i don’t know what the conditions even are to be considered a buddhist but today i tried practicing it, but i dont really know what my goal is or what im actually meant to practice 💔 i guess i could say i began trying to learn more about buddhism so i can be apart of it or smth, i know im supposed to not harm someone intentionally or speak hurtfully towards people, but thats kindv it. i also meditated today which was nice

any help is appreciated

As a student of Zen for two decades I was taken aback by Cole’s ideas. I do not agree with him, to be clear. Nonetheless I ponder how I would react if he were correct. I wanted to see how other Zen adherents would respond.

If anyone wants to know my answer to the hypothetical, I will share it.

For those not aware of Cole’s work here are references to read up on. The first is a relatively short paper he wrote that sums up his position. The second two are full length books:

Early Chan Buddhism: A Meditation Movement or New Ways of Writing about Final Authority in Tang China?

Fathering Your Father

Patriarchs on Paper

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Short version: I've been going to a zen center where I live for 1,5 years. I've met two of the teachers. Stayed at the local monastery last year and also been to a sesshin this year. There is also daisan provided in the center.

Whenever I go to daisan... dokusan... I feel tremendous amount of fear. I try to be sincere about it to the teachers but it's also just a lot of burning. SO MUCH BURNING. I feel like a become a child again. Not being able to speak. Total... terror. Yeah.

For context I feel so much love to the dharma. Truly. And the Zen approach to it. But of course as these 1,5 years have passed also managed to built up lots of shame around it... Like my interactions with the teachers...

I had an email exchange with one of them which I felt super embarrassed about. But yet again. When I read those letters now... It was the child trembling of fear who wrote them. So much seeking for validation... approval... acceptance... Yeah.

Basically just wanted to share this here because it still feels, if not even-ever-more, relevant. I went to daisan yesterday so scared. About to die kind of scared.

But, of course, paradoxically, my heart also wants to visit the monastery again and stay for a little longer. I contacted them about this...

Yeah.

I feel my wish to go visit the monastery again is also triggering the extrem fear response -- again. On a whole new level.

Ah...

Anyone has anything to say about this?

Many greetings,

This is probably one of the most famous excerpts from Dahui's Letters, which in turn is probably one of the most famous Zen texts ever. I read it today and thought it so powerful, hopefully it's an inspiration to some of you. Boldface is my own:

A thousand doubts, ten thousand doubts—all are really no more than a single doubt. If with a huatou you break through this doubt, at a single stroke all doubts are destroyed. If you can't break through, then continue for a time to plumb its depths. If you discard your huatou and start wondering about words, about sutras and shastras, about the stories of the old masters, or about the problems of everyday life, then all of these become minions of Māra.

The most important things to avoid are jumping to conclusions about [the huatou's] meaning and speculating with the thinking mind. Simply direct your awareness to that which cannot be thought. When the mind is left with nowhere to go, like a mouse trapped headfirst in a hollowed-out ox's horn, then you will see all delusion severed. If your mind is unsettled just take up the koan, "A monk asked Zhaozhou, 'Does a dog have Buddha-nature?' Zhaozhou answered 'No!'" If you grasp Zhaozhou's "No" you will at once see through all the various words of the buddhas, bodhisattvas, and masters of the ten directions, diverse though the words may be. There will be no need to ask other people. If all you do is ask others about the words of the buddhas, the bodhisattvas, and the masters, you will never in all time attain awakening.

(Dahui, Letter 29 - First Letter to Lu Juren, from "Dahui's Letters" tr. Kirchner, pp. 167-168)

Notice that "Simply direct your awareness to that which cannot be thought" is basically the same advice Dogen gives in Fukanzazengi ("think of that which cannot be thought" as per u/chintokkong's translation). This teaching concerns every Zen practitioner, not only koan nerds.

I hope that everyone can benefit from these words.

The bright mirror upon which all things are reflected/not for one moment have you been separate.

Hi all, I’m wanting to start memorizing koans so that I can ponder on them while I’m going about my day. Would this be possible?

My other questions:

1. As far as I understand, the way to do koans is not to analyze them

   like I would do with various literary techniques such as close reading or whatever,

2. but rather to silently chant or say without speaking sort of like how the TM folks meditate. Is this correct?

3. Would memorization help me in this?

4. What would be the best way to memorize koans?

Thank you all for your collective wisdom on this and I wish you well.

I currently live in LA and am new to practicing. I wanted to find a temple where i can sit in meditation with like-minded individuals. I am not buddhist per-se but am a seeker of wisdom and wish to experience a temple, if that is allowed. Would love reccomendations!

I do not have the best social skills, which has caused problems with connecting with people. I do feel relief at my local temple where I can make connections with others, though outside of such a space can seem more volatile. In the past, there have been problems with my sociability that have caused strife for myself and the people I've interacted with. This led me to conduct some study with Zen Buddhism involving isolation and rejection on how I can face this problem spiritually. What I found from my study on isolation led me to this article, Working with Loneliness, which tells how Zen can help deal with loneliness where by confronting the feeling and looking inward can help find more about the problem caused by feeling empty where it is a state that can change especially if a person can find satisfaction with themselves rather than just others. The next comes with rejection where people can often reject another for whatever reason, though a person may feel pain thanks to such an instance. This led me to an article from Gassho(which I just learned uses AI generated content but seems to use accurate info, thus why there isnt a link), where it explains how the pain of rejection comes from how people can are a moment and use that pain to define themselves and clings to it by misunderstanding this type of suffering as the stable self. Rejection is a temporary state that while humans being social creatures, we can learn from the pain to actually help gain wisdom enough to keep seeking out connections rather than being defined by rejection. So, does anyone have any thoughts or insight on being social while dealing with isolation and rejection?

EDIT: The links to the articles weren't implemented, so I am added them again. 2nd EDIT: I deleted the Gassho link because I just learned they used AI generated content when informed by a comment, but I kept the info due to how accurate it seems for now..

Just came in the mail. Never been more excited to read something 📖

I'm not asking whether you think creating a new school is a good or bad idea. I'm more interested in what someone could easily misunderstand or overlook. I'd especially like to hear from people who have studied Buddhism seriously or actually practice within a Buddhist tradition.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone who wanted to create a new Buddhist school today, what would it be?

Was reading the unfortunate exchange between Philip Kapleau Roshi and Omada Koun Roshi (look up the full version — you may have only heard the claims in the beginning).

In it, first, OKR alleges that PKR didn't finish the entire koan curriculum, which PKR corrects him about. There is a line there where OKR is talking about PKR leaving Japan to go back to the US and is wondering: "Why is he leaving, having made this much progress?"

This made me wonder: What does one progress in during the koan curriculum? I have read/heard that it's levels of deepening of realization... but what exactly does that mean? Like, what changes as one moves from case N to case M?

Hello everyone,

I’m trying to contact Tosho-ji temple (Shuritsu Senmon Sodo) in Yakage Japan to make an inquiry. They do have a phone number, but I would prefer to contact them in writing, and unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find an email address. I’d really appreciate it if anyone could help me find a way to contact them in writing.

Also, if you have any experience staying at a temple or monastery in Japan, or if you’ve had the opportunity to practice with an authentic Zen master (rōshi), I’d be very grateful if you could share your experience or any advice.

Thank you in advance!

This is a video demonstrating the website I am working on that contains the entire Gateless Gate with scenes for each of the 49 koans and a full speech read.

https://killedbyapixel.github.io/GatelessGate/

I hope it is ok to post again with a video because I had posted a few days ago with no video but I think for this you really need to see it. The website is completely free, loads instantly, and requires no download.

In mahayana buddhism, it is helpful to appreciate the supposed differences between buddhahood and arhathood. Then there can be better understanding of why certain practices are pitched in a certain way and why certain rhetorics are structured in a certain way.

One way of appreciating the differences is through the framework of 障 (obstruction/obscuration). For the arhat, there is attainment of the necessary enlightenment/insight to cease 煩惱障 (klesha obstruction), but not enough to cease 所知障 (jneya obscuration).

Using such a framework, we can say that the last gate of the staged arising of Six Wondrous Gates – “Purifying” – is meant to ‘purify’ the mind of 所知障 (jneya obscuration) after the attainment of the previous gate of “Returning”.

Broadly speaking in modern context, “Purifying” practices to handle 所知障 (jneya obscuration) can be considered post-enlightenment practices. While in the context of traditional Zen School, the term sometimes used for such post-enlightenment practices is called 保任 (bao ren) – which basically means “safeguard the bearing/taking-on” of supposed attainment/enlightenment.

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Here’s a three-step sequence that Baizhang taught:

师往南昌当有所得。师即造于百丈。礼而问曰。学人欲求识佛。何者即是。百丈曰。大似骑牛觅牛。师曰。识后如何。百丈曰。如人骑牛至家。师曰。未审始终如何保任。百丈曰。如牧牛人执杖视之不令犯人苗稼。师自兹领旨更不驰求。

• Teacher [Da'An] headed to Nanchang and attained something. He thus went to Baizhang, prostrated and asked: "[I], a student, desire to seek knowing the Buddha. What is thus it?"

• Baizhang said: “Pretty much like riding an ox to find the ox.”

• Teacher asked: “After knowing [it], what then?”

• Baizhang said: “Like a person riding the ox [back] to home.”

• The Teacher asked: “[I am] not sure, from beginning to end, how to safeguard the bearing/taking-on?”

• Baizhang said: “Like a cowherd holding a staff, watching it so that [the ox] does not trample people’s sprouting crops.”

• The Teacher, since receiving the principle/command, no longer run outwards seeking.

Note: Teacher Da’An is the student here.

The supposed post-enlightenment practice here is to be like a cowherd holding a staff, watchful over the ox to make sure it does not trample people’s sprouting crops. Basically watchful and careful.

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Here’s how Caoshan (cofounder of Caodong/Soto) taught it:

问学人十二时中如何保任。师曰。如经蛊毒之乡。水不得沾著一滴。

• Asked: "How should student, within the twelve times (24 hours), safeguard the bearing/taking-on?"

• Teacher [Caoshan] said: "Like passing through the poisonous place of bugs, not a single drop of water is to be touched."

It’s rather similar to Baizhang’s. Watchful and careful.

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Here’s how Dogen (founder of Japanese Soto) taught it more explicitly in Fukanzazengi:

既得人身之機要，莫虛度光陰，保任佛道之要機。誰浪樂石火，加以、形質如草露，運命似電光，倏忽便孔，須臾即失。

• When there's attainment to the human body's pivotal-essence, do not pass/waste [your] time away for nothing. Safeguard the bearing/taking-on of Buddha way's essential-pivot.

• Who is carelessly/futilely enjoying the added flint sparks - where substantial forms are like grass dews, and life fortunes like lightning flashes; when in an instant [they are] hollowed, and in a moment, gone?

After attaining the human's pivotal-essence, the practitioner has to 保任 (safeguard the bearing/taking on) of Buddha way's essential-pivot, and not waste time over impermanent conditioned phenomena that come and go.

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In all three examples, the practitioner has to safeguard by being watchful and careful over trampling people’s crops or touching water from poisonous place of bugs or enjoying impermanent conditioned phenomena.

Empty through and through. That after arriving at the supposed shore (or returning to the original source), to also abandon the supposed raft through and through.

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Excerpt from Broad Recordings of Baizhang:

為智障地障行障故。見自已佛性。如夜見色。如云佛地斷二愚。一微細所知愚。二極微細所知愚。故云有大智人。破塵出經卷。

• It is because of jnana-obscuration or bhumi-obscuration or practice-obscuration that seeing one’s own Buddha-nature becomes like seeing thing/form/colour in the night . As said, the Buddha-bhumi can sever these two foolishness – that of fine subtle jneya/known and that of extremely fine subtle jneya/known. There is therefore the saying that a person of great jnana/wisdom, penetrating dust to reveal scrolls of sutra1 .

Excerpt from Yangshan's Recorded Sayings:

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僧恩[益+(邰-台)]问。禅宗顿悟。毕竟入门的意如何。师云。此意极难。若是祖宗门下。上根上智。一闻千悟。得大总持。其有根微智劣。若不安禅静虑。到这里总须茫然。

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• Monk En asks:

• "The sudden enlightenment of Zen School, what ultimately is the key/meaning to entering its door?"

• Teacher (Yangshan) replies:

• "The key/meaning to this is extremely difficult. If it's a [person] of this Ancestral clan, with superior capacity and superior jnana/wisdom, upon hearing it once, [he/she] would be a thousand times enlightened, attaining the great dharani¹ .

• "For those with weak capacity and poor jnana/wisdom, if they don't [practise] calm meditation and quiet contemplation, they would necessarily be lost and confused when they are here."

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Dharani typically refers to mnemonic/incantatory formulas that "hold/maintain" the entirety of a teaching in condensed form. In the context here, the great dharani should be referring to the condensed form which holds/maintains the totality of all dharma/teachings, hence attaining it is considered to be a thousand times enlightened - basically enlightened to all dharma/teachings.

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For those of us who do not have superior capacity/jnana/wisdom, I guess it helps to be careful not to confuse rhetoric of the ultimate for actual preparatory practice meant for building up our capacity.

Hence why Xuefeng said: "Only when conduct/practice is sincere/accomplished, then it is said that this person can call-upon/visit selected enlightened teachers and subsequently pick out the principle of the teachings."

Refer to Xuefeng's System/Code of Teacher's Rule - https://www.reddit.com/r/chintokkong2/comments/1vm132o/xuefeng_matters_like_this_are_spoken/

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Yangshan's "Settling the Eight Vijnanas" from Rentian Yanmu 人天眼目 <Eye of Humans and Gods>

(my crude translation):

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若是悟底人。六七因中轉。五八果位圓。

• For the enlightened person: the sixth and seventh [vijnanas] are turned [already] at the causal [stage]; the fifth and eighth are perfected/completed at the position of fruition.

六識轉為妙觀察智。反觀第八識。為不動智。空無內外名大圓鏡智。即一體也。平等性智總號也。

• The sixth vijnana turns into the jnana of Wondrous Contemplative-Examination, reversing contemplation onto that of the eighth vijnana. This is the jnana of Unmoving.
• Emptied through to the absence of [everything] inside and outside, is named the jnana of Great Completion/Perfection Mirror. This is thus the one-basis, the comprehensive designation of the jnana of Symmetric-Equality Nature.

以妙觀察智。收 前六根六塵六識十八界乃至八萬四千塵勞。轉為成所作智。總歸大 圓鏡智。即一體也。

• Using the jnana of Wondrous Contemplative-examination, gather the frontal six-roots-six-dusts-six-vijnanas of the eighteen realms through to the 84,000 kleshas of worldly affairs, turning [them] into jnana of Accomplishing-What's-To-Be-Done. All are returned together to the jnana of Great Completion/Perfection Mirror. This is thus the one-basis.

第五識乃記持識。轉為成所作智。成所作智。 轉入妙觀察智。妙觀察智。轉入平等性智。平等性智。轉入大圓鏡 智。即一體也。

• The five vijnanas are the vijnanas of remembering/recording and sustaining/maintaining. They turn into jnana of Accomplishing-What's-To-Be-Done. jnana of Accomplishing-What's-To-Be-Done turns into jnana of Wondrous Contemplative-Examination. The jnana of Wondrous Contemplative-Examination turns into jnana of Symmetric-Equality Nature. The jnana of Wondrous Contemplative-Examination turns into jnana of Great Completion/Perfection Mirror. This is thus the one basis.

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As mentioned in the case of Wild Fox zen (https://www.reddit.com/r/zenbuddhism/comments/1vny37a/not_ignorant_of_causeandfruition/), it is important for the great practitioner of mahayana not to be ignorant of cause-and-fruition.

Using the framework of yogacara, Yangshan frames the cause-and-fruition of meditative practice here as:

"For the enlightened person: the sixth and seventh [vijnanas] are turned at the causal [stage]; the fifth and eighth are perfected/completed at the position of fruition."

So what is a causal purpose of actual practice here? Yangshan frames it as:

"The sixth vijnana turns into the jnana of Wondrous Contemplative-Examination, reversing contemplation onto that of the eighth vijnana."

Some may find such teachings familiar - like Dogen's reversing of light to return illumination, like Yaoshan's koan of "deliberate that which does not deliberate", like Zhiyi's 5th Wondrous Gate of "Returning".

The differences are often a matter of different frameworks being applied to this particular practice.

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For those much more learned about yogacara, please feel free to critique the translation of Yangshan's excerpt on eight vijnanas.

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Walking through the gateless gate

Today someone asked me if it was possible to reach enlightenment through contemplating emptiness. My answer was no, contemplating emptiness cannot lead you to enlightenment. In fact, no-method can lead you to enlightenment. By using a practice method you can settle the mind and be at ease without afflictions. Any method can settle the mind in the present moment, but with Silent Illumination [just sitting] you can be relieved of even the present moment.

Just take this attitude: don't worry about the past or the future, and let go of the present too. Just stay in awareness. Chan is called the “gateless gate” because it has no door to enlightenment. The methods fool you into thinking, “Aha, there's a door. Let's find the key.” People will look for the key, the right method that will get them enlightened. They search for the door to enlightenment, and not finding it, they may give up. In fact there is no door. But according to each person's practice and karmic disposition or virtuous roots, suddenly he or she may gain entry and become enlightened. In the process of searching, one just walks through the gateless gate.

If there really is a method that will lead to enlightenment, then Ananda, one of the Buddha's most beloved disciples, would have been enlightened during the Buddha's lifetime. Why did Ananda not receive a key to enlightenment from the Buddha? In fact, the Buddha did give Ananda a key, but he did not realize it. After the Buddha entered parinirvana, Ananda sought help from Mahakashyapa, the Buddha's Dharma heir, who spurned Ananda's request. When Ananda finally realized that there was nothing outside himself that could lead him to enlightenment, he dropped all seeking and became enlightened.

The Method of No-Method by Master Sheng Yen

Holy Isle was an obvious choice but it appears they mostly house independently run courses of all kinds, rather than being a community open to visitors.

I'm still not completely set on the itinerary. Thought maybe I could start with visiting a Gurdwara in Glasgow?

I'm giving it three months. I will mostly be sleeping in my car, which is also set up for daily zazen.

Any ideas, thoughts, advice would be most welcome!