Recent Comments
- Chodpa on The Place where the Primordial Speaks
- Chodpa on The Cuckoo of Presence
- Afzar on Bodhidharma’s teacher, Prajnatara
- Vajragoni on Audiobook is released
- Scott on Audiobook is released
-
Recent Posts
Categories
- A Darkness Visible
- A Docetic Assessment
- A Mystical Odyssey through the Sagathakam
- AI Creations
- Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra
- Akṣhobhya’s Pure Land
- Ālaya-vijñāna
- Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśaparivarta
- Ariyapariyesanā Sutta
- Ascending the Noble Mountain of Primordial Perfection
- Asceticism
- Ashtavakra Gita in Light of the Unborn
- Audiobook
- Bankei Zen
- Beyond the Ascent
- Beyond the Rainbow Body
- Black Dragon Eye Mandala
- Bodhicitta
- Buddhadharma
- Buddhism’s Black Holes
- Buddhist Anecdotes
- Buddhist Hells
- Buddhist Meditations on the Tarot
- Chuang-Tzu
- Contemporary Musings
- Ḍākiṇī
- Dāsbodh
- Dharmakaya Abbey
- Dharmakaya Stick
- Divine Revelation
- Doctrine of the Void
- Dust Contemplation
- Ekacitta: Advanced Studies in Dark Zen
- Entry into the Dharmadhātu
- Eremitical Dhyani Meditations
- Exploring the Book of Revelation
- Gnostikos
- Hsin Hsin Ming
- Journey to the Center of the Mind
- Karma and Rebirth
- Korean Sŏn
- Kulayarāja Tantra—The Motherly Buddha
- Little Office of Our Lady of the Void
- LSD and Psychedelic Buddhism
- Māṇḍukya Kārikā
- Mañjuśrī Teaches Prajñāpāramitā
- Māra and Satan
- Meister Eckhart
- Mud and Water: Bassui Zen
- Mystagogia
- Nirvana
- Notes from the Iron Stupa
- Nothingness in Nāgārjuna and John of the Cross
- Obscure Religious Cults
- Preparation for the Afterlife
- Primordial Qigong
- Reflections on the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra
- Spirituality
- Springtime with Tozen
- Terma: A Mind Film by Vajragoni
- The Afterglow
- The Awakening of Faith
- The Bhagavad Gita
- The Book of Bodhi
- The Cloud of Unknowing in Light of the Unborn
- The Diamond Sutra
- The Divine Ātman
- The Divine Liturgy of Vajrasattva
- The Doctrine of Awakening
- The Dragon Mind of Zen Tarot
- The Elucidation of Consciousness
- The Experience of No-Self
- The Great Perfection of the Unborn Mind: A Book of Privy Counseling
- The Heart Sutra
- The Hermit's Den
- The Khaggavisāṇa Sutta: A Rhinoceros Horn
- The Lankavatara Sutra
- The Lankavatarian Book of the Dead
- The Lion's Roar of Queen Śrīmālā
- The Lotus Sutra
- The Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra
- The Naga Chronicles
- The Platform Sutra
- The Ratnagotravibhāgaśāstra
- The School of the Spirit
- The Secret Golden Light of the Unborn
- The Soul
- The Śūrańgama Sūtra
- The Sutra of Primordial Enlightenment
- The Tathāgatagarbhatārā Tantra
- The Udāna
- The Unborn Mind Mythos
- The Unborn Mind Sessions
- The Unborn Odyssey: A Novel
- The Vajrasamādhi Sutra
- The Vimalakirti Sutra
- The Yogasūtras of Patañjali
- The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
- The Zen Teaching of Instantaneous Awakening
- The Zen Teachings of Huang Po
- Theologia Mystica
- Tozen Teaching
- Tsung-mi: An Intimate Study
- Unborn I Ching
- Unborn Light Reiki
- Uncategorized
- Vasubandhu and the Absolute
- Wisdom from the Masters
- Wordsworth and Zen
- Yoga of the Manomayakāya
- Zen
- Zuowang
Archives
- October 2024
- August 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- June 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- October 2018
- August 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
Meta
Tag Archives: Bodhisattva
Springtime with Tozen
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!
Carriers of the Seed
An excellent composite study of Bodhicitta as well as all things Bodhisattva is The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature, by Har Dayal circa 1932. For myself it has become the bible regarding such subject matter. What I treasure most about it is that it was written before contemporary sectarian studies that always flavors said material with superficial psychophysical makeup that mars the original import of the Bodhi-structure itself. Before dining on the succulent taste of this endeavor we must first focus on those who prepare the ingredients of this marvelous meal. The Carriers of the Bodhi-seed. Bodhisattvas as well as Arhats, yes Arhats too have much ado concerning this cuisine raffinée. Recollect that one of the epithets of the Buddha is that of an Arhat, this even after his former career as a Bodhisattva.
Posted in Bodhicitta, Spirituality
Tagged Arhat, Bodhi, Bodhisattva, Har Dayal, Pratyekabuddhas, sattva
Leave a comment
Is a Bodhisattva dependent on sentient beings?
Continuing with Dorji Wangchuk’s study, he writes:
In Mahayana, the entire concept of bodhicitta and bodhisattva would collapse or make no sense without sattvas, for a bodhisattva is, in the first place, a sattva whose citta is directed towards attaining the highest state of bodhi for the sake of other sattvas. Not only is the bodhicitta of a bodhisattva dependent on sentient beings, but also his practices of the perfections (pāramitā) are in one way or another connected with them. A bodhisattva becomes a buddha by relying on sentient beings.
Posted in Bodhicitta, Spirituality, Uncategorized
Tagged Bodhisattva, Diamond Sutra, Light Warrior
Leave a comment
Faith and enlightenment in Zen
All born things are subject to entropy. Nothing created can ever escape the critical point of its own decay and final dissolution.
Posted in Tozen Teaching, Zen
Tagged bodhicitta, Bodhisattva, Buddha Nature, dharmakaya, Mind, Spirit, Tozen, Unborn
Leave a comment
Know your true nature
As an inexhaustible producer of form and emptiness,
the great Mind Essence remains permanently imageless.
The light of compassion
A mind of great honor, moderation and intelligence is not necessarily a mind of foolish shortsightedness, nor is it one poor in compassion and humor.
Posted in Tozen Teaching
Tagged Bodhisattva, Dharma, dharmakaya, light, Mind, Tozen, Unborn
Leave a comment
Finding [recollecting] the Unborn Mind.
Abiding in the blinding darkness of ignorance is not easy. If anything, countless sentients, suffering on a daily basis no matter their status in a grinding maze of discontentment can attest to this fact. If not in their best hour, at least in their worst.
Posted in Tozen Teaching
Tagged Bodhisattva, Buddha Nature, dharmakaya, Mind, Tozen, Unborn, Wisdom, Zen
20 Comments
Being of a Single Mind – One-pointedness (Zen) is attained
Let not the appearance of these words fool you,
yet do not wander off from the context at hand.
Being One in Spirit (will) and of One Mind
is to be of a Single Mind in a here and now
that stretches beyond the temporal prison
of this body consciousness, which clouds
the true vision of your luminous Self.
The Buddhas have never lied nor will they ever
bare false witness [of the Dharma] to you.
Their dharma unfolds before you Minds´s eye
at any given moment.
Blink and you´ve already missed its splendor; speak and
the spiritual song of the truly living, becomes absent.
What you choose to SEE and SENSE and what really IS though,
are not of the same nature.
Where the one is empty (of dharma), the other shines
as purely itself permanently througout all ten directions.
How can you ever approach it or run from it by conventional means?
To say you are here, or there, or in that, or in the other,
implies the need of your present mind to constantly find
settlement and self identity with that, or the other.
This is the prison-consciousness of Samsara.
Though ashes to some, and golden to others,
It binds demons, animals, men and gods alike.
But your true Mind is primordially free; radiant, luminous – Unborn
and hence not subject [initself] to any position or law of becoming
giving the false sense of real beingness arising from it.
We speak of something incomprehensible pure; a nature and light,
second to no thing, or ideated being.
Posted in Spirituality, Tozen Teaching, Zen
Tagged Bodhisattva, Buddha, Dharma, light, One Mind, one-pointedness, single Mind, Tozen
Leave a comment
Emptiness on a Thursday Afternoon
Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra
46. Mañjuśrī Teaches Prajñāpāramitā
Translated from Taishō Tripiṭaka volume 11, number 310
Posted in Mañjuśrī Teaches Prajñāpāramitā
Tagged Bhagavān, bhiksus, Bodhisattva, Dharma, Emptiness, Manjusri, prajnaparamita, Right Contemplation, saṃgha, Śāriputra, sunyata
Leave a comment
Valhalla for a Bodhisattva
The inner-landscape changed dramatically for Schäfer as he found himself flying on a wind-mandala high above the majestic setting of a Tibetan cordillera. The mandala’s semi-circular shape seemed to curve in and out of the ever expanding vista until it gradually came to rest in a clearing surrounded by the tangy-like smell of evergreen trees. From the midst of the trees a circular-shape began to emerge, one that slowly but surely revealed the smiling face of a Green Goddess:
Posted in Notes from the Iron Stupa
Tagged Adrian Snodgrass, Bodhisattva, Green Tara, Stupa, Symbolism of the Stupa, Tara, Tara verte, The Cave, Viśvavajra
Leave a comment