Kensho - Vine of Obstacles Zen

Vine of Obstacles Zen

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Kensho

A collection of 14 posts

True Kensho: An Ordinary Person Wakes Up

True Kensho: An Ordinary Person Wakes Up

To commemorate the Buddha Shakyamuni's awakening - a repost from early 2024 of a householder's famous awakening experience in about 1750 and his post kensho work with Hakuin and the nun, Esho.

How Do Experienced Practitioners Slide By Kensho?

How Do Experienced Practitioners Slide By Kensho?

Vine of Obstacles Zen Training: What's the Point?

Vine of Obstacles Zen Featured

Vine of Obstacles Zen Training: What's the Point?

Wholeheartedly doing the training just for the love of the buddhadharma.

"Do I Need A Teacher or Not?" The Quirky Perspective of the Platform Sutra

The Platform Sutra

"Do I Need A Teacher or Not?" The Quirky Perspective of the Platform Sutra

Is Our Practice Sufficient? A Reflection On "A Deep Feeling of Inadequacy"

Is Our Practice Sufficient? A Reflection On "A Deep Feeling of Inadequacy"

True Kensho: An Ordinary Person Wakes Up

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Hakuin Featured

True Kensho: An Ordinary Person Wakes Up

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

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.

Do Special Experiences Mean Anything?

Special Experiences

Do Special Experiences Mean Anything?

We're in a strange moment in Zen in the West where, in at least nine of ten zendos, all "experiences" are lumped together and dismissed.

So You've Seen Mu...

Oxherding Pictures

So You've Seen Mu...

What Is The Heart of Zen? Reflections On The Transmission of Luminosity

Keizan Featured

What Is The Heart of Zen? Reflections On The Transmission of Luminosity

The Record of the Transmission of Illumination (J. Denkoroku) by Keizan Jokin Zenji (1264-1325) is one of the most important dharma texts available to us today - so important that the great master Harada Sogaku Roshi (1871-1961) chose it for his reformed koan curriculum. In a recent post, I shared

A Black Lacquer Person Runs Through the Night: The Sudden Awakening of Keizan Jokin

A Black Lacquer Person Runs Through the Night: The Sudden Awakening of Keizan Jokin

Sudden, great awakening is the life blood of the Zen school, both Soto and Rinzai.

What is Not-Two's Nature? from Going Through the Mystery's One Hundred Questions

We Are All This Luminous Mind: The Possibility and Importance of Awakening

An article by me (with the help of many friends) that appeared in Tricycle, 1/29/22. Their heading: "A Zen view of what awakening is and isn’t, with personal stories from contemporary practitioners."

Blue Cliff Record

Fine Snowflakes, They Don't Fall Elsewhere