Are You Really Present All the Time?
A Soto Zen priest reflects on whether awakening is possible in this lifetime
Koans
Waking Up Is Letting the Mask Fall
What if who we are is impossible to pin down?
Century-Old Book of Koan Answers Is Still Controversial
Why the recently reissued The Sound of the One Hand: 281 Zen Koans With Answers may not give Zen students the answers they’re looking for
Green Koans Case 54: Nichiren’s One-Eyed Turtle
CASE #54: Nichiren’s One-Eyed Turtle Nichiren Daishonin wrote: “This is as rare as the one-eyed turtle finding a suitable hollow in a floating sandalwood log, or a thread lowered from the heavens passing through the…
Green Koans Case 31: Daito’s Raincoat
CASE #31: Daito’s Raincoat Daito Kokushi wrote a short verse about the rain: No umbrella, getting soaked,I’ll just use the rain as my raincoat. BACKGROUND Daito Kokushi A Japanese Zen master of the Rinzai sect,…
Green Koans Case 61: The Naked Dharma
CASE #61: The Naked Dharma Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen taught: Even if you do not search or study anything, the natural state is always with you from the limitless beginning. There is nothing to lose and nothing…
Green Koans Case 60: Dōgen’s To-Do List
CASE #60: Dōgen’s To-Do List Dōgen Zenji wrote himself a reminder: To study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to…
Green Koans Case 58: Tōhta’s Haunted Sea
CASE #58: Tōhta’s Haunted Sea A poem by the modern avant-guarde haiku poet Kaneko Tōhta reads: In the blue sea wherecormorants and hungry ghostshave already swum BACKGROUND:Kaneko Tōhta Tōhta (b. 1919) is one of the most…
Green Koans Case 57: Shakyamuni’s Ignorant Man
CASE #57: Shakyamuni’s Ignorant Man In the Dhammapada, Shakyamuni Buddha says: The ignorant man is an ox. He grows in size, not in wisdom. BACKGROUND: Dhammapada One of the best known texts in the Theravada canon,…
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