On this eighth day of the fourth lunar month, we celebrate the Birth of Shakyamuni Buddha. From where we are at this time of “shelter in place”, we recite the Scripture of Great Wisdom (the Heart Sutra) out of gratitude, and offer the merit of this recitation to all beings in the world. With this… Continue reading Birthday of the Buddha
I have learned so much about practice through the group chanting The Vows of Samantabhadra every Wednesday evening, as well as the “reading meditation” I have been doing with our online group. Putting my mind on one word, just this word, then the next, then the next, over and over, has been such a helpful… Continue reading Profound Simplicity
Practice of Tea Meditation in the time of “Shelter in Place”: "I’m again amazed at the simplicity of this practice.It is pure Zen, pure Chan.Just this. Just to be with tea, be one with tea.Just pour tea, just drink tea.Being with the tea, just as it is. Putting attention on the tea utensils as they… Continue reading “Shelter in Place” with Tea
audio "The Diamond Sutra may look like a book, but it’s really the body of the Buddha. It’s also your body, my body, all possible bodies. But it’s a body with nothing inside and nothing outside. It doesn’t exist in space or time. Nor is it a construct of the mind. It’s no mind. And… Continue reading The Diamond
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This is a book of epigrams, epigrams that encapsulate the teaching the Buddha first transmitted 2,400 years ago when he held up a flower and Kashyapa smiled. They’re that simple. The Chinese call them ming 銘. I considered translating it half a dozen times. The language is so simple. It begs to be translated. And… Continue reading Not Two
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For over a thousand years, the Song of Enlightenment 证道歌 has been one of the most popular Zen texts in all of East Asia. Composed in verse, it has also become one of the most chanted texts at Zen temples worldwide." (Red Pine at hometown in 2019) "Like a lot of what I’ve been working on… Continue reading What Could be Easier than Zen?
The arts of Tea Ceremony, Incense, and Flower Arrangement, collectively referred to as the three ways of fine cultivation in Japan, all have a long history and deep connection with China. From mere appreciation by the elite to daily life of the ordinary, they have gone through transformation and become very much alive in the… Continue reading Inner Cultivation with Incense
The author of these "Ten Oxherding Pictures” is said to be a Zen master of the Sung Dynasty known as Kaku-an Shi-en (Kuo-an Shih-yuan) belonging to the Rinzai school. He is said also the author of the poems and introductory words attached to the pictures. He was not however the first who attempted to illuminate… Continue reading The Ten Oxherding Pictures
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One Sunday evening, after a Dharma Talk at the Providence Zen Center, a student asked Seung Sahn Soen-sa, “How can I get beyond just verbalizing the question ‘What am I?’ ” Soen-sa said, “You want this question to grow. This mind is no good. This is attachment thinking. You must cut off this thinking, and… Continue reading The Moon of Clear Mind
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“There is so much baggage we burden ourselves with over the years that keeps us from seeing things the way they are. Some baggage we carry with us for a single thought, some for years and some for lifetimes. But there isn’t one piece that isn’t our own creation. Layman Red Pine,When your mind dwells… Continue reading Zen Baggage
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"In 1934 on the second day of the eighth moon, Master Xu-yun arrived from Gu-shan and, followed by the district officials, literati and people, proceeded to Cao-xi. it happened to be the day when people in the district were celebrating the anniversary of the Sixth Patriarch’s birthday and about ten thousand of them were converging… Continue reading Empty Cloud
People call calligraphy “a piece of painting without images, a piece of music without sounds, a stage without actors and actress and a building without components and materials.” Calligraphic works express essential elements of beauty — balance, proportion, variety, continuity, contrast, movement, change and harmony — through different shapes and forms of the lines, their… Continue reading Painting without Images
"Eighteen years ago, after I translated the Diamond, I translated a few pages of the Empty Bowl out of curiosity but put them aside to work on other projects. Then, earlier this year, I was invited by Jay Garfield to give a presentation about what I was working on to a Buddhist seminar at Smith… Continue reading A Day in the Life
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Probably all of you are familiar with the Zen koan, "Have a cup of tea” by Chan (Zen) Master Chao Chou. Using tea, the Chan Master called practitioners back to the present moment from the confusion of discriminative and deluded thinking, to live in the here and now within the absolute ease of the original… Continue reading An Expression of Chan
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