Dokusan, or private instruction, provides an opportunity for Zen students to work directly with a teacher in a confidential, face-to-face setting. In the early days of Buddhism in Asia, interactions between Buddhist masters and their students usually occurred in public gatherings of the monastic community, or on spontaneous interchanges during work and other temple activities.… Continue reading Zen, Dokusan and Mu!
Category: Buddhism
The Magic Of A Zen Sesshin
Sesshin is the Japanese word that we use in the world of Zen for a meditation retreat. A sesshin may last one day, a weekend, three or four days, a week, a month, thirty days, ninety days, or more. Most are seven days. A sesshin day typically begins before sunrise and ends after sunset. Starting at 5:00 a.m.… Continue reading The Magic Of A Zen Sesshin
Zen And Eating Meat
Becoming a vegetarian is the single most effective thing that a single individual can do to inhibit global warming. It dwarfs the impact of switching light bulbs from incandescent to fluorescent or LEDs, driving more fuel efficient or electric cars, using Energy Star appliances, putting solar panels on our roofs, and so on. Some researchers… Continue reading Zen And Eating Meat
Zen And Thrill Seeking
All of us have seen the interview conducted by admiring journalists after someone has run up to a cliff and jumped off it into the abyss with nothing but a hang glider to hold onto. Or after jumping off that nine hundred feet high bridge in West Virginia on Bridge Day with a bungee cord tied to an ankle. And they say the same thing.… Continue reading Zen And Thrill Seeking
Disney and Zen Practice
Walt Disney called Disneyland in California “The Happiest Place on Earth.” Walt Disney World in Orlando uses the same slogan. But having visited WDW scores of times, I can’t help but notice the crying children, the crowds spending their time in long lines to buy food (typically, huge turkey legs, burgers and other food cruel to both the… Continue reading Disney and Zen Practice
Zen, Christianity and No Self
The Buddhist doctrine of no self is often misunderstood even by some Buddhists. People with low self esteem are known to embrace it: See, it’s a good thing to have no self! But the doctrine does not mean that the self does not exist. It means that the self that does exist is a… Continue reading Zen, Christianity and No Self
The First Precept of Zen
The first precept of Buddhism, the one that drives many people away from Zen practice because they can’t keep it, is a call for not killing. It doesn’t say not to kill people. It says not to kill, period. See The Lankavatara Sutra. Following a precept results in a calm, soothed mind. The average vegetarian… Continue reading The First Precept of Zen
Zen And Buddha Name Recitation
Master Chin Kung and the Archbishop of Brisbane The Buddha spoke repeatedly of the Pure Abodes in the Pali Canon and taught that the sentient beings of the Pure Abodes were safely beyond the reach of the desire realm, never again to be reborn as a hell-dweller, a hungry ghost, an animal, a god of… Continue reading Zen And Buddha Name Recitation
Zen And Christian Cursing
I had a politically liberal friend, recently passed away, who said Jesus God! many times per day. Did you here what Rush Limbaugh said today? he would ask. Jesus God! What does that man use for brains? The Yankees beat the Rays 10-0 last night. Jesus God! And so on. He was proud of… Continue reading Zen And Christian Cursing
Zen Practice And Enlightenment
The Buddha identified four stages of enlightenment: Stream Entry (sotapanna), the Once Returner (sakadagamin), the Non-Returner (anagamin), and Buddhahood. The Buddha taught that Stream Entry is attained when the first three of the ten fetters are overcome: Those first three fetters are: 1) Belief in an independent, unchangeable/permanent or everlasting self, called atman in the Vedas, which belief… Continue reading Zen Practice And Enlightenment