The Daily Zen Teisho

This collection of exchanges between Yuanwu and students, teachers, lay people, men, and women offers a truly fine look and feel into an exceptional teacher's skill in finding a way to meet each person on a common ground to help them break through barriers.Read the Journal while listening

Nowhere else have I seen this particular piece on the Buddha's last sermon. Many of us have read the admonition to “be a lamp unto yourself” as his last words, but whether the piece above was spoken before he died doesn't impact the fact that it really was Dogen's last piece written before his own death.Read the Journal while listening

For many of us who have not encountered that wonderful Good Friend who can help us see into our own nature, it looks like it is up to us. And there have been many people who have tried to find just that relationship, however, it is rare to find someone who has not been changed by their position of influence over others.Read the Journal while listening

So, out of the corner of our consciousness, we peek from time to time, wondering, even so, where exactly, and when is this Great Enlightenment? The maxim we hear in practice, “great effort, no goal” approximates the attitude of right intention. What a generous discourse on Great Enlightenment Dogen shares with us!

What a great combination of sharing some hints along the way with a grand adventure, discovering the Way.Most of us have not had the almost mythic sounding breakthrough experiences of Master Kao-feng, and as a beginner, reading these enlightenment stories seems to raise an unrealistic training yardstick to jump over.Read the Journal while listening

This is a question that will stop any of us in our tracks. After so many years of practice and studying Buddhism and Zen, what would you say best represents the heart of the teaching? Do you think of the Diamond Sutra or Platform Sutra?Read the Journal while listening

These selections are taken from Sangha Instructions from ancient times and give the flavor of a master wielding a sword to cut through illusions. Sparse and to the point, Linji has no tolerance for superficial approaches and glib comments from students.Read the Journal while listening

While this selection reads like a lyrical piece about a man retiring to a meditative life, and seemingly having little to do with us today, this is not a story about a recluse or one removed from ordinary concerns.Read the Journal while listening

In the tradition of a true Zen master, Bassui always assisted his questioners to return to the origin of inquiry itself, “Who is the one who sees, hears, and understands?”Read the Journal while listening

It probably doesn't get much more essential than this piece elucidating the path of Zen practice. We all are cultivating the mind that seeks the Way and can easily accept that “Sentient beings are replete with the wisdom and virtue of buddhas; they are not two and not separated from one another.”Read the Journal while listening

Sometimes it's hard to know when to stop; other times you just have to stop somewhere to reorient yourself or you get lost.  However, when it comes to following the Way, there is really no resting place.  In this piece, we bring up a sensitive topic in training:  getting one's realization verified by a teacher respected and trusted to do just that service. Read the Journal while listening

There are several translations of the Shodoka, and this is just the beginning of a very long poem translated as Song of Realization of the Way. With a commentary and translation by Nyogen Senzaki, it's as if we are listening to two teachers, as it was intended to help his own students understand the depths of Yoka-daishi's message.Read the Journal while listening

Like a good friend attempting to warn us of a hole we're about to step into or a cliff we're about to fall off of, Torei offers very practical advice for us.  Who hasn't known someone who disdains the study of sutras as examples of dogma and practiced their own version of Ma-tsu's “everyday Mind is the Way?”Read the Journal while listening

The beauty of Buddhism is that no matter where we are in our understanding, we are given a way to proceed. We are also given instructions that depend on our own efforts, not someone else's. With most of us not living in monasteries, we face the task of bringing these principles alive in our daily lives.Read the Journal while listening

Yuanwu is best known for the very well-known collection of 100 public cases,  The Blue Cliff Record, which in reality consists of notes taken from lectures he gave to his students who collected their notes and printed them out as block prints. Read the Journal while listening

When the vastness of the experience of our true nature seems simply beyond comprehension,  similar to when we try to “grasp” a sense of the expanding universe or infinity, it is reassuring to remember it's always there whether we are aware of it or not.Read the Journal while listening

This is a topic we have discussed often, but it can't be emphasized enough as it is easy to fall into the trap of confusing intellectual understanding with the complete turnaround of realization. With the concern for direct apprehension beyond words and letters, all too often a goal-oriented mindset can take over early in practice.Read the Journal while Listening

There are countless schools of Zen and Buddhism, each offering their own entry into practice. Koan practice or “just sitting” practice appeals to different people's sensibilities, but any practice can fall into extremes of spiritual “one-up-manship.”Read the Journal while listening

We can all appreciate the straightforwardness of Sheng Yen, and since he is closer to our own place in time, we know he had an understanding of our world. Even though the human situation is the same no matter the time we find ourselves, sometimes the translation can interfere with understanding.Read the Journal while listening

This is a unique gift as you can see in the introduction above. A Zen master from hundreds of years ago has essentialized what he sees as the heart of the sutras and Zen for us “practitioners in the future.” How many times have some of us attempted to read one of the sutras and just felt overwhelmed by the language, the images, and the searching for the essence of the teaching?Read the Journal while listening

Most of the stories of the Buddha's life are told in a very different manner. Speaking in the first person here brings a freshness to his journey, and starting at the beginning is sometimes just right for the beginning of the year.Read the Journal while listening

We can really see in this concluding piece the essence of volumes from So Sahn's own practice, quite an aspiration to bring to life.  Each chapter/paragraph delivers a clarity that deserves contemplation.  Read the Journal while listening

These two selections seem to stretch the boundaries a bit. They almost seem to contradict each other, but such is the flavor of different teachers. In reality, they are talking about the same phenomenon, something so natural to who we are and how we function when we don't complicate things, it is easy to overlook it. And, in fact, is a challenge for us.Read the Journal while listening

Being students of the Way, naturally, we seek places to begin and signposts of which way to continue. There may be teachers we study with for years; we may have years of disillusionment, and then there may be years we are on our own. Read the Journal while listening

Since there are sutras too numerous to count, Yanshou is taking the gems from many of them to help essentialize the heart of Buddhism.Read the Journal while listening

This excerpt is scratching the surface of a work consisting of 100 fasicles; the above being only part of the first fasicle and the only one in translation at this point. Even in this brief glimpse, one can get a sense of the intention behind the work.Read the Journal while listening

his classic story from the history of Zen is an excellent example of the lengths some have taken to explore meditation, the results that can happen when someone goes too far in overzealous attempts, and the commitment it takes to extricate oneself and return to a more middle way of practice. Read the Journal while listening

People say that practicing Zen is difficult, but there is a misunderstanding as to why. It is not difficult because it is hard to sit in the cross-legged position, or to attain enlightenment. It is difficult because it is hard to keep our mind pure and our practice pure in its fundamental sense.Read while listening to the Journal

How much of what we know has been discovered firsthand by us? If you are honest, most of what we know has been handed down by others and rarely questioned. Even the traditional teacher/student relationship often engenders passivity; like baby birds with beaks open, we wait for the next tidbit of understanding to arrive. Read the Journal while listening

There is a point in training where we feel like we are living in two separate worlds – the conventional reality or culture and our world of practice. In the beginning, we establish our meditation practice routine and strive for continuity. As we mature in practice we realize we need to take that calm and centered experience off the cushion and into daily life.Read the Journal while listening

It takes a while to begin to feel comfortable with “nothing to hang onto” as some refer to the subtleties of practice. Practice is bursting with paradox, and Zen masters seem to have mastered the art of communicating the Way in a manner that often does serve to stop the mind.Read the Journal while listening

As abstruse as some of these pieces sound, there are always concrete points of practice that shine through. That doesn't mean it doesn't take some real contemplation to find the hidden kernel that is just the point to spur on our practice.Read the Journal while listening

The question-and-answer format between a teacher and student is a timeless and startling tradition. The role of any true teacher is to help the student break through their illusions and awaken in the present moment to their attachments; their means of achieving this are often misunderstood.Read the Journal while listening

Simplicity and clarity. The above guidelines are touchstones that help us to steer through practice. To take it all a step further is finding a way to return to zazen while walking, lying down, and standing.Read the Journal while listening.

With all the journals there are always one or two sentences that jump out at us. They seem to be what the piece turns on for us here and now. This is a very ancient work, and it is interesting how much is conveyed in this excerpt.Read the Journal while listening.

At times it seems like a deluded mind dominates us as past tendencies recur to test us. At some point, these become almost entertaining as they burn themselves out vying for our attention.Read the Journal while listening

Whether we think of ourselves as average, superior, or inferior students, we all share zazen as a practice, and probably for most of us we don't think of our “level” as students at all.Read the Journal while listening

Each teacher of the Way has their own style to help students break through stubborn attachments and confusion. Each master exemplifies approaches that sometimes are easy to digest and other times pull the rug out from under us. Ajahn Chah has a more gentle and matter-of-fact style using ordinary language and examples that are easy to relate to.Read the Journal while listening

We can learn something from every teacher we meet through the journals. Some may be difficult to understand because their style seems archaic or the translator's choice of words may lead to some confusion, but there are kernels of wisdom in every piece.Read the Journal while listening

For those of us who entered the doorway of Zen through “just sitting,” koan practice has always seemed a bit mysterious. Not that there isn't a technique involved in sitting meditation but concentrating on a certain phrase or word is not part of that approach.Read the Journal while listening

Many of us have longed at one time or another to retreat to a hermitage in the mountain wilds, to follow the way of the sages, thus shedding our distractions and focusing on a life of practice. Read the Journal while listening

Once again, the classic student and teacher dialogue we have all heard at one time or another. True teachers can be and should be, difficult to pin down an “answer” to questions that in reality wind up limiting us. What else, and how else could Huang Po answer? Read the Journal while listening

The essence of Taoism and Zen emanates from the same source, and many qualities of Taoist sages sound like what you could hear from a Zen master in China. At times the dividing lines seem quite blurry. Read the Journal while listening

One of the core teachings in Buddhism is that of “co-dependent origination,” that nothing exists independently; rather, everything exists on the condition that its existence relies on all other entities. Read the Journal while listening

Here is a refreshing and direct expression of something many of us make into a very complicated and abstruse issue. Bankei brought Zen to ordinary, everyday people along with the monks and nuns that he taught.  Read the Journal while listening

Ah, the patience of a good teacher resounds throughout this piece. The characters and their parts are timeless...we have all known challenging students who seem to push inappropriately, but like a highly skilled kendo master, Muso deftly answers questions that seem at times to cross the barrier of common courtesy. Read the Journal while listening

Zen teaching is filled with enlightenment stories and koans that sound like mental gymnastics to the beginner. At times one wonders the purpose of them, other than to illustrate how futile all our striving really is. Read while listening to the Journal

There are many principles of Buddhism easily understood. For instance, any one of the Six Perfections sounds like reasonable aspirations. However, as in all spiritual traditions, there is the understanding of the householder versus the spiritual aspirant who hears another meaning. Read the Journal

Over the years we have shared many teaching dialogues, most often in the format of an unknown student questioning a very well know Zen Master. This is one of the most unique dialogues we have, taken from Dogen's own journal covering his years of study in China with Master Rujing. Read the Journal

Now if that isn't confidence-inspiring, what is? Straightforward and to the point, with no added frills or special techniques, sit on your cushion or your bench and let each thought go. Read the Journal

In ancient times not much was revealed about what the enlightenment experience consisted of. And since Zen is a teaching outside of words and letters, many were left to just sit.