insight

As a Lay Zen Buddhist, I have for the last couple of years been in the privileged position of facilitating zazen and sometimes offering whatever insight I may have into what this is. Sharing one’s insight is different than being an expert.   There are many sources from which you can conceptualize Zen and have some […]

Share the joy

A lamp and its light

“A lamp and its light”  is a phrase from the Platform Sutra, where the absolute (emptiness) is the lamp and the relative, it’s light.  In Zen, the “Middle Way” is addressing the absolute and the relative as one reality. The middle way in Zen also means walking in the path that reconciles the irreconcilable. For […]

Share the joy
lotus

At the Sarasota Ordinary Zen Group this week

At our Ordinary zazen group this week we will be continuing with our discussion that was started a couple of weeks ago, I will be reading  a few paragraphs about the Heart Sutra from “Living by Vow”  by Shohaku Okumura and a discussion will follow during tea. Please join us this Sunday evening. More…   […]

Share the joy

Ordinary Zen – what is it?

There are many stories about exchanges between Zen Masters and students that end with the  Zen Master saying, “Have a cup of tea.” The cup of tea is the Buddha-Dharma and tasting it is experiencing your Buddha-Nature, original nature, the ever-changing interdependence with everything, dharma. Just this. It is direct experience, not a mental construct, […]

Share the joy