Search found 183 matches
- Fri Jan 15, 2021 6:41 pm
- Forum: Dharma Events
- Topic: Norman Fischer One Day Zoom Reteat
- Replies: 1
- Views: 266
Re: Norman Fischer One Day Zoom Reteat
There is still time to register for Norman Fischer’s retreat tomorrow.
- Wed Jan 06, 2021 12:59 am
- Forum: Dharma Events
- Topic: Norman Fischer One Day Zoom Reteat
- Replies: 1
- Views: 266
Norman Fischer One Day Zoom Reteat
You're invited to join the Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group (SBMG) in welcoming Norman Fischer for a One Day Zoom Retreat, Saturday, January 16 from 9 am to 4:30 pm Pacific Time. This weekend retreat will be in honor of the dream and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Like Dr King, Mahaya...
- Sat Oct 17, 2020 8:37 pm
- Forum: Soto
- Topic: It's not you. It's not me. It's not personal.
- Replies: 0
- Views: 411
It's not you. It's not me. It's not personal.
This was posted recently on Norman Fischer’s Facebook page: "The essence of mindfulness is that you stop taking your life so personally. That’s the essence of what we are discovering here. My life is not really my personal possession, and that is exactly my problem, that I take my life so personally...
- Mon Oct 12, 2020 11:23 pm
- Forum: Soto
- Topic: All for what?
- Replies: 12
- Views: 740
Re: All for what?
Chanting practices might be more adaptable in periods of acute stress. It helps to chant out loud persistently when the mind chatter is loud and persistent. I know this is a zen forum, but developing a more complete tool box of practices might be helpful in the future. Developing a ‘tool box’ is an...
- Sun Oct 11, 2020 2:29 am
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: Tenzin Palmo
- Replies: 5
- Views: 572
Re: Tenzin Palmo
Thank you.
- Sun Oct 11, 2020 12:43 am
- Forum: Tibetan Buddhism
- Topic: Tenzin Palmo
- Replies: 5
- Views: 572
Tenzin Palmo
Can anyone tell me the meaning of or anything about the three spots which I highlighted on the photo of Tenzin Palmo?
- Tue Sep 29, 2020 6:55 am
- Forum: Soto
- Topic: To sit or not to sit?
- Replies: 1
- Views: 319
To sit or not to sit?
From Issho Fujita’s collected essay, Zazen and Everyday Life: All of the events in everyday life challenge us to choose between doing zazen or not. There is a mountain of excuses nearby for postponing or stopping zazen. Within this situation, it is necessary, in order to continue zazen, to have a vi...
- Tue Sep 15, 2020 8:18 pm
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: Buddha, the Original Zen Master
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1218
- Tue Sep 15, 2020 6:26 am
- Forum: Soto
- Topic: shikantaza
- Replies: 1
- Views: 354
shikantaza
I’m reading more of Issho Fujita’s essays and came to this passage, which is a beautiful description of shikantaza and the Soto Way: So, without trying to do what is not possible and entrusting everything with peace of mind to zazen and soaking in that wholeness, it would be enough to simply continu...
- Sat Sep 12, 2020 10:19 pm
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: Buddha, the Original Zen Master
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1218
Re: Buddha, the Original Zen Master
Astus; You’re making a problem where there is none and I believe you know it.
- Fri Sep 11, 2020 7:49 pm
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: Buddha, the Original Zen Master
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1218
Re: Buddha, the Original Zen Master
Here’s another note about the Flower Sermon when the Buddha held up a flower and Mahakasyapa smiled - Mahakasyapa, the first Zen disciple, smiled and between the Buddha and Mahakasyapa there was a mind-to-mind transmission. Mahakasyapa could have thought or done many things. He could have motionless...
- Thu Sep 10, 2020 5:58 pm
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: Buddha, the Original Zen Master
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1218
Re: Buddha, the Original Zen Master
Are you suggesting that seeing the Morning Star caused the Buddha’s awakening? The only other role the star can have in the story is to mark the time of awakening as around dawn, but then, seeing or not seeing it has no relevance. It also fits the usual Zen stories of suddenly seeing or hearing som...
- Thu Sep 10, 2020 5:39 am
- Forum: Soto
- Topic: This simply doesn't make any sense.....
- Replies: 36
- Views: 2163
Re: This simply doesn't make any sense.....
I really am not trying to be provocative, but I am finding the lack of a coherent and rationale explanation to this without ambiguity hugely frustrating, to the extent that I am on the verge of abandoning this practice altogether. Thanks for your time all clarification welcomed! :namaste: I’m readi...
- Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:06 am
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: Buddha, the Original Zen Master
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1218
Re: Buddha, the Original Zen Master
Words! Perhaps “cause” was too much. Seeing the Morning Star didn’t cause the Buddha’s awakening, but, as Zen Masters have often described, an external occurrence (e.g. - the sound of a stone hitting bamboo) is sometimes a “simultaneous event”. Better? Not better at all, because then seeing the sta...
- Tue Sep 08, 2020 11:34 pm
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: Buddha, the Original Zen Master
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1218
Re: Buddha, the Original Zen Master
Words! Perhaps “cause” was too much. Seeing the Morning Star didn’t cause the Buddha’s awakening, but, as Zen Masters have often described, an external occurrence (e.g. - the sound of a stone hitting bamboo) is sometimes a “simultaneous event”. Better? And Keizan doesn’t say the Buddha “formed no th...
- Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:34 pm
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: Buddha, the Original Zen Master
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1218
- Tue Sep 08, 2020 6:01 am
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: Buddha, the Original Zen Master
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1218
Buddha, the Original Zen Master
Elsewhere I wrote, All Zen sects and lineages trace their history back to Bodhidharma, the First Zen Patriarch; and further back to Mahakasyapa, the First Patriarch who, Zen legend has it, smiled when the Buddha gave a direct teaching, beyond words and letters, by holding up a flower; and so Zen tra...
- Sun Sep 06, 2020 11:43 pm
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: The Tortoise and the Hare
- Replies: 6
- Views: 631
Re: The Tortoise and the Hare
There’s too much in the OP for me to comment on, but I have been thinking about this: In the Zen tradition there is the story about the Buddha Shakyamuni transmitting THE CORE OF HIS TEACHINGS in front of a large assembly of monks. All the Buddha did was, that he picked a flower and raised it in fro...
- Sat Aug 22, 2020 6:37 am
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: Can a lazy person awaken?
- Replies: 32
- Views: 2489
Re: Can a lazy person awaken?
Genjo, Good points. Thank you. Of course I was being ‘playful’ with Bodhidharma’s words and mindful of Bankei’s words. Zen is sometimes known as “the sudden school” which points to the nature of awakening as an accident (“Enlightenment is an accident. Practice makes us accident prone.” - a Zen sayin...
- Sat Aug 22, 2020 3:54 am
- Forum: Zen
- Topic: Can a lazy person awaken?
- Replies: 32
- Views: 2489
Re: Can a lazy person awaken?
Hmm . . . in addition to teachings by Bodhidharma and Bankei, here is a contemporary Zen teacher, Peter Taylor (Korean Jogye tradition): Lazy Zen A serious Zen practice takes effort and discipline. You have to sit in meditation. You have to bow. You have to give yourself over to practice. The aim of...