Author Archives: mugaisangha

Issan: The first question you must ask yourself is when are you going to make friends with your own mind? Zenho: Good luck finding that. I’m making friends with an eggnog latte. Zenho’s now famous eggnog latte teisho! The realization that eventually settled upon me when I experienced this teaching is this: The spontaneous manifestationContinue reading “Longchempa & Eggnog Latte”

mugaisanghaNov 20 Dear Sangha Xuansha said to the assembly, “Every teacher in the land talks of saving things and delivering humanity. When someone of three disabilities comes to you, how do you deal with that person? A blind person does not see you hold up the hossu; a deaf person does not hear your words;Continue reading “GENEROSITY”

I’ve been reflecting on Authenticity recently. There’s a lot of noisy chatter about Authenticity in the pop-psycho-business world. I think they’ve got it all wrong. Just my opinion, as Bernie Glassman Roshi says. I spent a lot of time my first year as a Prep-school teacher working on a “groundbreaking” authenticity program. It was ledContinue reading “Authenticity”

I really like The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse, translated by Red Pine. Jitsudo Roshi turned me on him. I have an old and beautiful hand-bound copy published in 1962 (second edition) by Empty Bowl. Stonehouse, 1272-1352, was a zen monk, poet, whom abandoned the monastic life and the “red dust of society” to become aContinue reading “Stonehouse”

“The Way is basically perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The Dharma-vehicle is free and untrammeled. 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 fromContinue reading “Zazen Mind”

Our basic nature, our natural state, is awareness; emptiness and cognizance, indivisible. No matter if we are a deluded sentient being or a buddha our essential nature is the same. The difference is knowing. When we first begin our practice, we are deep in conditioned thinking, assumptions, cleverness, ego and intellect. This is actually anContinue reading “Awareness”

“Shōbōgenzō Uji (being-time) is Dogen’s experience of being (existence) and time.  Time, as we know it flows one way in linear fashion, marked by the hours of the day.  Time moves forward independently of our being, detached from our concerns, from an irretrievable past, through a momentary present, and proceeds to an unknown future. To think of time as onlyContinue reading “Being Time”

Noah Seltzer, one of Zenho Sensei’s students is offering a weekly poem to the sangha. Here is the poem for this week: It turns out it is not what I thought it was those mornings traversing the excruciations of the mind  would not  ungrasp me  that I would not figure it out  find the solution Continue reading “Rohatsu 2022”

“Sesshin is a period of time, usually ranging from 2 – 7 days, in which silence is maintained and the focus is on zazen. Sesshin is a cornerstone of Zen practice for which there is no substitute—it is essential for any practitioner who hopes to gain insight into their true nature. Sesshin, while commonly understood as aContinue reading “What is Zazenkai/Sesshin”

Greetings! First, I’d like to comfort you and address your concerns about Jukai and the timing thereof. I sincerely regret if I have created a feeling of anxiety in anyone by my incomplete communications. Zenho and I are planning to do a Jukai Ceremony, hopefully for a few folks together, whomever feels ready, in JanuaryContinue reading “Vows”