Dharma Wheel

Thank you, Sir, for your forthright answer. You are most welcome, my friend. Returning to your comment about nit-picking, I think this happens because internet fora are textual media that lend themselves very well to nit-picking. It can get to a point where it appears all-consuming, so your anxiety...

Scholasticism has been interwoven with Zen for some time. Victor Sogen Hori even wrote: "The closest present-day counterpart of the classical Chinese Confucian literati scholar is the Japanese Rinzai Zen rōshi" ( Zen Sand , p. 61). However, it is certainly not necessary for practice. I don't know ab...

Thich Nhat Hanh is a curious figure in that he rarely addresses his lineage and instead opts for a kind of pan-Buddhist approach. He hails from Lam Te Thien, the Vietnamese branch of Linji Chan. The only written work I'm aware of wherein he steps away from his usual non-sectarian mode and directly p...

The topic has developed into discussing Shikantaza. Indeed. Just wanted to contribute to the discussion by getting a common misconception out of the way. Lots of good comments and quotations here, but I think Astus' Dogen quote is particularly important. Another commentary on the practice: Shikan m...

I noticed the title mentions zazen while the discussion regards shikantaza. Nota bene: zazen and shikantaza are not synonymous. The former is seated meditation in general and the latter is a specific practice.

Shikantaza is more subtle than simply letting thoughts drop away. As for ending suffering, if we sit quietly and allow thoughts to drop away, practice shikantaza, or use some other method, we may see our true nature (kensho) and begin that journey. Confirmation of whether this has happened or whethe...

Grigoris wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2018 9:42 pmNot in the lineage I am currently practicing in...

May I ask about the nature of that beautiful thangka?

Ah ok, so Zazen isn't what Japanese use to refer to Silent Illumination? What do they call it? Shikantaza? As far as I understand it: Zuochan (J. zazen) is all seated meditation. This may involve a huatou (J. wato) or a gong'an (J. koan) or silent illumination / mozhao (J. mokusho), to say nothing ...

Fo Guang Shan is a non-sectarian Chinese School that like most other schools will focus on Chan and Pureland. Zazan isn't as popular as Hua Tou in China so Huatou will most likely be taught rather than Zazen (Silent Illumtination/Mo Zhao). Zazen is just seated meditation and may serve as the contai...

Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you, and for all your other informative quotes on this thread as well as others.

I still don't understand how simultaneous arising of cause and effect could be false, especially in lieu of emptiness. In emptiness, there is neither a distinction between cause and effect/anthing to characterize a cause. I think Astus did a fine job of addressing this point, but I'll put in my two...

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Getting rid of the ego should not feel similar to low self-esteem. Loss of the ego is a loss of reference to a self, so any sense of high or low self-esteem will diminish.

Benkei's realization of the Unborn was sudden and preceded by great exertion. Is he telling us that his own breakthrough was unnecessarily dramatic? Or is the near-death awakening story about him dubious in its historicity?

Glad this thread is here. What an inspiring, pure dragon of a human being.

I think the only thing this topic has demonstrated is that Samanthabhadra is intolerant. Did I miss anything else of note? Wouldn't appear so. I had a feeling from the beginning we'd end up here: I'd like to point out that while this topic's title is a question about tolerance, there is neither a s...

Perhaps all sentient beings should just be left to wallow in the filth they have soiled themselves with...

I'd like to point out that while this topic's title is a question about tolerance, there is neither a single question nor a mention of tolerance in the original post.

Seems like this is an attempt at pushing a view rather than opening a discussion.