: )

You need not leave your room.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, simply wait.
You need not even wait, just learn to become quiet,
  and still, and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked.
It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
– Franz Kafka

Don’t go outside your house to see the flowers.
My friend, don’t bother with that excursion.
Inside your body there are flowers.
One flower has a thousand petals.
That will do for a place to sit.
Sitting there you will have a glimpse of beauty
inside the body and out of it,
before gardens and after gardens.
– Kabir

Without going outside, you may know the whole world.
Without looking through the window,
  you may see the ways of heaven.
The farther you go, the less you know.
Thus the sage knows without traveling;
He sees without looking;
He works without doing.
– Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

The only journey is the one within.
– Rainer Maria Rilke

Some shots from my visit to ZMM last fall — up in the Catskill Mountains of New York:

Monastery

Meditation Hall

Cemetery

Dharma Kitty!

The most relaxed cat I’ve ever met.

: )

“What you do to others, you do to yourself.”

– John Daido Loori

That’s how a zen teacher described thoughts arising and dissipating in an awakened mind…

Heard this term on a zencast.

From Which Temple Follows The Way?

In recent years, Shaolin monks from China have gained an international reputation for their physical endurance and feats of kung fu skill. Shaolin monk troupes have toured the world, and Shaolin temples have become a common destination for foreign travelers, with some staying for extended periods.

But while the temple’s fancy tricks have won many a heart abroad, Buddhist circles in China are less than impressed, with almost 95 per cent of participants in an online survey saying monks should not immerse themselves in worldly ways.

Many believe the Shaolin have abandoned their monastic traditions of leaving the world and severing worldly desires and pursuits, and have become a tourist recreation center obsessed with money and reputation.

The Four Vows:

Sentient beings are numberless; I vow to save them.
Desires are inexhaustible; I vow to put an end to them.
The dharmas are boundless; I vow to master them.
The Buddha way is unattainable; I vow to attain it.

The Renewal of Vows Ceremony:

Vowing to save all sentient beings. But they’re numberless! That means there’s no end to the number of them. And yet you vow to save them. Impossible! It can’t be done. But you vow to save them. And by the way, if you intend to save all sentient beings, you’d better be prepared to be saved by all sentient beings. It goes both ways. Cause and effect goes both ways. Effect doesn’t follow cause, nor does cause precede effect. They’re one, and they move forward in time and they move backward in time.

- John Daido Loori

“If our spiritual life does not occur in relationship to the people around us, then I suspect that it’s not a spiritual life.”

– Zencast 131, “Integrating Practice with Work”

Check out the “Remember…. you will die” watch from Mr. Jones Watches on Cool Hunter.

There was a disturbance in my heart, a voice that spoke there and said, I want, I want, I want! It happened every afternoon, and when I tried to suppress it, it got even stronger… It never said a thing except I want, I want, I want!

— Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King

A nice slideshow of candid shots taken at ZMM this past fall.

At each moment do not rely on tomorrow,
Think of this day and this hour only,
and of being faithful to the Way while given a life just for today —
for the next moment is uncertain and unknown.

— Dogen, via Helena IR

As a master of Zen archery, Kobun was asked to teach a course at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. The target was set up on a beautiful grassy area on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Kobun took his bow, notched the arrow, took careful aim, and shot. The arrow sailed high over the target, went past the railing, beyond the cliff, only to plunge into the ocean far below. Kobun looked happily at the shocked students and shouted, “Bull’s eye!!”

- Kobun Chino, via Hardcore Zen

Inhaling, exhaling
Moving forward, moving back
Living, dying, coming, going —
Like two arrows, let flown each to each,
meet midway and slice
the void in continual flight —
Thus, I return home.

- Gesshu Soko, 1696, via Salon.com

What is this true meditation?
It is to make everything:
coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness,
words, action, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame,
gain and loss, right and wrong,
into one single koan

- Hakuin, via ZenFrog

This is an actual Hallmark card that I picked up one day. Hmmm… Do you think the artist had Joshu’s Mu on the brain? : )

(Or lack thereof.)  An article with a decidedly different perspective on these classic superheroes.  But reader beware… it just may spoil the whole superhero thing for you. 

With mind numbing entries like:

“My knee had a slight itch.  I reached out my hand and scratched the knee in question. The itch was relieved and I was able to continue with my activities.”
- Dullest Blog

Something Zen about putting the spotlight on these ordinary moments… between “activities”.  : )

A new translation of Dogen’s Shobogenzo is available online, courtesy of Shasta Abbey.  It is very readable and in a printer friendly PDF format.

This is a great explanation of all the bowing that goes on in Zen…  Gassho!

This is a provocative article on Zen and reincarnation…  Probably a different perspective than you’ll get in most Buddhist circles, I gather.

Some nice winter shots of my favorite monastery… up in the Catskill Mountains of New York…

You are pure.
Nothing touches you.
What is there to renounce?

Let it all go,
The body and the mind.

Let yourself dissolve.

Like bubbles in the sea,
All the worlds arise in you.

Know you are the Self.
Know you are one.

Let yourself dissolve.

You see the world.
But like the snake in the rope,
It is not really there.

You are pure.

Let yourself dissolve.

You are one and the same
In joy and sorrow,
Hope and despair,
Life and death.

You are already fulfilled.

Let yourself dissolve.

– Ashtavakra Gita

Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
Will not stay still.

– T. S. Eliot