Zen Buddhism - Shambhala Publications

23/12/2024

We are sad to share the news that Zen teacher Hozan Alan Senauke passed away on December 22, 2024. We wrote a short remembrance here:

https://www.shambhala.com/remembering-hozan-alan-senauke/

From Berkeley Zen Center:
"With great sadness, we are letting you know that our teacher, friend, and Dharma brother Hozan Kushiki Alan Senauke died this afternoon, December 22, 2024, at 4:15 p.m. We will toll the densho bell in the zendo 108 times.

After a preparatory ceremony his body will lie in the zendo for a day so that sangha members may sit zazen in the zendo with him, starting today at 7 p.m. It will likely conclude tomorrow at the end of the day (specific time to follow).

A rotation of priests and senior students will be in attendance in the zendo. Hot water for tea and light snacks will be in the courtyard/community room for those wishing to be together in that way.

For those who are unable to join in person, please enter the zendo via the Zoom link on BZC's homepage.

May all beings be well. May all beings be at peace. May all beings be free from suffering."

We offer a deep bow to Zen teacher and author Hozan Alan Senauke who passed way on December 22, 2024

20/12/2024

True Presence

Be there truly. Be there with 100 percent of yourself. In every moment of your daily life. That is the essence of true Buddhist meditation. Each of us knows that we can do that, so let us train to live each moment of our daily life deeply. That is why I like to define mindfulness as the energy that helps us to be there 100 percent. It is the energy of your true presence.

— Everyday Peace Cards: 108 Mindfulness Meditations
by Thich Nhat Hanh, Card 3

13/12/2024

Enough Brings Satisfaction

I’ve long relished an English proverb that unites the two aspects of zhizu: “Enough is as good as a feast.” Enough brings satisfaction. Beyond that lies excess, not greater satisfaction. It says a lot about us (and about contentment) that people often wake up to the feast of plain life only when they reach death’s door. There, under the most “reduced circumstances” of all, many a person has discovered the sweetness of things previously too ordinary for them to notice.

— Storehouse of Treasures: Recovering the Riches of Chan and Zen
by Nelson Foster, page 168

10/12/2024

Happy Publication Day to Composting Our Karma!

Barbara Rhodes offers the Korean Zen teaching of don’t-know mind as an antidote to the overthinking, overly-stimulating modern world that is the cause of so much suffering. Rhodes shows us that there are ways we can work with, or “compost,” whatever we’ve got in front of us, digest it into energy that can get us through the rough times, and cultivate a satisfying life. And she offers fascinating insights from her professional life as a nurse, commitment to engaged Buddhism, life experience as a member of the LGBTQ community, use of psychedelics on her spiritual path, and more.

Click the link to order your copy today.
https://www.shambhala.com/composting-our-karma.html

06/12/2024

Only a Small Mess

How has your meditation practice changed you? If you don’t know, ask someone close to you. I had a student who proclaimed that he had been meditating for ten years and hadn’t changed at all. Some of his longtime friends piped up and said, “You used to be a big mess. Now you are only a small mess."

What kind of mess are you now, after taking on meditation practice?

— The Five Ranks of Zen: Tozan's Path of Being, Nonbeing, and Compassion
by Gerry Shishin Wick, page 82

03/12/2024

Happy Publication Day to The Story of the Buddha!

From longtime Zen teacher and poet John Tarrant, this is an original retelling of the foundational myth of Buddhism—the life of the Buddha. Told and retold for centuries, this story holds a special place in the human legacy because it is, ultimately, an investigation of the nature of mind and consciousness. Literary-minded readers and fans of myths and folklore will be especially drawn to the Buddha’s encounters with kings, gods, heroes, monsters, and wise teachers in his spiritual quest.

In this captivating narrative, the author leans into his memories of the Egyptian and Greek myths he encountered as a child. “If we pour ourselves into the story of the Buddha,” he writes, “we enter the journey from an unusual place as far as myths go; we begin where the Odyssey ends.” The Buddha already had everything—a palace, family, food, wealth—yet he was suffocating with discontent. He needed to embark on a journey involving pain, searching, magic, and personal discovery. This led to his awakening and the teachings that form the basis of Buddhism.

John Tarrant frames the story with an intimate, inquisitive introduction and postscript that reflect his decades of studying koans and will resonate with a broad readership. The story of the Buddha is personal—it becomes your own story, opening an unexpected path to awakening. If you listen to the images that arise in its telling, you can find where you are in life and where you are headed.

Click the link to order your copy today.
https://www.shambhala.com/the-story-of-the-buddha.html

29/11/2024

The Emptiness Itself

The Buddha investigated the mind with meditation, wonder, questioning, and helpless persistence. After him, people went into their own hearts to look; they stepped into the silence in which the beginning was still present. You could find the gaps inside anything. Every event and every object had these gaps, and when you rested there, you found a place before loss or death and before a need for healing. From this primordial openness, everything seemed to flower; the emptiness itself had a vast imagination. But you couldn’t take yourself with you.

— The Story of the Buddha
by John Tarrant, page 10

22/11/2024

The Buddha We Already Are

Composting your karma means to take the residual, undigested events and habits and digest them. Just as a compost pile needs tending, so does our karma. Rather than feeling hindered by our karma, we can attend to it. The product in our heathy garden compost is humus, the living part of soil. The product of our composted, digested karma is learned lessons. As we learn our lessons, we become more and more aware. We learn to openly question, and we learn to listen. These lessons open us up to our innate compassion and wisdom. We become the Buddha we already are.

— Composting Our Karma: Turning Confusion into Lessons for Awakening Our Innate Wisdom
by Barbara Rhodes, edited by Elizabeth S. R. Goldstein, page 3

15/11/2024

We Listen Well

The key to listening to people’s pain, paradoxically, is to be clear that we are not responsible for taking it away. The entire study and practice of Buddhadharma is designed to address the problem of human suffering. With time, we come to understand that simply being present to each other is our most basic moral obligation. There may be occasions when we can lend a helping hand. There may be instances when we are obligated to interfere, but more often than not, simple presence provides a context for others to listen to themselves, and that is the real service. Letting go of responsibility for other people’s states of mind is fundamentally liberating. When we feel free of pressure, we are happy to listen, so we listen well. In the context of practice, releasing ourselves from this responsibility is to learn—again and yet again—what it feels like to let go.

—Everything Is Workable: A Zen Approach to Conflict Resolution
by Diane Musho Hamilton, pages 88–89

12/11/2024

Happy Publication Day to The Five Ranks of Zen: Tozan's Path of Being, Nonbeing, and Compassion by Gerry Shishin Wick!

The great Japanese Zen master Hakuin once exclaimed, “How priceless is the merit gained through the step-by-step practice of the Five Ranks of Master Tozan!”⁠
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In The Five Ranks of Zen, American Zen teacher Gerry Shishin Wick offers a comprehensive and accessible entry point to this pinnacle teaching of Zen Buddhism. Wick presents multiple translations and offers thoughtful commentary on both of Zen Master Tozan’s formulations of the Ranks — the Five Ranks of the Relative and the Absolute and the Sequence of Merit — as well as offering guidance on the applications in contemporary life and Zen practice.⁠
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Zen students and practitioners of all levels will benefit from this essential guide to Tozan’s exploration of relative and absolute reality.⁠

→ Learn more: https://www.shambhala.com/the-five-ranks-of-zen.html

12/11/2024

Join David Hinton for a hybrid in-person and online event hosted by Mountain Cloud Zen Center. This Thursday, November 14th, Hinton will be in conversation with Valerie Forstman about “Poetry, Practice, and the Wild Ethics of Love.” This hybrid event is free, and registration is not required.

Click below to learn more.

Thursday, November 14th | 5:30–7:00 PM Meditation begins at 5:30 pm MT, followed by the Dharma Talk (teisho) at 6:00 pm MT. You are invited to join us for an evening with David Hinton at Mountain…

08/11/2024

When Conditions Come Together

Enlightenment and clarity of the mind occur only in response to the sustained effort of study and practice. Endeavoring in the way ripens the conditions of your practice. It is not that the sound of the bamboo is sharp or the color of the blossoms is vivid. Although the sound of the bamboo is wondrous, it is heard at the moment when it’s hit by a pebble. Although the color of the blossoms is beautiful, they do not open by themselves but unfold in the light of springtime. Studying the way is like this. You attain the way when conditions come together. Although you have your own capacity, you practice the way with the combined strength of the community. So you should practice and search with one mind with others.

—The Essential Dogen: Writings of the Great Zen Master
edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt, page 53

01/11/2024

Shift the Mind

Our mind likes to think. It thinks that if it is not thinking, it is failing at its job of guiding and protecting us. However, when the mind becomes overactive, the opposite occurs. Its guidance becomes shrill, even cruel, and its constant warnings fill us with anxiety. How can we put the thinking mind in its proper place and perspective? We shift the mind from thinking to awareness, beginning with full awareness of the body. An essential aspect of Zen practice is walking meditation. Walking meditation helps bring the quiet body/mind of seated meditation into our ordinary active world. Silent walking is a bridge between one side of meditation—silent sitting in pure awareness—and the other side—speaking and moving about. We can challenge ourselves. Can I keep my mind still and focused in the bottoms of my feet for one or two circuits around the room? Or for the entire length of an outdoor walking path? Or from here to the corner?

—Mindfulness on the Go: Simple Meditation Practices You Can Do Anywhere
by Jan Chozen Bays, pages 137–8

25/10/2024

Our True Home

To exercise not-knowing is to favor wonder over fear or mistrust, so that when confronted by someone’s harsh words or actions, the ripe response wants to sound the genuine pain of the other without first approving or dismissing their beliefs. Ripeness is acceptance of the inherently precarious nature of this very moment, for every moment is the universe at its zenith and in the moment of its creation. Live according to this richer state of being here, and it welcomes you. It’s our true home.

—A Fire Runs through All Things: Zen Koans for Facing the Climate Crisis
by Susan Murphy, page 126

18/10/2024

Hear the Calls

When “Who hears?” ripens, it reveals that our listening isn’t centered in what we take to be our self, but somewhere much larger. And the deepest desire of that larger place is to hear the calls, to know that they come from our own chest, and to respond. With joyful relief, we also come to know that our ability to respond isn’t centered in our usual sense of self, but somewhere much larger too.

—Through Forests of Every Color: Awakening with Koans
by Joan Sutherland, page 21

11/10/2024

Your True Self

My greatest wish for you is that you may find your True Self—a version of you that is still you but just happy and free, beyond fear and any self-imposed limitation. To aid you in getting there, I also wish that you may find your own Chozen-ji, whether it’s in the city or the country, in the middle of the ocean or on a high mountain plain. When you read this book, please find encouragement in its pages—encouragement that it is really possible to make progress toward your True Self in our modern, fast-paced world and that there are means to help you do so that have been tested and refined by millions of people over thousands of years, standing the tests of time. May you find in these pages the confirmation that yes, there can be more to being human and that there are ways to train so as to perfect human being. And that, in training hard, it is possible to find your way home.

—Three Years on the Great Mountain: A Memoir of Zen and Fearlessness
by Cristina Moon, page 8

04/10/2024

It Comes as a Doubt

What is critical is our finding a practice. Something that calls out of our being. It’s an intimation, a sense. As we look we notice it probably can be formed as a question. Is there a God? Why do I suffer? Why is the world as it is? It comes as a doubt.

—The Intimate Way of Zen: Effort, Surrender, and Awakening on the Spiritual Journey
by James Ishmael Ford, page 26

03/10/2024

Check out our new interactive timeline of hundreds of essential Zen, Chan, and other East Asian Buddhist figures from the Buddha through those born up to 1940 as well as their books and videos. And more coming soon!