Heaven Teacher

You should entreat trees and rocks to preach the Dharma, 

and you should ask rice fields and gardens for the truth.  

Ask pillars for the Dharma and learn from hedges and walls. 

Dogen Kigen. from “Bowing, Prostrating the Marrow”

Face of buddha

Refreshing----

face of buddha

in each moment....

*****

There is within...moon;

There is within...leaf;

There is within...river;

There is within...wind;

There is within...

That which is named buddha,

appearing in each step,

at each door...

*****

A human being is part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. 

Albert Einstein

Original Mind

Shinichi  Maruyama

Studying texts and stiff meditation can make you lose your Original Mind.

A solitary tune by a fisherman though, can be an invaluable treasure.

Dusk rain on the river, the moon peeking in and out of the clouds;

Elegant beyond words, he chants his songs night after night.

*****

the mind is exactly this tree, that grass

without thought or feeling both disappear

Ikkyū

Snake Or Stick

Zen  Sutaffu

Three Treasures

Lance Kinseth, Three Treasures, 2005

THREE TREASURES: Buddha, Dharma, Sangha

The three treasures, if attained, not three at all.

Without direct realization, the very gateless, inseparable treasure seems distanced, and so no cure for suffering.

For human beings, Dharma remains a truth-gate rather than a key.

In the painting, What can be seen?

With direct realization, not three; no more Buddha, Dharma, Sangha medicine, not even Zen medicine,

Then that which exists: no birth, no death; unborn

Still, even with a brilliant adamantine fall, in each moment, a little stench of awakening, an afterglow of sorts taints awareness.

Ko Bong / Ancient Peak

Zen practice, contact lkinseth@yahoo.com for reading suggestions, discussion, za.

L

Your Preciousness Cannot Be Lost

You should understand that no thing ever falls short of its own completeness.

John Daido Loori, from “Commentary” [on Panshan’s 

awakening], in Kazuaki Tanahashi and John Daido Loori, 

Translators. The True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s 

Three Hundred Koans, p.29

*****

Everything has one thing.  This one thing swallowed heaven, earth, and everything.  

If you want to find it, it is already far away. 

Yong Song, from “”214. What Is One Thing?,” in 

Seung Sahn, The Whole World Is A Single Flower, p.134