Monthly Archives: November 2014

The Mahāyāna-shraddhotpāda-shāstra

We next will be exploring perhaps the most significant document, alongside the Lankavatara Sutra, for adherents of Unborn Mind Zen as well as the best concise-systematic treatment of the Mahayana as a whole. This ‘Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana’ is attributed to the great early Buddhist philosopher and poet, Aśvaghosha: read more

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Who, what are you?

Can you view yourself as one
whom has come to know their own true nature?
One, whom has gone beyond the senses,
whom in the gracious body of the Mind´s true light
transcended any and all views
or the most intense mortal descensions?
One whom stepped into a pure, unborn reality of the Mind
Where YOU, yes, the true YOU…
are
completely, perfectly
and incandescently content,
with that most luminous nature
of your own True Self?

If you apply the haze
of existence or non-existence
to it,
the delusion is complete
as a position of Mind is instantaneously born
to affirm something composed.
Your True Mind is positionless,
an absolute reality
beyond the Kingdom of Dreams,
hence the applied concept
of true self,
is like a finger pointing to this luminous Moon
where the sole power of its uncreated nature
shines unimpeded.
If you speak,
before knowing,
and believe to know something, before seeing.
Alas, once more the barrier of ignorance,
remains unbreached. read more

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Enlightenment Woes

It is said that when looking at the sayings and teachings of the Buddhas and patriarchs, if you look as one with fresh hatred looks upon an enemy, you will then for the first time be able to understand them. What do you think about this?”  read more

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The Fragrance of Suchness

“If you truly want to read the sutras, you first have to awaken the mind that does the reading. All formal readings from the sutras are ultimately destructive. The wonderful dharma of one’s mind does not change through successive eons; it is the essence of all the sutras. If you want to comprehend this essence, you should know that the voices of frogs and worms, the sound of wind and raindrops, all speak the wonderful language of the dharma and that birds in flight, swimming fish, floating clouds, and flowing streams all turn the dharma wheel. When you see the wordless sutra only once, the sutras of all the heavens with their golden words which fill one’s eyes clearly manifest. If you read the sutras with this kind of understanding, you will never be idle throughout endless eons. If you do not have this kind of understanding, you will spend your whole life covering the surface of black beans.*”  read more

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The Worm of Attachment


Michael Page

There is not one among the good teachers from ancient times up to the present who hasn’t said that there is no Buddha existing outside of the mind. Though it is clear from this that all phenomena are delusion, I am not able to let go of the belief in the existence of phenomena. Is this a result of lingering habits from my mind?”  read more

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This Little Light of Mine

It is said that when the Little Buddha is imprinted on the void and on the fragrance, one will receive unlimited merit. What does this mean?”  read more

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The Pure Lands

Bassui had the distinction of empowering others to see beyond their literal notions of the Buddha Pure Lands. However he would not make the attempt if the inquirers were exclusively attached to the phenomenal world and incapable of seeing beyond it. For those who were in earnest, i.e., who could see beyond phenomenal categories with the clear-light of zen, he would engage them with that clear-understanding. The following are extracted portions from his Pure-Land Dialogs. read more

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Dark Buddha

It is said that one who practices the Way will remove obstructing demons. If one simply practices zazen and doesn’t chant sacred words from sutras, by what grace will he remove these obstructions?”  read more

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Karmic Affinity


Robert Stewart

Within the teachings it is said that it is easy for one to believe if the karmic relationship with the teacher is right, and it is easy to enter if the karmic connection to the Way is right. Then no matter how hard I practice the kensho road to realization, I could not be expected to reach satori if my past karma were not right. Should I first try to practice a way that would set my karma right?”  read more

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The True Body of the Precepts

Questioner: “If the essence of all the Buddha’s teachings were contained in the practice of looking directly into one’s nature and attaining Buddhahood, wouldn’t that make the formal practice of keeping the precepts meaningless?”  read more

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