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It Could Be No Other Way
Last week we looked at a very, very early Buddhist teaching and it was both inspiring and disgusting, and a little disturbing. But we could see the roots of Buddhism in it. If not the Zen that we understand, we could see the evolution a bit. Roshi wanted to jump ahead a couple centuries…
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Culmination of Conditions
There is a man that Roshi follows sometimes who is a very well spoken “Zen Priest” who never actually got ordained, never went through the years of practice. They read a number of books and thought it was cool, and they found the robes somehow, and they have a fairly successful large sangha. Occasionally…
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The Narrative You Feed
While we essentially finished off the book of Zuimonki, Dogen told this story in it that is basically a koan. As soon as Roshi brought it up, he realized it needed to be its own discussion. Dogen says: Remember the story of Ryosui who visited Zen Master Mayoku. The lecturer Ryosui visited Mayoku, a…
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Bathe in the Dharma
This week we are wrapping up our reading in recent weeks from Zuimonki, Dogen’s casual conversation teachings recorded by his friend Ejo. Roshi tells us that if anyone is interested to have a sort of ‘pocket’ portable carry-able set of teachings, Zuimonki is great for this purpose. Roshi feels that in regards to western…
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Watch or Follow
This week and next we will be wrapping up talks from Zuimonki, early teachings from Dogen recorded by his friend. These were casual discussions in passing that were captured with no intent like his other works to be a sort of Everest of spiritual practice. They are simply practical everyday teachings which Roshi finds…
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Broken Tiles and Pebbles
We continued this week with Zuimonki, Dogen’s early teachings that are much less formal and much easier to understand. His friend collected these and wrote them down. One could easily base one’s whole practice on Zuimonki since it is so accessible. Dogen instructed students of the Way: The reason you do not attain enlightenment…