Exploring a Koan by Touch, Carolyn Seburn
Koans
Carolyn speaks of an important case that appears in three koan collections, Gutei’s One Finger. It is the story of a Chinese monk and his attendant, who attained sudden enlightenment
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Henry Shukman, Day 1: Past the Land’s End
Talk 1 Fall 2023 Sesshin In the opening talk of the 2023 autumn retreat at Mountain Cloud, Henry likens a sesshin to a journey of practice where growing means finding
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Which Way to Mount Taizan? Valerie Forstman (Video)
Each step, each sound, every word is Mount Taizan, the highest peak – this landscape that we can’t, actually, fall out of. Entirety. Shoyoroku Case 10, “An Old Woman near
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Mount Sumeru Vaporizes Mistakes, Scott Thornton
A monk asked, “Not a single thought arises. Is there any fault?” Unmon said: “Mount Sumeru.” Sumeru by tradition is higher than the stars, cosmically vast (much vaster than getting
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Summer 2023: Sesshin Talk 6, Final Talk
Taste and See: Be what you are For the six days of this sesshin, as is typical of Zen, we’ve been talking about reality and experience, a fact that is
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Summer 2023: Sesshin Talk 5
A World So Full it Can’t Accept One More Thing Valerie takes up Seppo’s “What is This” (Hekiganroku Case 51), together with earlier and later episodes in Seppo and Ganto’s
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Summer 2023: Sesshin Talk 4
A sincere heart – just one – is simply the ten directions crystal clear… the ten directions themselves squeeze the marrow from the bone. A hawk travels many miles by
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2023 Summer Sesshin Talk 3
The Radiant Light Allows the Radiant Light to Respond To examine “radiance,” Valerie takes up Mumonkan case 39, “Unmon and a Mistake in Speech.” She turns it in a kaleidoscope
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2023 Summer Sesshin Talk 1: Mu and the Spirit of Dogen
We can’t do it, this great release – but Mu can… “Because Mu is whole, the power of this whole Mu awakens you” ~ Ryo’un Yamada. It causes… “body and
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Eyebrow to Eyebrow, Shana Smith (Video)
Assistant Sanbo Zen Teacher Shana Smith examines “Zuigan’s Eyebrows,” Case 8 in the Blue Cliff Record, and sheds abundant light and color on what it might feel like to be
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Nansen’s Circle and the Seamless Tomb
Valerie takes up case 69 from the Hekiganroku, “Nansen draws a circle,” and traces what it might mean to accord with this “circle” (or perhaps to notice how powerfully we
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Joshu’s “Wash Your Bowls”(Case 7 in the Mumonkan)
Scott Thornton brings out the gentle luminosity in Joshu’s Zen of a few words. At one level the koan’s injunction seems straightforward enough: have you eaten (tasted awakening)? Then wash
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Mu: the World in a New Light, Maria Habito
Maria Habito offers warm and deep encouragement, and lush context, for the practice of Mu. She encountered Mu amidst her Christian doubts about God’s love in the face of an
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