Tag Archives: Zen

Open your mouth

Open your mouth, utter a single syllable, type a single word and you merely are spreading the illusion of your own perception of what you believe, at any given moment, to be the equal or part of an absolute reality. read more

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Know your true nature

As an inexhaustible producer of form and emptiness,

the great Mind Essence remains permanently  imageless. read more

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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. read more

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Contemplating the mystery – Part 1

The various ways and amount of suffering in this mind-realm is beyond the understanding of any sentient being. read more

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The Chan Whip Anthology: A Companion to Zen Practice

Jeffrey L. Broughton’s new anthology looks like a real gem; from his intro:

“Zhuhong published the Chan Whip in 1600, the late Ming dynasty. However, to characterize the Chan Whip as simply “late Ming Chan” would be grossly inaccurate. It surveys most of the history of Chan literature, not just that of the late Ming, as it is a compendium of extracts, over 80% of which are drawn from the enormous Chan corpus dating from the Tang dynasty (ninth century) to the late Ming. The remaining 20 percent or so consists of extracts from sutras and treatises. The Chan Whip was conceived by Zhuhong as a portable, convenient, no-nonsense “pocket companion guide” that addressed practitioners directly, providing not just method but morale. As such, its selections deliberately eschew abstract discussions of theory in favor of sermons, exhortations, sayings, autobiographical narratives, letters, and anecdotal sketches dealing frankly—and encouragingly—with the concrete ups and downs of lived practice.” read more

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The Pure Zen of the Tathagatas

A layman asked: “Though Zen is said to be transmitted outside the scriptures and not through words, there are many more incidents of monks questioning teachers and inquiring of the Way than in the teaching sects. How can Zen be said to be outside the scriptures? And can reading the records of the old masters and seeing how they dealt with koans ever be considered outside the realm of words? What is the true meaning of the statement, ‘Outside the scriptures, not through words’?”  read more

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Mud and Water: Bassui Zen

In November we will be spending time with the 14th century Japanese Zen Master Bassui—a name which means “far above average”, a title bestowed by Kohō Kakumyo ( 1271-1361) who was one of many renowned Dharma-masters Bassui encountered along the way to full Self-realization. His own discussions with monks and nuns as well as lay adepts have been compiled under what has come to be known as ‘Mud and Water’, or Wadeigassui which is part of a longer title indicating that the talks originated from the city of Enzan where Bassui was to become abbot of Kōgakuji Temple. We will soon discover, though, that Bassui abhorred “titles” and any manner of regimented religious institutionalized settings. By and large he was a zen-recluse who developed a most genuine insight into what it means to own one’s Buddha-nature. Also, the series of “talks” we will be encountering are not “formalized Dharma-teachings” but rather more along the lines of Dharshan, a Sanskrit term meaning ‘auspicious encounters’ with a revered spiritual master. Before entering into Bassui’s Dharshan sessions some biographical notes are in order. read more

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Contemplative Sojourn III

Greetings from Vajragoni here at Unborn Mind Zen

Once again it’s that annual-junction wherein my time apart from active blogging begins. Since arriving back last August from Contemplative Soujorun II we have added a lot of new material. A series on Chuang-Tzu has just been completed; prior to that was one on Tsung-Mi. An extensive series on the Lotus Sutra was offered as well as one on the Hsin Hsin Ming, which includes an original version of the text in Light of the Unborn. Sandwiched between these two series was an Odyssey into The Dragon Mind of Zen Tarot: a string of reflections by Tozen, which originally began as an Audio-Visual cycle on YouTube back in 2011 but which now has also been incorporated into a Contemplative Zen Tarot Deck. I have to say that my daily use of the completed deck has proven to be of immense spiritual benefit. The reader is encouraged, if it proves to be equally beneficial, to create their own laminated-deck and to study the accompanying text, as well as meditate on the included video. This is a non-commercial venture and the deck is to be used exclusively for personal use. A little venture outside of our usual spiritual focus commenced with our series on the Bhagavad Gita; four chapters from the Gita were commented on and it also includes an original version of the text in Light of the Unborn. Perhaps our most extensive series this season was on our inner-journey (breaking open enigmatic Yogic-Codes) with the Yogasūtras of Patañjali. All four-books of his sutras were covered and also a version of the text in Light of the Unborn is included here as well. Our season kicked-off back in August with an Original Spiritual-Tantric text entitled, The Tathāgatagarbhatārā Tantra, a vast composition that also includes within the body of the work a unique spiritual-liturgy entitled, The Divine Liturgy of Vajrasattva. Also included under the categories for this season is one named Mystagogia, which essentially highlights advanced spiritual-techniques and one called The Hermit’s Den, that encapsulates a form of daily personal breviary—selections from spiritual-texts, some with added reflections. Tozen has once again like last season provided us with new spiritual-teachings of his own under the Tozen Teaching category. Above all, we’re most delighted to report the creation of our own Unborn Mind Zen Online Digital Library (see far right category on top of page)—a vast selection of Buddhist PDF texts, some out of print and well worth the read. Our library is continually adding new titles and our hope is that our efforts will provide a unique resource for readers interested in Buddhism primarily, but also for those with a sincere and devoted spiritual bent. For new readers there is a lot of material here to wet your spiritual appetite. For our regular readers this is a good time to review all that has been offered this season as well as from prior ones; as you know this kind of material isn’t meant to be read just once , but rather absorbed and digested over time, as each series offers new insights into the Buddhadharma and for spiritual growth in general. read more

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Tree of Heaven

Master Hui said to Master Chuang, “I have a big tree people call Tree of Heaven. Its great trunk is so gnarled and knotted that it cannot be measured with an inked line; its branches are so twisted that squats and compasses can hardly be applied to them. It stands by the road, but no carpenter would even consider giving it a glance. Now your words are just like my tree—so big and useless that no one ever cares to listen to you. read more

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The Old Man in the Nāga Samadhi

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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