Tag Archives: Black Dragon

Springtime with Tozen

Posted on April 1, 2023 by Vajragoni

Every spring as the winter cold becomes a distant memory and everything about is brimming with life again, I like to take rides in the blossoming countryside. To accompany my reverie I always turn to the recordings of the Tozen teachings from our Bodhichild YouTube Channel, playing them from a memory stick implanted in my car’s dashboard. There’s a certain majesty about them, created back in the spring/summer of 2011 and originating from the teachings listed on the former Tozen Yahoo Group message board. These are archived now (*in our library) and measure in the thousands—from teachings, poems, interactions with students and even evolving insights from the students themselves. Riding along and listening to them brings new vitality to the spirit and even inspires new Buddhaic visions. This present series revisits those teachings and presents them in their original form, accompanied now with an exegesis of each invigorating lesson from the Mystic of the Unborn Buddha Mind himself. Enjoy the ride! read more

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The Tao of Qi

Posted on May 1, 2014 by Vajragoni

The Zhuangzi says, “Pure spirit reaches in the four directions, flows now this way, now that: there is no place it does not extend to. Above, it brushes the sky; below, it coils on the earth. It transforms and nurses the myriad things, but no one can make out its form. It is one with heaven” read more

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The Old Man in the Nāga Samadhi

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Vajragoni

Zekkai Chūshin (1336-1405), considered to be the dominant poet of all the Five Mountains Zen Poet-monks, once referred to Tsung-mi as “the old man in the nāga [mythological serpent = the Buddha] samadhi.” (Broughton, ZOC) The origin of this can be traced back to the Platform Sutra of Huineng: read more

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(5) The Black Dragon

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Vajragoni

When the birdcage is open and the illusion of the false bird dies
the virtuous one recollects the unborn essence.
Transcending the sensory addicted mind, finding the gateless gate to its original source of perfection.
This is a black dragon’s greatest quality and truth
No delusion to reject, no things to transcend
What battle can find nourishment in such an un-transforming mind?
All things equal and thus sunyata,
True nature luminous and vast, obstructive notions of closed or open minds
eternally cessated.
This dragon, a magnificent defender of the true law cuts off a thousand heads from heretic misconceptions.
The true lotus free to blossom on its own accord
Mind unbound, uncreated, radiating in all ten directions
perfectly illuminating a thousand dharmas.
How can petty desire or delusion of the worldling recollect such a thousand-fold instant wisdom?
This most sacred and unborn mani-pearl is always radiant and clear.
Who is he to defile its original bright nature with notions of good or evil?
The pure desire to awake is what drove Prince Gautama to recollect what was always there for him.
Guided by the light of countless Tathagatas read more

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Riding the head of the Black Dragon

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Tozen

Zen Buddhism strives, to get you the fastest possible way, to the undivided light of the Unborn Mind. Your own true nature. read more

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