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.
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?”
Journal of My Study in China
When I was young I aroused the aspiration for enlightenment and visited various monasteries in my country. I had some understanding of the principle of cause and effect; however, I was not able to clarify the real source of Buddha, dharma, and sangha. I was only seeing the outer forms, the marks, and names. Later I entered the chamber of Eisai, Zen master Senko, and for the first time heard the teaching of the Linji School.
On Meditation – Part 1
To calm the mind means to find the right balance. If you try to force your mind too much, it goes too far; if you don’t try enough, it doesn’t get there and misses the point of balance.
Essentials of Mind – Part 1
When the founder of Zen came to China from India, he did not set up written or spoken formulations; he only pointed directly to the human mind. Direct pointing just refers to what is inherent in everyone: the whole being appearing responsively from within the shell of ignorance, it is not different from the sages of time immemorial.
West Mountain Evening Talk – Part 1
When the Master was living at Nanzen-ji as a head priest, Gen’no Osho said to him, “For the last twenty years, ever since you finished your study in the monasteries, you have been moving from one place to another. By now you have changed the place you live more than ten times. I think this is harmful to a Zen student. It exhausts him and interferes with his practice.
The Unborn – Part 1
I was still a young man when I came to discover the principle of the Unborn and its relation to thought. I began to tell others about it. What we call a “thought” is something that has already fallen one or more removes from the living reality of the Unborn.
The Heart of the Pine
The heart of the pine is solid, the joints of bamboo are hard; therefore they do not wither in the cold of winter, but continue to flourish even through snow and frost.
Doctrine of Mind
When the people of the world hear it said that the Buddhas transmit the Doctrine of the Mind, they suppose that there is something to be attained or realized apart from Mind, and thereupon they use Mind to seek the Dharma, not knowing that Mind and the object of their search are one.
Aspiration for Enlightenment
In the Buddhist teachings, various distinctions are drawn among aspirations for enlightenment. Essentially, it may be said that there are two kinds of aspiration for enlightenment: the shallow aspiration and the true aspiration.
Investigating Chan and Comtemplating Mind
Our sect focuses on investigating Chan and the purpose of investigating Chan is to “illuminate the Mind and see one’s own self-nature,” which means to thoroughly investigate and comprehend our original face. This investigation is also called “clearly realizing one’s Mind and thoroughly perceiving one’s intrinsic nature.”
Understanding Mind
In meditation practice, we work to develop mindfulness so that we will be constantly aware. Working with energy and patience, the mind can become firm. Then whatever sense phenomena we experience, whether agreeable or disagreeable, and whatever mental phenomena such as reactions of gladness or dejection, we will see them clearly.
Zazen
Zen-sitting is the way of perfect tranquility: inwardly not a shadow of perception, outwardly not a shade of difference between phenomena. Iden-tified with yourself, you no longer think, nor do you seek enlightenment of the mind or disburdenment of illusion.
Jade Buddha Monastery
It is difficult because you are afraid of enduring hardship and because of your desire to be at ease. You should know all worldly occupations also require study and training before success can be achieved. How much more so when we want to learn wisdom from the sages in order to become Buddhas and Patriarchs. Can we reach our goal if we act carelessly?
Calming the Mind
With all the journals there are always one or two sentences that jump out at us. They seem to be what the piece turns on for us here and now. This is a very ancient work, and it is interesting how much is conveyed in this excerpt. Read the Journal while listening.
Tsung Ching Record of Hui Hai – Part 2
Once a man who practiced Ch’an asked the Master, “It is said that mind is identical with the Buddha, but which of these is really the Buddha?” A: “What do you suppose is not the Buddha? Point it out to me.” As there was no answer, the Master added, “If you comprehend the mind, the Buddha is omnipresent to you; but, if you do not awaken to it, you will remain astray and distant from him forever.”
Treatise on Sitting Meditation
Question: The essence of sitting meditation is the nonproduction of a single thought; trying to stop thought by thought is like washing blood with blood—what should we do?
Zen Teachings of Huang Po
Our original Buddha-Nature is, in highest truth, devoid of any atom of objectivity. It is void, omnipresent, silent, pure; it is glorious and mysterious peaceful joy — and that is all. Enter deeply into it by awakening to it yourself. That which is before you is it, in all its fullness, utterly complete. There is naught beside.
Notes on Meditation
Although the word “Zen” is derived from the Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit dhyana, it is not the same as dhyana. Daito once said, “One may pass hours sitting in contemplation, but if he has no Zen, he is not my disciple.” On another occasion, a student came to Kwan-Zan to receive personal guidance.
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.
Idle Talk on a Night Boat
On the day I first committed myself to a life of Zen practice, I pledged to summon all the faith and courage at my command and dedicate myself with steadfast resolve to the pursuit of the Buddha Way. I embarked on a regimen of rigorous austerities that I continued for several years, pushing myself relentlessly. One night, everything suddenly fell away.
Records of the Source Mirror
In this Record, I inquire exhaustively into the meaning of mind and investigate the explanations for consciousness. Generally speaking, there are an abundance of interpretations revealing a depth of style, substance, and reasoning.
Same Reality, Different Dreams
People may sleep on the same bed, under the same covers, yet their individual dreams are not the same. An ancient sage said, “We share the same one reality, yet do not realize it.”
The Threefold Question in Zen
The question, “What is Zen?” is at once easy and difficult to answer. It is easy because there is nothing that is not Zen. I lift my finger thus, and there is Zen. I sit in silence all day uttering no words, and there too is Zen. Your unborn mind is the Buddha-mind itself, and it is unconcerned with either birth or death. As evidence that it is, when you look at things, you’re able to see and distinguish them all at once.
