Be faithful! Be faithful! Trust and faith are almost synonyms, with slightly different shadings. However you language it, this quality, this mind, is essential to our Zen Buddhist practice. Core. It is indeed the last word that Zen Master Raven offers to his community. Where do you place your trust? How does it support you on a dark path? What
In his ‘Song of Realising the Way’, Yungchia says: It speaks in silence In speech you hear its silence The Great Way has opened and there are no obstacles. It’s difficult to practise listening unless our minds become quiet and our thoughts aren’t clamouring for attention, or for expression in speech. We practise noticing thoughts and returning to the count
On the great road of Buddha ancestors there is always unsurpassable practice, continuous and sustained. It forms the circle of the way and is never cut off. Between aspiration, practice-enlightenment, and nirvana, there is not a moment’s gap. Continuous practice is the circle of the way. —Eihei Dogen As we herald in the New Year, we kick start our practice
Peter Bursky weaves his own discovery of Dogen’s Mountains and Waters Sutra into a wander through the opening paragraph of this beautiful and poetic text. Mountains and waters encompass much of what the form of Zen practice, art and language is, and it’s like this because they are the form of who we truly are. Offering us refuge, protection and
Jane Andino looks at the reinterpretation by Ch’an Buddhism of the Te or virtue of the Tao Te Ching, the famous Taoist text. She discusses how Zen transformed the language and imagery of Taoism to express its own message of wisdom and compassion. This talk was given on day 2 at the SZC Rohatsu sesshin 2021
