The Daily Zen Teisho

Ikkyu's skeletons teach in rich and evocative koan-like poems. Any one of them can be read alone, and in fact, each one deserves quiet contemplation rather than a single reading. Powerful in imagery and content, these skeletons have much to share. Read the Journal while listening

Mugai Nyodai, known also as Chiyono, was one of the first Japanese women to receive transmission in Zen. Read the Journal while listening

This is a time to return to the roots of practice. With new people coming into Daily Zen every month, it is fitting now for a piece like this. Sheng-yen skillfully paints a history of how Buddhism traveled from India to other parts of the East, and the transformation that became known as Zen today. Read the Journal while listening

Mugai Nyodai, known also as Chiyono, was one of the first Japanese women to receive transmission in Zen..  While she is well known through her founding of many women's Zen monasteries, she is relatively unknown to those of us in the West who are more familiar with the Patriarchs of Zen, like Hui-neng or Bodhidharma. Read the Journal while listening

This piece of Huang Po's touches elements of practice that seem to turn your mind inside out at first. He seems to raise more questions than answers, and thus helps us return to beginner's mind—that place where we don't know as much and are ready to learn.    Read the Journal while listening

Down to earth and, at the same time, a most expanded view of practice; each line is an invitation to explore.  Read the Journal while listening

We are exhorted to aspire to a paradoxical way of learning/unlearning in Zen; to “think” the unthinkable. Many words are used to help us see the limitations of words, and yet, we keep reading, studying, and aspiring to something we inherently possess. Read the Journal while listening

Uchiyama Roshi begins with a powerful line that stops us right at the very beginning of this reading. To live the reality of true fluidity existing between ourselves and the world is a profound experience in anyone's life and practice. Read the Journal while listening

This collection of letters written to teachers, students, and lay people reveals a side of Yuanwu that is personable and easily understood. He is better known as the author of the famous Blue Cliff Record, which offers challenges to students at all levels of practice. Read the Journal while listening

We live in very different times from those in Japan in the 1300s, but the search for a true teacher or master beckons to students in every century. Bassui's quest began the way it does in any person strong enough to question for themselves. Read the Journal while listening

Perhaps we should begin at the beginning, where Buddhadhasa starts with the fundamental principles in the first chapter of this teaching, because in the above piece, he alludes to the handful of teachings that are all we need, but what are they?  Read the Journal while listening

There is something for everyone in this profound teaching. We don't know who the questioner is, but really it is us. Who hasn't asked these questions in their own time? And how many have had the Fourth Patriarch to hang out with and ask questions to? Read the Journal while listening

Nothing much to grab onto here, not even instructions to meditate!  However, we realize that a Zen master is teaching meditation; how else does one learn to turn the light around and look inside? Read the Journal while listening

Each journal presents a way into a larger perspective, and each piece speaks to us uniquely. There are teachers we easily connect with, and others that demand more of a stretch to understand their style. Read the Journal while listening

It is rare to hear in Zen anyone state exactly what meditation is; there are a lot of questions asked, and a little technique discussed, but originally, students just sat and found out for themselves.  Read the Journal while listening

In Zen, there are many styles of meditation taught through the various schools; each person has to find the approach that strikes a chord within them, one they can spend enough time to realize the fruits of their efforts. Read the Journal While Listening

Fall and Spring are both potent times to evaluate our practice; without judgment, just look to see if there are any adjustments to be made. Read the Journal while listening

As with any translation of a very ancient teaching, and one that was passed on orally rather than written down, we are often stopped wondering what was actually transmitted.  Read the Journal while listening

If the questions seem to flow too precisely and neatly along, it is because this is a format Hui Hai used to communicate these principles. Read the Journal while Listening

This was the last teaching of both the Buddha and Dogen before they died. For Dogen, it was part of his intention to rewrite all his work, and he had completed 11 chapters prior to this new piece.  Read the Journal while listening

The stubborn intellect can be crafty and tends to want “answers” and concepts to hold onto, and naturally, as students, we would appreciate a little help here.  However, our idea of help and a true teacher's is rarely the same.  Read the Journal while listening

Making the Altruistic Vow…serves to focus on our intentions and purpose here and now.  What have we committed to? What better time of year to contemplate this lofty vow than now?   Read the Journal while listening

Constancy – it has a lovely ring to it and actually is similar to one of the paramitas in Buddhism. Seeking the right phrase or word to express any spiritual concept can be challenging. Read the Journal while listening

This piece is profoundly deep and vast in its scope. It's as if all the true essentials of Buddhism and Zen are laid out right before us. Read the Journal while listening

Muso is touching on points we have covered many times over the years.  It is so easy to fool ourselves with our understanding.  Too often, there is confusion in thinking that knowing the meaning of a word equals the experience and manifestation of that principle. Read the Journal while listening

The ability to stay focused on a train of thought, a task that takes days to complete, or a conversation that goes beyond things right in front of us is becoming a lost art in our times.  Read the Journal while listening

The sheer beauty and simplicity of this piece speak for itself. Especially now when the times seem so extreme, and we are overstimulated to react, to be able to pause and remember to practice always returns us to center. Read the Journal while listening

Depending on how long one has practiced, at some point, we all realize the dead end of intellectual understanding.  That doesn't mean there is no value in “words and letters.”  What is criticized above is the substitution of meditation time with what can become the distraction of reading one more teacher's instructions, one more sutra, and how about that new school of Zen? Read the Journal while listening

Most of us have read the story of the Buddha's life and awakening, but few of us have read a first-person account like the one above. Read the Journal while listening

As with many other writings, there are always parts that stop us in our tracks. Is it the translation or my lack of understanding? Read the Journal while listening

Listening to this sermon of Bodhidharma's is similar to swallowing the ocean in one gulp, overwhelming in some places.  As with floating on the water, rather than struggling to stay up, it's best here just to relax and let the teachings flow under, over, and through us.  Read the Journal while listening

Not all Zen teaching is immediately easy to grasp.  This is classic Zen delivered to us by the very famous patriarch of Zen, Bodhidharma.  However, it is like riding through rapids down the River of No Return and holding on for dear life! Read the Journal while listening

Ah, the grand prize of enlightenment in its ultimate form is highlighted by Dogen in this talk. Who doesn't begin practice without that goal-less goal of enlightenment? Read the Journal while listening

The simplicity of this piece, the clarity of expression gives a kind of accessibility that is refreshing and brings a breath of fresh air to our journey. Who has not felt the balm of compassion? Read the Journal while listening

I often marvel at how contemporary the ancient writings sound. You can see how students of all ages fell into the same pitfalls of practice we do. Teachers always seem to talk about students of “today” not having the same intensity or commitment to difficult practice. Read the Journal while listening

Sometimes we are given too much to know what to do with it…sometimes we are given so little, we sit bewildered if we are proceeding “correctly.” Read the Journal while listening

The “worthies of former times” sacrificed to attain their true insights; it involved more than just hearing and parroting a teacher's words.  They turned their own inner light onto the great matter at hand. Read the Journal while listening

Ah, to be able to sit and discourse with someone like Muso!   Suddenly everything is crystal clear…the traps we set for ourselves, the spirited way we manage to fool ourselves, and the limited great insights we have.   Read the Journal while listening

The response is down-to-earth and understandable for any of us.  To stay on track and not get overwhelmed by the illusions that surround us involves a lifetime of commitment.    Read the Journal while listening

Waking up is a great phrase to illustrate realization. In the beginning of practice when we are first learning meditation, and in some schools, the other techniques that have been used over time, it is easy to feel like what we seek is far away from where we currently are. Read the Journal while listening

Here we have several very different examples of Foyan's skill as a teacher. The crystal clear teaching poem on sitting meditation juxtaposed with the conversational skill he has in communicating with his students.  Read the Journal while listening

Reading this piece is like standing under a plum tree with blossoms falling all around you, the fragrance enveloping your senses, and feeling connected with much more. Remember the last time the fragrance wafted into your consciousness? Read the Journal while listening

This is a teaching vast in scope, covering the beginning, middle, and end of practice.  Stunning to see the dates of the writing and to feel a deep connection with something so ancient/contemporary!  Read the Journal while listening

While the tone of Hongzhi's Practice Instructions is lyrical and evocative, surpassing the ordinary “instructions,” this is a voice rarely heard in a teaching hall and is immediately transporting. Read the Journal while listening

This discussion between sudden enlightenment and gradual cultivation has gone on for centuries. So we are not alone in our own confusion about these principles. This is a very clear description of the need for both. Read the Journal while listening

Naturally, we have thoughts that come up almost continuously at times. The ability to let them go and make room for an openness that is constantly responsive to the ever-changing is an integral part of a life of practice. Read the Journal while listening

Bodhidharma's teaching is essentially very sparse and simple: “Behold the mind.”  Doesn't allow a lot of distracting philosophical points, just brings us back to awareness and turning the attention inwards.  Read the Journal while listening

There are sutras like the Heart Sutra that are chanted in temples and are a part of practice handed down from long years ago.  For those of us who don't have a temple to attend or a teacher to train with, we seek out forms and practices that sustain us. 

One of the most famous Zen tales is the story of how an illiterate woodcutter came to inherit the robe and bowl of the 5th Patriarch. After delivering his load of firewood one day, he heard a customer reciting the Diamond Sutra.Read the Journal while listening

Many times we have read or heard the stories of Buddha's life and enlightenment. Returning to his first teaching upon awakening, we come in contact with the ground and source of Buddhism. The root from which the many branches developed over the years that followed. Read the Journal while listening

He is not talking about a philosophy of license, anything goes in the name of the ego; when he refers to a lack of faith in ourselves, it would be easy to misunderstand. Those of us who have grown up around the “century of the self” as the West has fallen prey to thanks to marketing, have to pause and wonder, really, what is he talking about?Read the Journal while listening