People who haven’t awakened to the true nature haven’t fulfilled their mission as humans. For other creatures, even insects, there is no need for awakening. They are nature as they are. Humans have fallen from their natural state because of… Read More ›
That’s true (laughs). My teacher said that I should go to Eiheiji, not for practice but to see what it’s like there. You hear Eiheiji, Eiheiji, all the time and you think it must be an extraordinary place, but you go there and see it for yourself and you realize that it is nothing special — ‘This is all it is?’ Then you can relax and get down to practising. That’s the reality, isn’t it?
And he [Uchiyama Kôshô Roshi] told us ‘to look at zazen and not at him as our teacher’. It’s almost as if he knew some of us would become disappointed in him and he didn’t want our disappointment to carry over into our zazen…
During my stay at Antaiji I came into contact with five teachers of Zen. Three, I met, and two I learned of through their heirs and their writings. All of these teachers were, in some capacity, connected with Antaiji, a small poor temple in Kyoto…
The village was in a valley surrounded by mountains and grasslands covered with sheep. The villagers welcomed them in and shared their food. Though their dialect was incomprehensible to the Tibetans and Chinese, these country folk brought tea to their guests and treated them like royalty…
All of you! If you want to return to your homes, simply wake up to your true nature/strong>. This mind-nature is the original source of all Buddhas.
Arthur Braverman was born in 1942 in NY. After living in Nigeria for two years through Peace Corps he went to Japan to study Zen Buddhism.
Buddhism now 