on practice

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    The Principles of Zazen Paid Member

    The Way is basically perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The Dharma-vehicle is free and untrammelled. What need is there for man's concentrated effort? Indeed, the Whole Body is far beyond the world's dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from one right where one is. What is the use of going off here and there to practice? More »
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    Crawling Towards Sitting Paid Member

    “Larry-san," says Roshi, "you have cow-shitting posture. Ha! Ha! Look like this." Rounding his back and dropping his chin toward his chest, he imitates an orangutan or someone with intractable neurological disease. His laughter is so contagious that, even as my anger mounts, I find myself echoing it. "Larry-san cowshitting! Ha! Ha! Ha!" More »
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    The Form of Compassion Paid Member

    It is said that the Enlightened Ones possessed of the omniscient eye of wisdom can state with certainty exactly how many drops of water have fallen during an uninterrupted twelve-year rainfall but that they cannot calculate the benefit that comes from a single sincere, perfectly focused, and pure recitation of the six-syllable mantra of Chenrezi, the Bodhisattva of Compassion: Om mani padme hung. Chenrezi, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. The goal of deity practice is to develop qualities that mirror those represented by the deity. Avalokiteshvara (detail) Dorje and Sunlal Talang, 2006 © Robert Beer More »
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    Five Practices to Change Your Mind Paid Member

    Leave yourself alone!Zen teacher Barry Magid describes the practice of just sitting. More »
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    The Beautiful Trap Paid Member

    I’m sitting for fifteen hours a day in a four-by-four cell behind a shoji screen. Meals are brought three times a day to my enclosure, and apart from a short work period, two brief outdoor walks, bathroom breaks, a daily shower, and sleep time, I never leave my space. More »
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    Tying The Knot Paid Member

    Judy Lief: If the Buddhist path has to do with overcoming attachment, then it might seem odd for a Buddhist to consider adding the complications of marriage and family to her life. But in my experience it is the complications, not my neurotic attempts at smoothness, that have benefited my practice the most. These complications have been many and varied, including marriage, family obligations, motherhood, sickness, work, travel, and teaching. More »