The Importance of Sangha Part 2
Frequently, the questions and experiences of others in the Sangha – whether seniors, peers, or newcomers – helps us realize something. Plus, the most important ideas that get challenged in the midst of Sangha are ideas about Sangha.
The Importance of Sangha (the Buddhist Community) Part 1
What about “Sangha,” the community of Buddhist practitioners. Is practicing with Sangha really necessary? In this series of blog posts, I try to explain why Sangha is so important in Zen or Buddhist practice.
What Zen “Acceptance” and “Non-Attachment” Really Are
What does it mean to practice acceptance and non-attachment? We stop resisting the way things are. This describes how we engage the present moment with our whole body, mind, and heart. It describes our subjective experience as a human being. It’s a practice, not a moral principle or belief.
Our Zazen Is the Most Profound Thing We Do
Doing – or allowing – zazen (that is, shikantaza, or “just sitting”) directly challenges our normal, self-centered way of being. It asks us to be as alert and attentive as if our hair was on fire (!) even as we give up every single agenda, no matter how subtle. We let go of trying to improve ourselves, understand, feel more calm, gain insight, relax, everything. We even let go of “trying to be awake for each moment of our life” in a kind of greedy way. It’s amazing how pervasive and subtle our agendas are… there’s almost always one lurking below the surface if you look for it.
From the Individual to the Global Scale: Greed, Hatred and Ignorance Cause Suffering
For millennia, spiritual traditions have recognized that greed, hatred, and ignorance cause suffering in the human heart. Now it’s time to recognize that greed, hatred, and ignorance inevitably cause suffering at whatever scale they manifest: individual, family, community, national, or global. For too long we have separated our values from our economic and political systems…
Four Ways to Remain Open When We Witness Incredible Suffering
How do we remain open when we witness incredible suffering without being overwhelmed with despair? If we close ourselves off, we deactivate our conscience, hide out in denial and ignorance, reduce our sense of intimacy with all life, and let our heart atrophy. How do we walk the middle path that is neither denial nor despair? It’s possible, although it’s not easy…
The Practice of a Healthy Media Diet
If I look at my media consumption as a diet, I can mindfully monitor the state of my mental and physical health in order to know what to expose myself to, how much, and when. I don’t have to abstain completely because media consumption is pointless or harmful. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t.
The Effort of Non-Effort (Meditation Is Not Something You Do)
I teach 8-10 new people to “do” Zen meditation every month. At times I feel kind of radical, but more and more I just want to tell them to sit still and do nothing at all. After 20 years of Zen practice, 14 years as Zen monk, and 5 years as a Zen teacher, I’m becoming deeply convinced that meditation is not something you do. Basically, just deliberately put yourself in the position of not doing anything, and the transformative and healing power of meditation takes care of itself.
Three Practices for Buddhists in Troubled Political Times
A priest and leader of a congregation needs to be thoughtful about when to speak up about “political issues,” but I want to offer three practices for Buddhists in troubled political times.
What Is Meant By Zen “Practice”?
If you have spent any time in a Zen community, or reading Zen books, you will have encountered the term “practice” countless times. Zen ancestors and teachers exhort us to practice diligently. Fellow practitioners talk to one another about their practice: “I have been practicing 20 years,” or “I just started practice.” I offer a definition of practice: Inquiry & behaviors to address & resolve one’s deepest questions, longings, & fears, to live the best possible human life.
Why Your (Real) Happiness Benefits Others
When we practice real happiness, we wake up. We notice everything – and not just what we can see and hear in our immediate environment. We notice the state of the world, and the state of our heart. We recognize calls to respond, and then our best response naturally arises. We recognize what’s ours to do, and we’re free to do it because we’re not caught up in our own misery, or in pursuing conditional happiness.
Questions Are More Important Than Answers
Everyone wants answers. We figure answers tell us how to live more happily. Answers let us fix things, while questions are simply problems to be solved with answers. Preferably answers come sooner than later because questions point to limitations in our understanding...
It-with-a-Capital-I: The Zen Version of God
Zen is non-theistic, but a worldview without a sense of That-Which-Is-Greater can be pretty bleak. Fortunately, Zen does have a version of God.
Instructions for Zazen in Eight Verses – Explained
Sit in a balanced, stable position with your spine erect. Body and mind are one and posture is dynamic; proper sitting requires your full attention. Instructions for physical posture may seem uninteresting or elementary because we conceive of our minds and bodies...
How Physically Sitting Zazen Keeps the Precepts Perfectly
Parts in bold are from the text of the Bodhisattva Precepts; parts in italics explain how we keep a particular precept during the simple act of zazen. The Gateway of Contrition All my past and harmful karma, Born from beginningless greed, hate and delusion, Through...
Genjokoan #13: If Everything’s Okay, Why Do Anything?
[From the Genjokoan:] [The] Zen Master of Mt. Magu was waving a fan. A monk approached him and asked, “The nature of wind is ever present and permeates everywhere. Why are you waving a fan?” The master said, “You know only that the wind’s nature is ever present—you...
Genjokoan #12: We Don’t Have to Be Other Than What We Are
[From the Genjokoan:] When a fish swims, no matter how far it swims, it doesn’t reach the end of the water. When a bird flies, no matter how high it flies, it cannot reach the end of the sky. When the bird’s need or the fish’s need is great, the range is large. When...
Genjokoan #11: The Nature of Truth
[From the Genjokoan:] When the Dharma has not yet fully penetrated body and mind, one thinks one is already filled with it. When the Dharma fills body and mind, one thinks something is [still] lacking. For example, when we sail a boat into the ocean beyond sight of...
Genjokoan #10: The Individual Versus the Universal
[From the Genjokoan:] When a person attains realization, it is like the moon’s reflection in water. The moon never becomes wet; the water is never disturbed. Although the moon is a vast and great light, it is reflected in a drop of water. The whole moon and even the...
Genjokoan #9: The Nature of Life-and-Death
[From the Genjokoan:] Firewood becomes ash. Ash cannot become firewood again. However, we should not view ash as after and firewood as before. We should know that firewood dwells in the dharma position of firewood and has its own before and after. Although before and...
Genjokoan #8: The Paradox of Seeking, and Everything Is Moving
[From the Genjokoan:] When one first seeks the Dharma, one strays far from the boundary of the Dharma. When the Dharma is correctly transmitted to the self, one is immediately an original person. If one riding in a boat watches the coast, one mistakenly perceives the...
Genjokoan #7: Learning the Self
[From the Genjokoan:] To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by all things. To be verified by all things is to let the body and mind of the self and the body and mind of others drop...
Genjokoan #6: Our Experience of Absolute and Relative
[From the Genjokoan:] In seeing color and hearing sound with body and mind, although we perceive them intimately, [the perception] is not like reflections in a mirror or the moon in water. When one side is illuminated, the other is dark. Personally, I prefer the...
Genjokoan #5: What is the Nature of Awakening?
[From the Genjokoan:] Those who greatly realize delusion are buddhas. Those who are greatly deluded in realization are living beings. Furthermore, there are those who attain realization beyond realization and those who are deluded within delusion. When buddhas are...
Genjokoan #3: Mahayana Teachings and Dogen’s Take on the Great Matter
[From the Genjokoan:] When the ten thousand dharmas are without [fixed] self, there is no delusion and no realization, no buddhas and no living beings, no birth and no death. Since the Buddha Way by nature goes beyond [the dichotomy of] abundance and deficiency, there...
Genjokoan #2: The Basic Buddhist Teachings
[From the Genjokoan:] When all dharmas are the Buddha Dharma, there is delusion and realization, practice, life and death, buddhas and living beings. Okumura explains that the first sentence here refers to the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha - basic Buddhism, in other...
When Religion Refrains From Explaining “Why”
If religion’s purpose is to help people find peace and strength and to live good lives, which I believe it is, it makes sense that people would turn to religion to explain why terrible things happen in the world – particularly terrible things that happen to...
Everyone Is on a Path Toward Greater Wisdom and Compassion
A friend of mine has a saying, “It takes all kinds of people to make the world go ‘round. Unfortunately.” Other people are the most challenging aspect of our lives, particularly when we strongly disagree with their views, choices and behaviors. The ideal of...
Let’s Start a Global Movement!
Would you be willing to adopt the following Seven Principles and become a Global Citizen? I dream of a mass movement: People everywhere – regardless of nationality, race, faith, class, political party – committing to these core principles, or something...
Remembering There’s Nothing We Can Do to Prevent Change
Sometimes I notice stress sneaking into my life. It starts accumulating under the surface of everything, making me irritable and somewhat sad. Usually this has to do with anxiety about the future. It’s important to note this anxiety is pretty unspecific and...