Book review: There have been many translations of this short text over the years, but this is a completely fresh look and the translator comes up with some rather unique conclusions.
Mahayana
Hearing Sounds Through the Eyes, by Jisu Sunim
Sometimes people feel afraid because they don’t know what the teacher is talking about! `How we can face our own reality?’ But the teacher also has difficulty in getting the student’s discursive mind to understand what he is talking about. The best policy for the teacher, then, is to let practitioners continue with their practice, giving them time for some perspective to slowly come into focus. The most chronic disease for people who find it difficult to face reality is, indeed, this discursive mind…
Part 2 Toward Nirvana and From Nirvana, by Professor Masahiro Shimoda
In order that you may gain a clear understanding of the idea of the bodhisattva, I would like to turn your attention to a long-standing discussion in the scholarly world regarding an erroneous belief widely maintained by contemporary scholars. According to their understanding, the bodhisattvas of Buddhist scriptures belong to two almost mutually exclusive categories…
Wisdom Embodied: Chinese Buddhist and Daoist Sculpture
As illuminating for new enthusiasts of Chinese Buddhist art as for scholars and connoisseurs, Wisdom Embodied is a glorious tour of the Metropolitan’s unparalleled collection, certain to ear its place as a classic in the field…
Toward Nirvana and From Nirvana, by Professor Masahiro Shimoda
The process whereby Buddhism—which first began as the deeply internal experience of just one ascetic practitioner—has over time borne fruit within vastly different races, climates, cultures and histories, might be likened to the way volcanic magma breaks through the earth’s crust and gushes heavenwards then flows down in every direction…
The Sound of One Hand: Paintings and Calligraphy by Zen Master Hakuin
Short film about 5 minutes. Hakuin’s self-taught, spontaneous, yet masterly and inspired painting and calligraphy, just like his teachings and writings, expressed the mind and heart of Zen for monks and lay followers alike.
Buddhism: What is So-Called Tathāgata Chan
Chinese Chan masters in the earlier periods did not possess a unified definition of Tathāgata Chan and Patriarchal Chan—instead, they wrote with rather ambiguous meanings and loose definitions…
Part 7 Zazenshin: Acupuncture Needle of Zazen, by Shohaku Okumura
Our practice is not so simple that when we sit in zazen, we automatically have fantastic experiences, become enlightened and no longer have problems! Our practice is not such a simple matter, at least it is not according to Dogen…
