These are notes on the end of Chapter 10, mindfulness of physical characteristics, in Joseph Goldstein’s book Mindfulness. The last section of mindfulness of the body is the contemplation of … Continue reading The Corpse in Decay
Tag: Katagiri Roshi
Post Election Practices
Someone from the sangha asked me how to do tonglen in the circumstances that we are presently facing. To practice tonglen in a crisis is quite radical and hard to … Continue reading Post Election Practices
Bodhidharma’s Outline of Practice
Bodhidharma lived in the 5th or 6th century. He is traditionally thought of as the man who brought Buddhism to China and is called the First Ancestor in China. The … Continue reading Bodhidharma’s Outline of Practice
Practicing with Terrorism
Am I terrorized? That’s what the extremists want. They want the “other”, the West, to be paralyzed by fear. My husband told me a quote from the paper that the … Continue reading Practicing with Terrorism
Awakened Awareness gone beyond individualized consciousness #5
What does it mean to be awake? To truly be in the present moment where the truth happening place resides? Awareness is to be present in each moment and to … Continue reading Awakened Awareness gone beyond individualized consciousness #5
Beyond Constructions of Time #4
This blog is about the section in the Gate, Gate, mantra which says: going beyond constructions of time. In the past few years, I have practiced a lot on breaking … Continue reading Beyond Constructions of Time #4
Beyond Personal Identity #3
Continuing my series on gate, gate, paragate mantra. If you are new to this series, look at the two previous blogs for the overall translation into English of this mantra. … Continue reading Beyond Personal Identity #3
Vital Creativity
“Karma” has been a word that has been usurped by our society. Everyone uses that word, Buddhist and non-buddhist alike, but how terribly misunderstood that word is. We have just … Continue reading Vital Creativity
Talk for Carl Myosen’s memorial
From Reb Anderson’s Chapter on “Do not kill” in “Being Upright”: Life does not change into death. death does not change into life. life is just life; death is just … Continue reading Talk for Carl Myosen’s memorial
A warm feeling in Zazen
From Suzuki Roshi’s book, “Not Always So” page 77: “If we do not have some warm, big satisfaction in our practice, that is not true practice. Even though you sit, … Continue reading A warm feeling in Zazen
The Rhinoceros Fan is Broken
Buddha said, “This life is suffering or dissatisfying.” Trungpa Rinpoche said: “The center of our life is unrequited love.” I don’t know where I got: “Samsara is already broken.” They … Continue reading The Rhinoceros Fan is Broken
Samsara is already broken
Samsara is the wandering-in-circles world. When people say, “the world is going crazy”, we are talking about samsara. It is the human world, which is driven by the hub of … Continue reading Samsara is already broken
Displaying the Buddha seal with one’s whole body and mind.
Dogen writes in Jijuyu Zanmai that “when one displays the Buddha mudra or Buddha seal with one’s whole body and mind, one is expressing unfabricated and profound prajna.” The Buddha … Continue reading Displaying the Buddha seal with one’s whole body and mind.
Burning the flame of your life
From Katagiri Roshi: “Zazen is not a means to an end, it does not produce enlightenment. The zazen we do is shikan taza – just sitting. This type of zazen … Continue reading Burning the flame of your life
The Manifestation of Simplicity
When I first entered Zen practice, Zen seemed like an enormous project with a very grand result. I was thrilled by the idea that I could leave my suffering life … Continue reading The Manifestation of Simplicity
Holding up the Moon
“Who sweeps the ground and also sees the moon? Holding up the moon, her sweeping is truly not in vain.” —Dogen Zenji from Eihei Koroku Our chores and repetitive actions … Continue reading Holding up the Moon
As long as demons exist in the world
“As long as demons exist in the world, they have their own reason to exist. The reason is completely beyond our human speculation, but demons exist in Buddha’s world. So we have … Continue reading As long as demons exist in the world
Shikantaza and Jijuyu Zanmai
Shikantaza (just sitting) and Jijuyu Zanmai (self-fulfillment Samadhi) In order to understand jijuyu zanmai, (self-receiving oneness Samadhi) one has to understand the underlying principle of shikantaza. as presented by Dogen … Continue reading Shikantaza and Jijuyu Zanmai
The Total Personality
“Practice with our total personality,” Katagiri Roshi repeatedly said. What does that mean? How can we live our lives coming from oneness, which includes both our historic self and our … Continue reading The Total Personality
Does Time fly by?
The dichotomy we have been working with in Dogen’s Uji is time and timelessness. Another way of naming this duality is linear, sequential time and ‘being-time’. “Being-time” drops the moment … Continue reading Does Time fly by?