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
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
The question, “What is Buddha?” or, “What is Buddha Nature?” is a constant theme within Buddhism. Dōgen, the founder of Sōtō Zen Buddhism in Japan, has something interesting to say on this topic. Dōgen tells us that: Buddha Nature and becoming a Buddha always occur simultaneously. Paul Maloney, roshi explores in this talk, some of the implications of this statement,
