Teachings
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Teisho: Mindfulness
May 4, 20171 min read
Description: In this episode, Henry talks about mindfulness training in general. Not a week passes that he doesn’t meet someone who is a ‘mindfulness teacher.’ There are online trainings in mindfulness that take only a month to complete. In zen it generally takes at least 20 years for there to be any chance of being a teacher, and many sit for much longer without becoming teachers. Why so? We have found that human beings are deeply...
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Ruben Habito: Earth Day Zen Talk – Guest Episode
April 27, 20172 min read
"Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh Description: This week we are fortunate to offer a guest episode. It is a talk given by Ruben Habito Roshi, at the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas. His talk's theme is Earth Day 2017. NOTE: The original recording is at a very low audio level, however the quality is very good. Please increase/adjust your volume when Ruben's talk begins (@ ~ 1:27 minute mark) and you'll be able to listen...
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Teisho: 3rd Revisitation of Case 53, Book of Equanimity: Obaku’s Drinkers
April 20, 20172 min read
Case 52: Ôbaku instructed the assembly and said, “You are all drinkers of lees [dregs]. If you continue to go on your Way like this, when will you have your ‘today’? Do you know that in this great empire of Tang there is no Zen master?” Now a monk came forward and said, “What would you say to the fact that in various places there are people who accept students and direct their assemblies?” Ôbaku said,...
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Teisho: Case 54, Book of Equanimity: Ungan’s Great Mercy
April 20, 20172 min read
Case 54: Ungan asked Dôgo, “What does the Bodhisattva of the Great Mercy use so many hands and eyes for?” Dôgo answered, “It is like a person in the middle of the night reaching with his hand behind his head groping for his pillow.” Ungan said, “I understood.” Dôgo said, “How did you understand it?” Ungan said, “The whole body is hands and eyes.” Dôgo said, “You said it very well. But you expressed only...
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The Meeting: Zen’s Challenge to An Individual, Interior Spirituality, Part 1 of 7
April 17, 20174 min read
Like other Buddhist schools, Zen is interested in dismantling the tough shell of self, but it seems to insist that this be done within the vessel of relationship. When Soko Morinaga Roshi was a young monk in the late 1940s, he left the small temple where he had studied under his first master, Zuigan Roshi, and moved into the large training monastery of Daitokuji several miles away across Kyoto. There the monastic training was severe,...
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Zen for Troubled Times
April 15, 20172 min read
Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself. Your body and mind will become clear, and you will realize the unity of all things. Dogen 1200-1253 Henry Shukman briefly talks about Zen history and how it can be used to deal with crisis – individual and societal. His talk is an excerpt from the documentary feature film (Awakening in the West) coming in 2017 - a Stillness Speaks production. “Zen was born in a time of...
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Photos from our April Work Retreat
April 14, 20171 min read
Sangha members, from near and far, joined us from April 1-8 to take down cabin one and begin the first phase of our expansion project. Thanks to Chris, Bill, Tor, Hobbs, Nancy, Ed, Henry and Maura for their dedicated work -- and thanks to anyone else inadvertently omitted. Also many thanks to Sarah for providing meals for the crew. We can use more help. Come to our next work retreat June 4-10, or click the donate button on this website...
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