“No Words Can Explain Enlightenment” – Niutou Farong Niutou Farong lived in the 7th century in China. He was a student of the fourth patriarch, which makes him a dharma brother of Hongren, the teacher of Huineng. Farong’s lineage essentially died out. All of modern Zen comes from Huineng. It’s said that he lived in a mountain forest and spent a lot of time hanging out with animals. It’s said that over 300 followers would eventually show up to study... Read more
An Invitation for the Patriarch. This is Case 3 from the Book of Equanimity. The ruler of a country invited the 27th ancestor Hannyatara for a meal. The ruler asked, “Why don’t you read sutras?” The ancestor replied, “This poor follower of the way , when breathing in does not dwell in the realm of the skandhas, and when breathing out is not caught up in many externals. I always turn countless rolls of sutras.” Hannyatara was Bodhidharma’s teacher. He’s... Read more
Bodhidharma’s Vast Emptiness This is Case 2 from the Book of Equanimity Emperor Wu asked Bodhidharma, “What is the ultimate meaning of the holy truth of Buddhism?” Bodhidharma replied, “Vast Emptiness. No holiness.” The Emperor asked, “Who stands before me?” Bodhidharma replied, “I don’t know.” The Emperor was baffled. Bodhidharma crossed a river, arrived at Shorin, and faced the wall for nine years. Emperor Wu heard of this renowned Buddhist teacher and invited him to his royal court to give... Read more
This is case 1 from the Koan collection called “the Book of Equanimity” Case 1. The Buddha Ascends the Platform. The Buddha Ascended the Platform and took his seat. Manjushri struck the sounding post and said, “When you realize the Dharma King’s Dharma, the Dharma is just as it is.” At that, the Buddha descended the platform. When the Buddha goes up, it means he’s about to give a teaching. Manjushri gives a weird announcement for the Buddha’s talk, and... Read more
I have this friend who said, “I really want to come to your event, but I’m terrible at meditating.” I want to talk about how hard it is to meditate, because it is very hard. I don’t do it because I’m good at it, I do it because I want to be better at it. So let’s talk about some common obstacles. There’s a list of traditional obstacles to meditation, and they are laziness, agitation, and ill-will. Laziness Laziness is... Read more
Laziness is a thing that we don’t talk about enough, I think. It’s often something that stops us from being consistent in our practice, but also in anything else that we’re doing for our personal development or self-care. It’s very common, and I think everybody struggles with it some. It’s a powerful force and it gets in our way and regularly stops us from working toward our goals. In Buddhism we talk about three different kinds of laziness. We might... Read more
I think that at times we get caught up talking about the Buddha too much in Buddhism. I think we need to remember that this isn’t about his spiritual journey, it’s about yours. At the same time, I was thinking about how I’m going to talk about where all of this comes from and I can’t really side-step talking about the Buddha. So I’m going to talk about him, but more importantly I’m going to talk about what he figured... Read more
Today I’m going to talk to you about the Buddha. I think that at times we get caught up talking about the Buddha too much in Buddhism. I think we need to remember that this isn’t about his spiritual journey, it’s about yours. At the same time, I was thinking about how I’m going to talk about where all of this comes from and I can’t really side-step talking about the Buddha. So I’m going to talk about him, but... Read more
This was a talk I gave at a store called Aquarius in the fall of 2019. It called it Introduction to Zen Mind. I think this will function very well as an introduction here. ====================================================== So, here we are. Zen Mind. I want this to be an opportunity to sort of explain what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, as far as Zen meditation goes. I’m going to talk about where all this comes from and where I think... Read more
This is a talk I gave at the One Mind Zen Hermitage if you just want audio, click here: Podcast =================================================== Read more
Bodhisattva Road
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