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Koun-Ji Temple Los Angeles

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Dharma

Awareness

Awareness

by Nyogen Roshi

Awareness

In a powerful talk that touches on the six perfections in Buddhism as well as Dogen’s writing on samsara and nirvana, Nyogen Roshi exhorts us to cultivate selfless awareness through our practice…

Opening to Wisdom

Opening to Wisdom

by Hazy Moon

Opening to Wisdom

Maezumi Roshi answers the question, “How do we open ourselves to wisdom?”

Transcribed from a recording made in July 1993.

This Very Point

This Very Point

by Nyogen Roshi

This Very Point

Those of us who practice are lucky when we encounter difficult times. Before that, we coast along in a comfort zone, thinking that bad stuff will be taken care of and the good guys will win and everyone is going to live happily ever after…

FeatureMaezumi’s 3 Admonitions

Maezumi’s 3 Admonitions

by Hazy Moon

Maezumi’s 3 Admonitions

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…

Right View

Right View

by Nyogen Roshi

Right View

After a particularly beautiful period of meditation, Nyogen Roshi is prompted to share his inner experience of zazen. Though setting aside striving and expectation can be difficult, the rewards are beyond measure. “You relax and release,” Roshi tells us, “then at a certain point, you begin to feel good, and the sitting itself becomes rich. You experience the wonder of what you truly are.”

The Manifest Koan

The Manifest Koan

by Nyogen Roshi

The Manifest Koan

The manifest koan is you, what is apparent and appearing, depending solely on right now. Nothing else. If you’re still caught in the comparing mind, the judgmental mind, you won’t see it. If you’re trapped in seeing objects as separate from you, you are far from it. But I think everybody here is starting to sense it…

Perceiving and Believing

Perceiving and Believing

by Nyogen Roshi

Perceiving and Believing

Reflecting on why more of his students aren’t experiencing breakthroughs in their practice, Nyogen Roshi indicts a lack of faith in the practice itself as the culprit. Specifically, he pinpoints a cynical reluctance to believe anything that we haven’t personally perceived as the hindrance to insight. “When you hear about some of the wonders that […]

The Issue of Suffering

The Issue of Suffering

by Nyogen Roshi

The Issue of Suffering

The image of a migrant father and his young daughter lying dead on a bank of the Rio Grande prompts Nyogen Roshi to reflect on Buddhist teachings around suffering. Drawing on his own experiences with suffering as well as lessons handed down in the Zen tradition, Roshi concludes that the story of the Buddha contains the only possible remedy. “Who else other than yourself is sitting there?” Roshi says. “You can only look into your own mind. If you can understand where the pathway is, simply trust the words of the Buddha. His own life was the prescription and the path.”

Just Enter the Stillness

Just Enter the Stillness

by Nyogen Roshi

Just Enter the Stillness

Doing non-doing is the essence of Zen. Far from laziness or indifference, the stillness of zazen is the site of transformation. But reaching the still point does take effort. “Sustained effort will lead you into the joy,” Roshi tells us, “into the wonder of what your life is truly all about. The doorway opens there–all pathways lead from that point.”

Koans 

Koans 

by Nyogen Roshi

Koans 

Far from being anachronistic curiosities or puzzles to tease the intellect, koans are literally steps on the path of liberation. In his introduction to a translation of The Blue Cliff Record, one the the classic koan collections in the Zen tradition, Maezumi Roshi wrote, “You yourself become the case–this Blue Cliff is your very life.” […]

The Death of Me

The Death of Me

by Nyogen Roshi

The Death of Me

Reading from the book “Awareness” by Anthony de Mello–a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist who grew up in Mumbai, India–Nyogen Roshi marvels at how much the Jesuit’s teaching sounds like instructions from masters in the Zen and Tibetan traditions. “Death is not a tragedy at all. Only dead people fear death…”

Ordinary Mind

Ordinary Mind

by Nyogen Roshi

Ordinary Mind

In one of the most famous Zen stories, Joshu asks his teacher Nansen, “What is the Way?” Nansen replies, ” Ordinary mind is the Way.” What is ordinary mind? Nyogen Roshi walks us into it. “Get quiet,” he says. “Purify the mind–which means stop talking to yourself. Just sit here in the present moment. What else is there to be known? You know everything there is, perfectly.”

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1651 S. Gramercy Place, Los Angeles, CA 90019
323-735-7564
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