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Treeleaf Zen

. Leon and I continue our father-son travels. Today, on the ‘Shinkansen’ (The ‘Bullet Train’), coming home very late and both very tired. So, it was a good place for our Zazen sitting … … traveling at fast speeds, there is no where we can go … . Click on picture to ‘play’ (Sitting Time:…

.A discussion of McDonalds on the Treeleaf Forum … coupled with the fact that it is a ‘Father & Son’ weekend (mom is at an Ai-ki-do meet) … has led Leon and I to the playground at the local Golden Arches in Tsukuba. It is not the first time I have sat Zazen at McD’s…

. A monk asked Master Joshu, “Why did Bodhidharma come from the west?” Joshu responded, “The tree in the garden.” The tree in the Treeleaf garden was a Japanese Pine … about 50 years old, when we counted the rings after. Ah, impermanence … we had a taste today … . Press on arrow for…

.While Zazen is at the heart of our Way, other aspects of traditional Zen Practice also should be introduced and encouraged. I have been meaning to do so more and more around Treeleaf. One of the most vital is the non-doing of ‘Samu’ (traditional work practice) … Samu is well described in this excerpt ……

.There are many Koans about Zen Masters waving about their staffs. Three of those Koans happen to illuminate the very same point … I – Shuzan held out his short staff and said, “If you call this a short staff, you oppose its reality. If you do not call it a short staff, you ignore…

Master Zhaozhou (Jap.: Joshu) has this story … Zhaozhou went to a hermit’s cottage and asked, “Is the master in? Is the master in?” The hermit raised his fist. Zhaozhou said, “The water is too shallow to anchor here,” and he went away. Coming to another hermit’s cottage, he asked again, “Is the master in?…

Master Dongshan (Jap.: Tozan) had this exchange with Master Yunyen (Ungan). It involves a Hossu, the horsehair fly swatter or whisk, one of the traditional implements of a Zen Teacher … Dongshan asked, “What sort of person is able to hear the Dharma expounded by insentient beings?” Yunyen said, “Insentient beings are able to hear…

From a talk on Fukanzazengi by Taitaku Pat Phelan (Chapel Hill Zen Center) . “A mallet” refers to the first case of the Shoyoroku, or Book of Equanimity, which is a Soto Zen koan collection. One day the World Honored One ascended the seat or teaching platform. When Buddha took his place on the raised…

I am hiking in Northern Japan today. It is a very beautiful place, abutting the Oirase River. Sometimes when I encounter a particularly picturesque scene … a grand tree, a massive rock, a moss and fern garden, a waterfall … I try to have a ‘Zen experience‘, to feel a bit of instant ‘Satori’. I…

.Years prior to becoming the fifteenth Zen patriarch, the Venerable Kanadeva called upon his future teacher, the Great Nagarjuna, asking to become his student. Nagarjuna sensed that Kunadeva was someone of great Wisdom. Thus, to test Kanadeva, Nargarjuna placed a bowl of clear water placed before the visitor. Kanadeva thereupon produced a needle from his…
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