Words on
the way of Zen
Reflections on practice, tradition, and the everyday path of Zen.
Venerable Master Gangxiao: Lecture Notes on the Mahāyāna Treatise on the Hundred Dharmas, Part 5
Lecture Notes on the Mahāyāna Treatise on the Hundred Dharmas, Part 5
ReadProfessor Lin Chong'an: Theory and Practice of Zen Meditation, Lecture 1: Cultivating Awakened Nature
These days, stress and sorrow seem to be everywhere. Almost everyone falls into one of two camps: those riding high on the four worldly fortunes—gain, honor, praise, pleasure—and those weighed down by their opposites—loss, disrepute, bla...
ReadMaster Sheng'an, the 11th Patriarch of the Pure Land School — "I Depart Now, I Shall Return; Meet Again Through Reciting the Buddha's Name"
The 14th day of the fourth lunar month marks the memorial day of Master Sheng’an, the 11th Patriarch of the Pure Land (Lianzong) School. Though the patriarch’s time in the world was brief—only 49 years—his earnest compassion and teaching...
ReadChant the Buddha's Name with Single-Minded Sincerity, and Your Chan Practice Is Complete
So who is the one who chiefly investigates while reciting the Buddha's name? The inquiry "Who is reciting the Buddha's name?" was first raised by patriarchs such as Tianqi Benrui Chan Master, but why did they propose it? We need to explo...
ReadThe Ascetic's Revenge
This story appears in the Abhidharma Mahāvibhāṣā Śāstra. There was once a king who kept company with a scholar of great renown and high social standing, though he never gave the man any official title—in today’s terms, he might have func...
ReadRealizing That All Dharmas Are False Distinctions and Unreal
Like a heat-haze mirage—"heat-haze mirage"—not in the cold season, but in spring and summer when the weather warms up, that's when you see this "mirage." What is it? When the sun beats down on the earth, moisture rises from the ground. W...
ReadAttachment to Deep Emptiness Leads to Demonic Possession
What does this deep emptiness mean? Within his mind, he has grown utterly disgusted with every appearance of attainment. He longs to plunge into the realm of tranquil extinction, to merge completely with conditionless causes and conditio...
ReadYou Can't Change Others — Stop Trying
In the esoteric tradition there is a koan worth pondering deeply. Two young disciples were caring for an old master who was gravely ill — he could no longer even walk, and every day someone had to help him bathe and attend to his basic n...
ReadThe Great Mengshan Food Offering — A Buddhist Ceremony for the Benefit and Liberation of Beings Across the Six Realms
The Mengshan food offering is aimed at relieving wandering hungry ghosts. In the Song dynasty, there was a master known as Budong (also called the Ganlu, "Sweet Dew," Great Master), who lived on Meng Mountain in Sichuan. Moved by compass...
ReadGuanyin Bodhisattva Is in Your Home
Buddhas and bodhisattvas appear in this world to teach in countless ways, and they very often ground their teaching in filial piety. There is a well-known parable from mainland China about a mother and her son. The mother was widowed you...
ReadYan Poluo, the Man Who Looked Like a Hungry Ghost
Any Buddhist practitioner—including every disciple of the Buddha—who fails to understand how good and evil deeds ripen into their results, and who goes on committing verbal wrongs while practicing the Dharma, becomes the most pitiful of ...
ReadGathering the Mind and Abiding in the Realm of Emptiness
The Tiantai school divides all dharmas into two realms. One is what is called the "provisional" (假)—provisional names, provisional characteristics, and provisional functions. The affairs of this world, the dharmas produced by causes and ...
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