Author Archives: EmptyCloudWestZen

[AUDIO AND TEXT] Here’s a seminal verse that’s attributed to Bodhidharma, the Indian sage who is said to have brought the dhyana (zazen) meditation that became Ch’an to China and then to points East, with other names: A special transmission outside the scriptures,Not depending on words and letters;Directly pointing to the mindSeeing into one’s trueContinue reading “recognition and resonance”

[AUDIO AND TEXT] During a recent gathering of friends, the subject of discarding old stuff came up among us. This “stuff” might be in the form of books, unopened and unread for years; clothes, unworn since then (whenever “then” was); photos, unseen since we carefully and lovingly pasted them in scrapbooks (which many of usContinue reading “leaving ourselves behind”

[AUDIO AND TEXT] A personal confession. Back in olden times, that is in the late 1980s, this person that you’re looking at took a sojourn into the world of Lifespring, a self-discovery group that ultimately got branded as a cult and a dangerous, mind-breaking fraud. (There was probably a bit of the pyramid scheme involved,Continue reading “living in the question”

[AUDIO AND TEXT] Tonight I’d like to offer some expressions from a teacher named Susan Murphy, who comes to us from the lineage of Robert Aitken Roshi and John Tarrant Roshi. In her book, Upside-Down Zen: Finding the Marvelous in the Ordinary (Wisdom Publications, Boston, © 2006), Susan Murphy shares her experience of living ZenContinue reading “just sitting”

[AUDIO AND TEXT] What follows is a little bit esoteric, maybe even confused, and for that I beg your forbearance tonight. This is about an experience that I’ve heard related from others who practice the way we do. There are times when we perceive the field of our experience as being full of objects withContinue reading “no edges”

[AUDIO AND TEXT] Here are some words about emptiness. This first quotation comes from a book titled, Original Teachings of Ch’an Buddhism. Chang Chung-Yuan. Pantheon Books (a division of Random House). 1969. pp 48-49. When Hung-chih Cheng-chio was asked, ‘How is it that substance is lacking in the reality of purity and Void?’ he replied:Continue reading “a realization to relish”

[AUDIO AND TEXT] In the New Testament, we have Jesus stating his relationship with God in several places. For instance: Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. (Jn 14:10, NIV) And this, announcing the coming of the Holy Spirit: OnContinue reading “ourselves and the infinite”

[AUDIO AND TEXT] I was reading an article in the summer issue of Tricycle magazine (the Buddhist journal, Vol. 32, No. 4, pp. 84-86). The article, by a man named Douglas Penick, is about the journey of old age, and it cites the poetry of Basho, the 17th century Japanese master. It’s a beautifully writtenContinue reading “whither?”