Home › Blog › Zen

Zen
  • Tricycle Community 1 comment

    Glimpsing the Wild Cow: Oxherding in the Wild West Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 26 Jun 2010
    Genju of 108zenbooks, in the midst of her own oxherding journey, points us to another amazing series of Oxherding pictures by Ruben Habito on the site of Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas. Pictured below is "Glimpsing the Wild Cow": The style is Western in two senses of the word. We should also mention that the first spot to go to when you're in need of some oxherding is Barry Briggs's blog, Ox Herding. More »
  • Tricycle Community 2 comments

    Buddhism with God Paid Member

    Posted by James Shaheen on 25 Jun 2010
    Norman Fischer teaches meditation in lots of places—at San Francisco Zen Center, where he was once abbot; at the Googleplex, where he teaches techies "emotional intelligence"; and at Jewish retreats, where he practices the religion of his birth and speaks of God—not something we're used to hearing from a Buddhist teacher. Fischer, one of the leading Zen teachers in the United States, tells Kate Olsen at Religion & Ethics Newsleweekly, Buddhism in general is not committed to God or no God. It’s committed to awakening. So taking this practice from Buddhism and applying it to Judaism, it’s a way to go deeper into our heart, our mind, our consciousness and in a Jewish context, when you do that I think, at the bottom, you find the divine. More »
  • Tricycle Community 2 comments

    Taming the Ox Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 25 Jun 2010
    taming the Ox Number 5 of Genju's Oxherding pictures. Daido Roshi comments: We are pretty clear about how our mind works... The whole practice is gradually beginning to come together and is less of a struggle. But there is still the nose-ring, the need for discipline to actualize what is realized. More »
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    Find Refuge in Your Own Life Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 25 Jun 2010
    Buddhist practice is not about forcing ourselves to be natural. It is about being ourselves. When we take the vows of refuge, we are also pledging to find the refuge that exists within our own lives. This taking of refuge is not some kind of evasion or escape, but is the planting of our "selves" deeply in the nature of what surrounds us. We lodge ourselves in the deep waves and in the shallow pools, in the crests and depressions of our lives. Sometimes, even wreckage can make a temporary resting place. More »
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    Catching the Ox Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 24 Jun 2010
    Genju at 108zenbooks is up to number 4 of the Oxherding Pictures: catching the Ox Read Genju's commentary here. (She uses the excellent term "connecting"—and dancing—instead of catching.) In the minibook Path of Enlightenment, we read: Through extraordinary effort You seize the ox. Still, its will is forceful, its body spirited Sometimes it runs high into the mountains, Other times it disappears into the mist. More »
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    This is Getting Old: A discussion on aging at the Tricycle Community Book Club Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 24 Jun 2010
    We're discussing Susan Moon's new book, This is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity, at the Tricycle Community Book Club this week. You can also listen to an interview with the author before moving on to the discussion. More »