Treeleaf Zen

( Dogen’s Instructions for the Cook – X ) Some people are just “naturally Zen” … … naturally wise, compassionate, tolerant and strong through much of their life … no matter what it hands them …  … like my late father, Leon. I’d like to tell his story a little. _____________________________ When ordinarilypreparing ingredients, do…

( Dogen’s Instructions for the Cook – IX ) Today’s passage makes reference to a famous Koan and story … When the World-honored One [The Buddha] waswalking with the assembly of his followers, he pointed to the ground with hishand and said, “This place is suitable to build a shrine.” The devaIndra then took a…

( Dogen’s Instructions for the Cook – VIII ) A pair of other translations of the first lines of this passage. First, by Uchiyama Roshi … Both day and night, allow all things to come into and reside within your mind. Allow your mind (Self) and all things to function together as a whole. Yasuda…

As I was on my way to Kyoto this morning, i wrote the followings cheap poems: Books and ideas are far too serious Children and walks will show you the way All these words pointing at the ineffable snow on snow Cluttered head never ending blossoms this life Well,this is an attempt to convey the…

Please join our weekly “Live from Treeleaf” Zazenkai meditation … We start with 3 floor prostrations (or deep Gassho), then chant the Heart Sutra in ENGLISH (see below), then sit about 40 minutes of Zazen, then 10 minutes of Kinhin, closing with the chants of the “Verse of Atonement” and “Four Vows“.Please join in, one…

( Dogen’s Instructions for the Cook – VII ) Cheerfully accepting what one is handed … … yet sincerely and carefully doing one’s best to make it good **(Before the noon meal, the tenzo conducts a service in the kitchen for Soko Shinsai, a Chinese folk deity and the guardian spirit of the oven who…

dewdrops are dancing on pampas grass and how the moon is sailing above them all!! Ryokan Farfrom being a distant and benevolent Boddhistava ,Kannon can be seen asthe dynamic radiance of stillness, it arises from the mudra ofnon-duality and shines through time and space, sun-like. Likethe moon of Genjokoan, it touches,  permeates  the myriad forms withoutaltering…

More of the Bodhisattva Virtue of Miraculous, Mystical Powers (bala) In the Tashintsû (Penetration of Other’s Minds) portion of the Shôbôgenzô, the subject is mental telepathy, one of the supernormal powers (abhijñâ)regularly said in Buddhist literature to be accessible to great meditators. Here, Dôgentakes up the famous story of a Zen master’s test of the…

Welcome to our Special “Live fromTreeleaf” Zazen marking the FIRST DAY (although really without beginning or end) of our Jukai (Undertaking the Precepts) Study and Preparations.  Please note the Rev. Taigu, who was supposed to lead things today, is sick and unable to make the trip. Our thoughts to him, and we will see him…

We now come to the Bodhisattva Virtue of  …. Miraculous, Mystical Powers (bala) Mahayana sutras and lore refer to a variety of supernatural powers developed through meditation and Buddhist practice, said of aid to the Bodhisattva … such as the ability to foretell the future, to see the past lives of beings, to read minds,…

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