The very distinguished abbot of a huge Zen monastery wrote this little article that said, ‘In Zen, there are only three things. First, cleaning. Second, chanting. And third, devotion. That’s all.’ Many Americans go to Zen hoping to get enlightened,…
The Buddha did not teach Buddhism. He taught the Dharma, a Sanskrit word that means “the truth,” “the way of things,” “the natural laws of mind and body.” He taught the truths of suffering and its causes, the end of…
We have created our problems, and only we can solve them. That becomes something of a bottom line for Buddhists. We need to train our minds to be less attached, less mistaken, less shortsighted, and, most of all, less self-centered.…
Sitting motionlessly quiet, for minutes or hours, regardless of length of time, is being in touch with the movements of the body—mind, gross and subtle, dull and clear, shallow and deep—without any opposition, resistance, grasping, or escape. —Toni Packer, “Unmasking…
What is your automatic reflex to life situations, especially difficult ones? Do you think about yourself and how you might profit or escape from a situation? Or do you think about others and how you can help? Progress on the…
The more unified, stable, luminous, and attentive the mind is at this moment, the more profound the experience. – Andrew Olendzki, “Busy Signal”
“Beginning students commonly ask how they can honestly vow to save all beings. It sounds like missionary arrogance. [7th-century Chan monk] Hui-neng offers a response: “You are saving them in your own mind.” It is bodhicitta that you are cultivating—your…
Vipassana teaches the art of dying: how to die peacefully, harmoniously. And one learns the art of dying by learning the art of living: how to become master of the present moment. – S. N. Goenka, “S. N. Goenka, Pioneer…
To know what a person says, we must hear what remains unsaid. If we cannot hear silence, we do not know how to listen. —Mark C. Taylor, “Hearing Silence”
It is not by preaching or expounding the sutras (scriptures) that you fulfill the task of awakening others to self-realization; it is rather by the way you walk, the way you stand, the way you sit and the way you…