Archives

Silent Illumination: A Chan Buddhist Path to Natural Awakening, by Guo Gu Laoshi (available now for...

  I'm so pleased that The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans will...

Steven Heine's recent book (September, 2020), Flowers Blooming on a Withered Tree: Giun's Verse Comments...

First, a Brief Update As I hope you have heard, The Record of Empty Hall:...

Now that we're moving past the 2020 election and into the transitional period, it seems...

During our nonresidential practice periods at the Minnesota Zen Center in the 1980's, students took...

In April, in the early pandemic days, I began posting a series here on the...

This summer in the Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training we've been focussed on the...

Practice at Bukkokuji was like living at grandpa's house. Harada Tangen Rōshi set the rules and...

In 2009, I had the pleasure of teaching at what is now the Zen Life...

One aspect of Dàhuì's teachings, probably best-known today among keyword students, are his instructions on what...

Introduction This series is especially directed to students working with a keyword (話頭 huàtóu, Japanese, watō) with...

In this final post of the series on the keyword method of Dàhuì, I begin with...

Let's get right down to it Break through is a must if you want to...

  The main point of this post is the importance of continuing to work the...

        In 1144, Zen master Dàhuì received a letter from a fairly...

Awakening is lot about energy. Slump and sniff in zazen and daily life and that's...

          How to cross the flood of sense desires, becoming, views,...

“When you truly understand this fundamental principle you will not be anxious about your life...

  "The mind that is not baffled is not employed." My first real baffling encounter...

Some years ago, a Zen teacher was leading a sesshin for Catholic monastics. In the...

Now that I've completed the manuscript edits for The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred...

I recently met with a student (via Zoom, of course) who was recovering from the...

I hope you will find this post as grist for your dharma-reflection mill. You see,...

When I was training at Bukkokuji Zen Monastery in Obama, Japan, on the twelfth day...

              Why nineteen ways to translate one poem? As...

You can't do what alone? Traditionally in the buddhadharma across schools, samādhi (calming, concentration or...

This year at both the Nebraska Zen Center and the Vine of Obstacles: Online Support...

Ronald E. Purser has written a very important book, McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist...

Is Zen weak on compassion teachings? Zen teacher Norman Fischer Rōshi has written that he...