Words on
the way of Zen
Reflections on practice, tradition, and the everyday path of Zen.
You Must Cultivate This Inner Ideal and Purpose
If we don’t practice, it’s hard to grasp the full depth of Master Tiantai Zhi’s teaching on not sparing one’s life for the Dharma. But if you’re truly committed to the path of practice, you must build a foundation of pure merit even as y...
ReadThe mind is originally unmoving — so who is it that moves?
How wondrous: the self-nature is free of all birth and death. The mind of an ordinary person is caught in ceaseless rise and fall, because we cling to the idea of a separate self. Once we latch onto this “I,” we start grasping at externa...
ReadLay Practitioner Zhuang Chunjiang: A Study of Tathāgatagarbha — Chapter 3: The Development of the Teaching on the Mind's Innate Purity
According to the Mahāvibhāṣā and the Abhidharmakośa, "mind" (citta) carries the sense of "growing, accumulating, and lineage"—it's a broad, general term that doesn't denote a singular nature (which is why investigating its "substance" is...
ReadThe Suffering of the Sahā World Can Move Us to Issue Our Vow of Rebirth
Why do we always say that embarking on the Buddha’s path is so rare and hard to believe in? Look, when someone comes to Baihua Hermitage on Putuo Mountain saying they want to take refuge in the Three Jewels and uphold the Five Precepts, ...
ReadMaster Ouyi Expounds the Nianfo Method
The Buddha-recitation practice has nothing extraordinary about it. All it requires is deep faith and sustained, earnest effort—this is the most essential point.
ReadMake Rebirth in the Pure Land Your Top Priority
To leave this world with a smile on your face is the hallmark of a true Pure Land practitioner: one who is genuinely resolved to transcend birth and death, holds firm faith and earnest vows, and chants the Buddha’s name with sincere, unp...
ReadDivine Foot Power Has Three Types
This divine foot power is the supernatural ability that enables free, unobstructed travel to any place one desires.
ReadHidden in Every Thought Are These Five Default Settings
Omnipresent Mental Factors
ReadMaster Da'an's Blog Quotations — Responsive Communion
The sacred name of Amitabha Buddha emerges from a mind of utmost sincerity and from ultimate reality itself. Only "truth" can resonate with "truth"; a false mind cannot bring forth a response. As the world often says, "utter sincerity mo...
ReadCollected Sayings of Master Da'an — The Three Grades and Nine Levels of Rebirth
The Contemplation Sutra on Amitayus (Sutra of the Visualization of the Buddha of Infinite Life) discusses the conditions for rebirth in the highest grade as the study and recitation of the great Mahayana scriptures, and the realization o...
ReadVenerable Da'an's Collected Dharma Talks: End-of-Life Care
When the eighth consciousness departs at the moment of death, the suffering is unbearable. Most people cling to life and fear death, unwilling to leave this world and wishing to live a few more days, yet they have no choice but to go. Th...
ReadHow vast is the range of the Trichiliocosm?
To understand this sutra, one must first grasp the concept of a Buddha-land. When texts refer to hundreds of billions of Buddha-lands, you must first understand what a single Buddha-land is: a trichiliocosm, the realm taught and guided b...
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