Treatise on the Supreme Vehicle
Treatise on the Supreme Vehicleby Chan master HongrenIn: Minding Mind: A Course in Basic MeditationTranslated by Thomas ClearyBoston, Mass. : Shambhala, 1995. 2nd Revised edition edition, 2009, pp. 1-15. In aiming for the enlightenment of sages to understand the true...
The Medicine King
Medicine King [薬王菩薩] (Skt Bhaishajyaraja; Jpn Yakuo-bosatsu) A bodhisattva said to possess the power to cure physical and mental diseases. The Sanskrit bhaishajya means curativeness, medicine, or remedy; raja means king. According to the Meditation on the Two...
Gems Along the Way
In meditation we elongate a vital pause; a pause where thoughts return to their superficial place in the background and a vital, spacious energy returns to the foreground. With practice you come to this freedom of not being controlled by your thoughts. Real enjoyment...
The Original Pure Mind
To see the absence of thought is to have the six sense organs without stain. To see the absence of thought is to possess a knowledge inclined towards the Buddha. To see the absence of thought is to see things as they really are. To see the absence of thought is the...
The Transmission of Mind
All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists. This Mind, which is without beginning, is unborn and indestructible. It is not green nor yellow, and has neither form nor appearance. It does not belong to the...
Concerning This Great Matter
Concerning this great matter, the Tao, everyone has possessed it from the beginning. It is always with each of you. The difficulty is that from the very no-beginning-time the Wonderful Illumination has been covered over by seeds of passion, streams of thought, the...
Looking at the Mind
Master Han Shan never really had any interest in worldly ways. He never felt drawn to riches, power or fame. He loved listening to Dharma Talks saying that, “A wonderful feeling would come over me as I listened. It was as if the Dharma was a song I once knew but had...
How Amazing
“Keep a mind that alights on nothing whatsoever.” When Hui Neng heard this line from the Diamond Sutra he had a great awakening and went off in search of a Master of the Way. After Hui Neng had made arrangements for his mother’s welfare, he took his leave. In less...
Pointing Directly to Mind
Directly Pointing to Mind 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.” For years I followed the instructions of...
The Buddha Gave Up
The Buddha Gave Up Before we get into the breadth and depth of Zen it’s good to know that this is a living lineage that goes all the way back 2500 years ago to its founder the Buddha. I am just one of a long line of Masters that have appeared to share the dharma, to...
Practicing the Presence of God
Prayer is the orientation of all the attention of which the soul is capable toward God. —Simone Weil, Waiting for God One of the simplest methods of contemplation is “to practice the presence of God” as described by Brother Lawrence (1614–1691), a French...
No Thought
Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of the “Sudden Enlightenment” school of Zen, states: "Therefore ‘no-thought’ is established as the doctrine." “Good Knowing Advisors, why is no-thought (wu nien) established as the doctrine? Because there are confused people who speak of...