Because life is important, our own life is important. But at the same time, because life is important, our own life is not important.
If we see only one side of this paradox, that is, if we think only our own, personal life is important, we will feel […]
When the question “What is in my best interests?” arises in our mind – consciously or unconsciously – the instinctive, gut response is usually, “Getting what I want.”
But it is not always so. Our answer is different when we have a change of heart, when our world view is […]
If we want to keep our mind clear and understand what we should be doing, we need to continue zazen practice each day and make an effort to do things mindfully. This is the best way to have a life of freedom and composure. But usually, we are […]
Kyogen, a Zen monk of ninth-century China, was a disciple of Kuei Shan and a Buddhist scholar. One day Kuei Shan said to Kyogen, “I don’t want to know what you have learned from your studies. Just say in a word what your original being was […]
Annual Meeting Closing Statement, March 2014
Les Kaye
Zen practice came to the San Francisco peninsula fifty years ago. A Stanford graduate student arranged to have Suzuki-roshi driven to Palo Alto one evening a week for meditation, lecture, and discussion. These meetings rotated between different […]
When we first begin Zen practice, we may feel that zazen is a private activity, something that we do only for our self. So when we reflect on how our sitting is going, we may think “My foot hurts,” “My mind wanders,” “I get sleepy,” “My back hurts […]
In the Genjokoan, Dogen writes:
When you first seek dharma, you imagine you are far from its environs. But dharma is already correctly transmitted; you are immediately your original self.
Dogen is trying to tell us that the dharma – the truth – is already in our hands, already in […]
Zen Master Dogen was the founder of the Soto Zen school in Japan in the thirteenth century. His writings are familiar to all serious Zen students. The first fascicle in his most famous work, the Shobogenzo, concludes with a Chinese Zen teacher instructing his student with insight & […]
Religion, for most people, offers the promise of being “lifted,” of feeling “raised up” to a higher place, by someone or something that has access to such a place. Religious followers carry the belief that a “higher place” truly does exist – a place they feel is more elevated […]
