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INSTRUCTIONS FOR WALKING MEDITATION (KINHIN)
You should walk slowly, measure each step, insure your foot is in deep contact with the earth before giving its partner freedom, only to fall victim, in turn, to gravity. Steady your pace until it merges into your breath and the silence deafens you.
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WHO IS HE? 無門關 四十語
Sitting with Shakya and Maitreya in the utter stillness of early morning you each strain to hear the master’s voice. Do not take up Shakya’s bow or attempt to mount Maitreya’s horse Do not engage Hoen in discussion but look inward, hand your bow to Maitreya, the reins to Shakya. There is only one horse,…
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A BUDDHA SPEAKS
A three year old can easily understand that a full cup can hold nothing more but an empty cup has an infinite capacity.
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YANGSHAN’S “DHARMA POSITIONS”
This word no longer exists. This moment is now history. Dead stars shine brightly in a midnight sky. The Buddha has a thousand names and will answer to none of them. Why do you keep calling him? A reflection on Case 14 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s True Dharma Eye)
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NANSEN’S REJECTIONS 鐵笛倒吹 四十四
If you come before Master Nansen will you come holding the posture of a monk or a lay person and when Nansen turns you away how will you exit the room? Nested hands and gassho hands both are so easily manacled, why leave the room at all? A reflection on case 44 of the Iron…
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TOKUSAN’S ASSEMBLY 正法眼蔵 三十六
When the Buddha offered true wisdom, no one was present to hear it. Those who were not there understood it fully. Where will you look for true wisdom? Will your ears here what your mouth cannot say? Only with closed eyes will the light become clear. A reflection on Case 36 of the Shobogenzo (Dogen’s…
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WAVES
If you ask me the true measure the passing moment I will tell you it is at once invaluable and, by equal measure, useless, lost in the detritus of time’s wave, now receded. Do not try to cling to it for your memory is all that is impermeable, and then only in a moment already…
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ENSO IT GOES
I spent much of yesterday trying to draw perfect enso. You would think it easy to draw the simple circle, one easy stroke, but my efforts suggest otherwise. It is my Western mind, my teacher once suggested, always linear, this moment next to that, and then the one that must naturally follow. If not a…
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MINDFUL (THREE HAIKU)
the bell rings three times outside the birds fall silent all sitting zazen clocks come to a stop time no longer has meaning in meditation apple blossoms fall covering the ground in pink promising summer
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OLD MONK
The old monk stooped carefully, gingerly picking each browning leaf from the dry garden and gently placing it in the sack he carried. With each leaf he would increase his count, always certain that it fully fell into the sack. When the last leaf was picked and even the autumn tree dared not drop another…
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an old writer and his words 