The Red-Hot Iron Ball

Portland Buddhist Priory Posted on by

(Follow this link to see the March 2023 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.)

There is a word in Zen Buddhism that is useful and important to understand if we are to understand what is being pointed at or talked about in Zen teaching and practice. That word, koan, means a problem or question that can’t be solved using the rational, thinking mind.

Wikipedia says this about it:

A kōan (Japanese: 公案; Chinese: 公案; pinyin: gōng’àn [kʊ́ŋ ân]; Korean: 화두, romanized: hwadu; Vietnamese: công án) is a story, dialogue, question, or statement which is used in Zen practice to provoke the “great doubt” and to practice or test a student’s progress in Zen.

Etymology
The Japanese term kōan is the Sino-Japanese reading of the Chinese word gong’an (Chinese: 公案; pinyin: gōng’àn; Wade–Giles: kung-an; lit. ‘public case’). The term is a compound word, consisting of the characters 公 “public; official; governmental; common; collective; fair; equitable” and 案 “table; desk; (law) case; record; file; plan; proposal.”

A koan, in the common, historic use of the word, is a story used as a teaching example that points toward an actual problem that an actual person had in their life. In the Soto Zen tradition, Great Master Dogen points out that the stories which Continue reading →

In a Hurry

Portland Buddhist Priory Posted on by

(Follow this link to see the February 2023 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.)

The Kanzeon statue on the main altar at Unpukuji, Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett’s first temple in Japan.

When I was just learning to practice the Dharma and meditate, I worked as a line cook for a time. The restaurant was pretty busy and the cooks were under a lot of pressure to work quickly in order to provide food in a timely way for our customers. We were under a lot of pressure to be fast, but also accurate, as we prepared the food and I found it very helpful to put the “every-minute meditation” that we practice into action.

One of the things that I learned from this is that we don’t have to be slow in everything we do in order to be mindful; in fact we can be very fast in what we do. But it is helpful to notice when we get in a hurry, in a rush, since that usually doesn’t help much and can lead to making costly and time consuming mistakes. Oftentimes, when I find myself in a hurry or a rush, it indicates that Continue reading →

Listening

Portland Buddhist Priory Posted on by

(Follow this link to see the January 2023 Priory Newsletter where this was recently published.)

The Chinese monk Budai (Hotei in Japanese) who is know as a manifestation of the Buddha that is to come, Maitreya.

 

This idea of listening, really listening form a place of stillness within us, keeps coming to mind as a practice I want to continue to work on, develop and encourage in the coming year. What is really being said in the environment around me? Can I hear the promptings of my own Deeper Self?

Here is a link to an interview with the poet Kwame Alexander which has within it a nice story about the value of listening. The part I am thinking of is at 18:40 to 23min. although the whole interview is worth listening to.

Think Out Loud Podcast: Poet and author Kwame Alexander’s new book tackles Ghana in the 1800s.