anbanindex1540

There is a common misunderstanding that insight into emptiness and enlightenment liberate a person from concern about the state of the world. One Zen teacher recently posted on a Buddhist Facebook page that a report by over a hundred scientists recently indicated that we have entered an era of mass extinctions largely due to climate change. The post encouraged taking care of the planet the way we care for our zendos. Responses were largely positive, but a few people responded that we should not worry but should just sit and become enlightened; everything is impermanent, so essentially, who cares? In other places, I have seen people make the case that since all things are empty of selfhood, there are no beings who suffer, so there is no cause for us to be concerned about beings who are suffering. Another take is that "I just cultivate my own inner peace, and other people need to cultivate theirs. Their suffering is just in their minds (and not in mine)." So there is this idea...

Racism in America is one of our nation's collective traumas.  Racism is a particularly potent form of intersectional oppression that results in disproportionate levels of poverty, incarceration, and suffering for people of color. We feel the trauma of racism in many different ways depending in part on how we identify. The feelings that arise are dependent on our circumstances, but we all suffer. Sometimes white people have the courage to turn toward the trauma of race in America. It is common in these moments to feel overwhelmed by the scope and history of the problem and by the intensity of feelings involved. Therefore, e ven well-meaning white people sometimes neglect the simmering pain caused by racism in America and deny our own complicity. But we pay prices for this, including disconnectedness from the lived experiences of people of color and disconnectedness from our own hearts.  People of color do not have the same freedom to take breaks from consciousness of racism. Sy...

My son is graduating from high school. He is my second and last child. My daughter graduated a few years ago and is in college. Soon, my wife Sandra and I will be empty-nesters.  As part of a graduation present, I digitized a collection of videos from when my kids were young. Last night I watched those videos for the first time.  Every parent thinks this, but in my case, it is true: my children were the cutest, most adorable creatures to ever walk the face of the earth. Now, they are both quite mature adults, and they are headed into this world to make their mark. I am in awe of them both. I won't go on bragging about them. Not particularly seemly. But I am very proud.  And I am also sad.  A poignant nostalgia swept over me watching those videos as I transferred them to USB's to share with them. How I longed to kiss their rounded cheeks once again. The videos were filled with laughter and adventures -- trick or treating tigers and princesses, Godzilla destroying citi...

In the Bahiya Sutta , a wise yet humble devotee named Bahiya loses his confidence in his practice and seeks the Buddha. When he finds him, he asks three times, "Teach me." Buddha's response helps Bihaya realize and transcend the relative and absolute truths. Buddha says, "Herein, Bahiya, you should train yourself thus: 'In the seen will be merely what is seen; in the heard will be merely what is heard; in the sensed will be merely what is sensed; in the cognized will be merely what is cognized.' In this way you should train yourself, Bahiya. When, Bahiya, for you in the seen is merely what is seen... in the cognized is merely what is cognized, then, Bahiya, you will not be 'with that.' When, Bahiya, you are not 'with that,' then, Bahiya, you will not be 'in that.' When, Bahiya, you are not 'in that,' then, Bahiya, you will be neither here nor beyond nor in between the two. Just this is the end of suffering.... freed from form a...

what to do with your goat in a drowning world hear the helicopters come over the roof water's up to my attic windows and I'm stuck here with my goat I can see my neighbor in the hole on his roof he's got two dachsies and a tomcat just across the rushing river is his sister she's cradling her baby and a rooster circling helicopters circling helicopters will take me but not my goat will lift me up from muck and flood but they won't take my neighbor's dogs or cat or his sister's baby's rooster helicopters overhead nation to the rescue take the people damn their friends I'm not going without my goat he's not going without his pets baby won't leave without her rooster lord oh lord why don't we have an ark that's the helicopters leaving that's the nation to the rescue leaving us here in the dark              - Andrei Codrescu Buddhists are called by compassion to alleviate suffering in the world. While there are innumerable forms this p...

In the first case of the  Blue Cliff Record , Bodhidharma, who at least mythologically is credited with bringing Buddhism from India to China, was asked by the Emperor of China, "Who are you?" Bodhidharma responded, "I don't know." In Case 20 from  The Book of Equanimity , Dizang asked Fayan, “What do you think of wandering?” Fayan answered, “I don’t know.” Dizang said, “Not knowing is most intimate.” Seung Sahn also used to encourage his students, "Only don't know!" What is this "no knowing" that is so celebrated in Zen? As an English, philosophy, and Zen teacher, I have a hearty appreciation of language, definitions, and concepts. Indeed, each is an important aspect of the Dharma, the Buddha's teachings. But the Dharma really comes alive when we acknowledge the limits of our knowledge. For example, though we may know the dictionary definition of "I", when we open to the possibility that we, like Bodhidharma, do not fully c...

What follows is a dharma talk I offered to Morning Star Zen Sangha via Zoom on the evening of March 18, 2020. I explored Yunmen's "Medicine and Disease" from the Blue Cliff Record as COVID-19 spread around the world. Yuanwu's Introduction: For the clear-eyed person there are no holes to fall into. Sometimes on the summit of a lonely peak the grass grows in profusion; Sometimes in the middle of the bustling marketplace he is naked and exposed. Suddenly the angry Nada reveals his three heads and six arms; Suddenly Sun-face Buddha and Moon-face Buddha release their all-embracing merciful light. The entire body is revealed in a speck of dust. Becoming ordinary people, one blends with mud and mixes with water. If one were suddenly to reveal the opening of the highest realization, even the eye of a Buddha could not see it. Even if a thousand sages were to appear, they would have to retreat three thousand miles. Is there anyone who has attained and realized to this state? T...