Category: Zen Masters

  • Quotes – From Inside the Grass Hut

    Reading “Inside the Grass Hut” by Ben Connelly, an analysis of Shitou’s “Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage”.  When we look out a window or sit in a small space, it includes you and the entire world, the entire universe.  What you do in that moment impacts you, the space, and the world, and you yourself…

  • Zen Master – Shitou Xiqian (700-790)

    Zen Master Shitou Xiqian is famous for two poems that are classic Zen texts. I recently started reading “Inside the Grass Hut” by Ben Connelly which analyzes each line of “Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage” and discusses the significance in our world today. The author mixes his own experiences and applies the teachings to…

  • Poem – To Zen Master Ryokan

    The great fool’s voice echos through empty hallways and into the grand chamber where the king sits in disobedience listening with half a heart while the other disappears into darkness.

  • Book Review – Cultivating the Empty Field

    This is a follow-up to my previous post about the book “Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi”. This book is edited and translated by Taigen Dan Leighton and Yi Wu. I would consider this a classic Zen text and one every practitioner, from beginnings to masters should have. Included are…

  • Book – Not answers, but where to look

    The one single book that has helped me to focus, let go, and where to find the answers is “Cultivating the Empty Field” by Zen Master Hongzhi. This was recommended years ago by Hanakia Zedek, and along with his friendship, has truly been life changing.

  • Zen Master – Quote by Dogen

    Eihei Dogen (1200-1253) Founder of Japanese Soto Zen “Studying the Buddha Way is studying oneself.  Studying oneself is forgetting oneself.  Forgetting oneself is being enlightened by all things.  Being enlightened by all things is causing the body-mind of oneself and the body-mind of others to be shed.  There is ceasing the traces of enlightenment, which…

  • Masters – Shitou Xiqian – Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage

    Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage, written by Shitou Xiqian  (700 – 790). I’ve built a grass hut where there’s nothing of value. After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap. When it was completed, fresh weeds appeared. Now it’s been lived in – covered by weeds. The person in the hut lives here calmly, Not stuck…

  • Masters – Shitou Xiqian – Harmony of Difference and Equality

    The poem Harmony of Difference and Equlity (or Sameness) is a classic Chan Zen poem known for its concise and high-level insight of Buddhism, written by Shitou Xiqian  (700 – 790). This translation below is courtesy of Sacred-Texts. Harmony of Difference and Sameness 竺土大仙心 The mind of the great sage of India 東西密相付 is intimately transmitted…

  • On “Dualism”

    I am reading the “Cultivating the Empty Field” for the second time, and also Dogen’s “Moon in a Dewdrop”. From this perspective I have been working to understand Dualism and Nondualism. In a nutshell, here are my thoughts, and I want to see if I am even close to understanding the basic concepts. In Nondualism: 1.…

  • Empty Field Dharma Resources

    I have read many books, different views, and different schools of thought. Everything I study now is focused on Japanese and Tibetan Buddhism, which have slightly varied paths, for lack of a better word. When I read and think about each, the Japanese makes more sense and resonates deeper within. 1. Tibetan Buddhism Mahayana –…