Teachings
-
Listening to the Voices of the Great Wide Earth, Part 3 of 3
July 13, 20156 min read
It is about undergoing a conversion of heart, so our whole life is seen from the perspective of mountains, rivers, and the great wide earth Read Listening to the Voices of Great Wide Earth, Part 1 and Part 2. The fourth point is important. “Change the way you consume”. Look at our lives from day to day. What are we eating, drinking? Where does that come from and how does that affect the circle of life? What...
Read more -
Mountains and Oceans
July 12, 20151 min read
Mountains and oceans have whole worlds of innumerable wondrous features. We should understand that it is not only our distant surroundings that are like this, but even what is right here, even a single drop of water. Dogen Zenji Photo and creation by Rosa Bellino, used with her permission
Read more -
Case 3 Book of Equanimity. The Indian King Invites the Ancestor
July 9, 20151 min read
Episode Description: In this talk, Henry explicates Case 3 in the Book of Equanimity koans, and explores the Buddhist “Middle Way.” This koan shows how Prajnatara’s teaching on sutras, “suchness” and breath exemplifies the Middle Way. (Prajnatara, Bodhidharma’s teacher, may well have been a female master, in spite of what the Zen tradition has said.) Henry describes how a life focused on either desire or self-mortification is profitless. He explores the “excluded middle” between these two...
Listen to the talk -
Listening to the Voices of the Great Wide Earth, Part 2 of 3
July 7, 20156 min read
How may I live my life realizing that the wounded world is my own true self, I am that, crying out in pain? Click to read Listening to the Voices of the Great Wide Earth, Part 1. Let me share some thoughts based on a posting I read, which summarizes the recommendations for a change of lifestyle following Pope Francis’ encyclical. The article, "Five eco-lifestyle changes the Pope wants you to make" offers five points laying out...
Read more -
The Ecological Crisis: Can Buddhism Help? Reflection by David Loy
July 3, 20152 min read
"We are here to overcome the illusion of our separation." -- Thich Nhat Hanh "I came to realize Weed seed puff clearly that mind is nothing other than mountains and rivers and the great wide earth, the sun and the moon and the stars. " -- Dogen Is the ecological crisis a larger version of our usual individual predicament, according to Buddhism? The Buddha emphasized the connection between dukkha - "suffering" in the broadest sense - and the delusion of...
Read more -
Case 2 Book of Equanimity, Bodhidharma’s Vast and Void
July 2, 20151 min read
Episode Description: This instructive teisho reviews Buddha’s earliest core teachings: The Four Noble Truths and The Three Marks of Existence. The Three Fires of greed, hatred and delusion mislead us, so we get caught in the Three Worlds of desire, form and no-form. Henry applies these early teachings directly to Case 2 of the Book of Equanimity in which Emperor Bu asks Bodhidharma, "What is the highest holiness?" Bodhidharma’s answer is “no holiness, only vast and...
Listen to the talk -
Listening to the Voices of the Great Wide Earth, Part 1 of 3
June 29, 20157 min read
“I came to realize clearly that the mind is not other than mountains, rivers, the great wide earth, sun, moon, stars”. -Dogen This is a passage from thirteenth century Zen Master Dōgen that triggered the awakening experience of my teacher, Koun Yamada. “I came to realize clearly that mind is no other than mountains, rivers, the great wide earth and everything in it” “Mind” here refers to no other than the True Self, my true self,...
Read more -
Tree of Wisdom
June 27, 20152 min read
Oak and maple, palm and pine—trees are our closest neighbors and most patient teachers... on the common roots of people and trees. There is a cabin in the remote mountains of northern New Mexico that stands on the side of a steep, wooded ravine. It is hidden deep among the huge ponderosa pines that thrive in the high air. Near the cabin, one lone dead pine soars a hundred feet into the sky. It has been...
Read more -
Case 1 Book of Equanimity, The World Honored One Ascends the Rostrum
June 25, 20151 min read
Episode Description: This teisho begins Henry’s journey through the Book of Equanimity. Case 1 shows the importance of just sitting, being still and quiet. Henry discusses Shakyamuni Buddha’s first teachings. He explores the teaching on dukkha (intrinsic dissatisfaction) and asks: Is there something in the core of ourselves that is intrinsically dissatisfied and dissatisfying? Henry then turns to Shakyamuni’s second teaching, on anatta—not self -- and provides some background introduction to the Book of Equanimity which...
Listen to the talk