sōtō Zen) and emphasizes basic Buddhist meditation and the keeping of the Precepts within the training of everyday life.

Rev. Kōten Benson, the Prior since 1986, is a Dharma Heir of Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett, founder of the OBC, who died in 1996. He was ordained in 1978 by Rev. Master Jiyu and recognized by her as a Buddhist Master in 1983.

The Priory is located at Dragon Flower Mountain, one hundred and sixty acres of land in the Botanie Valley, near the village of Lytton in the B.C. interior. The land is off-grid and conditions are primitive as we strive to plant a mandala of Buddhist training in the mountains. There are regular retreats; visitors and guests are always welcome. Lay members and friends of the Priory meet regularly in Vancouver and Lytton, B.C. and there is a meditation group in Edmonton, Alberta.

The Emily Dahl Foundation