Ta-mei asked Ma-tsu, “What is Buddha?” Ma-tsu said, “This very mind is Buddha.” In this talk, Peter takes up the well-known case 30 of the Mumonkan. Shibayama Roshi said that “This very mind is Buddha’ is a very important philosophical saying which concisely depicts the essence of zen” yet any philosophical expositions on “This very mind is Buddha”, whether from Ma-tsu, Bodhidharma or
‘Dropping Ashes on the Buddha’ is a koan that is not normally investigated as part of our tradition. It is a koan by the Korean Zen Master Seung Shan. This teisho was given by apprentice teacher Will Moon at Spring sesshin in 2022
Will explores the koan about Pai-chang’s Fox, focussing on one aspect in particular – the old man’s ‘no falling under the law of cause and effect’. This teisho, Case 2 of the Wumenkuan, was given at Spring sesshin 2022
As all things are buddha-dharma, there is delusion, realization, practice, birth and death, buddhas and sentient beings. As myriad things are without an abiding self, there is no delusion, no realization, no buddha, no sentient beings, no birth and death. The buddha way, in essence, is leaping clear of abundance and lack; thus there are birth and death, delusion and
Paul Maloney, roshi explores the central human concern of dying from the point of view of the Buddha Dharma. Old age, sickness and death were everyday realities for people living in the time of the Historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, and they are realities for people in the third world today. But in our modern Western society, this fact that we are
Despite being orthodox Buddhism, albeit present in an unorthodox manner, the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, seldom appears in our koan curriculum. In fact, one can go for years without hearing anything about the Buddha’s life prior to his Awakening. In this talk Paul Maloney, roshi gives a brief overview of the various practices that the Bodhisattva Siddhartha undertook, over several years,
