He Saved Everyone Before He Was Born
From the Collected Works of Korean Buddhism, Vol. 7-1 Gongan Collections 1: Case 1 TITLE: The Greatly Enlightened, World Honored One, Śākyamuni Buddha The World Honored One, without having yet departed Tusita (heaven),had already descended into the palace and,without...
Zen & The Conundrum of Words
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 natureand thus attain buddhahood.” The above statement from Zen Master Bodhidharma is an interesting one....
Faith Mind Inscription
Verses on the Faith Mindby Chien-chih Seng-ts'anThird Zen Patriarch [d. 606 AD]Tr. by Richard B. ClarkeZen teacher at the Living Dharma Centers, Amherst, Mass. The Great Way is not difficultfor those who have no preferences.When love and hate are both absenteverything...
Three Approaches to Zen
The Three Divisions of Ch’an Buddhism by Zen Master Zongmi (Tsung-mi) There are various schools of Ch’an mutually conflicting with each other. The doctrines preached by these established sects are contradictory and obstructive to each other. Some of them Regard...
Mind Is Buddha
The master Huangbo said to [Pei] Xiu: “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...
No-Thought Is the Central Doctrine
Zen Master Hui-Neng said, “Good friends, since the past this teaching of ours has first taken no-thought as its central doctrine.To be enlightened to the Dharma of no-thought is to arrive at the stage of buddhahood.What do we mean by no-thought?The teaching of...
Zen Farts
Su Dongpo (a famous Buddhist poet) of the Song Dynasty was assigned to an official post at Guazhuo. Across the river, on its southern shore, was Jinshan (Golden Mountain) Temple where Zen Master Foyin presided. One day, Su Dongpo, feeling quite advanced in his...
The Three Essentials of Zen Practice
There are three essentials of zen practice: Faith Curiosity Determination First of the Three Essentials is FaithFirst we must have faith. Faith that there’s a tremendous potential within us. We all can feel it. That’s there’s something more to us. That there’s this...
There Is No Tree
There Is No Tree To start… Light hits the retina (a light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye), special cells called photoreceptors turn the light into electrical signals. These electrical signals travel from the retina through the optic nerve to the...
The Gateless Gate
The Master Mumon Ekai said, "Buddhism makes mind its foundation and no-gate its gate. Now, how do you pass through this no-gate? It is said that things coming in through the gate can never be your own treasures. What is gained from external circumstances will perish...
Buddhist Pranayama
It had been a long time since I had looked at or even thought about mindfulness of breathing or the Full Awareness of Breathing Sutra (Anapanasati Sutra) but for some reason I was compelled to give it a read again. And looking at it with fresh and open eyes I couldn’t...
Buddhist Pranayama
by zen master e → Click here to skip the intro and jump right into the actual Buddhist Pranayama practice → Click here for the Simple Condensed Buddhist Pranayama Instructions The Buddha taught Pranayama which involves breathing and mindstate modifications and...