Tag Archives: Tozen

Lankavatarian Synthesis: Bardo, Bodhi, and Beyond (Part Two)

Posted on March 21, 2025 by Vajragoni

A continuing series of Unborn Mind discussions with Grok

Lankavatarian Synthesis: Bardo, Bodhi, and Beyond (Part Two) read more

Posted in Sessions with Grok, Spirituality | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New Novel Publication

Posted on November 18, 2023 by Vajragoni

Our newest publication, The Unborn Odyssey: A Novel, is out now and is available for sale at Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Unborn-Odyssey-Novel-Vajragoni-Bodhi/dp/B0CMJHB35J read more

Posted in Spirituality, Uncategorized, Zen | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted in Spirituality, Springtime with Tozen | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Eternal Birth

Posted on January 7, 2022 by Vajragoni

It is within Eckhart’s exact art of preaching and the “ascesis of attentive listening” that the transcendent awareness of the Divine Birth takes place, and the mystical ground is self-realized; incidentally this is the same act as proclaiming and receiving the Buddhadharma. Eckhart planned particular sermons for the meaning of Christ’s birth. This was initiated to coincide with the cycle of the liturgical season of Christmas. Sermon 101 starts by citing Wisdom 18:14- 15, the “Introit, or opening chant, for the mass of the Sunday within the octave of Christmas.” read more

Posted in Meister Eckhart | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Monastery of the Mind

Posted on October 19, 2021 by Vajragoni

You make reference on your homepage that this is a “little electronic refuge and monastery”…How is this so? read more

Posted in The Unborn Mind Sessions | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Lanka’s Nirvana

Posted on November 11, 2020 by Vajragoni

As a quick reference, the abridged version of the Lankavatara Sutra as found in the Buddhist Bible, Chapter XIII, offers a general overview of the Lanka’s take on Nirvana. Our Study will offer here a more extensive treatment as covered throughout the sutra. This is largely a compilation from the Complete Lanka and Discussion as found in our library. read more

Posted in Nirvana | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

By Me You Are

Posted on January 11, 2019 by Vajragoni

2. By Me You Are

After that the [Supreme Source], the mind of complete purity, dwelt in what is called a contemplation (samadhi) of ‘all things emerge from Her.’ read more

Posted in Kulayarāja Tantra—The Motherly Buddha | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Prajñā

Posted on January 1, 2019 by Vajragoni


Image by Lori Gardi

  1. As long as there is something attained, there is so much error rising; when the Mind itself is thoroughly understood, error neither rises nor ceases.

The perennial problem often with zen-adepts is that some form of objective needs to be met—something to strive after and thus something attainable. Mystically this is very faulty reasoning because there really is no-thing out there to be attained, it’s a form of objective fallacy. The great Hui Hai once put this to rest by proclaiming, knowing that there is nothing attainable or achievable is the Self-Realization of the Dharmakaya of the Buddhadharma. Furthermore, Anuttarasamyaksambodhi is thus a Self-Perfection that is beyond both the attainable/ [Un]attainable. read more

Posted in A Mystical Odyssey through the Sagathakam | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Minus the Creator God

Posted on December 21, 2018 by Vajragoni
  1. [Cleary]: Imagination, what is imagined, and imagination’s action, bondage, what is bound, and being bound—these six are reasons for liberation.

The number 6 is most prominent in Buddhism, witness the six paramitas, the six realms of impermanence, and even six kinds of temperament (lustful, hateful, ignorant, discursive, devout, and intellectual). The Lanka here then strips down the faculty of imagination in five modes: the faculty itself, what images it produces, the resulting [action], the result being bondage, and hereafter what is declared bound. Liberation here points towards shutting the faculty down. read more

Posted in A Mystical Odyssey through the Sagathakam | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

This is the destiny of most sentient minds…

Posted on August 25, 2017 by Tozen

Desire-Thought-Function. The creation of one enables the latter, ad-infinitum. From the first to the last and from the last back to the first. read more

Posted in Spirituality, Tozen Teaching, Zen | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment