A NOTE ON GASSHO AND BOWING Taizan Maezumi Roshi with John Daishin Buksbazen Visitors to the Zen Center often ask about the gassho and about bowing. What, they inquire, is the meaning of these gestures? Why are they done? And why is it necessary to do them so precisely and uniformly? These questions deserve careful consideration. Although we are Zen Buddhists, it should be noted that the gassho and the bow are common to all sects of Buddhism, both Mahayana... Read more
As perhaps the majority of my friends know, I’m a big fan of Mary. Actually of several Marys. Mary the mother of Jesus. Mary the friend of Jesus. Sometimes they collapse in my heart together with Quanyin. Okay, they pretty much always do… And all of them taken together remind me, always remind me of the koan from the Blue Cliff Record, case 89. Yunyan asked Daowu, ‘How does the Bodhisattva Guanyin use those many hands... Read more
“It is like an Ox that passes through a latticed window. Its head, horns, and four legs all pass through. So, why can’t its tail also pass through?” Gateless Gate, Case 38 I’m not sure where I first heard the line “If you scratch an Asian Christian, underneath you will find a Buddhist; if you scratch a western Buddhist you will find a Christian.” So, I did a simple google search trying to find the source for... Read more
Just saw on my Facebook feed a video clip by someone named Jason Silva. I know nothing else about him. A bunch of clips appear unsolicited on my Facebook feed every day. I might listen to a sentence or two, but almost always, I quickly move on. What caught me this time was his mention of a Mexican belief about three deaths. Whether it is actually a Mexican thing or is not, I cannot say. But... Read more
I see that it was on this day, the 14th of December in 1782 that the Montgolfier brothers began their first tests with a hot air ballon, launching one that floats for nearly two kilometers. And then as such things happen one hundred and twenty-one years later on the same day in 1903 those other brothers of aviation Orville and Wilbur Wright launched their first attempt at controlled heavier than air flight at Kitty Hawk in... Read more
It was on this day in 1531 the Virgin of Guadalupe first appeared to the indigenous peasant Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin. The local bishop was convinced of the reality of the vision when the Virgin caused a poncho to imprint with her image. Who am I to argue? Well, okay, me. It is in my nature to be suspicious of supernatural claims. In fact it is my observation that the best any such claims can rise... Read more
Okay, our little sangha has been going now for a good two and a half years. But, our name, Blue Cliff, was also used by another group, and so we decided to avoid confusion we should change ours. That led us to renaming ourselves Empty Moon just ahead of this sesshin. This was our fourth retreat, the third at the lovely Pine Mountain Zen monastery in the Ventura mountains above Ojai. But, also, our first as Empty Moon. It was... Read more
Thomas Merton, Catholic Trappist monk, memoirist, essayist, activist, and mystic, died on this day in 1968. He was participating at an interfaith monastic conference in Bangkok, Thailand. It appears he touched a faulty floor fan and it sparked a heart attack. By coincidence it was the twenty-seventh anniversary of his entrance into Gethsemane Abbey, a rural Trappists monastery not far outside of Louisville, Kentucky. And. Today is the fiftieth anniversary of his death. To my mind, to... Read more
“If I am asked to define my personal tastes in religion I must say that they lie between Mahayana Buddhism and Taoism, with a certain leaning toward Vedanta and Catholicism, or rather the Orthodox Church of Eastern Europe.” Alan Watts I believe that some sort of perennialism or universalism is the undercurrent of modern Western spirituality. That is a very large percentage of people within our culture assume that “all religions are different paths up the same... Read more
It was on this day, the 3rd of December in 1927 that Laurel & Hardy made their film debut with this little bit of nonsense, Putting Pants on Philip. And, well, here it is. You’re welcome… Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In