Japanese Zen Master Eihei Dogen invokes an oceanic state of non-identification as something that expresses the true Dharma, or our true nature, according to the teachings of Buddha.
A death poem was composed on one’s deathbed, with the aim of encapsulating the understanding of impermanence at that moment.
Dogen answers the questions of his students regarding monastic renunciation – how can one have faith that one’s basic needs will be met?
Kahlil Gibran’s poem on the fear of dissipation is a call to faith, to trust in the oceanic nature of the life-manifesting force.
Photographer Marcia Lieberman’s new book, Clean Slate, is a meditation on nature and temple gardens made in the footsteps of 13th century Japanese Zen master Dogen.
Jundo Cohen paints a picture of the universe as an integrated and indivisible dance, in which certain elements temporarily swirl out then return to the whole.
Danielle Pieratti’s ‘Rubric for Burying a Hen’ is a heartbreaking account of what it is to fail to sustain someone or something in our care.
In this short chapter from the Shobogenzo, Sho-ji, Dogen plays with the distinction between the nuances of the two different meanings, life and death being static and self-defined events, which he argues have no substance or existence, and living and dying which are an endless flow of events and dynamic being
The Jijuyu Zanmai is the second section of the first part of Dogen’s Bendowa – ‘The Endeavor of the Way’ and concerns the experience of zazen itself. The whole text of the Bendowa is held in high esteem as being Dogen’s best and most comprehensible explanation of his understanding of Zen and the Dharma. There are… Continue reading Jijuyu Zanmai – Master Dogen’s Self-Receiving and Employing Samadhi
The Fukanzazenki is a 13th century Japanese text that provides the most fundamental instructions for Zen meditation, including details on the ideal environment and posture for practice.
