Podcasts about Bodhidharma

To mark Bodhidharma Day (October 5), a look at how the character of Bodhidharma appears--again and again--in the koans compiled by Dogen (Koun Franz; October 3, 2023). You can support Thousand Harbours Zen and learn more about our practice by visiting thousandharbourszen.com; talks are also available on the Thousand Harbours Zen YouTube Channel.  Post-production by Tod Nyokai.

Using the koan of Bodhidharma's transmission and the Pang family's teachings on difficulty and ease, Kisei closes sesshin by pointing practitioners toward the vows and confidence that have sustained them through every hard sitting — and toward the Buddha that their teachers have been holding up a mirror to all along. ★ Support this podcast ★

Éminent spécialiste de l'histoire politique et culturelle de la Chine contemporaine, Emmanuel Lincot est l'auteur de plusieurs ouvrages sur la Chine et ses rapports compliqués avec sa périphérie. Dans son nouvel essai Chine-Inde : La guerre des mondes, qu'il vient de publier aux éditions du Cerf, il analyse les rivalités géopolitiques croissantes qui opposent les deux géants d'Asie qui se font face, sur fond d'échanges et d'influences réciproques plurimillénaires. RFI : Emmanuel Lincot, vous êtes sinologue de formation. Comment est né votre intérêt pour l'Inde ? Emmanuel Lincot : L'Inde, moi, je l'ai rencontrée finalement sur le tard, par des voies de détours, puisque mes précédents travaux, durant ces dernières années, ont porté sur la Chine et ses périphéries, et notamment la Chine et le monde musulman, en particulier la Chine et l'Asie centrale. Et quand on s'intéresse à l'Asie centrale, on est amené naturellement, pour ne pas dire culturellement, à l'Inde. Tout simplement parce que l'une des grandes dynasties indiennes, les Moghols, a été fondée par Babur, qui était originaire de l'est de l'actuel Ouzbékistan, de la vallée du Ferghana. Donc, de fil en aiguille, évidemment, on est amené à se rencontrer d'une manière ou d'une autre. Chine-Inde : La guerre des mondes, c'est le titre de votre ouvrage. Comment faut-il interpréter le trait d'union qui sépare les noms des deux pays sur la couverture ? Pour le choix du titre, je n'y suis absolument pour rien. C'est mon éditeur, Jean-François Colosimo, que je salue d'ailleurs, qui a trouvé la bonne formule. Ce trait d'union, que vous soulignez, peut désigner à la fois des velléités sur le temps long de rapprochement entre deux grandes aires de civilisation et en même temps une séparation. Pour filer un peu la métaphore, on pourrait dire que ce trait d'union peut apparaître véritablement comme un mur, comme un barrage, celui de l'Himalaya en particulier, qui sépare ces deux énormes masses continentales. Et ce titre est suffisamment vaste et vague, effectivement, pour aborder des questions de géopolitique, mais aussi et surtout des questions liées à l'histoire culturelle. Bref, comment se représente-t-on l'Inde depuis la Chine sur la longue durée et réciproquement ? Et là, ça devient absolument fascinant parce qu'on s'intéresse aux lieux de mémoire, notamment aux monastères qui constituent véritablement un maillage et autant de fils d'Ariane reliant l'Inde à la Chine par le biais du Tibet, région majeure. Je pense aussi à de grandes figures intellectuelles telles que Salman Rushdie, Tagore, Gao Xingjian et bien d'autres encore. Quels ont été les moments forts de cette histoire culturelle entre la Chine et l'Inde ? Ça commence grosso modo avec l'émergence des routes de la soie qui furent des points de contact, des voies de passage. Quant au bouddhisme, ce fut un processus au très long cours. La disparition du Bouddha se situe au VIᵉ siècle avant notre ère, et il faut attendre officiellement le IIᵉ siècle de notre ère, c'est-à-dire huit siècles plus tard, pour que le bouddhisme fasse enfin son entrée officielle dans l'espace chinois. Puis, il va y avoir un fait géopolitique majeur qui survient au Moyen Âge : ce sont les invasions turco-musulmanes qui vont arrêter assez brusquement, justement, ces échanges spirituels et artistiques, mais momentanément, je dirais, parce que le lieu conservatoire de ces échanges, qui va réinterpréter le bouddhisme d'une manière tout à fait particulière, en insufflant une autre dimension spirituelle, c'est le Tibet précisément. Et le Tibet, géographiquement, il est au point d'articulation dans la région de l'Himalaya, entre le monde chinois et le monde indien précisément. Le Tibet – c'est l'une des thèses de ce livre – va très certainement redevenir un point majeur, sinon de confrontation, tout au moins d'échange d'une manière ou d'une autre, au vu de l'importance de cette région, reconnue par Pékin notamment. Le centre de gravité de l'Asie risque très certainement de se déplacer vers cette région où les enjeux sont majeurs. Sur le plan minier par exemple. On pense à l'exploitation du lithium, si important pour la fabrication de nos voitures électriques. Le Tibet est central aussi en matière de ressources en eau. Pratiquement tous les grands fleuves de l'Asie prennent leur source au Tibet. On peut dire que le Tibet est le château d'eau de toute l'Asie ou presque. Quels souvenirs la mémoire collective chinoise garde-t-elle des échanges culturels sino-indiens ? Le monde chinois et le monde indien ont été pendant très longtemps interconnectés. Ils le sont toujours fondamentalement, avec des lieux qui sont des points de cristallisation de ces mémoires collectives. En effet, et j'en mentionne un certain nombre dans ce livre, par exemple, en Chine même, vous avez la Grande pagode de l'oie sauvage, qui est un lieu majeur de l'histoire du bouddhisme, puisque c'est à ses pieds que le moine bouddhiste Xuanzang, de retour de l'Inde, a créé l'une des premières écoles de traductologie de textes d'abord écrits en langue indo-européenne, donc en sanskrit, vers le chinois. Ce lieu, précisément la Grande pagode de l'oie sauvage à Xi'an, ancienne capitale impériale de la Chine, a été, à partir de 2014, choisi par les autorités chinoises comme lieu de visite pour le chef de l'État indien, Narendra Modi. Mais depuis lors, pratiquement tous les chefs d'État étrangers s'y rendent. Alors ça, c'est assez intéressant aussi d'un point de vue de l'histoire du protocole communiste chinois. Jusqu'alors, on privilégiait la visite de la Grande Muraille. Et à partir de 2014, on privilégie un lieu de mémoire qui se veut davantage consensuel, davantage ouvert sur le monde. Et pas n'importe quel monde, au vu justement de la géographie chinoise, à l'ouest de la Chine, l'Occident de la Chine. Donc, évidemment, ça a du sens. Et réciproquement, les Indiens ont choisi par exemple le temple de Mahabalipuram, qui est un lieu majeur lié à la personnalité de Bodhidharma, mieux connu en Chine sous le nom de Damo, qui a lui aussi fait le lien entre les deux mondes. Outre le Tibet, quels sont les principaux contentieux qui opposent l'Inde et la Chine aujourd'hui ? Avec l'avènement du régime communiste en Chine et l'invasion par l'armée chinoise des hauts plateaux tibétains, eh bien, pour la première fois de leur histoire, la Chine va devenir la voisine de l'Inde, ce qui n'était pas le cas jusqu'à présent. Et donc, à partir des années 1950, la partie indienne affirme la légitimité historique des tracés frontaliers qui avaient été décidés d'ailleurs par les Britanniques, la ligne Durand, la ligne McMahon, etc. Bon, sauf que les Chinois n'ont jamais reconnu justement ces tracés frontaliers, non seulement à l'époque impériale, donc à la fin du XIXᵉ siècle, sous la dynastie des Qing, mais non plus à l'époque républicaine et encore moins à l'époque actuelle, celle de la République populaire de Chine. Donc il y a un contentieux très important sur 3 800 kilomètres de frontière commune, ce qui est tout à fait considérable. Sans oublier des contentieux territoriaux, donc des disputes territoriales. L'Aksai Chin, par exemple, qui se trouve dans le prolongement du Ladakh, a été purement et simplement annexé par l'armée chinoise en 1962, au grand dam évidemment de l'Inde. New Delhi, quant à elle, revendique évidemment la restitution de ce territoire. La Chine, pour sa part, revendique la restitution de l'Arunachal Pradesh, situé dans le prolongement du Tibet donc. Il y a un passif très, très important qui présage du pire pour l'avenir. Cet avenir est peut-être plus proche qu'on ne le pense. Croyez-vous que la question de la succession du Dalaï Lama, qui va se poser bientôt, pourrait voir une crise grave éclater entre les deux pays ? Généralement, la question du Dalaï Lama est déconsidérée en Occident. On imagine que c'est peu important. Or pour nombre de peuples, qu'ils soient hindouistes, bouddhistes, le Dalaï Lama est considéré comme un dieu vivant. Donc, la question de sa succession, si l'on traduit cela en langage politique, va de toute évidence provoquer une crise, avec probablement une velléité tantôt indienne, tantôt chinoise, d'instrumentaliser chacune à son profit cette succession. Et le Dalaï Lama, il faut le rappeler, généralement, on n'a pas connaissance de ce fait qui est capital, est considéré aussi comme le chef spirituel des Mongols, par exemple. Donc on est très loin du monde tibétain et du monde indien a priori. Mais donc en retour, cela signifie une affaire politique tout à fait considérable aux yeux de Pékin, bien sûr. La guerre des mondes est le sous-titre de votre ouvrage. Autrement dit, selon vous, une cohabitation pacifique entre les deux voisins demeure improbable dans l'état actuel de leurs relations ? Elle sera très difficile, ça c'est clair. On est totalement sorti de cette vision irénique du rapprochement entre les peuples. Hélas, on peut le déplorer, mais c'est la réalité. On est dans un ordre bismarckien, c'est-à-dire avec le rappel de la souveraineté des États, la défense de leurs intérêts, avec peut-être des configurations neuves qui ont très certainement traversé l'esprit des dirigeants. On pense notamment à un rapprochement « Chine, Russie, Inde » qui n'est pas un projet totalement farfelu, parce que la Russie reste encore la matrice idéologique d'une grande partie de l'élite indienne, mais aussi de l'élite chinoise. Cette tripolarité me paraît invraisemblable, mais néanmoins, on y pense, c'est tout à fait évident. Et donc clairement, vous avez là tout simplement les trois quarts du monde ou presque, qui sont représentés à travers cette tripolarité, qui feraient idéalement contrepoids, évidemment, à l'Occident. En tout cas, on ne va pas du tout dans le sens d'un apaisement des relations, bien au contraire, hélas ! À lire aussiInde-Chine: «La volonté de normalisation n'est pas née de l'humiliation infligée par Trump avec ses tarifs douaniers»

Éminent spécialiste de l'histoire politique et culturelle de la Chine contemporaine, Emmanuel Lincot est l'auteur de plusieurs ouvrages sur la Chine et ses rapports compliqués avec sa périphérie. Dans son nouvel essai Chine-Inde : La guerre des mondes, qu'il vient de publier aux éditions du Cerf, il analyse les rivalités géopolitiques croissantes qui opposent les deux géants d'Asie qui se font face, sur fond d'échanges et d'influences réciproques plurimillénaires. RFI : Emmanuel Lincot, vous êtes sinologue de formation. Comment est né votre intérêt pour l'Inde ? Emmanuel Lincot : L'Inde, moi, je l'ai rencontrée finalement sur le tard, par des voies de détours, puisque mes précédents travaux, durant ces dernières années, ont porté sur la Chine et ses périphéries, et notamment la Chine et le monde musulman, en particulier la Chine et l'Asie centrale. Et quand on s'intéresse à l'Asie centrale, on est amené naturellement, pour ne pas dire culturellement, à l'Inde. Tout simplement parce que l'une des grandes dynasties indiennes, les Moghols, a été fondée par Babur, qui était originaire de l'est de l'actuel Ouzbékistan, de la vallée du Ferghana. Donc, de fil en aiguille, évidemment, on est amené à se rencontrer d'une manière ou d'une autre. Chine-Inde : La guerre des mondes, c'est le titre de votre ouvrage. Comment faut-il interpréter le trait d'union qui sépare les noms des deux pays sur la couverture ? Pour le choix du titre, je n'y suis absolument pour rien. C'est mon éditeur, Jean-François Colosimo, que je salue d'ailleurs, qui a trouvé la bonne formule. Ce trait d'union, que vous soulignez, peut désigner à la fois des velléités sur le temps long de rapprochement entre deux grandes aires de civilisation et en même temps une séparation. Pour filer un peu la métaphore, on pourrait dire que ce trait d'union peut apparaître véritablement comme un mur, comme un barrage, celui de l'Himalaya en particulier, qui sépare ces deux énormes masses continentales. Et ce titre est suffisamment vaste et vague, effectivement, pour aborder des questions de géopolitique, mais aussi et surtout des questions liées à l'histoire culturelle. Bref, comment se représente-t-on l'Inde depuis la Chine sur la longue durée et réciproquement ? Et là, ça devient absolument fascinant parce qu'on s'intéresse aux lieux de mémoire, notamment aux monastères qui constituent véritablement un maillage et autant de fils d'Ariane reliant l'Inde à la Chine par le biais du Tibet, région majeure. Je pense aussi à de grandes figures intellectuelles telles que Salman Rushdie, Tagore, Gao Xingjian et bien d'autres encore. Quels ont été les moments forts de cette histoire culturelle entre la Chine et l'Inde ? Ça commence grosso modo avec l'émergence des routes de la soie qui furent des points de contact, des voies de passage. Quant au bouddhisme, ce fut un processus au très long cours. La disparition du Bouddha se situe au VIᵉ siècle avant notre ère, et il faut attendre officiellement le IIᵉ siècle de notre ère, c'est-à-dire huit siècles plus tard, pour que le bouddhisme fasse enfin son entrée officielle dans l'espace chinois. Puis, il va y avoir un fait géopolitique majeur qui survient au Moyen Âge : ce sont les invasions turco-musulmanes qui vont arrêter assez brusquement, justement, ces échanges spirituels et artistiques, mais momentanément, je dirais, parce que le lieu conservatoire de ces échanges, qui va réinterpréter le bouddhisme d'une manière tout à fait particulière, en insufflant une autre dimension spirituelle, c'est le Tibet précisément. Et le Tibet, géographiquement, il est au point d'articulation dans la région de l'Himalaya, entre le monde chinois et le monde indien précisément. Le Tibet – c'est l'une des thèses de ce livre – va très certainement redevenir un point majeur, sinon de confrontation, tout au moins d'échange d'une manière ou d'une autre, au vu de l'importance de cette région, reconnue par Pékin notamment. Le centre de gravité de l'Asie risque très certainement de se déplacer vers cette région où les enjeux sont majeurs. Sur le plan minier par exemple. On pense à l'exploitation du lithium, si important pour la fabrication de nos voitures électriques. Le Tibet est central aussi en matière de ressources en eau. Pratiquement tous les grands fleuves de l'Asie prennent leur source au Tibet. On peut dire que le Tibet est le château d'eau de toute l'Asie ou presque. Quels souvenirs la mémoire collective chinoise garde-t-elle des échanges culturels sino-indiens ? Le monde chinois et le monde indien ont été pendant très longtemps interconnectés. Ils le sont toujours fondamentalement, avec des lieux qui sont des points de cristallisation de ces mémoires collectives. En effet, et j'en mentionne un certain nombre dans ce livre, par exemple, en Chine même, vous avez la Grande pagode de l'oie sauvage, qui est un lieu majeur de l'histoire du bouddhisme, puisque c'est à ses pieds que le moine bouddhiste Xuanzang, de retour de l'Inde, a créé l'une des premières écoles de traductologie de textes d'abord écrits en langue indo-européenne, donc en sanskrit, vers le chinois. Ce lieu, précisément la Grande pagode de l'oie sauvage à Xi'an, ancienne capitale impériale de la Chine, a été, à partir de 2014, choisi par les autorités chinoises comme lieu de visite pour le chef de l'État indien, Narendra Modi. Mais depuis lors, pratiquement tous les chefs d'État étrangers s'y rendent. Alors ça, c'est assez intéressant aussi d'un point de vue de l'histoire du protocole communiste chinois. Jusqu'alors, on privilégiait la visite de la Grande Muraille. Et à partir de 2014, on privilégie un lieu de mémoire qui se veut davantage consensuel, davantage ouvert sur le monde. Et pas n'importe quel monde, au vu justement de la géographie chinoise, à l'ouest de la Chine, l'Occident de la Chine. Donc, évidemment, ça a du sens. Et réciproquement, les Indiens ont choisi par exemple le temple de Mahabalipuram, qui est un lieu majeur lié à la personnalité de Bodhidharma, mieux connu en Chine sous le nom de Damo, qui a lui aussi fait le lien entre les deux mondes. Outre le Tibet, quels sont les principaux contentieux qui opposent l'Inde et la Chine aujourd'hui ? Avec l'avènement du régime communiste en Chine et l'invasion par l'armée chinoise des hauts plateaux tibétains, eh bien, pour la première fois de leur histoire, la Chine va devenir la voisine de l'Inde, ce qui n'était pas le cas jusqu'à présent. Et donc, à partir des années 1950, la partie indienne affirme la légitimité historique des tracés frontaliers qui avaient été décidés d'ailleurs par les Britanniques, la ligne Durand, la ligne McMahon, etc. Bon, sauf que les Chinois n'ont jamais reconnu justement ces tracés frontaliers, non seulement à l'époque impériale, donc à la fin du XIXᵉ siècle, sous la dynastie des Qing, mais non plus à l'époque républicaine et encore moins à l'époque actuelle, celle de la République populaire de Chine. Donc il y a un contentieux très important sur 3 800 kilomètres de frontière commune, ce qui est tout à fait considérable. Sans oublier des contentieux territoriaux, donc des disputes territoriales. L'Aksai Chin, par exemple, qui se trouve dans le prolongement du Ladakh, a été purement et simplement annexé par l'armée chinoise en 1962, au grand dam évidemment de l'Inde. New Delhi, quant à elle, revendique évidemment la restitution de ce territoire. La Chine, pour sa part, revendique la restitution de l'Arunachal Pradesh, situé dans le prolongement du Tibet donc. Il y a un passif très, très important qui présage du pire pour l'avenir. Cet avenir est peut-être plus proche qu'on ne le pense. Croyez-vous que la question de la succession du Dalaï Lama, qui va se poser bientôt, pourrait voir une crise grave éclater entre les deux pays ? Généralement, la question du Dalaï Lama est déconsidérée en Occident. On imagine que c'est peu important. Or pour nombre de peuples, qu'ils soient hindouistes, bouddhistes, le Dalaï Lama est considéré comme un dieu vivant. Donc, la question de sa succession, si l'on traduit cela en langage politique, va de toute évidence provoquer une crise, avec probablement une velléité tantôt indienne, tantôt chinoise, d'instrumentaliser chacune à son profit cette succession. Et le Dalaï Lama, il faut le rappeler, généralement, on n'a pas connaissance de ce fait qui est capital, est considéré aussi comme le chef spirituel des Mongols, par exemple. Donc on est très loin du monde tibétain et du monde indien a priori. Mais donc en retour, cela signifie une affaire politique tout à fait considérable aux yeux de Pékin, bien sûr. La guerre des mondes est le sous-titre de votre ouvrage. Autrement dit, selon vous, une cohabitation pacifique entre les deux voisins demeure improbable dans l'état actuel de leurs relations ? Elle sera très difficile, ça c'est clair. On est totalement sorti de cette vision irénique du rapprochement entre les peuples. Hélas, on peut le déplorer, mais c'est la réalité. On est dans un ordre bismarckien, c'est-à-dire avec le rappel de la souveraineté des États, la défense de leurs intérêts, avec peut-être des configurations neuves qui ont très certainement traversé l'esprit des dirigeants. On pense notamment à un rapprochement « Chine, Russie, Inde » qui n'est pas un projet totalement farfelu, parce que la Russie reste encore la matrice idéologique d'une grande partie de l'élite indienne, mais aussi de l'élite chinoise. Cette tripolarité me paraît invraisemblable, mais néanmoins, on y pense, c'est tout à fait évident. Et donc clairement, vous avez là tout simplement les trois quarts du monde ou presque, qui sont représentés à travers cette tripolarité, qui feraient idéalement contrepoids, évidemment, à l'Occident. En tout cas, on ne va pas du tout dans le sens d'un apaisement des relations, bien au contraire, hélas ! À lire aussiInde-Chine: «La volonté de normalisation n'est pas née de l'humiliation infligée par Trump avec ses tarifs douaniers»

Bright on Buddhism - Episode 140 - Who is Bodhidharma? What is his significance to East Asian Buddhism? What are some legends about him?Resources: charya, Raghu (2017), Shanon, Sidharth (ed.), Bodhidharma Retold – A Journey from Sailum to Shaolin, New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-4152-9Broughton, Jeffrey L. (1999), The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-21972-4Buswell, Robert E., ed. (2004), Encyclopedia of Buddhism, vol. 1, Macmillan, ISBN 0-02-865718-7Cole, Alan (2009), Fathering Your Father: The Zen of Fabrication in Tang Buddhism, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-25485-5Dumoulin, Heinrich; Heisig, James; Knitter, Paul F. (2005). Zen Buddhism: India and China. World Wisdom, Inc. ISBN 978-0-941532-89-1.Faure, Bernard (1986), "Bodhidharma as Textual and Religious Paradigm", History of Religions, 25 (3): 187–198, doi:10.1086/463039, S2CID 145809479, archived from the original on 2007-09-28, retrieved 2007-02-13Ferguson, Andrew (2000), Zen's Chinese Heritage: The Masters and their Teachings, Somerville: Wisdom Publications, ISBN 0-86171-163-7Garfinkel, Perry (2006), Buddha or Bust, Harmony Books, ISBN 978-1-4000-8217-9Henning, Stanley (1994), "Ignorance, Legend and Taijiquan" (PDF), Journal of the Chenstyle Taijiquan Research Association of Hawaii, 2 (3): 1–7, archived from the original on 2011-02-23, retrieved 2019-10-19Henning, Stan; Green, Tom (2001), "Folklore in the Martial Arts", in Green, Thomas A. (ed.), Martial Arts of the World: An Encyclopedia, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIOJorgensen, John (2000), "Bodhidharma", in Johnston, William M. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Monasticism: A-L, Taylor & FrancisKambe, Tstuomu (2012), Bodhidharma. A collection of stories from Chinese literature (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-11-06, retrieved 2011-11-23McRae, John R. (2000), "The Antecedents of Encounter Dialogue in Chinese Ch'an Buddhism", in Heine, Steven; Wright, Dale S. (eds.), The Kōan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism, Oxford University Press, archived from the original on 2012-07-25, retrieved 2006-11-30.McRae, John R. (2003), Seeing Through Zen. Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism, The University Press Group Ltd, ISBN 978-0-520-23798-8McRae, John R. (2004), Seeing through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism, University of California PressPine, Red, ed. (1989), The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma: A Bilingual Edition, New York: North Point Press, ISBN 0-86547-399-4Pine, Red, ed. (2009), The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ISBN 978-0-86547-399-7Sekida, Katsuki (1996). Two Zen Classics. Mumonkan, The Gateless Gate. Hekiganroku, The Blue Cliff Records. Translated with commentaries by Katsuki Sekida. New York / Tokyo: Weatherhill.Shahar, Meir (2008). The Shaolin Monastery: history, religion, and the Chinese martial arts. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-3110-3.Sutton, Florin Giripescu (1991), Existence and Enlightenment in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra: A Study in the Ontology and Epistemology of the Yogācāra School of Mahāyāna Buddhism, Albany: State University of New York Press, ISBN 0-7914-0172-3.Williams, Paul (1989), Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations, Psychology Press, ISBN 0-415-02537-0_________________________________If you like our show and would like to support us, we encourage you to give your money or resources to a worthy cause. We can get through this. Our strongest weapon is solidarity. Stay strong and help where you can. Thank you.Do you have a question about Buddhism that you'd like us to discuss? Let us know by emailing us at Bright.On.Buddhism@gmail.com.Credits:Nick Bright: Script, Cover Art, Music, Voice of Hearer, Co-HostProven Paradox: Editing, mixing and mastering, social media, Voice of Hermit, Co-Host

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

Given by Gengyoko Tim Wicks at City Center on May 2nd, 2026 The talk discusses the significance of the Platform Sutra in Zen practice, highlighting its role in the exploration of sudden versus gradual enlightenment and the inherent purity of the mind. The discussion also emphasizes the historical continuity of Zen teachings through the teacher-student lineage, notably the transmission from Bodhidharma to his disciple Huike, and the subsequent teachings encapsulated in the Platform Sutra during the Tang Dynasty. The talk underscores the importance of direct experience and mindfulness in daily activities as a means to realize liberation from suffering.Platform Sutra: Explores sudden vs. gradual enlightenment, emphasizing the inherent purity of the mind, and the unity of all things.Lankavatara Sutra: Referred to as the mind-only sutra, it discusses the manifestation of all phenomena from the mind and relates to the central Buddhist theme of transforming suffering through mindfulness.Dhammapada: An early Buddhist text illustrating the precedence and influence of the mind on lived experience and suffering.Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki: Explores the importance of having a beginner's mind, which allows for many possibilities, as opposed to an expert's mind, which is more limited.Lineage of Bodhidharma: Chronicles the teacher-student relationship which maintains the Zen tradition, beginning with Bodhidharma as the first ancestor bringing Chan (Zen) to China.Koans: Referenced to illustrate important Zen teachings, such as the dialogue between Huike and Bodhidharma about pacifying the mind.

Welcome to another installment of my Dharma Byte column and UnMind podcast. We have initiated a Substack posting of the unexpurgated reference texts for this series, based on the manuscript for future publication as a book, titled: "Speaking with One (Zen) Voice — 25 Centuries of Buddha-Dharma: 3 Countries of Origin; 9 Dharma Masters; 2 Dozen Teachings — with Commentary by an American Zen Elder" In reviewing the written record of Zen Buddhism spanning some two-and-a-half millennia — from Shakyamuni Buddha in India, through the Chinese transmission legendarily initiated by Bodhidharma, to Japan through Dogen Zenji in the 13th Century, and finally to America through Matsuoka-roshi in the 20th Century — the main thesis of the book is that all these great masters and geniuses of Zen were speaking with one voice, so to say: transmitting the same truth — that is, pointing directly at the nondual reality — through differing languages and cultural idioms. Our mission in propagating Zen today is of the same nature. To borrow a meme from end-user research, we must find a way to come to the same findings, conclusions, and recommendations that they did, following the method of Zen meditation, or zazen; and then find a way to translate — or better, paraphrase — the traditional teachings into the language and idiom of modernity, as well as the cultural context of our times. As my root teacher, Matsuoka-roshi would often say, "Zen is always contemporary." My efforts in publishing in this digital age are dedicated to this proposition. This month's commentary is on the sixth chapter of the book, the "Loving Kindness Sutra," or the Metta Suttain Sanskrit. This is one of the most ecumenical of the teachings attributed to Buddha, and the least controversial in terms of including jargon and ideas to which other religions and philosophies might take exception. Which is one reason it is commonly quoted in interfaith gatherings. But I hope to point out some of the subtler implications of the message. It is one that I have set to music, and a relatively brief passage, so I will quote it here in its entirety: This is what may be accomplished by the one who is wise; who seeks the good and has obtained peace: let one be strenuous upright and sincere; without pride; easily contented and joyous; let one not be submerged by the things of the world. Let one not take upon oneself the burden of riches; let one's senses be controlled; let one be wise but not puffed up; let one not desire great possessions even for one's family; let one do nothing that is mean or that the wise would reprove. May all beings be happy! May they be joyous and live in safety; all living beings whether weak or strong; in high middle or low realms of existence; small or great; visible or invisible; near or far; born or yet to be born.May all beings be happy! Let no one deceive another nor despise any being in any state; let none by anger or hatred wish harm to another. Even as a mother at the risk of her life watches over and protects her only child; so with a boundless mind should one cherish all living things; suffusing love over the entire world above below and all around without limit; so let one cultivate an infinite good will toward the whole world. Standing or walking; sitting or lying down; during all one's waking hourslet one cherish the thought that this way of living is the best in the world. Abandoning vain discussion; having a clear vision; freed from sense appetites; one who realizes the way will never again know rebirthIn the cycle of creation of suffering for ourselves or for others. The six subsections into which I have divided the text represent a shift in focus of the message. I refer you to the Substack postings for details. The first section sets the tone with a personal definition of wisdom, and suggested attitude adjustments, connected to the Eightfold Path dimensions of right speech, action and livelihood. The basic admonition is to avoid being submerged by the things of the world. So this is not a matter of accomplishment in the conventional sense, but its inverse: accomplishing liberation from entanglement, as expressed in my introductory haiku poem: What is Accomplished?“What is accomplished”is not a question in Zen —It is a statement. The basic question in Zen is not "Why?' — the religious and philosophical question — nor is it "How?" — the rationalist & scientific question (as I discuss in detail in "The Razorblade of Zen") — but "What?" - the concrete question, or "hard problem" of philosophy: What, exactly, is this reality in which we find ourselves? When and if we have insight (J. kensho) into this reality, we find that this is not a question but a fact — the "whatness" of existence is realized, though it is a deeper question, not an answer. This is captured by Master Dogen in his inimitable way with words: The boundary of realization is not distinct, for the realization itself comes forth with the actualization of buddha-dharma. Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. Its appearance is beyond your knowledge. Inconceivable, and not at all apparent; indistinguishable from ordinary perception. The second section turns to the societal level, challenging so-called "values" of the imperative to pursue wealth and all its trappings, pursuit of sense pleasure, and using family as the excuse for self-centered striving. In which case, one is more likely to do mean and unwise things. The third expresses an aspirational yearning for all beings to overcome the natural suffering of the world and to desist from creating unnecessary suffering — self-inflicted and inflicted upon others. The latter form of suffering can come to an end through this kind of realization; the former is built-in to existence, and so can be transcended. But, the very idea triggers incredulity, as captured in another haiku poem: May All Beings BeMay all be happy —What kind of cruel joke is that?This is Samsara! Buddha was not one to lead us down the primrose path wearing rose-colored glasses in a Panglossian "best-of-all-worlds" kind of fantasy. He meant that all beings should be happy with an "it is what it is" kind of mentality — take it or leave it, like it or not. The fourth stanza goes more deeply into the interconnectedness of all beings, or "inter-being" as Thich Nhat Hahn termed this universal truth. Starting with the blame game — our tendency toward the victim mentality, blaming others, wishing them ill-will, and seeking revenge. As the ancient Taoist saying reminds us, "when the blaming begins there is no end to the blame." Then putting forward the doctrine of the "three minds": the magnanimous and nurturing mind, synergistically yielding the joyous mind. Here we find a rare use of the word "love" in the Buddhist canon, in its universal form, called "agape." Let No One DeceiveWe should not deceive,harm or despise another —seems impossible! Again, the ideals of Buddhism as expressed in the Ten Grave Precepts are not meant to be easy to follow. Like the Eightfold Path, they describe Buddha's prescription for practice in daily life, a detailed exposition of the prerequisites for coming into harmony with the Great Way. Master Dogen extends this piece of advice to its logical conclusion: Furthermore all beingsin the Ten Directions and the Six Realmsincluding the three lower realmsat once obtain pure body and mindrealize the state of great emancipationand manifest the original face If and when we manage to make this transition from a self-centered worldview to one in which all beings may be happy, including ourselves, we return to the original state. In which case, one is liberated from even the notion that awakening is causally connected to zazen, as in the last haiku from the text: Standing or WalkingIt doesn't matterwhat posture you may adopt —the truth is the same. Obviously, from this perspective, being enlightened or not can have nothing directly to do with what physical posture you happen to be in at the moment of insight. Cherishing the thought that "this way of living is the best in the world" is not a violation of the Precept to not praise yourself at the expense of others, but rather an expression of the inner joy that accompanies the ordinary becoming the miraculous, on an intensely personal level. This kind of realization would obviate the need for a lot of discussion, as Master Sengcan reminds us in Hsinhsinming: "the more we talk and think about it the further astray we wander from the truth; stop talking and thinking and there is nothing you will not be able to know." Clarity arises from direct awareness preceding language. Buddha does not claim that, following this revelation of inmost consciousness, that one will never be reborn, only that any rebirth will not now be back into the same cycle of creation of intentional suffering, either for ourselves or others. May all beings be happy — rebirth or not. There can be nothing wrong with birth, or death, for that matter. So how could there be anything wrong with rebirth?

From my teenage years I had an unquenchable thirst to see beyond the veils that growing up had created in my mind. I tried different avenues of exploration, and soon found my spiritual home in the Zen tradition. After graduating from college, I went straight to Japan and became a Zen monk at the Bukkoku-ji monastery. For over a dozen years I practiced in the monastic context, mostly in Japan and Korea, living a life dedicated fully to this investigation, going through an awakening process, and deepening my realization and embodiment. Later I also explored approaches of other traditions and followed several secular non-traditional teachers. I have spent about 4 years total in silent meditation retreats, and have worked directly in the retreat setting and one-on-one with teachers such as my root monastic teacher, Tangen Harada Roshi, as well as with Jakusho Kwong Roshi, Shodo Harada Roshi, Wu Bong Sunim, Adyashanti and Angelo Dilullo.Even though the years of meditation and the simplicity of monastic life had a powerful effect, most important on my path were three breakthroughs at age 23, 30 and 37, each stripping down a different layer of illusion and revealing bare truth, without any sense of separation, or any sense of personal nor universal “self.” I have also explored and continue to explore various approaches of somatic work to aid embodiment and the uprooting of habitual tendencies, as I consider myself, and all human beings, a work in progress.Following my monastic Dharma grandfather (Daiun Harada Roshi)'s example, I vowed to spend all of my twenties and thirties only on my own practice, deepening and embodiment. Now in my forties, I make myself available as a resource to those who seek support in their own process of finding freedom from self-created suffering. Despite my love of the monastic life and the Zen tradition, I have decided to share outside of the confines of those systems. I stay true, however, to the essence and marrow of Zen as defined by Bodhidharma, the Indian monk considered the founder of what we now know as Zen:“Transmission outside of scripturesNot dependent upon words and phrasesDirectly pointing to each person's mindSee your nature – become a buddha”Feel free to reach out if you feel so inclined.May all beings find liberation!

recorded 12.10.2025

In this month's episode, we look into what is probably the earliest Ch'an writing, attributed with a certain amount of confidence, directly to master Bodhidharma. This is the "Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices". For more information on these talks and how to attend them live, please visit here »

In this episode, Kisei Sensei explores Koan 25, Nyozin's Pale Moon of Dawn, and Koan 33, Bodhidharma's Flesh, examining how Zen teaching passes through time, poetry, and the body. She reflects on Chyono's poem about the pale moon and the bucket, showing how our sense of self can be patched together and then fall away in practice. Drawing connections to Bodhidharma's transmission to his students, she emphasizes how awakening is both a lived, embodied experience and a study of ancestral teachings. Listeners are invited to reflect on the moon, their own practice, and the questions of body, awakening, and interconnection that these koans present.This talk was given during Kisei's online Tuesday night program. ★ Support this podcast ★

There's an obvious and vital reason why we humans are so attached to our convictions, and the evidence for this attachment is written all over our history, from the earliest written records to this morning's edition of whatever news media we happen to be consuming now. It is also is the subject of the very first chapter of the very first published koan collection. Referring to the exchange between Emperor Wu of Liang and the great master Bodhidharma in the aforementioned chapter, Anshi Zachary Smith develops a perspective, informed by zen teachings, on knowing and not-knowing.

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

Rev. Enya Sapp leads a retreat on the Lankavatara Sutra in August 2025. This sutra is one of the most important Zen texts and also one of the most obscure. Legend has it that Bodhidharma handed this text to his disciples saying, "this is all you need". However its profound teaching is often abandoned for other texts which feel more accessible to practitioners. Rev. Enya seeks to help us persevere and find success with the Lankavatara. She encourages us to accept the 'cup of tea' that is the Lankavatara Sutra, and most importantly, to DRINK the tea.YouTube: N/ATwitter/X: @shastaabbey 

Rev. Enya Sapp leads a retreat on the Lankavatara Sutra in August 2025. This sutra is one of the most important Zen texts and also one of the most obscure. Legend has it that Bodhidharma handed this text to his disciples saying, "this is all you need". However its profound teaching is often abandoned for other texts which feel more accessible to practitioners. Rev. Enya seeks to help us persevere and find success with the Lankavatara. She encourages us to accept the 'cup of tea' that is the Lankavatara Sutra, and most importantly, to DRINK the tea.YouTube: N/ATwitter/X: @shastaabbey 

Rev. Enya Sapp leads a retreat on the Lankavatara Sutra in August 2025. This sutra is one of the most important Zen texts and also one of the most obscure. Legend has it that Bodhidharma handed this text to his disciples saying, "this is all you need". However its profound teaching is often abandoned for other texts which feel more accessible to practitioners. Rev. Enya seeks to help us persevere and find success with the Lankavatara. She encourages us to accept the 'cup of tea' that is the Lankavatara Sutra, and most importantly, to DRINK the tea.YouTube: https://youtu.be/b0EfN8zDV3UTwitter/X: @shastaabbey 

Rev. Enya Sapp leads a retreat on the Lankavatara Sutra in August 2025. This sutra is one of the most important Zen texts and also one of the most obscure. Legend has it that Bodhidharma handed this text to his disciples saying, "this is all you need". However its profound teaching is often abandoned for other texts which feel more accessible to practitioners. Rev. Enya seeks to help us persevere and find success with the Lankavatara. She encourages us to accept the 'cup of tea' that is the Lankavatara Sutra, and most importantly, to DRINK the tea.YouTube: https://youtu.be/Pl2SvvZeeRwTwitter/X: @shastaabbey 

Rev. Enya Sapp leads a retreat on the Lankavatara Sutra in August 2025. This sutra is one of the most important Zen texts and also one of the most obscure. Legend has it that Bodhidharma handed this text to his disciples saying, "this is all you need". However its profound teaching is often abandoned for other texts which feel more accessible to practitioners. Rev. Enya seeks to help us persevere and find success with the Lankavatara. She encourages us to accept the 'cup of tea' that is the Lankavatara Sutra, and most importantly, to DRINK the tea.YouTube: https://youtu.be/ajOOm9yR6TgTwitter/X: @shastaabbey 

Rev. Enya Sapp leads a retreat on the Lankavatara Sutra in August 2025. This sutra is one of the most important Zen texts and also one of the most obscure. Legend has it that Bodhidharma handed this text to his disciples saying, "this is all you need". However its profound teaching is often abandoned for other texts which feel more accessible to practitioners. Rev. Enya seeks to help us persevere and find success with the Lankavatara. She encourages us to accept the 'cup of tea' that is the Lankavatara Sutra, and most importantly, to DRINK the tea.YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZvnvSOOk4jgTwitter/X: @shastaabbey 

Rev. Enya Sapp leads a retreat on the Lankavatara Sutra in August 2025. This sutra is one of the most important Zen texts and also one of the most obscure. Legend has it that Bodhidharma handed this text to his disciples saying, "this is all you need". However its profound teaching is often abandoned for other texts which feel more accessible to practitioners. Rev. Enya seeks to help us persevere and find success with the Lankavatara. She encourages us to accept the 'cup of tea' that is the Lankavatara Sutra, and most importantly, to DRINK the tea.YouTube: https://youtu.be/2fgCa9_OTuETwitter/X: @shastaabbey 

Send us a textEmail Stephan and Adam at letterstotheskypodcast[at]gmail.com. We love to hear from you and hear your ideas for episode topics.Well, here we go again! Stephan keeps trying to lock Adam in the basement, but somehow he always escapes. Join the delightful duo as they navigate formalities and dive into the incredible origins of Zen. This episode unfolds the mind-blowing history of Bodhidharma, the first Zen Patriarch, who spent nine years staring at a wall (seriously, nine years!) and also helped shape Shaolin Kung Fu. The journey continues to Sengcan, the third patriarch, and the profound depth of the Hsin Hsin Ming. Stephan and Adam ponder the nuances of preferences, tension in existence, and how to naturally flow through life like a river. Is there any resistance in this moment? Well, let's find out together. Plus, discover meditative practices and brainwave science with a sprinkle of Adam's doctorly insight. Email Stephan and Adam at letterstotheskypodcast[at[gmail.comRam Dass reading the Hsin Hsin Ming: https://www.ramdass.org/ram-dass-reads-the-third-chinese-patriarch/Ziran (the natural, spontaneous way): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziran00:00 Introduction and Banter00:32 Starting the Episode01:13 Discussing the Third Zen Patriarch01:53 Origins of Zen and Bodhidharma04:10 Zen vs Tibetan Buddhism06:10 Bodhi Dharma's Teachings and Legacy08:41 The Profound Teachings of the Shin Shin Ming12:37 Exploring Preferences and Awareness15:58 The Role of Preferences in Enlightenment25:19 Naturalness and Spontaneity in Action27:10 Understanding Preferences and Misinterpretations27:31 Natural Actions and Harmony29:06 The Grind vs. Natural Flow32:11 Meditative Practices and Brainwaves36:16 Exploring Resistance and Allowing38:40 The Metaphor of Layers45:26 Final ThoughtsSupport the showCopyright 2025 by Letters to the Sky

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

In this third installment of my "DharmaByte" column and "UnMind" podcast, exploring the general subject of Zen in our Times, we turn to the last of three suggested topics from Hokai Jeff Harper, Halifax-based publisher of the STO newsletter: • To everything there is a season• The wax and wane of householder zazen practice• What we are feeling right now IS impermanence manifesting itself Hokai somehow managed, perhaps unintentionally, to progressively home in on the central experience of Zen on three levels. Starting with the most universal sphere of our experience on Earth, the seasonality that is an effect of orbiting the sun for approximately 365 rotations of the planet; then down to the social sphere of our practice as householders; and finally into the realm of the intimate, up-close-and-personal sphere of consciousness itself. What I call the "singularity of Zen." As I mentioned in the last segment, we often seem to labor under a misconception that because we follow the lifestyle of householders, we cannot hope to penetrate to the fundamental meaning of the teachings of Buddhism. But Hokai's assertion puts the lie to this assumption. If the Dharma is simply pointing at the present reality that we are experiencing, lifestyle choices cannot possibly have a determinative or dispositive, causal relationship in terms of coming to realization of our buddha mind. What we are feeling now is impermanence manifesting itself, to quote the above quote. Not only what we are feeling now, but what we are seeing and hearing, smelling and tasting, as well as what we are thinking. Or reading, if you are reading this rather than listening to the podcast version. You might quibble with Hokai's construction - "impermanence manifesting itself" - as it suggests that "impermanence" is some sort of independent force capable of manifesting itself, rather than an attribute of the changing nature of the universe. But let's not let mere semantics distract from the message. We are witnessing the "endless, unremitting, unnamable, unthinkable buddha-dharma," as Master Dogen expressed it; and we bear witness to IT mainly through the dynamic of change, or impermanence. Otherwise, we would not register seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, or even thinking, at all. If nothing were changing, there could be no awareness of it. As I mentioned in the segment on householder practice, renunciation in Zen is a matter of seeing through the delusional aspect of living, not a matter of lifestyle. Discernment in Zen is like Sri Ramakrishna's analogy that, like a swan, we need to be able to drink milk mixed with water, and drink only the milk. Or as Master Tozan analogized: A silver bowl filled with snow A heron hidden in the moonTaken as similar, they are not the sameNot distinguished, their places are known So this refined awareness of the nondual nature of reality, termed "emptiness," as opposed to "form" or appearance, is so close to ordinary reality, or perceptual duality, that it is nearly indistinguishable — like white snow in a silver bowl, or a white heron and the full moon — white on white. Buddha taught that the discriminating mind imposes a "false stillness" on reality, tamping down the uninhibited flow of sensory data to a dull roar. This enables us to maintain our balance and negotiate a dynamic, 4-dimensional spacetime environment.This is part of the natural process of "individuation" that sets in once we are born, and culminates in the conception of the independent self, which is a fundamental category error, according to Buddhism. The original alienation that is our fall from grace. It is not that Buddhism claims there is no self whatever. There is a constructed self, and there is a true self, according to this model. The prevalent perception of separation as an incarnated being is not entirely delusional. But it is incomplete — reification of a separate self ignores the rest of the story, the fact that all beings are interconnected, co-arisen and co-dependent. The Twelvefold Chain of Interdependent Arising, attributed to Shakyamuni, parses this coming-of-age story, slicing and dicing stages of development finely, like an Italian chef shaving garlic with a razorblade. This is similar to Master Dogen's fine discernment of reality — from a perspective uniting space, or existence, and time — as articulated in Uji—Being-Time, explored in some detail in a prior podcast. What he referred to as the "fine mind of Nirvana," or the "subtle mind of Nirvana." Master Sengcan, third Chinese patriarch after Bodhidharma and his successor Huike, points to something similar in Hsinhsinming—Trust in Mind: In this world of Suchness there is neither self nor other-than-selfTo come into harmony with this realityJust simply say when doubt arises: "not two"In this "not two" nothing is separate nothing is excludedNo matter when or where Enlightenment means entering this truthAnd this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or spaceIn it a single thought is ten thousand years Believing in the fundamental bifurcation of consciousness into self-and-other, body versus mind — the "Cartesian error" — is resolved in realizing that "you can't have one without the other," or as the more contemporary trope would have it, "both things can be true at the same time." "Neither-self-nor-other-than-self" indicates the True Self of Buddhism, undivided from the very beginning. "Not-two" is the mantra we conjure whenever any doubt about this arises. At the risk of repeating myself — with the caveat that these teachings bear repetition, especially in changing contexts — the last stanza returns us to the singularity of Zen: No matter when or whereEnlightenment means entering this truthAnd this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or spaceIn it a single thought is ten thousand years The last line of which Matsuoka-roshi would encapsulate as "The eternal moment." So it all comes down to this. Like a fish-trap, reality ensnares us in its wide reach, and as we pursue our own realization — which, after all, is, or should be, our birthright — we find the trap narrowing again and again, until there is no escape, no turning back; like the exhausted swimmer at the halfway point, it is just as far, and equally risky, to try to make it back safely to shore as it is to continue swimming to the island. If we persevere, finally finding ourselves on the "other shore," we can see clearly that we have been seeing things all wrong, all along. There never has been a separate self to embody, let alone to defend against all comers, let alone any existential annihilation. In the not-two nonduality of Zen's reality, it was all like a bad dream, one that we essentially made up — with a little help from our friends and family, of course, not to mention the entire world of benighted people who fear death and, consequently, life. This is not to insist that everyone else is wrong about everything, and that only I and my like-minded friends from the enchanted land of Zen have the inside track. In one sense, it must be true that everyone has a hunch about this — an inkling that something is missing — and that that something is worth knowing. Otherwise we would probably all commit mass suicide, in despair. Which is exactly what it looks like we are doing, with an assist from the stewards, elected or not, of our commonweal. Can anyone say "lemmings"? But Buddhism never seemed to show much concern about the survival of the species. Celibacy is the quickest way to bring down the curtain on humanity - simply not giving birth to the next generation. Of course, the coterie of those who abjure bearing children is not likely to ever encompass a majority of the population, so that kind of extinction is not going to happen. No, it is more likely that Mother Nature's balancing act will bring about the demise of humanity owing to our disruption of her sphere of influence, so carefully nurtured to bring the miracle of life to the planet in the first place, as the goddess Gaia: In Greek mythology, Gaia is the personification of the Earth and a primordial goddess, one of the first deities to emerge from Chaos. She is often referred to as Mother Earth and is considered the mother of all life. And life itself is "fleeting as an arrow" according to Buddha. What we are feeling in the present is this fleeting moment, our life passing before our very eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind in a vast network of frequencies in polyrhythmic synchrony. Our heartbeat is our metronome, the rise and fall of the breathing our connection to the thin atmospheric blanket embracing the earth. On a personal basis, there is no time to waste in foolish pursuits, as the sage Jianzhi Sengcan reminds us in Hsinhsinming: Waste no time in doubts and arguments that have nothing to do with this A century later, Master Sekito Kisen says it another way, in Sandokai: I respectfully urge you who study the Mysterydo not pass your days and nights in vain So Hokai does us a great service to remind us of the evanescence of spacetime in the personal realm, embedded in our social context as householders, surrounded by the world of Nature both nurturing and threatening us, finally floating in the constancy of the universal. Let Tozan Ryokai have the last word on it, after yet another century, from his Hokyo Zammai: Within causes and conditions time and season it is serene and illuminating
So minute it enters where there is no gap so vast it transcends dimensionA hairsbreadth deviation and you are out of tune It seems that all three of the great Ch'an masters are speaking with one voice, urging us to pay attention. There is not so much to their Buddhism after all, as one sage commented upon the occasion of his insight. So Hokai's assertion that what we are feeling right now IS impermanence manifesting itself is subject to Master Dogen's repeat comment: "All things are like this." Not only what we are feeling right now — but what we are seeing and hearing, smelling and tasting and yes, even what we are thinking right now — is, in one sense, impermanence. It is not only in front of your face, it is also behind your face, penetrating your hearing with no boundary, in and out through your nose and mouth (and other orifices), and enveloping your body outside and inside, clean and clear through your original mind. Tozan says, with stunning nonchalance, earlier in the poem: You are not IT — but in truth IT is you Buddha is attributed with saying something like — that there is impermanence means that there is permanence. And his followers were overjoyed to hear that. What made them so happy? Again recalling Hsinhsinming—Trust in Mind: Change appearing to occur in the empty world we call real —only because of our ignorance So the nondual version of this insight is that IT is both changing and staying the same at the same time. This should bring about a great sigh of relief in all who realize it.

 This Teisho was given by the Reverend Karen Do'on Weik Roshi at the Buddhist Temple of Toledo on March 20, 2024. In this talk Do'on Roshi finishes her discussion on the 41st case from the Mumonkan (aka The Gateless Gate) known as Bodhidharma Puts the Mind to Rest.   If you would like to learn more about the Buddhist Temple of Toledo or to make a donation in support of this podcast please visit buddhisttempleoftoledo.org.   Part of Reverand Do'on's Teisho on the Mumonkan series.

This Teisho was given by the Reverend Karen Do'on Weik Roshi at the Buddhist Temple of Toledo on March 13, 2024. In this talk Do'on Roshi discusses the 41st case from the Mumonkan (aka The Gateless Gate) known as Bodhidharma Puts the Mind to Rest.   If you would like to learn more about the Buddhist Temple of Toledo or to make a donation in support of this podcast please visit buddhisttempleoftoledo.org.   Part of Reverand Do'on's Teisho on the Mumonkan series.

As I mentioned in the last installment, when thinking about content for the next Dharma Byte or UnMind podcast, I turn to my collaborators for inspiration: Hokai Jeff Harper, publisher of the newsletter, and Shinjin Larry Little, producer of the podcast. Jeff responded to a recent call for suggested topics with: • To everything there is a season• The wax and wane of householder zazen practice• What we are feeling right now IS impermanence manifesting itself In the last episode I delved into the first of these three, the seeming seasonality of everything as a universal principle. We might take a moment to remind ourselves that seasonality is also considered natural, as the waxing and waning of the four seasons. And, while somewhat arbitrary as a concept, is considered causal in terms of the natural sciences of biology, botany, and even psychology — as in "seasonal affective disorder." Arbitrary in the sense that, as Master Dogen says, "You do not call winter the beginning of spring, nor summer the end of spring." Now that we have gotten off the planet, any middle-schooler knows that the root causes of the seasons is a universal phenomenon. Unless they are being home-schooled by a flat-earther, that is. In this segment we will take up the second, the waxing and waning of householder practice, moving the discussion to the social level. Which, of course, is part and parcel of our personal sphere of activity and influence. Whether Hokai meant to point out the usual periodic waxing and waning of our personal commitment to meditation in the context of the many distractions assailing your average householder; or a more societal angle on how householder engagement has grown and diminished over time through the various Eastern countries of origin, compared to its prevalence and intensity in the West modern times, I am not sure. I think it may be more instructive to consider the alternative — monastic practice — and how it colors our perspective on our own, personal options for pursuing the dharma in the midst of life. Zen householders often harbor a misconception that because we are householders — and not monastics — that we cannot hope to penetrate to the fundamental meaning of the teachings of Buddhism. This seems to be a widely shared meme in the Western culture, perhaps particularly in America. And it is based on a fundamental misconception — namely that the social sphere of Zen trumps the personal sphere —that you can tell a book by its cover, when it comes to Zen practice. But you can't. Because we interpret the history of Zen Buddhism as primarily monastic, from its inception in India and its transmission through China, Korea, Japan and the Far East, we presume that the approach of material renunciation — leaving the householder life for that of the mendicant monk, nun, or hermit, or wandering on pilgrimage — is the most effective way, the only way, of recovering our Original Nature, or Buddha Mind. While traditional prescriptions for practice definitely include divesting ourselves of our dependency upon, and predilection for, the pleasures and problems of our times, the renunciation recommended in Zen is not limited to merely rejecting and replacing one lifestyle for another. It is more a matter of seeing through the delusional aspect of any way of living. Including monasticism. This is true spiritual poverty. Master Dogen articulated four levels of renunciation that members of his monastic community were either able or unable to embrace, which I have discussed in more detail elsewhere. They range from the ability or inability to relinquish attachment to family, home, inheritance, et cetera, to the inability or ability to relinquish our own opinions and biases regarding our own reality, regardless of outer appearances. The latter — Dogen's highest level of renunciation — would apply equally to monastic or householder. So apparently the main difference between the two lifestyle choices is that the former is relatively simpler compared to the complexities of the latter. In terms of the ability to realize the truth of Buddhism, lifestyle is just another form of pomp and circumstance. If you find your practice — by which we usually mean meditation — is waxing and waning beyond your intentions and control, you might want to take a radical departure. Stop. Quit, with all the negative connotations that may have in our goal-oriented culture and society. Admit that you have failed, once again. Or rationalize that Zen may work for others, but it does not work for you. In doing so — in "not doing Zen" — you will confirm your bias, and prove to yourself that, like everything else you have tried in life, it just didn't get the job done. Zen did not live up to your expectations. Now that you have resolved that untidy business you can get on with your life. Good luck with that. It turns out that this kind of discernment, that Zen is something we started doing, so it is something we can stop doing, is a category error of the first degree. There actually is no such thing as "Zen." Zen is what we call this particular meditation sect of Buddhism, but like any other sect, it only exists as a construction of our societal mind. It is a learned thing that upon examination evaporates like a puff of smoke, or a cloud in the sky. The etymology of "Zen" is one example of this misinterpretation. As I have pointed out elsewhere, the term Zen is actually a misnomer. It is phonetic Japanese for Ch'an, which is phonetic Chinese for Dhyana, which is a traditional form of contemplative meditation that the Chinese pundits assumed Bodhidharma was demonstrating when he would abruptly turn his back on them, facing the mountain wall instead. But the great sage was not doing dhyana. He was not contemplating anything in particular. He was demonstrating what is referred to in Japanese as shikantaza, which according to Master AI, means: Shikantaza, often translated as "just sitting," is a foundational Zen practice that involves sitting in a quiet, meditative posture without focusing on any specific object or thought. It's about being present, aware, and simply experiencing the present moment. If even this barebones definition does not capture the implications of the term, we have no one to blame but an artificial intelligence summarizing who knows how many verbal references on the large language model on which it has been trained. Defined as: A large language model (LLM) is a type of artificial intelligence that can generate human-like text based on the context provided. LLMs are trained on vast amounts of text data and learn to predict the next word or sequence of words in a text, allowing them to perform tasks like natural language processing, machine translation, and content generation. So it has come to this. We are using artificial intelligence to define artificial intelligence. With such developments as AI adding to the present overload of distractions, threats, alternative career choices, endless learning curves, and entangling relationships at home, work and play that householders have on their plates today, we can be forgiven for developing some ambiguity around adding to the list, or continuing to follow, yet another demanding regimen: Zen. Again, category error. We are already practicing Zen, from the moment we are born — and even before we are born, in the traditional Buddhist view — whether we know it or not. Everybody else is likewise. "Zen" is what we call that fact. Zen is a word that points at something that is not a thing, and in fact does not exist as an isolate or instantiation of anything. It is "the whole catastrophe" to quote Zorba the Greek. If Bodhidharma was contemplating anything, it was everything, which beggars the concept of "contemplation." In closing, let me quote myself again, from my closing statement from the last segment: Next month we will take up the second suggestion, the waxing and waning of householder zazen practice. Been there, done that. "Been there, done that" is not exactly true. I never began Zen practice, it began me. And I will never quit, though it may appear to be so to the outside observer. Zen is not something we can do. It is not in the realm of doing. So we cannot stop doing it, either. We either do it poorly or do it relatively well, like most things in life. Zazen is not something we have to do; it is something we get to do. Zen cannot wax and wane; it only seems to in our imagination. Perversely, there is no choice in the matter. The worse it gets, the better it is. "The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences." Including a preference for what we

A talk by Travis Marsot. This talk was given on April 2nd, 2025.

By Vince Fakhoury HornToday, in The Jhāna Community, I want to center our exploration around the completion phase—also known as enlightenment.What is the relationship between enlightenment and jhāna? That's what we'll explore.The Goal of Vipassana JhānaIn Vipassana jhāna practice, the goal is insight—clearly seeing the way things are. This clear seeing leads to awakening, within the Buddhist frame.Trudy Goodman uses a beautiful metaphor for this, comparing the phases of insight to the phases of the moon:“Can we appreciate all the phases of the moon, all the stages of our life? Can we see past the patterns of perception that too often eclipse the wonder of being alive? Birth, growth, fullness, letting go, vanishing into the mysterious dark—these are the eternal cycles of life.”The completion phase, in this metaphor, is the full darkness of the moon: the vanishing.Describing the UnconditionedEarly Buddhist texts describe the apex of this phase—Nirvana—as a kind of vanishing. Bill Hamilton, Kenneth Folk's teacher, once said:“Nirvana is an experience of the unconditioned which defies any description. Any description of Nirvana is not a description of Nirvana.”There are no reference points. Concepts can't contain it. It's not a “thing.” It's a different kind of experience.Bodhidharma, founder of Zen, said:“When the mind reaches Nirvana, you don't see Nirvana because the mind is Nirvana.”Beyond Meditative StatesI remember talking with Kenneth Folk about how many meditation teachers end up teaching a state—a temporary condition—as the goal. But awakening is not about achieving and clinging to a special state.There are moments of direct contact with the unconditioned. But the next moment might involve answering the phone, cooking dinner, or helping someone. At first, these seem like separate domains. Eventually, they can be integrated.This practice is about learning to release identification with all states—even the expansive and blissful ones.Wanting to Be “Permanently Okay”It's understandable that we want to find a place where we can be permanently okay. That desire comes from a younger part of us—vulnerable and needing security.But the adult part of awakening is what frees us to be present for life as it is—even the messy, painful, inconvenient parts.Paradoxically, it's not what we thought we signed up for. We imagined transcendence. What we found was this—the real.The Journey Doesn't End HereHere's the good news: the journey doesn't end at the completion phase. Awakening is recursive. It loops, like the moon's phases.“To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion.”In early Buddhism, the highest achievement was to break out of saṃsāra. But transformation happens not by escaping, but by cycling with change.Philosopher John Vervaeke says:“Evolution is revolution with change.”If your cycles bring new learning, new understanding—that's evolution.The Big PictureThat's the bigger picture I love to teach. Meditation isn't about escaping life. It's about working with the natural cycles of our minds and lives—and transforming through them.And this isn't in contradiction to Nirvana. When the realization deepens, you see that every experience, every thought, every person is it.Even the thought, “There's somewhere else I should be”—that's it too.Embodying the MysterySo what's the point of all this state-jumping, deconstructing, and releasing?For me, part of the point is to embody the mystery.Reggie Ray writes in Touching Enlightenment:“To be awake, to be enlightened is to be fully and completely embodied… to be entirely present to who we are and to the journey of our own becoming… with no external observer waiting for something better.”That's the journey of vipassana jhāna. Nothing left out. Full intimacy with reality.Awakening Is CollectiveUltimately, awakening isn't a personal project. Everyone is on this journey—even if they'd never use those words.Martin Luther King Jr. wrote:“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”Awakening leads to the realization that we are in this together.Eventually, the idea of my awakening dissolves into our awakening.So Now What?So the question becomes:How can I show up fully for this moment—this body, this life, this karmic tangle of heartbreak and hope?That's the real practice.Mastering the Art of JhānaIf you found this article helpful, you may want to check out the community of practice it arose from… Get full access to Buddhist Geeks at www.buddhistgeeks.org/subscribe

ADZG 1238 ADZG Sunday Morning Dharma Talk by Shudo Paula Lazarz The post Emperor Wu Meets Bodhidharma Face-to-Face first appeared on Ancient Dragon Zen Gate.

This Dharma talk was given by Hogen, Roshi at Great Vow Zen Monastery during Sound Sesshin on March 15th, 2025. In this talk Hogen Roshi discusses the foundation of Sesshin, The Platform Sutra and Bodhidharma. ★ Support this podcast ★

Dharma talk by Eran Junryu Vardi Roshi of Eiryu-ji Zen Center in Wyckoff, NJ, USA on 3/16/2025.

Listen to the story of Bodhidharma, the blue-eyed monk who brought Zen to China, and his legendary feats - from crossing rivers on reeds to meditating until his legs fell off. Learn how his teachings evolved into modern Zen practices, and get practical guidance for starting your own meditation practice. Click here for Adventure Travel inspiration from our friends at Explore Worldwide. Don't Just Travel, Explore. [This description contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.] Uncanny Japan is author Thersa Matsuura. Check out her books including The Book of Japanese Folklore by clicking on the Amazon link.  If you'd like to help support the podcast and have a bedtime story read to you monthly, please visit Patreon. Discord: https://discord.gg/XdMZTzmyUb Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thersamatsuura Website: https://www.uncannyjapan.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UncannyJapan Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/uncannyjapan.bsky.social Mastodon: https://famichiki.jp/@UncannyJapan Twitter: https://twitter.com/UncannyJapan Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncannyjapan/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncannyjapan/ Books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Thersa-Matsuura/e/B002CWZ73Y/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1500180689&sr=8-1 Buy Me a Coffee (one-time contribution): https://buymeacoffee.com/uncannyjapan

Norman gives the thirteenth  talk to the Dharma Seminar on Dogen's Continuous Practice from Kaz Tanahashi''s translation of the Shobogenzo Fasciles 31a and 31b. In this talk Norman speaks on Bodhidharma. .Suggested donation: $7 https://bit.ly/donate-edz-online-teachings We cannot continue offering teachings online without it. Thank you! https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/edz.assets/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Dogens-Continuous-Practice-Talk-13-2024-Series-Bodhidharma.mp3

DOGEN ON ZAZENUpon returning to Japan from China in 1227, at the age of 27, Master Dogen composed the first draft of Fukanzazengi, the tract in which he outlines the principles of seated meditation, or zazen, that he had learned under the tutelage of Master Rujing. In one of the English translations, about two-thirds of the way through the text, he asks a question of the reader: Now that you know the most important thing in Buddhism, how can you be satisfied with the transient world? Our bodies are like dew on the grass and our lives like a flash of lightning, vanishing in a moment. At this point in the piece, he has said many things about the physical method of meditation, interwoven with suggestions of the philosophy, attitude adjustments and correctives to conventional wisdom that accompany the practice. So what he means to indicate as the most important thing is subject to speculation. This may reflect a translator's choice anomaly, a known issue in the art of interpreting ancient teachings. To home in on this most important thing more closely, let's look at a brief, pointed poem, “Zazenshin,” that Dogen paraphrased from a Chinese version. It means something like “Acupuncture Needle” or “Lancet” – a very sharp instrument – for or about zazen: Zazen-shin - Shohaku Okumura, trans. The essential-function of each buddha and the functioning-essence of each ancestor.
Being actualized within not-thinking.Being manifested within non-interacting.Being actualized within not-thinking, the actualization is by nature intimate.Being manifested within non-interacting, the manifestation is itself verification.The actualization that is by nature intimate never has defilement.
The manifestation that is by nature verification never has distinction between Absolute and Relative.The intimacy without defilement is dropping off without relying on anything.The verification beyond distinction between Absolute and Relative is making effort without aiming at it.The water is clear to the earth; a fish is swimming like a fish.
The sky is vast, extending to the heavens; a bird is flying like a bird. So from this we may take it that the most important thing has something to do with not thinking and non-interacting, and not distinguishing between the absolute and relative. It is pointing at something intimate, undefiled by conventional wisdom, and that has nothing to do with our reliance on common understanding, and goal-oriented efforts. To which we can only respond, “Hmmm. Thank you Dogen, for clearing that up.” MATSUOKA ON DOGENClearly, this message is about something beyond words, that language can only point at, if it is beyond thinking itself. Let's explore some more contemporary quotes from Matsuoka-roshi to see if we can zoom in on the meaning of these passages. O-Sensei simplified Dogen Zenji's instructions for his American students, condensing them into three discrete areas: posture, breath, and attention. The following are three expressions he would use frequently, addressing questions about zazen: Keep aiming at the perfect posture never imagining that you've achieved it You have to work your way through every bone in your body When your posture is approaching the stage of perfection, it will feel as if you are shoving your head against the ceiling The first, about aiming without achieving, makes Dogen's “making effort without aiming at it” a bit more concrete by narrowly defining “it” as the upright posture. This is in keeping with the Zen premise that the zazen posture is the full expression of enlightenment, not merely a means to the end of enlightenment. It also reminds us that there can be no separation of body and mind in Zen, nor, indeed, in reality. And that the natural process of Zen is open-ended, based on aspiration as opposed to expectation. The second indicates that this is going to be a steady, slow process on a visceral level, sitting “with muscle and bone,” as my senior dharma brother in Chicago, Kongo-roshi, titled one of his talks. There are a lot of bones in your body. And the bones, of course, are not separate from the skin, flesh, and marrow, the connective tissue, as Master Bodhidharma taught. “Working your way through” recalls the famous dictum from the poet Robert Frost, paraphrasing, “the only way out is through.” The third seems to contradict the first, when Sensei describes what he frequently referred to as the “sitting-mountain feeling” that eventually comes from zazen. We are to aim at it without concluding that we've achieved it, because “Zen goes deeper,” as he would often say. No matter how seemingly complete and transcendent our immediate experience, it is not the end of the process, an attitude adjustment first articulated by Buddha himself in the “Fifty False States” section of the Surangama Sutra. The main admonition is that, no matter what happens in your meditation, not to imagine that you are now completely enlightened. Even Buddha returned to meditation for the fifty years of his life following his profound insight. But this “shoving your head against the ceiling” sensation is something that I can personally attest to from my modest experience on the cushion. I suspect that when we pull back on the chin, stretching the back of our neck with strength, a specific detail of the posture emphasized by Matsuoka-roshi, it has the effect of shoving our skull against the scalp, which would then feel like the resistance of a solid, external surface like a ceiling. The entire body is a tension-compression structure, much like a camping tent, where the bones of the skeleton are the compression members under stress from the surrounding membrane of musculature, tendons and ligaments, like the canvas and ropes of the tent. HAKUIN'S GAS PEDALThe other end of the “tentpole” is the base of the spine, connecting to the coccyx, or tailbone. Hakuin Zenji, a famous Rinzai priest whose life span bridged the 17th and 18th centuries, from 1686 to1769, recommended that we push forward and down on the lower spine until we feel a bit of pain there. That sensation derives from stretching the hard tissue of the discs between the large lower vertebrae. Even more today than in his time, our posture tends to be c-shaped, sometimes referred to as a “cashew,” when we sit in the driver's seat of our vehicles on the expressway, or the chair at our desk. The natural position of the spine is an “S-shape” curve, bending the lower back in the opposite direction, like a cobra rising from the floor, dancing to the tune of the snake-charmer's flute. I call this Hakuin's gas pedal. Like the accelerator of your car or truck, if you keep your foot on it, pressing forward and down, the vehicle moves. If you let up on it, it slows to a stop. On the other hand, if you go pedal to the metal, it speeds out of control. The Middle Way again, in all its manifestations. So the most important thing, as regards the posture, at least, may be keeping these two pressure points in play while sitting. If you do so, you can't go far wrong in terms of sitting upright. Breathing and attention also come into the picture, but that may be a subject for another UnMind. Let me close this segment with a couple of aphorisms that have come to me in my practice. ME ON ZAZEN I do not claim to have the depth of insight and understanding of our ancestors, and recognize that context, while not determinative of Zen experience, certainly counts. What Buddha, Bodhidharma, the great ancestors in China, and Dogen himself managed to accomplish under relatively primitive conditions in no way compares to what we may expect to realize under relatively cushy but geometrically more complex circumstances. But as they did in their times we must do in ours — namely use what we know to inform our efforts in exploring what we do not know, and cannot know, in any ordinary sense. So, here, I want to introduce two terms that may have no counterpart in their language. PROPRIOCEPTION MEETS VERTIGOProprioception is a term from modern physiology, defined as: Perception or awareness of the position and movement of the body Vertigo is defined as: A sensation of whirling and loss of balance, associated particularly with looking down from a great height, or caused by disease affecting the inner ear or the vestibular nerve; giddiness. In terms of our experience in zazen, then, proprioception would be akin to samadhi, or at least its early stages, when, as Matsuoka-roshi said: When posture, breath, and attention all come together in a unified way, that is the real zazen. Now, if there is “real” zazen, it implies that there must be “unreal” or “fake” zazen, or the false impression that we are doing zazen when we are not, really. Samadhi is a jargon term that I hesitate to use, as it implies that I know what it means while suggesting that you probably do not. Which sets up the false dichotomy of “you and I,” “us and them,” the in-group cognoscenti versus the great unwashed. Sensei also pointed out, at the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago, paraphrasing, “When you become dizzy, concentrate on your knees.” And “When you get nauseous, concentrate on your forehead.” Or it may have been the other way around. The main point is that you probably will get dizzy, and you probably will get nauseous, in zazen. This brings up another coinage, for which I claim authorship: Let not the spiritual be the enemy of the practical I detect a vestigial strain of puritanism in the American culture that can infect our understanding and presentation of Zen, as a kind of belief system, a set of doctrines that one must subscribe to, in order to penetrate the inner sanctum of Zen's purported spiritual secrets. This is anathema to the real Zen, as I understand it. All of Master Dogen's instructions in Fukanzazengi are physical, not mental, as Carl Bielefeldt points out in his “Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation,” a wonderful, incisive line-by-line analysis of Dogen's two extant revisions compared to the Chinese original. So let's stay focused on the physical, and not get distracted by any woo-woo “spiritual.” If we continue sitting without expectation, implementing the two pressure points until we feel tMatsuoka-roshi's “sitting mountain feeling” of great stability — our head “pressed against the ceiling” — the body and mind will take us where we need to go. We trust our teachers' intent and wisdom, and we trust our Original Mind, as indicated in the title of Hsinhsinming, the earliest Ch'an poem chanted in Soto liturgy. If we sustain this posture — sitting still enough and straight enough for long enough — it will work its magic. Equilibrium will set in in the tension-compression system of muscle and bone of the body, leading to equipoise of the mind. Sustained for some time, the constancy of our proprioception will inevitably lead to vertigo — the flip side of solidity. “Mountains are always walking” — the planet is falling through space. There is “not even a toehold.” Emptiness is innately form, form innately emptiness. In the next segment of UnMind, we will put a cap on “Election Year Zen,” my tenth and final concluding commentary on the 2024 campaign, now that we know how it all turned out. But like a centipede, or millipede, there are surely many more shoes to drop.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM - 11/17/24 - Continuing with Bodhidharma's teachings on the "Two Entrances", dharma holder Gokan explores how “all inclusive practice” includes even our struggles, our discomfort. He asks, when does “practicing the dharma” actually happen? And when are habits, views and the tendency to control taking over? We can use this teaching to investigate what it means to engage, fully, this opportunity to practice.

Rev. Master Meian Elbert, Abbess of Shasta Abbey, talks about Bodhidharma who is an important ancestor in the Zen lineage. Specifically, Bodhidharma is known for his writing on the 'Four Practices' for trainees. This talk was given at Shasta Abbey on Sunday October 6, 2024.YouTube: https://youtu.be/IcaCItkf62kTwitter/X: @shastaabbey

September-October 2024 Sesshin, Day 3 Commentary on Guo Gu's The Essence of Chan: A Guide to Life and Practice According to the Teachings of Bodhidharma. Shambhala Press, 2012. Teisho by Sensei Dhara Kowal.  Automated Transcript The post Teachings of Bodhidharma #3 appeared first on Rochester Zen Center.

September-October 2024 Sesshin, Day 2 Commentary on Guo Gu's The Essence of Chan: A Guide to Life and Practice According to the Teachings of Bodhidharma. Shambhala Press, 2012. Teisho by Sensei Dhara Kowal.  Automated Transcript The post Teachings of Bodhidharma #2 appeared first on Rochester Zen Center.

September-October 2024 Sesshin, Day 1 Commentary on Guo Gu's The Essence of Chan: A Guide to Life and Practice According to the Teachings of Bodhidharma. Shambhala Press, 2012. Teisho by Sensei Dhara Kowal.  Automated Transcript The post Teachings of Bodhidharma #1 appeared first on Rochester Zen Center.

When we mention Zen practice these days, we usually mean sitting in Zen meditation, or zazen. It was not always so. In Bodhidharma's time, “practice” meant observing the Precepts in daily life, discerning to what degree our behavior is comporting to their admonitions. If memory serves, this is found in “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma” by Bill Porter, AKA Red Pine. Similarly, when we speak of studying the Dharma, we typically mean reading the written record. It was not always so. When Buddha was alive, the teachings were spoken. You literally had to go listen to live lectures and, later, memorized recitation, to hear the Dharma. This was apparently true of all teachings of all sects at that time; the oral tradition prevailed. It was some four centuries after the Buddha's death, when his utterances were first committed to written form. With the advent of the Internet we have many more opportunities to “hear the true dharma” — a Dogen coinage with a deeper meaning — as expounded by others in the form of podcasts such as UnMind, audiobooks and other modern marvels. But we have to call into question whether we are hearing the Dharma truly. Whether the meaning we extract from listening to the efforts of others to express this subtle and inconceivable teaching is anywhere near to the original meaning that the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, intended, or for that matter that of any of his many successors in India, China, Korea and Japan, and the other countries of origin. I am not suggesting that we engage in a scholarly examination of the provenance and evolution of the Three Baskets — or Tripitaka in Sanskrit. I propose that we are challenged to attempt to render the meaning in the modern idiom, which involves extracting them from their original cultural context, and embedding them in ours, as well as expressing them in the vernacular, including the language of modern science and philosophy. For one thing, this means divesting the ancient liturgical passages of jargon — primarily the obscure and seemingly mystical terms, mostly from Sanskrit — such as “samadhi” for example — that some contemporary writers seem prone to sprinkle liberally throughout their publications. The downside to this tendency is that it creates an impression that the author actually knows what these terms mean, whether you, dear listener,understand them or not. Another consideration is what is called the “theory-laden” aspect of the semantics of language, as well as our interpretation of direct perception. This conditions the impact that Zen masters' behavior, as well as that of their “turning words” — in Japanese, wato — can have on their students. This concept was introduced to me by George Wrisley georgewrisley.com, a Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Georgia, author of texts on Dogen and Zen, who generously made several technical contributions to my books, “The Original Frontier” and “The Razorblade of Zen.” Professor Wrisley pointed out that, in the now-famous records of Zen students' exchanges with their masters, including extreme gestures they resorted to, in trying to help the student wake up to the reality of Zen — shock tactics such as shouting, and sometimes striking with a fist or staff — each student's reaction to the abuse was entirely dependent upon their belief, or innate “theory,” that the teacher was enlightened, and so could “do no wrong,” to oversimplify the point. Ordinarily, if someone hits you with a stick, your reaction would not be one of profound insight, and undying gratitude for the “grandmotherly kindness” of your abuser. Today it would likely trigger a lawsuit. The ancient ancestors of Zen seem to have an intuitive grasp of the importance of language and its effect on our perception of reality, as indicated in lines from the early Ch'an poems, such as: Darkness merges refined and common wordsBrightness distinguishes clear and murky phrases And: Hearing the words understand the meaningDo not establish standards of your own In Zen, of course, experience comes first, expression a distant second. The interim state, and where we can get it wrong, consists in our interpretation of direct experience, both on the cushion and off. As another ancient Ch'an poem has it: The meaning does not reside in the wordsbut a pivotal moment brings it forth And yet another: Although it is not constructedit is not beyond words Hopefully we have, or will have in future, experienced this pivotal moment. Meanwhile, we are dependent upon words to parse this teaching, and to express it, both to ourselves as well as to others. We can use words to encourage all to go beyond language, and even ordinary perception, in direct experience in zazen. In the face of this design intent of the Dharma, the past efforts to translate it into various languages, and the present effort to paraphrase it into the modern idiom, seem worth the time and trouble. In this spirit, let me share with you my paraphrase of the Prajna Paramita Hridaya Sutra, or Great Heart of Wisdom Teaching, with which, hopefully, you are familiar. This is a work in progress, subject to revision. The typographical layout available on the UnMind podcast page is designed to facilitate scanning and reading the text while chanting it aloud, usually accompanied by drum and gongs. You might follow it with your eyes, while you follow my words with your ears. In this way, you will absorb a multi-sensory experience, which may be more revealing than hearing or reading alone. I will simply recite it here, a capella: ESSENTIAL TEACHING OF PERFECTING WISDOM When any and all Awakening Beingsdeeply and directly experience the process of perfecting wisdom,they clearly see that all five traditional components of sentienceare fundamentally free of permanence and separate self-existence;this insight relieves all unnecessary suffering. Respected seekers of the truth, know that:the apparent form of our world is not separate from its impermanence;impermanence is not separable from appearances;“form,” or particles of matter, is innately “emptiness,” or waves of energy;conversely, emptiness is innately form.All sensations, perceptions, and underlying mental formations,as well as consciousness itself, also manifest as complementary.All existent beings manifest elemental impermanence,imperfection, and insubstantiality:they neither arise nor cease, as they appear to do;they are neither defiled nor pure, but nondual in their nature;they neither increase nor decrease in value or merit.Therefore know that, given the relativity of the material and immaterial,there can be no fixity of form; no tangibility of sensation;no persistence of perception; no infallibility of mental formations;finally, there can be no absolute entity of consciousness.More immediately, the principle of complementarity entails that there can beno eyes, ears, nose, or tongue, as such; and thus, no body;likewise there can be no “mind,” as a separate substance;it follows that, in spite of appearances,there can be no independent functions ofseeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, or touching;nor can there be unconstructed objects of the mind;no independent realm of sight, nor that of any other sense organ;nor any realm of mind-consciousness as a whole. This means that there can be neither ignorance in the absolute sense,nor any extinction of ignorance in the relative sense.Neither can there be sickness, old age and death as absolute states;Nor any extinction of sickness, old age and death as relative states.In light of the implications of this insight,suffering intentionally inflicted upon oneself and / or others can come to an end,stemming as it does from confusion as to root causes;while natural suffering such as aging, sickness, and death cannot end. Thus there can be no isolated “path” leading to cessation of suffering;there can be no essential “knowledge” to gain, in any conclusive sense;and no “attainment,” of any consequential kind. Since there is nothing to attain,all Awakening Beings rely totally on simply perfecting their wisdom;their body-mind drops away, functioning fully with no further hindrances; with no dualistic hindrances, no root of fear is to be found;far beyond confused worldviews,they abide in nondual spiritual liberation. All Awakening Ones of past, present, and futurerely on the perfecting of this deepest wisdom,thereby attaining unsurpassed, complete, insightand letting go of the attainment. Rest assured that perfecting wisdomis the most excellent method;the serene and illuminating discipline; the unsurpassable teaching;the incomparable means of mitigating all suffering;and that this claim is true, not false. We proclaim the transformational perfecting of wisdom: Gone, gone to the other shore; attained the other shore; altogether beyond the other shore, having never left; the other shore comes to us; wisdom perfected! I do not claim to have captured the essence of the original chant. The afore-mentioned Buddhist scholar and Ch'an translator Red Pine, in his modern translation “The Heart Sutra,” tells us that this condensed version of the larger sutra extolling the emptiness of all existence, including the Dharma, was published in China around 900 CE. This was done in order to counter a prevailing trend toward erudition as the indicator of enlightenment, a distortion of the true Dharma that has occurred more than once in history. Another famous example is that of Master Huineng, sixth ancestor in China, who publicly tore up copies of the sutras to make a similar point. Buddha-dharma is manifest in nondual reality as lived, not contained in writing as doctrine. In a future segment of UnMind, we will take up another of my hopeful efforts at paraphrasing the Dharma. Meanwhile I encourage you to try your own hand — or more precisely, your mouth and mind — at putting one of the historical teachings into your own words. You might want to compose your own version of the Precepts, for example. When and if you do so, it may force you to consider the true meaning of these teachings which — through the sheer repetition of chanting them repeatedly over time — begin to sink into our stubborn monkey minds. But the downside of repetition is that they may become rote recitation, in which their deeper meaning and direct relevance to our contemporary lives may be lost. Not to worry, however — combined with the nonverbal silence and deep stillness of zazen, where we can begin to experience the meaning of the expression — we cannot go far wrong.

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Sensei Shinzan explores the story of Bodhidharma and then delves into his teaching on the two paths: that of reason and that of practice. Shinzan emphasizes the importance of connecting […]

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM - 7/25/24 - Gokan explores the third of the All Inclusive Practices of Bodhidharma's Two Entrances: seeking nothing. - Our longings and yearnings are are what motivates us ordinarily, and we come to practice because of dissatisfaction with samsara. Our human habit is to seek pleasure, comfort and security, to get rid of discomfort. But having found that seeking pleasure is temporary at best, what is it to enter the Way, without reservations, seeking nothing?

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM - 7/13/24 - Gokan explores the second of the All Inclusive Practices of Bodhidharma's Two Entrances; adapting to conditions. When we open up to the many ways we are dissatisfied or contribute to suffering, we also simultaneously open up the power of ceasing to grasp and liberating ourselves. How do we allow ourselves to come inside of our experiences fully, into “the mind that neither waxes or wanes,” and see the infinite potential when we come closer?

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Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZMM - 6/16/24 - Looking at Bodhidharma's teachings on two ways to enter practice—by principle and by practice—these teachings acknowledge that we're all different and will enter practice in different ways, addressing what is most alive for us. In this talk Gokan explores the first of four practices identified by Bodhidharma—encountering suffering—and how the suffering which seems daunting or overwhelming can also provide all that we need to fully enter the Way.

We closed the last segment with a quote from Master Dogen from Shobogenzo Zuimonki, regarding monastic practice in 13th century Japan: How do we practice the Way without being disturbed by the slandering remarks of others, and without reacting to the resentment of others, or speaking of the right or wrong of others? Only those who thoroughly devote even their bones and marrow to the practice can do it. These instructions and admonitions for practicing the Zen Way and maintaining harmony in the Zen monastic community, from over 800 years ago, come across with great currency, as if Dogen may have been attending some of our past board meetings. It just goes to show that people have always been people, and that conflicts arising in day-to-day dealings with the propagation of communal Zen practice have not changed fundamentally over the centuries, and even millennia, since the inception of Buddhism. I think it appropriate to raise some of these quintessentially Western attitudes that have come to my attention in the recent past, and especially during the pre- and post-COVID period we have all just come through. Like most of Dogen's teachings – which can sometimes come across as harsh shaming, or finger-wagging scolding – the old adage applies: “If you see yourself in this picture…” or “If the shoe fits, wear it.” Any and all criticism in Zen, whether implied or explicit, is intended to be reflected back upon ourselves, as in a Zen mirror, and not held up to denigrate others. This is in line with the Ten Grave Precepts, particularly those advising against discussing the faults of others, or praising oneself at the expense of others. While we encourage independence of thinking in Zen, and further, claim that zazen is one of the only dependable ways of developing it to fruition, this does not imply that we then become the sole judge, and final arbiter, of all behaviors of others in the sangha. This is one of the many misconceptions, or delusions, that arise in community practice. One of our longer-term members once declared, some decades ago, that, in his dealings with others, he saw himself as the kyosaku – the somewhat controversial “warning stick,” usually used to strike the shoulders to help you “wake up” during long retreats. He felt it was his role and, indeed, his responsibility, to administer the stick, metaphorically, to those he thought were out of line with the Zen Way. I reminded him, gently, that there is a reason why the stick has to be requested, in Soto Zen. We do not simply go around whacking people with it willy-nilly, without so much as a by-your-leave. Dogen said somewhere that we should never regard ourselves as someone else's “teacher.” If and when we put ourselves in the position of teaching others whatever we consider to be the necessary lessons in Zen, we should remember that in the design of communications, it is the message received – not the message sent – that counts. We may teach another person a lesson we think they need to learn, all right, but it is not likely to be the lesson we intended. Our actions will likely tell them more about us, than they do about them. Dogen admonished his young wards on this point, urging juniors, and seniors in particular, to avoid using harsh words and behavior in the unfounded belief that criticism, however warranted, will work to their benefit, or that of the target of their reproval, or of their fellow community members who may witness the confrontation. In some general comments about one of the attitude adjustments that all students of the Buddhist way should adopt, Master Dogen stresses listening, over expressing your own limited understanding. Especially in the beginning of your practice and study of the buddha-dharma, which, remember, may require many decades to mature. His remarks seem as timely today as in the 13th century, and taken with the above quote, comprise as good a model of independent thinking and interdependent action that you may come across: 6 — 12These days, many people who are learning the Way listen to a talk on the dharma, and above all want their teacher to know that they have a correct understanding and want to give good replies. This is why the words they listen to go in one ear and out the other. They still lack bodhi-mind and remain self-centered. First of all, forget your ego and listen quietly to what others say, and later ponder it well. Then, if you find some faults or have some doubts, you may make criticism. When you have grasped the point, you should present your understanding to your teacher. Waiting to claim immediate understanding shows that you are not really listening to the dharma. Note that the popular trope – “in one ear and out the other” – is apparently not of recent coinage. We have to be careful of a certain cultural arrogance, in assuming that our present situation is overly unique. “It was ever thus,” as we say. Or, in Zen terms: “Buddhas and ancestors of old were as we; we in the future shall be buddhas and ancestors,” taken from Dogen's Vow. But to become buddhas and ancestors we have to learn tolisten, and that entails learning how to listen; which means learning how to hear. You may protest that you already know how to hear! That is, you are hearing, and have been doing so all along. But training in design thinking, particularly in the Bauhaus tradition, says “not so fast.” You may think you are hearing, seeing, and feeling, but are you really? Drawing, photography, and the other visual arts are all considered ways of training the eye to truly see. The audial arts – music, singing, et cetera – are likewise ways of training the ear to hear. Kinetic body work – dance, theater, athletics and so on, train the body to feel, and to move in gravity with efficiency and elegance. Similarly in Zen training we find expressions such as attributed to Dogen's teacher in China, Tiantong Rujing, where he said something like, paraphrasing freely, “gouge out your eyes so that you cannot see and then you may be able to see for the first time...” cut out your tongue, plug up the ears, burn the body, etc. so that they may be replaced with the true body and senses of buddha-nature. This, obviously, on a much deeper level than the Bauhaus training is shooting for. But simply on a social level of discourse, the need to listen is greater than ever, what with all the voices vying for our attention. With the recent burgeoning of interactive meetings on the internet – which incidentally, Master Dogen did not have to contend with, fortunately for him – we have witnessed a dramatic evolution of etiquette in public dialog. Standard admonitions include not interrupting the speaker; keeping your comments brief so that more attendees have an opportunity to participate; directing your comments to the moderator or guest panelist and avoiding cross-talk; and generally resisting the impulse to hijack the proceedings to pursue your own agenda. This syndrome has long been a known issue in American Zen circles, where even in intimate, in-person settings, when called upon, certain members of the audience will suddenly turn to the audience to share their viewpoint, rather than deferring to the person hosting the dialog. This is at a minimum impolite, if not downright rude. But this is America, where all opinions are considered equal, especially by those who hold them. Dogen goes on to modify his admonition to privilege a discerning silence over blurting out our opinion at every opportunity; giving it some time to gain clarity; then engaging the dialog in a respectful way. Application to today's social media transactions is too obvious to point out, but I could not resist. Later on, Dogen repeats this instruction, indicating that the issue had arisen again, in real facetime dialog: 6 — 14Students of the Way, when you practice with a certain teacher and learn the dharma, you should listen thoroughly again and again until you completely understand. If you spend time without asking what should be asked, or without saying what should be said, it will certainly be your own loss. Teachers always await questions from their disciples and give their own comments. You should ask again and again to make sure even of things that you have already understood. Teachers also should ask their disciples whether they have really understood or not, and thoroughly convince them (of the truth of the dharma). Taking Dogen's point, and following along the lines of appropriate attitudes and behaviors in the context of Zen community — including its traditional respect for seniority and today's smugly iconoclastic attack on anything that smacks of authority — the usual caveats regarding comparisons between our practice of Zen and that of the ancients, particularly the social or sangha dimension, include the disingenuous excuse that in the time of Dogen and before, male patriarchy and misogyny were prevalent in society, so the societal norms, mores and memes do not apply to us in modern America. To which our female members and others would likely react with a great rollingof the eyes. Furthermore, the thinking goes, the practitioners of that time were primarily monastic. Thus, the rules and regulations (J. shingi) governing the behavior of nuns and monks were themselves not characteristic of the larger community in those days. That is, they were even less egalitarian than conventions prevalent in the cities and villages, among the leadership structures of the times, and so, therefore, how much more so today. A closer reading of history might expose the relatively mythological status of these notions, but we cannot be faulted too much for trying to back-plot our current views of what is right and wrong – including ethical behavior and social injustice – to a place in history where our perspective may have had little or no relevance whatsoever. We like to imagine that the arc of history is bending toward the modern concept of justice, as Master Martin Luther King suggests. Admittedly, the language and culture of Buddha's and Dogen's times were somewhat determinative, if not dispositive, of the form and character of Zen practice of the time, both on personal and social levels. Particularly on the level of personal practice — by which term today, we primarily refer to zazen — the tangible differences might be somewhere in the 5% range of effectiveness on outcomes, including such technical developments as those of clothing and seating options. In other words, Zen “gear” has undergone its own cultural evolution. But the age-old relevance of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path still holds. In the social sphere is where we will find the most salient differences that cause confusion, and to which we may point, if we are inclined to mount challenges to Zen orthodoxy. In this regard — the social propagation of Zen — I want to share a few reminders about our root lineage. Matsuoka-roshi was definitely not in a class by himself. He belongs to a small, rarefied club of ancestors who not only took on the propagation of Zen in their time and cultural milieu, but also transported, imported, the face-to-face practice and transmission of Zen to a whole ‘nother country. O-Sensei joins the likes of Bodhidharma, who sojourned to China, apparently on foot, from the Indian subcontinent around 500 CE. He stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Eisai Zenji and Master Dogen, who in the 12th and 13th centuries, respectively, traveled by sailing ship to China, bringing what they experienced there back to Japan. In the process Eisai revitalized Rinzai Zen, which had been predominant in Japan for centuries. Dogen Zenji introduced Soto Zen, emphasizing zazen over all other methods, around 1225. Matsuoka-roshi brought Dogen Zen to this continent in 1940, though the much longer journey by steamship may have been relatively safer, than those of Eisai and Dogen in ancient times. The period between each of these seminal international importations of Zen averages just over 700 years. I am gratified to be the recipient of the benefits of these great founders of our Zen past, as one of the current successors of Matsuoka-roshi. I am also somewhat concerned with the future of Zen, including the vitality of the branch of the tree that I have cultivated here in the Southeast Region of the USA. Thus this analysis. If you have any questions or comments on this subject, I would like to hear them. Tune in to the next episode of UnMind as we explore the future of Zen in America a bit further, with an intent to understand how the hybrid nature of our online and in-person interface may effect face-to-face transmission, for good or for bad, or, more likely, both.

Bear Gokan Bonebakker, Senior Monastic and Dharma Holder - ZCNYC - 4/14/24 - Sharing a teaching from Bodhidharma, Gokan speaks about the importance in the Zen tradition of directly realized experience, over our conceptual understanding. How is it when you truly let go? Trust yourself!