Teachings
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Foreword to Flowing Bridge: The Miscellaneous Koans, by Ruben Habito, Part 3 of 3
April 8, 20177 min read
The three fruits of Zen, in other words, are all about becoming truly human, in all that this entails. Read Part 1 and Part 2 of The Miscellaneous Koans There is a word in Spanish, aterrizar, used in referring to airplanes as they gradually approach the earth (terra) and land safely on the ground. This term is most apt to describe what needs to happen to the practitioner who has been graced with a glimpse of the...
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Teisho: 2nd Revisitation of Case 53, Book of Equanimity: Obaku’s Drinkers
April 6, 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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Foreword to Flowing Bridge: The Miscellaneous Koans, by Ruben Habito, Part 2 of 3
April 1, 20174 min read
Kensho is a realization, in all immediacy, of what the Heart Sutra affirms: Form is no other than Emptiness, Emptiness no other than Form. Read Part 1 of The Miscellaneous Koans As one continues Zen practice, enjoying the different manifestations of this first fruit in one’s life, there may come a moment, unexpected, unprepared for, whereby one is hit by a sudden flash of realization. “This is it!” As noted above, this could be a spectacular event...
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Teisho: Revisitation of Case 53, Book of Equanimity: Obaku’s Drinkers
March 30, 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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Foreword to Flowing Bridge: The Miscellaneous Koans, by Ruben Habito, Part 1 of 3
March 25, 20174 min read
This first fruit of Zen is about con-centration...coming together toward the center of one’s being or centering... The Zen experience of kensho, or “seeing one’s true nature,” is a pivotal point in a practitioner’s spiritual path. While for some it can be a spectacular event that takes one entirely by surprise, accompanied by spontaneous outbursts of laughter and tears, or both, for others it can be simply an unobtrusive, yet nonetheless momentous and life-changing, quiet, internal...
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Teisho: Henry Explores Reincarnation
March 23, 20173 min read
"If you think such a theory (that there is a soul that exits the body at death and re-enters another upon birth) constitutes the Buddha’s teaching, you are even more foolish than someone who picks up a roof tile thinking it’s a gold coin.” ~ Dogen "All other lives are not separate from you yourself. Where can you reincarnate? A grain of sand contains all time and space. When will you reincarnate?" ~ Henry Shukman Description: Henry begins...
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The Practice of Zen, By Ruben Habito
March 18, 20171 min read
Enjoy these wise words from Roshi Ruben Habito, Sanbo Zen Teacher at the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas. This piece is taken from the MKZC website. As we look around us, we see how there is so much woundedness on different levels, individual, social and ecological. Some of us may already be engaged in tasks of social change or in some form of ecological action, yet in all this we also come to realize that...
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Teisho: Case 53, Book of Equanimity: Obaku’s Drinkers
March 16, 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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The Suffering of Self, Part 4 of 4, by David Loy
March 11, 20174 min read
Instead of being experienced as a sense of lack, the empty core becomes a place where there is now awareness of something other than, greater than, my usual sense of self. Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of The Suffering of Self. So what happens when we don’t run away from that hole at our core? That’s what we are doing when we meditate: we are “letting go” of all the physical and mental...
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