CASE 1: Jôshû’s Dog The monk asked Jôshû in all earnestness, “Does a dog have Buddha nature or not?” Jôshû said, “Mu!” Mumon’s Commentary: For the practice of Zen, you must pass the barrier set up by the ancient masters of Zen. To attain to marvelous...
“A monk decides to meditate alone. Away from his monastery, he takes a boat and goes to the middle of the lake, closes his eyes and begins to meditate. After a few hours of unperturbed silence,he suddenly feels the blow of another boat hitting his. With his eyes...
The crazier the world gets, all that much more you need to understand how to get your mind right. If we want to get our minds right, we need to get to the business of finding our own mind and cleansing it well. Even though people are so good at locking up their own...
Zen master Bodhidharma said that the quickest and most effective way to awaken is to behold the mind. For the mind is the root of all things. He said that the mind has two aspects: one gets caught up in all the dramas of being a sentient being. It finds itself...
Looking Deeply At So-Called Permanent Things With Science [When a piece of seemingly solid matter—a rock, a human hand, the limb of a tree — is placed under a powerful electronic microscope], the electron-scanning microscope, with the power to magnify several thousand...
The Four Dharma Seals The Four Dharma Seals are really four quintessential insights that will completely transform your life. Once seen they can never be unseen. Once experienced they will completely change the way you see and experience the world. Right now you are...
The Questions of King Milinda King Milinda went to Nagasena and after exchanging polite and friendly greetings, took his seat respectfully to one side. Milinda began by asking: “How is your reverence known, and what sir, is your name?” “O’ king, I am...
Five Gates of Tao-hsin: Let it be known: Buddha is the mind. Outside of the mind there is no Buddha. In short, this includes the following five things: First: The ground of the mind is essentially one with the Buddha.Second: The movement of the mind brings forth the...
New Years Message From master e I love you. I wish I could be with you in person and hold you tight. That I could sit with you and hold your hand. That I could see you smile and hear your voice. I wish I could snap my fingers and take away all your fears and...
Bodhidharma’s Outline of Practice There are many roads for entering the Way, but essentially there are only two: entering through the Principle and entering through practice. Entering Through the Principle ‘Entering through the Principle’ is awakening to...