Teisho Today Archives
Welcome to the Teisho Today archives where we present our most recent Daily Zen Journals as audio files for your enjoyment. Over time we aim to have the entire library of journals available in this format, however, this is a work in progress as the first journal was released in 1998, and this is now 2022!
Join us on this journey as Daily Zen evolves and grows into the present moment heading into our 25th year.
Great Doubt
In Zen practice, the essential point is to rouse doubt. What is this doubt? When you are born, for example, where do you come from? You cannot help but remain in doubt about this. When you die, where do you go? Again, you cannot help but remain in doubt.
Harmony – Part 3
Now we must talk about what to do while sitting in Zen meditation. The same three things must be attended to. In one sitting, whether the time is long or short, i.e., within a twelve-hour period whether it lasts for one, two, or three hours, when using one’s heart-mind to regulate thoughts, one must know well during this time whether or not to harmonize body, breath, and heart.
Harmony – Part 2
The second step when entering Zen meditation is to regulate the breathing. In doing so there are four ways to breathe, i.e., the breath sounds like wind blowing, sighing, Qi flowing, and quiet breathing. The first three are not appropriate for adjusting your breath, while the last one does help regulate it.
Harmony – Part 1
The word harmony is used here in the sense of harmonizing the five Dharma activities. The first is to regulate the times of eating and drinking. The second one is to regulate sleeping, the third is to regulate the body, the fourth is to regulate breathing, and the fifth is to regulate the heart-mind.
Zazenron
The main point of zazen is supposed to be that no thought arises. But if we check thought by thought, surely it is like washing off blood with blood.
Following the Breath with Mindfulness
It is essential that we understand this profound truth: the prana-body is the conditioner of the flesh-body. We ought to know that there are these two kaya (bodies), or levels of kaya.
All Beings Are in the Process of Becoming Buddhas
“All beings are intrinsically Buddha,” as Hakuin said, means that all sentient beings are endowed with the wisdom and virtuous power of the Buddha and are, without exception, gradually advancing along the path of liberation. It is inevitable that all human beings will perfectly realize their essential nature.
The Lankavatara Sutra
Bodhisattvas should become adept at examining the two kinds of phenomena that have no self. And what are the two kinds of phenomena that have no self? Neither beings nor dharmas have a self.
Fundamental Principles
Let us investigate the fundamental principles of Dhamma, Natural Truth. I would like to discuss these essential points of Buddhism in the hope that a grasp of them will help you advance in your studies and training.
Discourses of Master Po Shan – Part 1
When working at Zen, the important thing is to generate the i ching (doubt sensation). What is this doubt sensation? For instance: Where did I come from before my birth, and where shall I go after my death?
Correct Practice
There are two kinds of Zen meditation: sitting practice, and, depending on circumstances, practicing samatha-vipasyana while doing other activities. The first way for those who desire to perfect samatha-vipasyana meditation is done while sitting.
The Sermon of No Words
The sermon of words and phrases is the finger pointing to the moon, the fist knocking at the door. The object is to see the moon, not the finger, to get the door open and not the knocking itself; so far as these things do achieve their objects they are fine.
True Mind
There are not many arts to Zen study; it just requires knowing your own true mind.
Questions of Bodhisattva Mahamati
The Bodhisattva Mahamati requested the Buddha’s instructions on the way to cultivate the path of the bodhisattva. The Buddha answered, “Mahamati, the bodhisattva cultivates the path by practicing the four ways. “The first is to see that all that exists appears from the mind. The three realms of existence cannot exist independent of the mind.
Handbook for Zen Students – Part 2
Although I am not worthy of the task, I am intent on the study of the ancient teachings and consider the sacred writings of the sutras to be a great treasure. But these writings are nonetheless numerous as leaves in thick foliage and the sea of the Tripitaka is vaster than the ocean.
Handbook for Zen Students – Part 1
Those who studied Buddhism in antiquity would not speak as the Buddha had not spoken or act as the Buddha had not acted. Thus they treasured only the sacred literature of the sutras and nothing else. But for those who study Buddhism today, that which they hand on and recite are the writings of officials; that which they seek out and hold onto are the verses of these officials.
Treatise on the Essentials of Cultivating the Mind – Part 3
One who comprehends the mind that is the source of all dharmas understands everything. If you can stop generating false thoughts and illusions of personal possession and completely discard your preoccupation with the body, then you will certainly achieve birthlessness. How inconceivably wonderful!
Treatise on Contemplating Mindfulness
Huike asked: If there are people intent on seeking the path of Enlightenment, what method should they practice, what method is most essential and concise? Bodhidharma answered: Let them just contemplate mind—this one method takes in all practices and is indeed essential and concise.
Questions from the Lankavatara Sutra
Witnessing the transformation of the habit-energy of self-existence of the repository consciousness, the will, and the conceptual consciousness, this is what is meant by nirvana. The nirvana of other Buddhas and myself is the realm that is empty of self-existence.
Beyond Words
Our original teacher Buddha, the World Honored One, said to Ananda, “Even if you memorize the sutras of the tathagatas of the past, present, and future, this is not as good as one day’s cultivation of stainless learning.” Such true, frank words in this solid statement!
Stop Opinions
The Third Patriarch of Zen said, “Don’t seek reality, just put a stop to opinions.” He also said, “As soon as there are judgments of right and wrong, the mind is lost in a flurry.” These sayings teach you people of today what to work on.”
Stages of Enlightenment
It is very difficult to speak of enlightenment with detail or precision. Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Taoists, Sufis, and Jewish mystics all describe enlightenment experiences. Are all such experiences the same? So long as you practice sincerely regardless of the path, any experience which gives you a more profound view of life, and which has a powerfully positive effect on your character can be called enlightenment.
No End to Practice
Even for those who follow a monastic lifestyle, it is never easy to extricate ourselves from the acquired customs that we have hauled along with us for as long as we can remember. We go along relying on self-chosen value judgments, discriminating on the basis of forms we see with our eyes, distinguishing by the sounds we hear with our ears, differentiating according to the smells we pick up with our noses.
Secrets on Cultivating the Mind
If you want to become a Buddha, understand that Buddha is the mind. How can you search for the mind in the far distance? It is not outside the body. The physical body is a phantom, for it is subject to birth and death; the true mind is like space, for it neither ends nor changes.
Journal of My Study in China – Part 2
I asked at midnight, “In your dharma talk you said, ‘The bower and the bowed-to are empty by nature. The mind-to-mind communication is wondrous and inconceivable; its heart is profound, and it cannot be known. There is no way to reach it superficially. Doubt cannot touch it.’ Teachers in the scriptural schools also talk about mind-to-mind communication. Is it the same as what is taught in the ancestral path?”
