The Empty Mirror is Janwillem van de Wettering's memoir of his time at a Japanese Zen monastery where he stayed for over a year in the late 1950s.
Tag: Zen
The Moon in the Water, the Body in the Mirror
Samurai Yagyu Munenori uses the popular Zen image of the moon reflected in the water to explain its application in martial arts training.
How to Dance? Lessons from a Zen Master
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.
Bodhidharma’s Bloodstream Sermon
Bodhidharma's fundamental teaching was that the Buddha can only be found in the mind since its essence is mind itself.
The Great, Generous Laugh
Susan Murphy's book, The Red Thread, addresses the guts and gore of the flesh-and-blood humans who sustain spiritual practice in the midst of desire, mortality and heartbreak.
Kodo Sawaki Gathered Together: Arthur Braverman’s ‘Discovering the True Self’
Arthur Braverman gathers all of Kodo Sawaki's teachings together in his impressive new book on the Zen Master.
Returning Home – From Keizan Jokin’s Zazen Yojinki
The Zazen Yojinki, written by 14th century Japanese master Keizan Jokin, covers the fundamental aspects of zazen, the form of Zen meditation.
Respecting Ourselves, Respecting Things
Zenkei Blanche Hartman discusses respect for the physical world, which starts with respect for ourselves, grounded in interconnectedness.
Eihei Dogen – Death Poem
A death poem was composed on one's deathbed, with the aim of encapsulating the understanding of impermanence at that moment.
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