The point of zazen, says Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, is to live each moment in complete combustion, like a clean-burning kerosene lamp. In this talk at the Tassajara sesshin in the summer of 1969, the great Zen master explains Dogen’s teaching on practicing within imperfection and warns against the arrogance of the false self.
Steadfast in the Midst of Samsara
Shinshu Roberts examines the suffering inherent in the bodhisattva path, what Dogen referred to as being “the blue lotus in the flame.”
What Are the Three Minds?
Zen master Dogen wrote that someone working to benefit others should maintain three minds: magnanimous mind, parental mind, and joyful mind.
You Can’t Meditate Wrong
Barry Magid says Buddhist practice is like looking in a mirror — there’s no wrong way to do it. The important thing is to be yourself.
Dogen’s Instructions for Zazen
Shine the light inward. Body and mind will drop away. A meditation instruction from Eihei Dogen, one of Buddhism’s greatest teachers.
Trust Practice, Practice Trust
Photo by David Gabriel Fischer.When we truly give ourselves over to practice, explains Roko Sherry Chayat, we let go of our dependence on outcomes and begin to trust just being what we are, buddhanature, revealed right here, right now, in this very body and place.
Bearing Witness to All of Life
Roshi Bernie Glassman on the three pure precepts — cease from evil, do good, and do good for others — and why they all come down to one point.
Becoming the Mountains and Rivers
When we know something intimately, taught Dogen, it ceases to exist and so do we. John Daido Loori Roshi examines this teaching.
The Naked Nature of Time
The late Dainin Katagiri Roshi explores Dogen’s concept of Being-Time and how to work with it in our daily lives.
A Zen read of the visual language of “Arrival”
If the new film Arrival had you thinking about “Zen circles,” you’re not the only one. Buddhadharma Deputy Editor Koun Franz on the happy accident of the film’s unique approach to alien communication.