Dusting the Zendo
The other week I went googling for something I could share with the Dewdrop about gratitude for sangha. I found this little story about Ananda, which I had never heard before. Ananda went to the town where Buddha was staying and, on arrival, bowed down to the Blessed One, and …
An Angry Person with a Practice
I wasn’t an angry person until I became a Zen Buddhist. Sure, I yelled. I slammed things. I broke things. But I wouldn’t have called myself angry. It was always another person making me angry. How was that my fault? The night I flung my wedding ring across the lawn …
Maezumi’s Three Admonitions
Wisdom teachings are fascinating things. They may not appear to be special. They are never complicated. They can sound so ordinary that we don’t even hear them or grant them consideration. But like seeds, they burrow into us and one day surface in full bloom. Only then are we ready …
The Truth About Lying
Whenever I think I know what someone needs or wants, what is good or best for them—wagering how things are going to turn out—it’s a good time to shut up.
Bring Zen to Life
What makes lineage living or dead? The answer is always ourselves.
VERSES & GATHAS
VERSE OF THE KESA(3X)Vast is the robe of liberation,A formless field of benefaction.I wear the Tathagata teaching,Saving all sentient beings. GATHA ON OPENING THE SUTRAThe Dharma, incomparably profound and infinitely subtle,Is rarely encountered even in millions of agesNow we see it, hear it, receive and maintain itMay we completely realize …
MAHA PRAJNA PARAMITA HEART SUTRA
Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, doing deep prajna paramita,Clearly saw emptiness of all the five conditions,Thus completely relieving misfortune and pain,O Shariputra, form is no other than emptiness,emptiness no other than form;Form is exactly emptiness, emptiness exactly form;Sensation, conception, discrimination,awareness are likewise like this.O Shariputra, all dharmas are forms of emptiness,not born, not …
ENMEI JUKKU KANNON GYO
(x 3)KAN ZE ON NA MU BUTSU YO BUTSU U INYO BUTSU U EN BUP PO SO EN JO RAKU GAJO CHO NEN KAN ZE ON BO NEN KAN ZE ONNEN NEN JU SHIN KI NEN NEN FU RI SHIN.
FUSATSU
Officiant entrance, incense offering, fudosampai and bows.Everyone goes into choki.Officiant goes to altar and offers incense, returns to haishiki, into choki. GATHA OF ATONEMENTINO: All evil karma ever committed by me since of old.ALL: ALL EVIL KARMA EVER COMMITTED BY ME SINCE OF OLD.INO: On account of my beginningless greed, …
IDENTITY OF RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE
The mind of the Great Sage of India was intimatelyConveyed from west to east,Among human beings are wise ones and fools,But in the Way there is no northern or southern Patriarch.The subtle source is clear and bright;The tributary streams flow through the darkness.To be attached to things is illusion;To encounter …