The Awakened Self, Harada Sekkei Roshi

Posted on 21 May 2013 by Buddhism Now

The following is from a 1993 television programme, ‘The Awakened Self’—an interview with Harada Sekkei, abbot of Hosshinji Training Monastery by Shiratori Motoo, a former NHK-TV presenter.

Mr Shiratori: Excuse me for disturbing you during the middle of sesshin.

Harada Roshi: Thank you for coming.

S: Sesshin is a time when people concentrate on zazen. This is an important thing in Zen, isn’t it?

Roshi: Yes. Going back for quite a long time, sesshin is an important activity which has been strictly practised in Zen temples. Although it may sound a bit strange to say, sesshin is very effective or fruitful for a person’s zazen. It’s definitely a way of expanding a person’s state of mind.

S: You follow quite a strict schedule during sesshin, don’t you?

Dartington Hall, Totnes, DevonRoshi: We get up at 4:00 am and until 9:00 pm spend most of our time in the zendo. We, of course, sleep in the zendo, as well as eat there, too.

S: You really pack it in, don’t you?

Roshi: Yes. But not only within the zendo, in the individual rooms or while drinking tea after meals as well. These activities must all be Zen. Zen is walking, sitting, standing, and lying down; in other words, all of our everyday activities. My request is that especially during sesshin everyone concentrates on each activity. (more…)

Filed under: Buddhism, Ch'an / Seon / Zen, History, News & events | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

The End of the Story, by John Aske

Posted on 16 May 2013 by Buddhism Now

Watchfulness is the path to immortality and thoughtlessness the path to death. The watchful do not die, but the thoughtless are already like the dead.

[Dhammapada v21]

Photo of a moss wall in Devon, EnglandWhen we wake from a dream, we seem to leave a fantasy world and enter staid reality again. But we have merely exchanged one kind of story for another.

We feel we need those beginnings, middles and ends. We build a world in our minds, which is a copy of the real world and deal with that in preference to the original. And we only update it when something goes wrong and our copied version clearly does not fit. We need a landscape made of time to find our way round. Even our memories are constructed and edited all the time. When we go back to look at familiar things many years later, they don’t look the same. We change and adapt all the time, not only physically, but mentally and as we do so we alter all those monuments and memories to make them fit the things that are around us now, and the way we would like to remember things. (more…)

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Recognising the Thinker, by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Posted on 11 May 2013 by Buddhism Now

Tulku Urgyen RinpocheOnce you have truly received the pointing-out instruction and recognised mind essence, becoming enlightened through training is not out of reach; it is in your own hands. You can remind yourself to recognise your mind essence as often as possible. If you train in this way, you can be liberated even if you spend your entire day doing something as simple as grazing cattle. If not—if you know all the words of the Dharma but don’t really experience the essential meaning—the mo­ment you depart from this life you will just roam about in confusion. This is the essential point.

There is another thing that I would like to say. The Buddha was totally awakened and saw the three times as clearly as if they were held in the palm of his own hand. The teachings are based on this immense clarity. We don’t have to speculate about whether the words of the Buddha are true or not. I am not saying this because I am a Buddhist, but because it is really true. It is not the same as certain spiritual sys­tems taught by unenlightened beings who had some partial insight and gave some portion of the truth but not the complete picture. Because of not being enlightened themselves and not having this completely unimpeded clarity, they were not able to teach in the same way as a fully enlightened buddha. This is something to bear in mind. I am not being prejudiced here, but it is really true that we don’t have to judge the words of a fully enlightened being. They have already been checked thoroughly. (more…)

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Two Worlds make One, by Diana St Ruth

Posted on 4 May 2013 by Buddhism Now

Prajnaparamita Java commons wikimediaPeople sometimes say that the world is progressing towards being wiser, fairer, more civilised. But I do wonder about that. There’s a lot of unrest and disorder in our world at the moment—politically, economically, socially, and not much regard for individual suffering. Is this new or is it just more of the same since time began—just the old world going round and round?

In Buddhist terms one can see that the world is merely the outward manifestation of greed, hatred and delusion (samsara), and what is happening is to be expected. How can it be otherwise while greed, hatred and delusion reign? There is no suggestion, of course, that one should not try to do something about that world out there as well as the world within. Of course we should; that is our job as Buddhists, isn’t it, to work on greed, hatred and delusion—especially within ourselves? (more…)

Filed under: Beginners, Buddhism, Diana St Ruth | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Words of love, Iida Toin

Posted on 2 May 2013 by Buddhism Now

Daruma by Iida Toin. Image © Shambhala PublicationsIida Toin (a Soto Zen master of the early twentieth centu­ry) remarked once: Words of love are not always kindly words. Let us look at a specific case. Suppose I’ve never been healthy, and my general physical condition is getting worse and worse. No serious illness yet, but I recognize that I have to do something about it; my life situation demands that I get well quickly. So I put myself in the hands of an expert who gives me a programme which includes an early morning run followed by a cold shower and all sorts of restrictions on diet and late nights. The body grumbles: Oh no! I can’t stand this! or, Oh, not that again! and Can’t we have just one day off? and so on. The programme has to be imposed on the body, imposed by force. The body finds it hateful. But the basis is love, and after a few months the body is grateful for the new vigour and zest in physical movement.

There is a Japanese poem that says if the mother loves the child, then when she slaps it it is right, and when she gives it a sweet it is right, and when she ignores it it is right, and when she makes a fuss of it, that too is right. But if it is a stepmother who secretly hates the child, then when she slaps it it is wrong, when she gives it a sweet it is wrong, when she ignores it, that is wrong, and when she makes a fuss of it, that too is wrong.

We have to realize that life cannot be always easy and pleasant. Suppose there is a child who is very talented musically and is studying the piano under a good teacher. It is not always going to be pleasant. The child wants to play, it is true, but not scales. The child wants to play the waltzes of Strauss or Gungl, but not Bach or Beethoven. Some force has to be used, but that force is based on insight and love, not of the unformed taste of the child, but of the talent that is awaiting development.

Extract from The Old Zen Master, by Trevor Leggett,
Buddhist Publishing Group

Scroll

He comes and goes hundreds of times, so how can you meet him?
Respectfully inscribed by Priest Toin on February 20, Taisho 15 [1925] (Painting sealed by Hoten)

Daruma (Bodhidharma) seems to be sitting still but his inner Zen nature is always moving, so he cannot be pinned down with words. This is actually true of all of us—we are never quite like what we think we are.

Image © Shambhala Publications. Daruma by Iida Toin.

With kind thanks to Shambhala Publications.

Filed under: Art, Buddhism, Ch'an / Seon / Zen, Mahayana, Trevor Leggett | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Impermanence, Interdependence and Emptiness, Ringu Tulku

Posted on 27 April 2013 by Buddhism Now

Ringu Tulku RinpocheRingu Tulku Rinpoche talks on the relationship between three understandings in Buddhist philosophy and how they go hand in hand: Impermanence, Interdependence and, Emptiness. (8mins)

watch the Ringu Tulku Rinpoche video

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The Point of Intersection between the timeless and time, by Ajahn Sumedho

Posted on 20 April 2013 by Buddhism Now

Morning sunrise over Devon, EnglandPeople often believe contemplation is the same as thinking about something. But when I use the word it means rather ‘contemplating what an existing condition is like’. If you feel angry or resentful, contemplate that feeling. This isn’t to say you should try to figure out why or where the feeling came from, but look at the way it is. Let it be and notice what it feels like as an experience in the present.

The three characteristics of impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and not-self (anatta) are the guiding suggestions. Not in the sense of going around thinking that anger is just impermanent, unsatisfactory and not-self, or to project those ideas onto experience, but to look at impermanence and to contemplate it. I remember noticing the passage of time—of how the sun rises and sets—and using impermanence as a subject to contemplate for the day or for several days. We can notice visual change and sound. When an aeroplane flies over or somebody says something, for example, we can be aware of how sound is very definitely impermanent, fleeting, ephemeral. And taste and touch—are these things permanent? No! (more…)

Filed under: Ajahn Chah, Ajahn Sumedho, Biography, Buddhism, History, Metta, Theravada | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Know yourself, Mahesi Caplan

Posted on 9 April 2013 by Buddhism Now

Perspectives on the Awakening Process

Click to watch the video. Image — Street scene watch the video

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An introduction to Zen

Posted on 7 April 2013 by Buddhism Now

Bodhidharma watch the video

Filed under: Art, Buddhism, Ch'an / Seon / Zen, Encyclopedia, History, Video | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

You Are Not A Permanent Person, by Ajahn Sumedho

Posted on 4 April 2013 by Buddhism Now

Sheep on roadside Dartmoor, DevonThe Five Aggregates

One way of dividing up the conditioned realm is into five aggregates (khandhas)—

  1. body (rupa),
  2. feeling (vedana),
  3. perception (sanna),
  4. mental formations (sankhara) and
  5. consciousness (vinnana).

When I first started meditating many years ago, I could understand the definitions of the five aggregates, but I did not know their reality; I had never really contemplated these things in an intuitive way through observing my own body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, or consciousness. Initially, I really only contemplated the physical body, the four elements (earth, fire water and air), the parts of the body (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, etc) and the body itself. I contemplated material things, anything formed. (more…)

Filed under: Ajahn Sumedho, Biography, Buddhism, Buddhist meditation, Metta, Theravada | Tagged: , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

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