Poems of DogenIn part to resurrect a thread of Pipedreams. Dogen was a 13th century zen master. His greatest work - of essays and sermons - is his Shobogenzo or "The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye." Also there is the Eihei Kōroku which contains his poetry,... See More » (1)
Pema Chodron on Loving-kindnessA short "sermon" on maitri (loving-kindness) by Pema Chodron.. When people start to meditate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, they often think that somehow they're going to improve, which is a sort of subtle aggression against who... See More »
Warnings abound!From the "Waters and Mountains Sutra" of Dogen:- An old buddha has said, “If you wish to avoid the karma of Avīci hell, do not slander the true Dharma wheel of the Thus Come One.” These words should be engraved on skin, flesh, bones, and marrow,... See More »
The sound of the marketplacePoems are not ephemeral things. At best they travel heart to heart. Maybe they can also bring forth true communion, the deepest form of communication. The finger that points at the moon becomes the moon itself. Reading the various details of Dogen's... See More »
Bombu's (foolish being)From "A Glossary of Pure Land Terms" as found in the Collected Works of Shinran:- Bombu:- A person possessed of blind passions and ignorance. One of the Sanskrit equivalents of foolish being is bala, which has various connotations: immature, silly,... See More »
The Blue Cliff RecordThe Blue Cliff Record is a collection of 100 zen koans. Pretty esoteric stuff for the unwary, like myself....😀 As well as the actual book, I also have a commentary on it, written by a couple of zen masters of yesteryear, this called "Secrets of the... See More »
The end of sufferingOften the Buddha is recorded as saying that he taught "this and this alone, suffering and the end of suffering." He was silent on virtually all the metaphysical questions - the so called "silence of the Buddha". We all want answers, but you don't... See More » (1)
The DharmaThe Buddha did not teach Buddhism. He taught the Dharma, the law. He did not teach a set of beliefs or dogmas, or systems that have arbitrarily to be accepted. Through his own experience of enlightenment, he pointed the way for each of us to... See More »