Spirit
Japanese Religion Through the Lens of Water
From KJ 101: As water is essential to all life, both its presence and its absence, its sufficiency, its excess, as well as its paucity, have fundamentally affected, profoundly influenced, and indeed guided the lives of Kyoto people in countless ways… In this article, I address Japanese religion through the lens of water within the context of Kyoto’s geography of surrounding mountains, waterfalls, and rivers, its long history, and its especially high concentration of shrines, temples, and tucked-away religious sites.
Read MoreIn the Cave
The cave with the hidden Book of the Dead is a powerful metaphor for the pandemic interval we’re experiencing, a between-space whose teachings are accessible if we have the right perspective.
Read MoreTreasures
I felt clean for the first time in my life. That’s what Aldous Huxley said when his house and everything in it was destroyed in a fire. I admired the man and read everything he wrote. And I longed for this kind of non-attachment, too.
Read MoreThe Life and Times of Okada Torajiro and his Seiza Method of Self-Harmonization
To actually practice Seiza, one needs no group or leader, no visualization, vocalization, counting, or mantra repetition, and no special symbolic objects, apparatus, or vestments. Seiza is truly more zen than Zen.
Read MoreThe Natural Harmony of Mindfulness and Mind-Wandering
With unprecedented snowfall in Australia’s subtropical state of Queensland, hail storms in Mexico City and record high temperatures in Paris (45.9C) and Churu Rajasthan (50.8C), it is increasingly difficult to close our eyes to the consequences of global heating. When we see self-serving politicians and big business leaders in flagrant collusion, displaying no inclination toward implementing…
Read MoreSurrounded by Trees
When I was six, I developed a grass-like skin disease around my neck after my family and I visited a hilly area in Tagaytay. My grandfather, Tatay Marcial, who believed it was a punishment from a naughty dwende (elf), warned me against expressing my admiration for plants, especially those that grow in the wild.
Read MoreBuddhism Engaged
BUDDHISM
BY DAVID COZY
Buddhist teachings, Loy believes, can help us to understand the true nature of lack and the havoc it causes, and because they can perform this necessary function, he feels it is important that Buddhism remain vital in the twenty-first century.
Read MoreDream Corridor
It all began in 1980, when I was 29, with the first of a series of vivid dreams. These occurred at dawn and continued through four summer mornings. I would find myself in an unfamiliar yet comfortable foreign land, with men, women and kids whom I cared for, yet could not upon waking recall ever having met…
Read MoreBe a Fool! Fukushima-Roshi on Zen in America and Japan
“…understanding Zen through the intellect is a mistake. That is why in the first three years of my own training, Shibayama-roshi kept on telling me for a whole year, “Be an idiot! Be a fool!”
Read MoreMeeting With Sanshin: An Interview with Hiah Park, Lover of the Mountain God
Manshin is a title of respect identifying a mudang, a female Korean shaman. For centuries manshin had been openly persecuted, their practices disrupted and shrines destroyed, their artistry desecrated to entertainment…
Read MoreExcerpts from Whisper of the Land
“Let the photo-taking sessions be a ballet instead of a military-style attack or a grueling marathon. In the garden, drink the sun, sweep with the wind, sing like a bird, and dance with a shovel and a rake.”
Read MoreNature and Spirit Reunion
There is much work to be done—not only in “saving the Earth,” as the mantra of the environmental movement goes, but also in saving ourselves and our own souls in the process.
Read MoreAshes to Ashes
I met my in-laws for the first time on New Year’s Day 1966, shortly before my wedding…
Read MoreWalking the Great Ridge Omine on the Womb-Diamond Trail
The Yamabushi are back country Shaman-Buddhists with strong Shinto connections, who make walking and climbing in deep mountain ranges a large part of their practice…
Read MoreHeart
The core of kokoro (the heart) is the search for wa (peace or harmony); this search manifests itself in all areas of life…
Read MoreCivilizations never Clash, Ignorance Does
A civilized person is the one who “knows oneself, and tries to learn from others”; the one who knows and respects the difference of cultures; the one who seeks the transversal values of humanity found in all these cultures.
Read MoreKi: The Vital Force
While ki is regularly invoked as an explanatory principle in oriental medicine and martial arts, few practitioners or writers, either Eastern or Western, spend much time intelligibly explaining ki itself…
Read MoreBiodiversity is a Practice
NATURE, BUDDHISM
BY SUSAN MURPHY
To practice a comprehensive awareness of mind, and to live from that ground, means more than enriching our intellectual grip on the deeply disquieting descent of biodiversity.
Read MoreSeeing the Forest and the Trees
“In Japan, divinities might be of mountain, sea, or river. People find divinities in nature. This religious faith still exists…”
Read MoreThe Dharma of the Rings: A Buddhist Interpretation of the Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings as a modern Buddhist myth? Not very plausible, on the face of it.
Read MoreMantra from Ajari-san
Ajari — “Great Teacher” — is a title conferred on monks…who have completed the great sennichi kaihõgyo training… This meditative practice involves walking a total of over 38,000 kilometers in 1,000 days, within a seven-year period.
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