A monk asked Zhaozhou, “For a long time I’ve heard about Zhaozhou’s stone bridge. Coming here, I only see a simple log bridge.” Zhou said, “You only see the simple log bridge, but don’t see the stone bridge.” The monk said, ”What is the stone bridge like?” Zhao said, “Carries donkeys, carries horses.” – Blue Cliff Record 52 “Zhaozhou” is both a province in ancient China with a famous bridge and an important Zen teacher who not only lived 120... Read more
If you are a regular reader, you know that I use the phrase “Post Meiji Soto Orthodoxy” or even its acronym, “PMSO,” quite often. So it seems that it might be good to unpack the meaning of this phrase in one place, so that the regular reader might better understand what I mean by it and how it points to something important. By the way, the first time I used the phrase was in 2015, although it seems like it... Read more
Dahui Zonggao (1089–1163) was (arguably) the most important Zen master ever. (1) He is credited with developing the keyword method (話頭, huatou) that revolutionized Zen practice and that, in my opinion, is the greatest development in the meditation realm since Shakyamuni Buddha. Most importantly, the innovative teaching of Dahui has probably led to more awakening (aka, kensho) than that of any other Zen teacher in history. So kudos and bows to great old master Dahui! Up until now, Dahui’s best... Read more
Dirty Little Secret? According to the Urban Dictionary, that esteemed and profound arbiter of taste and discernment, a “dirty little secret” is “A secret that you don’t want anyone to know but someone finds out about it sooner or later.” The secret in this case is a break in the Soto transmission between the forty-third and forth-fourth generations, between about 1020CE and 1050CE in China. Although I’m referring to it here as a dirty secret (tongue in cheek), many of... Read more
Going Through the Mystery’s One Hundred Questions My next book is cooking along and at this point it looks like it will be available in the late Fall. The book includes an introduction in which I geek out freely on the nature of Chan (Japanese, Zen) in the thirteenth century the period of transmission from China to Japan. I’ve long been interested in thirteenth century Zen because we too are a period of transmission from one culture to another. Or,... Read more
In our recently concluded summer study session through the Vine of Obstacles Zen, we explored “Zen Conduct” through Dōgen’s teaching in “Guidelines for Studying the Way.” At the same time, I’ve been playing around with translating some bits of Dōgen from his Eihei Koroku (Dōgen’s Extensive Record), looking again at some of the sections that have been most meaningful to me over the years, as I highlighted in my recent post: Whole-Body Little Dog: New Translations of Two Old Dōgen... Read more
This fall, we are introducing a new offering through the Vine of Obstacles Zen – a course that’s open to everyone. This is an opportunity for aspiring practitioners to explore practicing with us without making the full two-hour daily commitment required for Vine students. This offering is intended to serve as a way for you to clarify your intention and/or ramp up your practice so that you could become a Vine student, or simply as a pathway to receive what’s offered... Read more
Introduction Meihō Sotetsu (1277-1350, 明峰素哲, Bright Peak Elemental Penetration) is the fifth generation Sōtō Zen ancestor in Japan, following Dōgen, Ejō, Gikai, and Keizan. If you are practicing Sōtō Zen with teachers in any of these lineages – Katagiri, Swaki, Harada-Yasutani, Aoyama, Bokusan-Kishizawa – you are practicing in Meihō’s dharma stream. Keizan may have regarded Meihō as his primary successor because he transmitted Dōgen’s robe to him. However, another prominent successor of Keizan, Gasan Jōseki (峨山韶碩 1275–1366), gets a lot... Read more
In recent days, I’ve been playing around with translating some bits of Dōgen from his Eihei Koroku (Dōgen’s Extensive Record), especially from Volume 9, his collection of ninety kōans with verses. The only translation of these that I know of is by Leighton and Okumura and they are good, of course, but I’ve long wondered if I might focus them from the perspective of kōan training. Given what we’re working with these days at Vine of Obstacles Zen, including a... Read more
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