In Hirshfield's poem, calamity turns to calmness when things turn into themselves, a principle that goes to the heart of transformative practice.
Tag: Buddhism
Shangyang Fang – Chaconne
Fang's beautiful and complex poem addresses the questions of sin and redemption against the background of a young monk entering a monastery.
The Full Awareness of Breathing
In the Anapanasati Sutta, the Buddha presents a visceral kind of practice with the breath, that illuminates the experience of joy, calm and impermanence.
Body Like a Rag, Mind Like a Mirror – Guo Gu Breaking Through Boundaries
Chan teacher Guo Gu on silent illumination, punk music and his teacher Sheng Yen's legacy.
Surviving Intact – Norman Fischer on Zen, Language and Growing Old
Zen teacher and poet Norman Fischer on where and how poetry and Zen practice meet and interact.
Buddhism’s Most Basic Teaching: Everything Changes
Shunryu Suzuki on our inability to accept the truth that we and everything around us are in a state of constant flux.
The Struggle of a Buddha’s Wife
The Buddha's abandonment of his wife is a thorny subject in a tradition that has generally promoted equality.
Better Than We Think: Directing Self-Love
Sharon Salzberg on why the richest way of loving means starting with our very selves.
Bradley Samore – There Was Never a Door
There Never Was a Door was composed at Hokyoji, a Zen Practice Community in Minnesota. The passage to the abandoned shed without a door echoes Nicholas Trandahl's pilgrimage to the hidden Chapel as well as Shitou's Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage. There Was Never a DoorFor Dokai Minutes before the opening actof the play… Continue reading Bradley Samore – There Was Never a Door
Which are the Unanswerable Questions?
Although the spirit of inquiry is at the heart of Buddhist practice, there are some questions that the Buddha deemed to be unanswerable, and discouraged his followers from asking. These are the deeply existential questions that seek answers about the nature of the self, the origin of the self and the state of the self… Continue reading Which are the Unanswerable Questions?