Sublime

But koans also take us beyond kensho. If kensho is a lurch into the boundless, selfless universe of enlightenment, then afterward we still need to gradually cultivate our embodiment of what we have experienced. One way to do this is to train with koan after koan, gradually integrating the experience into ordinary life. More “openings” may befall us

The Buddha is not attached to the appearance of buddhahood but manifests a buddha’s lack of self.

looked

The late British Zen master Hōun Jiyu-Kennett, born Peggy Kennett, had a vivid way of capturing the sense of inner release that can come from grasping just how intractable our human limitations really are. Her teaching style, she liked to say, was not to lighten the burden of the student, but to make it so heavy that he or she would put it down.

My uncle, the yogi, came to see me at my father's house just after he had witnessed this event, and his eyes were full of tears as he told me about it. He said it was a terrible tragedy that none of us had known enough to recognize that this seemingly ordinary person, living so close to us, had actually been a verygreat practitioner, from whom we c

Shen-hsiu and Hui-neng, the two contenders to become the Fifth Patriarch’s successor, had written their competing poems on the monastery wall previously scheduled for scenes from the Lanka that the patriarchship and the future direction of Zen was decided.

Bodhiruchi,

Shobogenzo

On December 7, 1857, the shogun Tokugawa Iesada granted Harris an audience in the Hall of State Ceremonies.