Maggie Gluek

Who is this ‘I’?

All the harmful karma ever created by me since of old On account of my beginningless greed, hatred and ignorance Born of my body, speech and thought I now acknowledge openly and fully In the Purification gatha which opens our sutra service the “I” is salient and crucial. Let’s get it straight right away, in the first person, this

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The Koan Mu

Maggie Gluek, roshi, describes how old Chao Chou offers us a key to the gateless barrier, a word that is no word that opens the door to everything. And in which Wu Men with his long comment shines a light on the practice of Zen. Don’t go thinking you’ve heard this all before! This teisho was given on Day 1

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Facing fear

Fear of death is the fundamental human fear, fear of the loss of self its corollary.  What does it mean to face this fear, as opposed to running away from it? Where does one find true refuge from fear? How does the Dharma invite the practice of no-fear? These are some of the questions Maggie Gluek, roshi, addresses in this

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Entangling Vines

Maggie Gluek, roshi discusses the challenges that teachers face in having to open their mouths in order to teach in the face of a subject that seems to elude description or comprehension through logical means. She takes up Case 19 – Xiangyan’s ‘Up a Tree’ – from the Entangling Vines collection. This talk was given at Rohatsu sesshin 2013

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Build a Seamless Tomb

On the occasion of Robert Aitken Roshi’s centenary, Maggie Gluek, Roshi asks how each of us can uphold his legacy – the timeless teaching of the Buddha Dharma – in the context of Case 18 of the Blue Cliff Record (National Teacher Chung’s Seamless Tomb). And makes an excursion into the relevance of poetry to our Zen tradition. 2017 Spring sesshin Day 3

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Courage – Maggie Gluek, roshi

The task of offering “encouraging words” got me thinking about discouragement. “Courage” is at the root of both terms, deriving in the first instance from Middle English corage which means “heart as the seat of feeling.” The Zen path, like any path, presents obstacles and the possibility then of losing heart, maybe abandoning the project. How to proceed when you

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Ordinary Mind is the Tao

How can I find my way in the Dharma? How shall I proceed?  This is the gist of the sincere questions Chao chou put to his teacher, Nan Ch’uan. Their dialogue—found in case 19 of the Wu Men Kuan– is most instructive and illuminating, not to say evergreen. Ordinary mind is the Tao! We’re in the midst of spring. Flowers are blooming,

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Blog – Standing Your Ground, Maggie Gluek

‘Encouraging Words from the Teacher’ was published in the June/July 2017 Newsletter: An oft told story in these parts—and recently told at the autumn sesshin– is that concerning Hsueh-feng, snowed in with his dharma brother and mentor Yen-tou at a place called Turtle Mountain. While Yen-t’ou snoozed, Hsueh-feng spent most of the time doing zazen. “What are you doing sitting like a

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