Today is Mothers Day
Today is Mothers Day . . . for me as for many of us here, this day’s observance is a bittersweet reminder that “all things pass quickly away…” Remembering my mom wakens an urgency to inquire into the Great Matter, into mortality, life and death. Remembering her is a first step into this terrible mystery. Just what is going on here anyway? In Case 47 of the Mumonkan, the priest Doushuai set up three barriers to test his students. One of these barriers begins like this: When you have realized your self-nature, you are free of birth and death....
Read MoreOn Feeling Lost – Madelon Bolling
The koan here is case 1 in Zen Echoes; also found as Case 1 in the Book of Equanimity and Case 92 in the Blue Cliff Record. One day, the World-Honored One ascended the seat. When the great assembly had gathered and settled down, Mañjuśri struck his gavel and said, “Observe deeply the Dharma of the Dharma King; the Dharma of the Dharma King is like this.” The World-Honored One then came down from the seat. In response to this koan, Zen master Miaozong declared: The true teaching has been transmitted in its entirety. The Buddhadharma is like this! Sitting around the room here,...
Read MoreEngaging The Bodhisattva Precepts: a talk by Leland Shields on October 8, 2017
It seems civility is violated daily in our public discourse. White supremacists seem newly emboldened as we saw in Charlottesville. Early this year in our own state, respected professor Bret Weinstein objected to a proposed demonstration on the Evergreen State College campus, and received death threats. Also this year, the Dallas News reported that Representative Tony Tinderholt received death threats over his bill to abolish abortion. More recently and while I was writing this talk, yet another senseless mass shooting occurred, this time in Las Vegas. Internationally, Buddhists are not...
Read MoreObserving: A Midsummer Retreat – A talk by Madelon Bolling, (July 9, 2017)
The predecessor of this midsummer retreat was called “Ancient Bones.” They say it was discontinued because fewer and fewer people could attend at all. Even with allowances for our limitations, it had become too arduous for those with ancient bones. I bought pre-paid cremation services for my dad a couple weekends ago and we scattered my brother-in-law’s ashes on the Fourth of July. We’re all of us facing death from the instant we are born. We can’t face away from it since it is part of life itself. Death is seen as an end, the ending of everything. No more fun and no more...
Read MorePurify – Already Pure, A Talk by Leland Shields (July 8, 2017)
In Red Pine’s translation of the Platform Sutra, it begins with these words of Hui neng and then those of a narrator within the text: “Good friends, purify your minds by reciting the teaching of Mahaprajnaparamita.” Then the Master stopped speaking, while he purified his own mind. (Red Pine, The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teachings of Hui-neng, 2006, p. 73) This can be a simple introduction, including a moment of Zazen meditation, or chanting one of the Prajnaparamita Sutras silently or out loud. The Prajnaparamita sutras are the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra. Red Pine believed it...
Read MoreZen Practice: What About Thinking? – a talk by Madelon Bolling
Zen Practice: What About Thinking? In Zazen Universally Recommended, Dogen says: Think without thoughts. How do you think without thoughts? Nonthinking. This is the essential art of zazen. I am assuming that at least some here besides me wrestle with this unwieldy thing called thinking? If not, please just enjoy the story. Some years ago there was a gathering here at Dharma Gate where we were invited to ask practice questions. At last! I thought, and I asked how to deal with thoughts when sitting zazen. One of the senior students, triumphantly quoted Dogen: “Think without...
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