Our minds are filled with confusion. We obsess endlessly. We anticipate, we regret, we brood and we scheme. We want what we don’t have, and we don’t want what we have. At times we feel under assault. At times we feel forgotten.
The Sanskrit word for this is dukha. It …
Read More...Here’s a question for everybody: How can you get out of samsara, how do you get out of suffering? We’re really lucky because we have a good practice situation. We can help and support each other, come here freely and nothing is stopping …
Read More...Sound is silence. Silence is sound.
Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.
No sound, no silence.
Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.
Sound is sound. Silence is silence. What is original sound?…
Read More...Welcome everybody. We have our workshop in a very busy place here. That is quite good, because we are going to talk about our practice being independent from our …
Read More...Excerpted from a workshop at the 5th Whole World is a Single Flower Conference held at Providence Zen Center in October 1999.
One day, 2500 years ago, the Buddha sat on the peak of Vulture Mountain with a vast assembly of more than 1200 monks who were waiting for Buddha …
Read More...Opening speech at Buddha’s Enlightenment Day ceremony, Providence Zen Center, December 5, 1998.
Once a student, while in a particular mind set, said to me, “If I hear one more talk about Buddha’s enlightenment, I think I’ll scream.” This raises a question as to the purpose of our coming …
Read More...[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Enlightenment is no enlightenment. No enlightenment is enlightenment.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
No enlightenment. Not no enlightenment.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Enlightenment is enlightenment. No enlightenment is no …
Read More...The meaning of “Kyol Che” is tight dharma. It is a time for …
Read More...When Buddha was born, he sprang out of his mother’s hip, walked seven steps, said, “Heaven above, earth below, only I am holy.”
[hits table with zen stick]
When you and I were born, we sprung from our mother’s uterus, dropped into the doctor’s arms, and screamed, “WAAAAAAAAH!”
[hits table …
Read More...This is an excerpt from a talk given by Zen Master Dae Kwang on October 5th, 1996 at the Whole World is a Single Flower Conference. The gathering was held at the Sixth Patriarch’s temple on T’ao Che Mountain in southern China, about 200 miles north of Canton.
Twenty-five hundred …
Read More...Stories from the lay lineage
Although we usually associate the transmission of Buddha’s teachings with a lineage of monks, it is very interesting that in China, India, and Korea, we can always find someone who, while not a monk, …
Read More...This is almost like Zen teaching, except for the fact that this understanding alone will not help anyone’s life. …
Read More...People often ask me what does the Bodhisattva vow – to save all people from suffering – really mean? A student said to me last week, “I really want to practice and help people. …
Read More...(Holds the Zen stick and very slowly traces a circle in the air with its tip, then strikes the Zen stick vertically on the table.)
Very very slow.
(Quickly traces a circle in the air with the Zen stick and strikes …
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