GOING FOR REFUGE Going for refuge and taking the precepts is the cornerstone of all the Buddhist paths. It usually becomes a turning point in a person’s life. One where they work toward an ideal – this ideal being shown to us through The Buddha – a...
THE HEART SUTRA The Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokateshvara, while in deep meditative concentration, absorption and curious inquiry, looked deeply into the nature of experience, penetrated fully to the intuitve realization of the emptiness of the skandhas and after...
The Perfect Enlightenment Sutra is one of the most popular and influential sutras in Zen. It was held in the highest regards by some of the greatest Zen Master’s like Zongmi and Chinul. The sutra itself is twelve chapters and the introductory section describes...
“Do you have a Koan?” That was the first question Korean Zen Master, Venerable Hwasun Yangil Sunim asked me. I had heard about Koans before – mainly from books. I didn’t really think they were essential for Zen practice. But here I was, sitting...
A quick and expedient way of awakening… The master takes his staff and points directly to your heart saying, Listen here! This! This! A thousand times this! The seeker is what’s sought. Originally the mind is pristine, vast and expansive like a clear blue...
A young monk tentatively asked the Master, “Teacher, why did Bodhidharma come from the west?” The Master looked out the window and said, “The cypress tree in the courtyard.” The Zen Master whacks his stick against the floor. You’re startled, heart racing, eyes...
The conceptual every day mind is never happy. It always wants something to chew on. It’s a hungry ghost and no matter how much information we feed it the mind will never be satisfied. “Does a dog have buddha-nature?” “Why did Bodhidharma come to China?” “Was the...
Zen is… “A special transmission outside the scriptures, not founded upon words and letters. by pointing directly to one’s mind, It lets one see into one’s own true nature and thus attain buddhahood.” (1) The above statement from Bodhidharma is an...
Xiangyan’s Great Enlightenment Zen master Xiangyan was bright in nature. Being at the assembly of Guishan, he was well learned and had extensive memory. Guishan one day said to Xiangyan, “Everything you say is what you’ve memorised from commentaries. Now I am going to...
Ancestor Dongshan Liangjie (807-869). After some period of practice with Yunyan, just before departing to visit other teachers, Dongshan asked Yunyan, “Later on, if I am asked to describe your reality, how should I respond?” After a pause, Yunyan said, “Just this is...
“You are the primordial awareness of skillful means the indestructible state beyond all concepts, Realized in the nature of the Great Mother, transcendental wisdom free from any reference, Displaying your compassion, in all its variety, in every kind of way — O...
SILA – SKILLFUL-MEANINGFUL BEHAVIOUR/ETHICS Our natural state is empty, open, aware, vast, cognizant luminosity, spontaneous freedom, stable calm, active compassion and contended joy. As we unfold this natural state in our lives we need to guard ourselves from...
Two Necessities: Distilling the Essence For anyone following the way of Mahamudra, Zen or Dzogchen, two aspects of a methodology to release the hallucination of samsara, are seemingly necessary. At first, a reorientation of consciousness that breaks the all absorbing...
An Anthology of the Best “Pointing Out” Instructions Lama Gendun on the Nature of Mind: “The recognition of the nature of mind is the only thing that we actually need –it has the power to liberate us from everything and to liberate all beings in the universe, too....
The Yogic Code by OM Das (Ian Paul Marshall) Just for Today… (Ahimsa) May I practice non-harm to all living beings including myself in thoughts, words and deeds and may my thoughts, words and deeds be loving and kind in all my encounters. (Satya) May I have the...
I am interested in shifting away from specific, existing traditions, and to teach from a generic approach which I call “The Way of Light”. This approach will be fully described in my forthcoming book called aptly, “The Way of Light”. The Dalai Lama wrote: “I believe...
