A monk asked Joshu, a Chinese Zen master: "Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?" Joshu answered: "Mu." [Mu is the negative symbol in Chinese, meaning "No thing" or "Nay."] Mumon's comment: To realize Zen one has to pass through the barrier of the patriarchs. Enlightenment always comes after the road of thinking is blocked. If you do not pass the barrier of the patriarchs or if your thinking road is not blocked, whatever you think, whatever you do, is like a tangling ghost. You may ask: What is ...

The Journal of Integral Buddhism presents papers given by esteemed scholars, monastics, and practitioners from various backgrounds within the Buddhist tradition and complimentary disciplines such as philosophy, psychology. The inaugural Vol. 1 edition's contributors include: Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche IX of the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism; Ekai Korematsu Roshi of the Soto Zen tradition; Kathleen Gregory, psychologist and academic, and Samuel Bercholz, Buddhist practitione...

There is a spirit winging over the new times of this tormented West, the spirit that always comes into play when dealing with the New Age, or when the devotees of different religions meet and are able to stop inventing proclamations for themselves, preferring to remain silent, absorbed in that Truth that underlies all dogma.Would you like to become better at sales, become a great mystic, enjoy great success, or learn to speak with the angels? First learn to meditate. Do you want to ...

I was lately reading the Holy Text of the Saḍḍharma-Puṇdarīka (the Aphorisms of the White Lotus of the Wonderful or True Law) in a Samskṛṭ manuscript under a Boḍhi-tree near Mṛga-Ḍāva (Sāranāṭh), Benares. Here our Blessed Lord Buḍḍha Shākya-Muni taught His Holy Ḍharma just after the accomplishment of His Buḍḍhahood at Buḍḍhagayā. Whilst doing so, I was reminded of the time, eighteen years ago, when I had read the same text in Chinese at a great Monastery named Ohbakusang at Kyoto in Japan,...

How to realize Enlightenment Here & Now through anactive experience of Life?The Diamond Sutra bothcommented upon and noted in this book, as well asexplained with operative chapters, provides answers in apractical, usable way to this deep, intimate question.

In the month of May, 1897, I was ready to embark on my journey, which promised nought but danger and uncertainty. I went about taking leave of my friends and relatives in Tokyo. Endless were the kind and heartfelt words poured on me, and many were the presents offered me to wish me farewell; but the latter I uniformly declined to accept, save in the form of sincerely given pledges. From those noted for excessive use of intoxicants, I exacted a promise of absolute abstinence from “the madde...

I was lately reading the Holy Text of the Saḍḍharma-Puṇdarīka (the Aphorisms of the White Lotus of the Wonderful or True Law) in a Samskṛṭ manuscript under a Boḍhi-tree near Mṛga-Ḍāva (Sāranāṭh), Benares. Here our Blessed Lord Buḍḍha Shākya-Muni taught His Holy Ḍharma just after the accomplishment of His Buḍḍhahood at Buḍḍhagayā. Whilst doing so, I was reminded of the time, eighteen years ago, when I had read the same text in Chinese at a great Monastery named Ohbakusang at Kyoto in Japan,...

This classic collection of Zen koans offers a profound gateway into the heart of Chan (Zen) Buddhist practice. Compiled by the 13th-century Chinese monk Ekai, known as Mu-mon, The Gateless Gate presents forty-eight enigmatic cases designed to jolt the practitioner beyond rational thought and into direct realization. Each koan, often paradoxical or disarmingly simple, functions not as a riddle to be solved but as a tool for spiritual awakening-challenging deeply held assumptions and disrupt...

Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh presents the true path to a personal and global ethic in this stand alone chapter of Good Citizens: Creating Enlightened Society.

The Diamond Sutra is a Mahayana sutra from the Prajnaparamita, or "Perfection of Wisdom" genre, and emphasizes the practice of non-abiding and non-attachment. The full Sanskrit title of this text is the Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita Sutra. A copy of the Chinese version of Diamond Sutra, found among the Dunhuang manuscripts in the early 20th century and dated back to May 11, 868, is, in the words of the British Library, "the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book....

Meditation is a very simple phenomenon and is brought about in this book. This book describes the science and methods of the human mechanism to achieve meditativeness. The book highlights as to how important it is for a person to achieve their utmost natural state of being.