Exploding myths An earlier version of this post has been up awhile at my Patreon page, and I’m now posting publicly. Click here to learn more about Patreon and to support my teaching practice. “Punning…” is part of a series in which I’m highlighting the backgrounds and teachings of several ancestors in the Cáodòng/Sōtō lineage before and after Dōgen. I’m doing this in order to explode the myth about Dōgen, current in much of Sōtō Zen, that Dōgen and his... Read more
Deep, Dark, Nurturing Waters This post is about practicing after kenshō, and even after having completed many kōans post-kenshō. Following Rújìng (Dōgen’s teacher), I will share two of the most fascinating, complexly interrelated kōans in the whole huge traditional collection of fascinating kōans, ideal for the phase of training known as “advancing practice.” Rújìng says that these kōans test practitioners to their very limits. Like any kōans, the two that are the focus here are profoundly disruptive to the divided... Read more
The theme here is the Cáodòng/Sōtō master Tiāntóng Rújìng’s (1163-1229, 天童如淨; Japanese, Tendō Nyojō) instructions for breakthrough with the mu kōan – and my interpretation of such. I’ll first present my translation of Rújìng’s brief, penetrating, and precise teaching, and then offer a line-by-line commentary. By sharing some context (like what is an “iron broom”?), I hope to add some depth to the mu field. But my prayer is that this might inspire some readers to take up the mu... Read more
What this post is about Recently, a friend shared a passage from the Shunryū Suzuki Rōshi archive that includes some of Suzuki Rōshi’s momentary thoughts more than fifty years ago about kenshō, householder practice, Sōtō Zen, and Rinzai Zen. I’ve been writing both here at Wild Fox Zen and at Patreon about One School Zen and have been wondering about how we got here – in our contemporary global Zen, Sōtō and Rinzai lineages seem far apart and each flavor... Read more
In this post, Kōkyō Henkel offers an insightful preface and then his and Yashu Zhang’s enormously important translation of the section of the Record of Rujing that is attributed to Dōgen, graciously offered here for Wild Fox Zen readers. Neither Kōkyō nor I are aware of another English translation of this rich and deep text. You can read about Rujing’s awakening, or one version of such, in my piece, “Punning, Toileting, Purifying: the Awakening of Rújìng,” at my new Patreon... Read more
What’s going on here? I’ve started a Dosho Port Patreon page and you are very much welcome to join me there as a patron. I’ve already loaded a handful audio and video recordings of recent talks, in addition to a couple blog posts. See below for a detail list of what’s there now. I plan to share some photos of my Minnesota life there too as well as regular updates about my activities. I will be continuing to post here... Read more
In this post I’ll offer some dharma gems from Keizan Jōkin Zenji (1268–1325), the fourth generation in the Sōtō succession in Japan. Keizan is regarded as the second founder of Japanese Sōtō and is also known as Taiso Jōsai Daishi. This is part of a series in which I’m highlighting some of the background and teaching on the ancestors in the Sōtō lineage before and after Dōgen in order to put his teaching in context. As for this post, first,... Read more
A preliminary note After focusing for the last five years on other translating and writing projects, I plan to do more regular posting here at Wild Fox Zen this year. One of the virtues of this kind of writing is that it offers more opportunity for engaging with you, dear reader, in the perfect present. If you have a comment that you’d like to share, you are welcome to do that on Facebook (the Disqus platform offered through Patheos is... Read more
Dosho’s Note: Below you’ll find a translation of an article that first appeared in a magazine from Hosshin-ji, Shoyu (勝友, “Victorious Friend”), written by Chisen Shiroyama, a nun who trained as a lay woman with Harada Daiun Roshi (October 13, 1871 – December 12, 1961) and received inka shomei from him. Later in life, she became a nun and attended to Daiun Rodaishi after Harada Tangen Roshi became the abbot of Bukkoku-ji. For more on our great ancestor, Harada Daiun... Read more
By guest blogger, Bukkokuji monk, Kogen Czarnik Living in the 21st century, it is hard to be an optimist about the future. With mass extinction of species, disappearance of ice caps, rapid loss of rainforests, and more – we have plenty to worry about. There is another extinction taking place, that admittedly might not be as urgent a problem as those mentioned above, but nevertheless, for us Zen practitioners, an important one to notice. It is the dying out of... Read more
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