by Mushin Crisman | May 9, 2023 | Dharma Discourse
What is trust? What is trust in Zen? The English word ‘trust’ comes from the Old Norse, traust, meaning confidence, protection, support. It’s like a moose crossing a frozen pond. The moose first gently places one hoof on the ice, touching it, testing its strength...
by Mushin Crisman | Apr 30, 2023 | Dharma Discourse
What does “being triggered” mean? In Western popular culture, being triggered is having a pathologic response to present experience caused by memory of prior experience. Provisionally speaking, the process of triggering, either pathologic or non-pathologic, is Zen’s...
by Mushin Crisman | Apr 22, 2023 | Dharma Discourse
Impermanence is one of the core teachings of Buddhism. It is another way of saying nothing is unchanging; every ‘thing’ is changing (really?). However, for the ordinary waking mind, knowing change is a challenge. What ordinary mind mostly knows is difference. When you...
by Mushin Crisman | Apr 17, 2023 | Dharma Discourse
Riders on the Storm People come to Zen centers seeking something. They come as “seeker”s. Often their visit was triggered by trauma, loss, heartbreak. Sometimes just a hollowness, a felt not-wholeness. Life could be, should be more. More than what? More than it is....
by Mushin Crisman | Apr 10, 2023 | Dharma Discourse
2,500 years ago, Siddhartha Gautama had an experience which changed humankind…he “awakened”. He was henceforth known as “the Buddha”, meaning “the Awakened One”. What does it mean ‘to wake up’? Is it more than a descriptive metaphor of the Buddha’s experience? If you...
by Mushin Crisman | Apr 3, 2023 | Dharma Discourse
Every time we meet as a sangha, we close our practice by chanting the Four Bodhisattva Vows. The first of these is, “sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them”. What exactly are sentient beings? What does Zen mean by sentience? The English word sentience...
