On Bowing
Excerpt from a Teisho on Bowing
Given by Chodo Sensei at Winter Sesshin 2026 – Garrison Institute
I’d like to present a koan from my favorite Zen teacher, Zen Master Raven.
Many of you know I have a soft spot for this collection of teaching stories by Robert Aitken Roshi, who brings koans to life through Raven Roshi and a sangha of forest animals in his book Zen Master Raven: The Teachings of a Wise Old Bird.
Bowing
Gray Wolf spoke up after zazen one evening and said,
“Isn’t it undignified to bow before the Buddha? I always feel rather humiliated.”
Raven said, “Not enough.”
What Gray Wolf is talking about is his self-image—his feeling of being undignified, humiliated, the sense of “me.” The feeling that bowing places him beneath something else. Raven said, “Not enough.”
At first hearing, Raven’s reply may sound sharp, even unkind. But in Zen, bowing is not about submission to a statue or to authority. It is about letting the constructed self collapse.
Raven’s answer points to this: if you feel humiliated when bowing, then there is still a solid “I” standing there to be humiliated.
True bowing leaves no self behind to feel humiliated.
So Raven’s response—“not enough”—means: not enough bowing, not enough letting go, not enough surrender of the egoic self.
Bowing is a very simple movement. The body bends. The head lowers. The hands come together. Nothing is taken away. Nothing is added.
And yet something in us reacts strongly.
Something tightens. Something says, “Why should I bow?”
That “something” has a name.
We usually call it me.
In Zen, bowing is not a moral act. It is not about being good or obedient. It is a physical expression of reality: this body is not separate from the floor, from the room, from the Buddha, from anything.
Don’t escape the feeling. Don’t correct it. Let it deepen.
To bow is to let go of the self. When the self drops away, Buddha bows to Buddha.
When bowing is complete, there is no one left to be humiliated.
Bowing strips away coping habits. It exposes vanity. It shows how much we want to control how we appear—even to ourselves.
The moment you think, “This is uncomfortable. I don’t like how I feel,” that is the edge of practice.
Remember: ego does not like to bow.
Ego wants eye contact.
Ego wants equal footing.
Ego wants to stand upright and be seen.
Ego wants dignity on its own terms.
Raven is saying: don’t back away from that edge.
Externally you bow to the Buddha. In practice, what you are really bowing to is:
reality as it is
this moment without negotiation
your own mind without editing
Bow even to your resistance.
Bow to the thought, “This is stupid.”
Bow to the wish to stop bowing.
Don’t analyze it. Let the body bow anyway.
When you bow, the whole universe bows.
So the next time you bow and feel awkward, or exposed, or small—don’t fix it. Don’t justify it. Don’t resist it.
Just bow, and see what remains.
