Tag Archives: bodhichild

Is there need for a teacher in Zen?

Oftentimes the question is asked, “Do I need a teacher in Zen?” Without going into some theoretical basis for this question, my own experience will be the foundation for hopefully providing some insight into this timely issue. My earliest exposures to Zen were through works like Thomas Merton’s, Zen and the Birds of Appetite, Zen Catholicism by Dom Aelred Graham, sundry titles from Alan Watts and other contemporary scholars and Zen sages. Then I came under the spell of Osho. I purchased numerous books and videos on Osho’s teachings and his charismatic presence that have wooed thousands over the years. It’s hard to escape from his spellbinding techniques—he really gets inside your head and becomes almost permanently ensconced within. Thankfully, in the year 1999 I came across the Zennist’s Dark Zen and Tozen’s teachings on Tathagata-garbha Unborn Mind Zen. For a more in-depth story of this part of my own spiritual sojourn, the following blog goes into greater detail. Suffice to say that Tozen became my Dharma-teacher and my ensuing spiritual formation provided a profound transformation in my life. I have to say that without a teacher’s “one-on-one” guidance, one’s spiritual growth only remains on the surface—it never becomes firmly “directed” and rooted-within, hence there is no sound spiritual foundation. read more

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Mañjuśrī Elects Sudhana

                                                                                      www.studyblue.com read more

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The Inconceivable Master

“World-Honored One, the cycle of birth and death [samsara] is based on the Tathagata-embryo. Because of the Tathagata-embryo, the beginning [of samsara] cannot be known. World-Honored One, if one says that because there is the Tathagata-embryo there is samsara, he speaks well.  read more

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(8) Reverence

Reverence should not necessarily take place before one who requires allegiance with reference to supreme mortal age, cultural or worldly position. read more

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(6) The Womb of Light

The desireful, skandha-poisoned “false” self, is doomed to fail and become reborn in different forms (depending on its karma) as long as it does not acknowledge the treasure that follows it wherever it goes. read more

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Tozen: What is it about?

[snips a tiny branch from a bonsai tree]

“When this world ends, where will you go?”

“But Master, surely this world is not about to end and I will probably go before it goes?” read more

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Buddha-nature

2. Bloodstream Sermon, part one

Everything that appears in the three realms comes from the mind. Hence Buddhas of the past and future teach mind to mind without bothering about definitions. But if they don’t define it, what do they mean by mind? You ask. That’s your mind. I answer. That’s my mind. If I had no mind how could I answer? If you had no mind, how could you ask? That which asks is your mind. Through endless kalpas” without beginning, whatever you do, wherever you are, that’s your real mind, that’s your real buddha. This mind is the buddha” says the same thing. Beyond this mind you’ll never find another Buddha. To search for enlightenment or nirvana beyond this mind is impossible. The reality of your own self-nature the absence of cause and effect, is what’s meant by mind. Your mind is nirvana. You might think you can find a Buddha or enlightenment somewhere beyond the mind’, but such a place doesn’t exist. read more

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Epilogue

Bodhisattvahood, Part 1

These 40 days of spiritually sojourning with Vimalakirti have left an indelible imprint on my psyche. I have literally awoken daily with Vimalakirti, walked with Vimalakirti , meditated with Vimalakirti, absorbed Vimalakirti’s teaching and have received the auspicious gift of being afforded the grace to catch a tiny glimpse of just what constitutes Bodhisattvahood. The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti has been classified as the “Crowning-Jewel” of the Mahayana; as indicated earlier, the Mahayana was originally referred to as the Bodhisattva-yana—and this auspicious Sutra certainly highlights why that was so. The Vimalakirti Sutra is a wonderful blend of the Prajñāpāramitā, Mādhyamikas and Avatamsaka traditions. One can indeed see the influences of these in their respective chapters—like when embracing the six paramitas (Prajñāpāramitā), the total re-evaluation of all values wherein the Bodhisattva is both sinner and saint and neither (Mādhyamikas) and the absolute mind-blowing stanzas that relay Vimalakirti’s miraculous powers (in sundry universes and planes of realities) and manomayakāyaic-transformations (Avatamsaka). While my heart shall always be devoted to the Lanka first and foremost, the Vimalakirti Sutra as well shall forever hold a place of undivided reverence. read more

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The Long and Winding Road

As the Lanka winds-down, we are left with some very constructive impressions. Red Pine masterfully translates the great malady that affects all sentient beings—the diurnal wheel of samsara and its accompanying dependent origination: read more

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Children of the Buddha

Having been graced with a full understanding of the Noble Wisdom of self-realization, the perfected bodhisattvas (mature garbha, or bodhichild) enter into deep and unfathomable samadhis for the benefit of all sentient beings: “And they enter hundreds of thousands of samadhis, countless hundreds of thousands of samadhis. And as they do so, they travel to other buddhalands and venerate other buddhas and are reborn in celestial palaces, where they praise the three treasures and appear as buddhas themselves surrounded by assemblies of sharvakas and bodhisattvas, and where they liberate beings by explaining to them that what they perceive is nothing but their own mind and that external existence does not exist, thus enabling them to transcend such views as existence and nonexistence.” Perfected in this fashion, these noble champions of Unborn Light empower the blind to see with imageless eyes that all dualistic manifestations are nothing more than fata morganas on the plane of emptiness (sunyata); devoid of self-awakening and recollection of the true and Primordial Self-hood in the dharmatic womb of suchness—tathata—these unwholesome projections of the deluded mind can even lead to the extremes of eternalism and nihilism, the awful curses of believing that some-thing (apart from the Unborn Mind) can exist forever—while simultaneously a belief that this thing-ness is basically a form of nothingness. The Lanka teaches that it is always best to avoid all forms of discriminatory assertions and denials—and also to never cling to the “word-ness” of things since this can lead to extreme wordiness and thus utter dependence upon words (vs. what words are pointing to) in themselves. read more

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