by Mushin Crisman | Mar 27, 2023 | Dharma Discourse
Zen Buddhism is an ancestral lineage teaching, a teaching transmitted in part by the recorded ‘meeting and speaking’ of Ch’an/Zen practitioners. These dialogues are called mondo, “questions and answers”. Mondo often seem curt, abrupt, even hostile… “Dharma combat”....
by Mushin Crisman | Mar 20, 2023 | Dharma Discourse
In the mid-20th century West there were few opportunities to ‘learn’ meditation from a teacher. There were few books, and fewer teachers. In many places the only meditation teacher available taught “Transcendental Meditation”…TM. Without disparaging TM, it was the...
by Mushin Crisman | Mar 8, 2023 | Dharma Discourse
What comes to mind when you hear or see the word “posture”? Is it a description of a particular conformation of the physical body, a state of mind, a particular attitude, a political stance? In Zen, posture is all these and more. The English the word posture has Latin...
by Mushin Crisman | Feb 26, 2023 | Dharma Discourse
Sengcan (purportedly) wrote, “The Great Way is not difficult for those who do not pick and choose.” A lot going on here: “Great Way”, “not difficult”, “those who”. But for now, let’s pick and choose the phrase “pick and choose” to investigate. The mind of picking and...
by Mushin Crisman | Feb 21, 2023 | Dharma Discourse
Pedagogy: “the function or work of a teacher; teaching”. Methodology: “a branch of pedagogics dealing with analysis and evaluation of subjects to be taught and the methods of teaching” A Zen Ancestor said, “It’s not that there is no Ch’an (Zen) in China, just that...
by Mushin Crisman | Feb 14, 2023 | Dharma Discourse
Entering the White Forest Sangha Zendo one sees a calligraphy done by Kazuaki Tanahashi Sensei, 行, which he translates as “practice”. It has other meanings: do, act, walk, proceed, even “whatever is done by mouth, body, or mind”. Provisionally speaking, we take it as...
