Dharma Wheel

One of my points was that some of this old advice is outdated and medically wrong. So there is more to it, even ethically. You may suffer more when following this advice and thus just experience the opposite of what dharma should be: relief from suffering.

Miroku: No, Miroku, I do find Berzin's article rather useless because he does just repeat questionable content without putting old ethics in a modern context, without taking an educated viewpoint of his own which is necessary when dealing with those texts - thus his article sounds reactionary to me ...

I am 55, publisher and translator, mainly of zen literature, in Germany. I prefer to live in SE-Asia. Rooted in zen for about 35 years now. My influences are manifold. I do not stick to any tradition, though at the time of Joshu Sasaki's death he appeared as a reborn animal in my dream. I talked abo...

The explanation for the sila against sexual misconduct is in Anguttara Nikaya X. 176 und V. 287-292 (Pali Text Society Edition). Therefore kamesu micchacara - kama: sexual; cara: behavior; miccha: wrong exists when the following persons (women) are approached inadequately: - (maturakkhita, piturakkh...

I am used of users ignoring certain "academic" facts in forums. Of xourse there is an atman, I quoted the passage from the MPNS. But one should not understand it literally - not as "self" as opposed to "non-self" as one is used to do - but as s.th. with the given charac...

I actually hoped that others would read the two sutras. My first response should have been: Why don't you look up the sources for yourself? But as it was obviously a moderator asking me for quotes, I was a bit ... more friendly. I see no problem with your quote.On the contrary. What one has to under...

There is nothing unclear to me here. You will not find a teacher that can solve those incongruencies of the scriptures. That is why zen went beyond them. I teach that myself: You will NOT find enlightenment if you get stuck in words and dogma (a.k.a. on a "guaranteed" eightfold path). This...

How would he have known of THE path? He didn't. His path was full of errors. So if this path led to awakening, it is not the eightfold path he taught after awakening. So either he taught the wrong path - because it was not his own, the one with the "mistakes" that nevertheless led to awake...

Sources - Shrimala: Diana Paul (BDK translation) MPNS - Yamato & Page. Page has another translation by Stephen Hodge of another MPNS version which comes to basically the same conclusions (in my mind) but is not public (I got it from Page once when he taught in Bangkok) as Hodge said he would pub...

"The Dharmakāya (essence of truth) of the Buddha has the perfection of permanence, the perfection of pleasure, the perfection of self, the perfection of purity. Whatever sentient beings see the Dharmakāya of the Tathagāta that way, see correctly. Whoever see correctly are called the sons of the...

One of the most interesting explanations of karma I read. Deshimaru learnt from Kodo Sawaki and was a soldier, therefore I guess his rough attitude. In Europe there are many more books by him available, like his comments on all the relevant zen texts (Sandokai, Shinjinmei, Hokkyo Zanmai etc.). Hope ...

On the contrary - open vastness, nothing to hide!
Train your voice before you have your first meeting with such a master and destroy his eardrums with your first katsu!
Then report back.

No, Zen doesn't need it. The Shrimala Sutra in the Mahayana tradition does not only offer an interesting alternative to Bodhisattva vows (more altruistic in my mind) and a philosophy of the atman, it also states that the only important truth is the one that speaks about the overcoming of suffering. ...

Jeffrey Broughton. He is the only one separating the myth from the academic findings. And you will detect much more wisdom from the early chan practitioners, like 'bad karma' being: to think by doing good you would reap good! Broughton's findings go beyond what Pine offers.

Here is a Buddhist response: Thank you for not loving what is not.

The Zazen Boys: I don't wanna be with you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP1-i6CObeo

Shundo Aoyama https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K-PWTaVrHE (French)

Zen Master Yunmen: His Life and Essential Sayings, translated by Urs App, is said to re-appear at Shambala in May 2018. It's a great read. Yunmen is more than the Ummon we know from the koan collections, he is a giant.

I recommend the work of Hanshan Deqing whom I just have translated into German with a selection of his work. You will find English texts online where he describes the relationship of Zen and Pure Land. He is quite a good read, a very talented writer.