Dogen

A collection of 35 posts

Renunciation Featured

Renunciation Day: The Dreamlike Illusion is a Sham

To practice Zen deeply a person must swim up the cultural stream.

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Record of Going Easy

Is Just Sitting Facing a Wall Enough?

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Koan

A Fire Child Comes Seeking Fire: Understanding or Awakening?

Platform Sutra

Problems With The Platform Sutra: Dogen

...if you have a problem with the buddhadharma and don't even consider the possibility that it might be your personal problem, you really aren't in that moment studying the buddhadharma.

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Sesshin

Song of the Dragon Sesshin

Zhiyi Featured

Three Big Sublime Stopping Mistakes

... denial that stopping is possible, the exaggerated concern about attachment to stopping, and confusing stopping with seeing.

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Ten Line Kannon

Transferring the Merit: The Essence of Great Vehicle Great Compassion

Dogen

Gifts for the Seven Wise Sisters from a Couple Brothers with the Same Mother

Hakuin Zenji emphasizes the importance of dharma expression to benefit living beings, especially by offering poison words that disrupt delusions and allow the pure wind of wild awakening to blow forth.

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Dogen

The Difference Between Soto and Rinzai

Dahui

Plucking a Blade of Grass: The Wondrous Dharma of Miàodào

Below you will find a dharma talk by an incredible (and largely unknown) Zen master, Miàodào Dǐngguāng (1095-1170), one of only three women Zen masters listed in Outline of the Linked Flames, a transmission of illumination collection published in 1183. Miàodào had been a student of the Cáodòng (J. Sōtō)

Dogen

Dogen’s Instruction for Householder Zen Training

(Eihei kōroku V8.14) Translated with introduction and notes by Dōshō Port Introduction Because this Dōgen dharma discourse (hōgo) was written for householders, includes examples of awakened householders, and offers instructions for householders, I've long been curious about it. After all, 99% or so of those engaged in

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Dogen

Do Not Get Close To Such People (EK8.14.7)

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Dogen

Noble Ones, Do You Not Trust This Yet?(EK 8.14.6)

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Dogen

Householders With the Power to Polish the Bright Mirror (EK 8.14.4)

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Dogen

The Difficulties of Being a Zen Student (EK V8.14.3)

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Dogen

Wandering Destitute into a Demon Pit (EK V8.14.2)

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Dogen

The Central Importance of Inquiring of a Teacher (EK V14.8.1)

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Dogen

The Lotus Flowers In This Pond Are So Fragrant (EK V8.14.9)

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Dogen

Round and Smooth Like a Pearl (EK V8.14.8)

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Dogen

Dōgen: Find a Good Teacher, Ask For a Koan, Break Through (EK V8.14.5)

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Dogen

Great Doubt is Intimate

Dogen

Cultivating Verification in One School Zen: A New Shushōgi for Now

I recently wrote a piece titled, The "Soto Zen" of the PMSO: A New Religion Whose Time Has Passed, wherein I call out a text titled "Shushōgi" ("The Meaning of Practice Enlightenment"), a late-19th century summary of the teaching of Dōgen Zenji that has

Dogen

Everyone Has the Potential to Become Buddha

The Avalokiteshvara above is by the wonderful contemporary artist, Mayumi Oda. "Many people say that even though they have an aspiration to study the Way, it is the final age and they are at a low level of learning. It is impossible for them to practice in accord with

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Dogen

The Pivotal Linji Master Xutang and his Profuse Praise for Sōtō Master Dōgen

Dogen

Putting the Kōan Back in Genjōkōan

The Vine of Obstacles Zen has been immersed in an Intensive studying Ashvaghosha's teaching in The Awakening of Mahayana Faith on how suchness perfumes birthdeath and draws us to practice. "The dharmas of buddhas have causes and conditions; only when replete with causes and conditions can those