Luckily for me, my teacher Nyogen Roshi keeps repeating the same thing over and over again. (I’m beginning to realize that’s what teachers do.) In nearly every one of his weekly dharma talks he ends up reciting a set of instructions given to him by his teacher Maezumi Roshi in the early days of his training…
Alive in the Mire: Swampland Flowers
A review of Swampland Flowers: The Letters and Lectures of Zen Master Ta Hui translated by J.C. Cleary.
Vimalakirti said, “It’s like this: the high plateau does not produce lotus flowers; it is the mire of the low swamplands that produces these flowers…”
Grass Huts and Hermits
A review of Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits by Bill Porter.
Not long ago I ran across a new Buddhist blog that says it is for people who “are interested in meditation but don’t want to pretend they live in ancient Asia.” I try not to get too worked up about how people characterize Buddhism, but that line about pretense got my attention…
Myoyu’s Jukai
Highlights from Joe Belluso’s Jukai ceremony, where he received the Bodhisattva Precepts and was given the dharma name “Myoyu.”
It’s Just a Dish
In this excerpt from a radio interview, Maezen Sensei talks about how practice applies in our everyday activities, such as overcoming the aversion we might feel to household chores.
The First Noble Misunderstanding
An excerpt from Hand Wash Cold by Karen Maezen Miller There’s a lot of misunderstanding about meditation. In fact, that’s pretty much all that meditation is — the process of seeing how very much you’ve misunderstood about it and everything else. We might be drawn to meditation because we want more out of life and ourselves. […]
