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he hua tou meditation samadhi teaching stories challenges on the path advanced topics thoughts and reflections toward the heart of chan self ego enlightenment transition and turmoil zen s migration west science culture on death omnium gatherum canonical writings sutras shastras tantras dharani chants and prayers autobiography and maxims of master han shan the maxims of master han shan community critical commentaries by stuart lachs travelogues book reviews interfaith outreach notices arts poetry visual arts selections international spanish español german deutsch portuguese português chinese 中國人 croatian hrvatski french français greek ελληνικά polish polski turkish türkçe latest posts prev next 18 sep 2026 master who and his five children by fa gong 13 feb 2026 no mind by chuan zhi 13 feb 2026 neither exist nor do they not exist by chuan zhi 03 jan 2026 the optical delusion by chuan zhi 03 jan 2026 three things that aren t the same thing by chuan zhi 15 mar 2025 the way of chan a temple stay in lei feng by tian shi 29 feb 2024 equanimity in turbulent times by chuan zhi 20 mar 2023 dharma transmission and lineage by chuan zhi 20 aug 2022 the dharmakāya by chuan zhi shakya 21 aug 2022 the chan teachings of master ben huan by chuan zhi new to chan start here introductory topics challenges on the path poetry teaching stories three things that aren t the same thing by chuan zhi there is a peculiar conflation that persists in western understanding of chan and zen a nesting doll of confusions in which ordination is mistaken for dharma transmission and dharma transmission readmore contemplating consciousness by chuan zhi consciousness we don t think about it we don t act upon it it s just there we awaken in the morning and go to the bathroom and do those things make coffee eat a donut take the dog out and readmore four stages of chan by chuan zhi chan zen is often viewed in one of two ways as a religious institution characterized by its lore rhetoric canonical texts monastic customs and beliefs or as a mystical ascetic tradition which readmore suffering the gateway to transformation by chuan zhi the mystical realm of chan cannot be discovered without the precondition of suffering some people think that this is a pessimistic view or a perverted view of a practice meditation that can be readmore on detachment neti neti by chuan zhi attachment we are told by all buddhist sects is the central cause of suffering not the kind of suffering we endure when we have a cold or accidentally slam the car door on our hand but the readmore delving into dharma by chuan zhi ming zhen if there is one word with which we can summarize the beauty of buddhist thought that word is dharma we cannot read a book about buddhism without encountering this term yet its definition is as readmore suffering zen and the four noble truths by chuan zhi suffering is integral to the zen path it is in fact a prerequisite zen is not an easy path and we must be highly motivated in order to travel it in physics as in zen every action has an equal readmore chan s trailhead the triple refuge and the precepts by chuan zhi how do we begin with zen we don t start climbing mt everest from the third base station we start at the very bottom climb a bit set up camp wait for a few days to let ourselves adjust to the readmore zen ritual by fa dong shakya ohy in her bestselling spiritual memoir eat pray love elizabeth gilbert tells a delightful story of a great hindu teacher who led his followers in daily meditation in his ashram the only problem readmore connecting the dots by fa lohng koro kaisan students who come to my weekly dharma talks or who meet regularly with me in private are often confronted with my insistence that they view the world more holistically this is typically readmore the intrinsic nature of meditation by fa dao shakya meditation is a key factor in chan zen and buddhism in general and yet we have no monopoly on the concept of meditation as a spiritual pursuit every religion has a tradition approaching readmore passing through the gateless barrier by fa lohng the great way is gateless approached by a thousand paths pass trough this barrier you walk freely in the universe one of the principal zen texts from thirteenth century china is a collection of readmore measuring reality by fa gong ohy consider our first multi day meditation retreat after a couple of days of discomfort both physical and psychological the rebellious ego begins to question the authority of the strange oriental readmore the dreaded third precept by fa gong ohy what is a precept we buddhists are all very aware of the five precepts ore more or less depending on what school we associate with we have taken when we chose to become buddhists but it seems readmore a dharma chat right speech by fa gong ohy right speech is not just about morality or even limited to wisdom teachings it is also about right mindfulness and contemplative discipline about identifying labeling and being mindful of readmore the eye of practice by fa che ohy buddhism brings many of us to understand that individualism does not exist and is a delusion that there is no birth no death no self no i that exists as an independent reality we come to readmore special selections science culture the hua tou death dying advanced topics zen and social media an oxymoron by rene d seymour so i must admit i was on facebook it seemed to be the happening thing so i wanted to know what was happening about it before i knew how it worked i posted all sorts of things some funny some readmore mind and the holographic universe by chuan zhi the universe physicists tell us has no edge yet the mass and other stuff like dark matter are all more or less uniformly distributed throughout even stranger if you take a long journey readmore science and spiritual inquiry striking a balance by chuan zhi the universe governed by power and the law power obeys conforms to a dualistic principal of yin and yang eros and logos shakti and shiva we cannot separate them only through spiritual labor can readmore the optical delusion by chuan zhi a human being is part of the whole called by us universe a part limited in time and space we experience ourselves our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest a kind of optical readmore chan s ox herding series latest international posts bodhai daruma tratado sobre el linaje de la fe contemplacion de la mente dos entradas bodhidharma sutra del despertar sutra platforma de hui neng explorando el chán the maxim s of han shan popular articles travelogues the way of chan a temple stay in lei feng transition and turmoil dharma transmission and lineage the hua tou the hua tou practice who drags this corpse the vajra sword of hsu yun applying the hua tou method of chan practice to archetypal projections teaching stories poetry selections of no ajahn chah master who and his five children the stone and the flower on rationalizing negligence the scorpion and the old man the muddy lake the limping puppy cracking the fortress of delusion the ambitious violet interfaith outreach what is dharma by ajanh chah mystic poetry of halah khan the nisargadatta song of beyond i am han shan autobiography and maxims of master han shan the maxims of master han shan challenges on the path sidetracked by institutionalized zen remembering jonestown trapped don t drink the kool aide the projection trap equanimity in turbulent times articles from stuart lachs coming down from the zen clouds when the saints go marching in modern day zen hagiography hua t ou a method of zen meditation the hua tou perspectives and examples advanced topics the three jewels musings on the corpse the skandhas the chan teachings of master ben huan the dharmakāya musings and reflections on chan living most_read_news zen s travel visas a sober view of spiritual tourism by fa zhao shakya those of us who arrive at zen have often had quite a path of discovery along the way this is certainly true in my case it began when i was 14 when a visiting teacher to my catholic school gave a once only talk about some of the other religions around the world in the midst of this readmore zen s spiritual guide by fa dao ohy what does it mean to be a spiritual guide a zen roshi or sifu it means we strive to balance heart and mind to live our spirit it means we have lived and learned and are still living and learning that we are one in an ancient succession of teachers offering to help others discover themselves readmore zen without buddhism getting to the heart by fa che shakya ohy as a dharma teacher in the west in a small rural town of 2500 people zen is virtually unknown perhaps there s a class or two at the university about 25 miles away but outside of college elective courses people out here break down into two categories catholic or lutheran when i moved here readmore zen pest control by fa zhao shakya i just love all creatures great and small from gorillas to bengal tigers and from lungfish to bizarre stick insects they all play a tremendous role in the various cycles of our planet these wonderful creatures are also some of our greatest signposts in our observance of inter connection and readmore wild zen by fa zhao shakya the genes that code for proteins in our human species are remarkably similar often nearly identical to those of many other species across the animal kingdom it makes sense considering that throughout our natural history human beings and other animals have shared the same environments and readmore when right goes wrong by fa dao ohy chan buddhists just like followers of other religions want to do what s right we strive to be righteous and to avoid self aggrandizing actions and activities it s imperative that we consider what it means to do right since we often fall into the trap of doing wrong we must identify and readmore what is that by m b in the moment there is nothing but as moments move in time thoughts arise emotions arise existence arises how are we to fathom this the only time that truly exists is now yet we imagine otherwise if we were to live only in now would that not mean that we readmore upon awakening in the morning by chuan kong ohy have you ever wondered how it is that you always wake up in the morning as yourself and not someone else as you awaken all the incidentals come crowding in all the things you have to do today all the places you have to be what you are expected to accomplish what you expect others to readmore uncle s last trip by yao feng ohy a n icy january morning 6 a m it is not my habit to be awake at this hour in this season but i have an appointment to keep kilometers away from here lies the village where i will bid farewell to my mother s brother ninety one years old and he still has the courage to be taken for a ride in readmore tsunami wake harbor wave kids by fa che fame is not experienced by most of us famous persons seem to be from another dimension from another land from somewhere where giants and wonders abound fame destroys many sometimes it creates saints i saw a photograph of ricky martin bowing in gassho to a room of orphans on an internet web readmore tsunami moon reflections on being human by fa che what karma possibly exists on a national or international level among so many various nationalities races classes that would be engraved upon the earth like this tsunami from sumatra we can only ask deeply what exergue encrypted somewhere where upon this colossal work of nature could readmore to suppose a post modern buddhism by fa gong shakya ohy in buddhism s adaptation to the concerns and climates of the post modern west much of what has been taken for granted as necessarily intrinsic to it has inevitably been questioned ancient indian and exotic oriental flavors react unpredictably on a western palate and for some the taste does not readmore tibet and the beijing olympics by fa gong ohy as online buddhists we do well to understand that this very medium creates new opportunities for the ego to express itself and it quickly finds new ways to dominate when i first learned to drive i used to be amazed at how much more aggressive and anti social people seemed to become when they readmore the wu gate by fa liang ohy we can each of us experience wu that emptiness that relief every time we give up our attachment when we have a job to do we simply do it without grumbling without daydreaming about all the other things we could be doing instead without any sort of attachment whatsoever when we meet readmore the urban hermit by fa dong shakya as anyone versed in chan s history knows the hermitic life is a common one passed through by many of china s most famous chan teachers in fact all mystical traditions commonly find their members at some time in their life retreating from society for the mystic living a readmore the tradition of mountain ascetic zen by fa lohng koro kaisan among the most admired of zen masters are those who have eschewed the temple life and opted instead for the life of a mountain ascetic asceticism is a cross cultural cross religious and multidisciplinary practice like nearly all forms of spiritual practice asceticism covers a wide spectrum of readmore the refuge of no refuge by fa dong shakya the seeker trudges slowly up the mountain through the mists not sure which path to take he takes one path only to find that it dead ends around a few large trees forcing him to go back and take a different route the weather as he rises higher becomes colder and the rains icier as the storm readmore the prayer of a zen buddhist atheist by yin de shakya i gave a talk recently at the request of a church group that was interested in my perspective on prayer and worship as a zen buddhist and an atheist i told them that even though i am a zen buddhist and an atheist in the conventional sense of the term i do consider myself a spiritual person and readmore the pink backpack by fa che ohy sometimes a single unexpected event can change our lives forever one such event happened to me over a decade ago it was a normal sunny day in phoenix arizona i was picking my daughter up from kindergarten my three year old son was holding my hand as we all walked back to the car few readmore the phantom self by chuan li anyone who has spent much time reading about zen has encountered the term self many times over some may even conclude that zen is all about self they would not be wrong while some people think that zen is about sitting in lotus position contemplating the space between the end of a sentence readmore the lion s roar by fa gong shakya i have only a poor understanding of economics though i have always had an interest in the political and philosophical values and assumptions that underpin the various processes involved i remember being struck when first introduced to the basic principles of buddhism how utterly readmore the compass and the ego by fa chao shakya a compass is a navigational instrument with a magnetized pointe...