Today you have to understand charity if you want to understand Buddhism.

[Charities in the event-network style] emphasize not staying to talk… so you’re not creating more karmic entanglement… whereas the Cherish Children Fund… created long-term sustained relationships… as a form of collective karma.

People are doing very different types of projects for very different reasons… [But] feelings of care, feelings of selflessness were key ways that people demonstrated themselves as good people… ensuring that they were making merit.

Ultimately, then, religions derive their power from the depth of their spirituality. The power of Zen, for example, flows out of Tokusan’s “Thirty Blows” or Rinzai’s “Katsu!!!” or Jōshū’s “Mu” (“Emptiness”). The power of Jodo Shinshu also originates from one single point of absolute depth: from the nembutsu.

Unno examines how religious power and influence emerge from deep inner spirituality rather than external institutions, illustrated through historical figures in Zen and Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism.

Scholars of Chinese Buddhism have given much attention to vilified foodstuffs such as meat and pungent vegetables and less attention to celebrated foods. While proscriptions are important for their role in constructing boundaries used in group identification, we should not overlook the celebration of particular foods such as congee (zhōu 粥).

… because I have discerned the teachings by perceiving my own mind, I feel respect for the tradition that bases itself on mind [i.e., Chan]. Moreover, because I have understood the cultivation of mind by discerning the teachings, I have reverent regard for the meaning of the teachings.

This paper provides a close reading of a few lines from the beginning of Zongmi’s Comprehensive Preface to the Collected Writings on the Source of Chan (Chányuán zhūquánjí dūxù 禪源諸詮集都序), written in 833.

This passage is of special interest because in it Zongmi gives an account of what might be called an ‘enlightenment experience’ that he had, which provides the basis on which he claims unique authority to be able to resolve the central problem that the text addresses: to bridge the gap between textualists and meditators so as to make the tradition whole again.

正坐端然如泰山、
巍巍不要守空閑。
You should sit properly and uprightly, like Mt. Tai,
Imposing and solitary, without dwelling in vacuous quiescence.

After articulating the array of “the practice of the same” that dictates every corner of our civilization, this paper proposes to turn to gong’an (Jp. kōan) to dismantle that dysfunctional habit of repetition. The soteriological practice aiming at realizing one’s Buddha nature provides a way to think about what I call “critical Chan liminality,” which deconditions us from the practice of the same.

Pure Land Buddhists in America seek to create a Pure Land here on Earth through ritual acts of devotion, care for animals and human beings, study, meditation, and acting compassionately in the public sphere.

This study explores the phenomenological structure of mystical experience among 139 Chinese Pure Land and Chan Buddhist monks and nuns. Semi-structured interviews, thematic coding, and statistical analyses demonstrated that Stace’s common facets of mysticism as measured by Hood’s Mysticism Scale successfully described Buddhist experience as modified by Buddhist doctrines.

These results lend strong support to the thesis that the phenomenology of mystical experience reveals a common experiential core that can be discerned across religious and spiritual traditions.

So, for Buddhists, as long as they try to cultivate a mind of equinimity and fortrightness, as long as they are compassionate, or use wisdom and an objective attitude to deal with whatever comes up, then there is no need to worry about whether one has a good fortune or not, or whether Fengshui is correct or not.

Ven. Master Sheng Yen explains that, while supernatural things such as fortunetelling or fengshui are not totally superstitious, they are also not accurate. The mind has the ability to transform and change its fate, so Buddhists need only be concerned with developing a wholesome mind.

Actually, during the Song, although marginal, this dual acceptation of supernaturalism and its antithesis manifests itself not only in Chan biographies, but also in doctrinal writings of the school.

This paper explores the theme of Chan interaction with indigneous Chinese religions and deities.

Early Chan texts de-emphasized miracles, focusing on doctrine and dharma transmission, but by the 9th and 10th centuries, Chan biographies embraced accounts of Buddhist dominance over local cults, mirroring a trend in broader Chinese Buddhist hagiography. Finally, the study ends with a look at a syncretic model in Song Chan writings, which presented a veiled challenge to idolatry and redefined supranturalism to serve new Chan doctrines.

His first essay, provocatively titled “The Doctrine of Tathāgata-garbha Is Not Buddhist,” leaves no doubt as to Matsumoto’s position or intent.

An overview of the writings of “Critical Buddhism.”

This brought about the third great persecution of 845 which spared only a few temples.

A brief outline of the most important events in the history of Chinese Buddhism.

Dōgen’s calligraphy is a carefully orchestrated performance. That is, it does precisely what it asks its readers to do: it sits calmly, evenly, and at poised attention in a real-world field of objects. The manuscript’s brushstrokes and entire aesthetic layout enact seated meditation.

The Fukanzazengi falls into a completely different genre of Zen writing from the sorts of expressive and creative manifestations, much-favored in museum exhibitions, in which dynamic interpretation is paramount. Instead, the Fukanzazengi is a pedagogical and didactic guide in which legibility is crucial, the function being to teach adherents, clearly and methodically, how to do seated meditation. In support of this assertion, I offer an extended visual analysis of the performativity of the manuscript’s calm and measured calligraphy.

Someone like that is truly amazing, is truly a friend!

A translation of a short, encouraging talk on how to move towards freedom.

If we don’t freeze to death in the winter and don’t die of hunger on the other days, that’s good enough.

A loving biography of a modern Chan Master who faced many challenges in his mission to revitalize authentic, Chinese Buddhism.

For his offical autobiography, see Footprints in the Snow (2008).

some people cite the Lankavatara Sutra’s passage on gradual cultivation as a proof that what Great Master Bodhidharma transmitted was gradual practice Zen, paying no attention to a later passage on the equal importance of the sudden and the gradual. This is really the epitome of crudity and shallowness.

A polemical overview of the Chan school from an energetic and opinionated modernist.

First I redirected my hearing inward in order to enter the current of the sages. Then external sounds disappeared. With the direction of my hearing reversed and with sounds stilled, both sounds and silence ceased to arise. So it was that I gradually progressed…

A complete, annotated translation of the classic Chinese Sūtra covering the Bodhisattvas’ practice of meditation and attainment of wisdom.

It was during this fertile period—[the seventh and eighth centuries, or] “early Chan”—that the lineage myths, doctrinal innovations, and distinctive rhetorical voice of the Chan, Zen, Son, and Thien schools first emerged. Although hundreds of books and articles have appeared on the textual and doctrinal developments associated with Chan, relatively little has been written on the distinctive meditation practices, if any, of this movement. This essay emerged from an attempt to answer a seemingly straightforward question: what kinds of meditation techniques were promulgated in early Chan circles? The answer, it turned out, involved historical and philosophical forays into the notion of “mindfulness”

… the early Qing Chinese Buddhist monk Zaisan Hongzan’s belief in Maitreya and Tuṣita Heaven pure lands, as reflected in his collection of miracle tales and biographies, should be understood in a broader socio-religious context of Chan decline and monastic revival in late imperial China.

Hongzan vividly displayed his concerns about literary Chan practice and argued for the pivotal and urgent need for Vinaya among monastic communities.

… the lives and thought of two rather different radical, Zen Buddhists of late Meiji Japan in order to discern whether and in what ways their progressive political ideals were influenced by Chan thought and practice.

… for all of its rhetoric about not relying on words and letters and functioning compassionately as a politically detached, iconoclastic religion, Zen has generally failed to criticize ideologies–and specific social and political conditions–that stand in tension with core Buddhist values.

Yet a close examination of Zen theory and praxis indicates that the tradition does possess resources for resisting dominant ideologies and engaging in critique.

Seno’o Giro’s personal pilgrimage spanned tradition and modernity, and took him from the political right to the extreme left such that in the vicissitudes of this one life is somehow recapitulated the whole dilemma of Japanese Buddhism since the Meiji Restoration. It highlights well the unresolved conflicts at the heart of modern liberal Buddhism.

One thought arising, it is hell;
One thought reversed, it is heaven.

Inside the 2001–2002, 90-day, winter meditation retreat at Baek Hung Temple, Palgong, Korea.

… the practicer will become like a dead man who, while following others in their normal activities, does not give rise to the least differentiation or attachment

The extraordinary life and teachings of the modern-day Chan Master “Empty Cloud”.

koans are presented along with a poetic introduction and an elaborate commentary. A hua-t’ou however is a stand alone, always short phrase or a part of a koan that can be taken as a subject of meditation and introspection.

The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences.
When love and hate are both absent
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
Make the smallest distinction, however,
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

An approachable and clear commentary on this famous Chinese poem explaining how Chan can be understood as a merging of Taoism with Buddhism.

This Qi-based worldview—where Qi is this energy matrix that sustains existence—seems to explain why Kim Iryeop is talking about “emptiness” as power that a person can wield: Emptiness is a kind of energy that the creative human being is able to use to manifest value.

To enter the Great Way there are many paths, but essentially they are of two means: by Principle and by Practice.

A modern translation of and commentary on a famous, pithy discourse by the founder of the Chan school.

Only a few have heard that “painted rice cakes do not satisfy hunger” and none have really understood what it meant. I’ve asked several of these skin bags about it and everybody was quite certain without even bothering to look into it.

A classic sermon from 1242.

Although this is a matter of preparing and serving meals, the tenzo is not just “the cook.”

A beautiful and classic (13th century) essay on the Zen of running the monastery kitchen.

An alternate translation by Griffith Foulk can be found on The Zen Site.

By what Buddhist doctrines, tenets or philosophies did Zen masters develop their unconventional and dramatic teachings and practices?

… language, concepts, and meanings are embodied through our dispositions, abilities, comportment, and actions

After identifying two related, Zen “dogmas”—(1) that language obscures reality and that (2) Buddhist practice is about cultivating the experience of emptiness—this essay sets about to refute these by examining the way that concepts are enacted and embodied.

If you have been unable to penetrate through, I guarantee you that when the last day of your life arrives, you will be frantic. Nice to have some things be certain, isn’t it?

A talk giving an overview of Zen Koans and how they encourage our meditation practice.

Tzu Chi was founded in a small town in eastern Taiwan in 1966 by a lady who has become known by the title and name Master Cheng Yen (b.1937).

Chan did not originate in the Chinese appropriation of Indian Buddhist texts. Instead, its origins can be traced to the appropriation of Indian Buddhist practices

What distinguished Chan were its novel use of language, its development of new narrative forms, and its valorization of the direct and embodied realization of Buddhist awakening. In contrast with the epistemic, hermeneutical and metaphysical concerns that shaped other schools of Chinese Buddhism, Chan’s defining concerns were experiential and relational

An encyclopedic introduction to Chan.

All aspects of our practice—zazen in the monks’ hall, chanting of verses and sutras during services, ceremonies in the Dharma hall—and all our other activities in daily life are the practice of the bodhisattva vow actualized moment by moment. We chant these verses and sutras as an expression of this interpenetrating reality

Chan transcends knowledge, symbols, and all the apparatus of language. You may call Chan ‘emptiness’ but it is not emptiness in the nihilistic sense.

An introduction to the practice of meditation retreat in the Chan tradition and a selection of Sheng Yen’s retreat talks.

All beings by nature are Buddha,
As ice by nature is water.

What can one possibly say about [this painting]? One can only sit in front of it, gazing at it in silent wonder.

A scholar of Chinese painting attempts to explain this famously ineffable Ch’an still life.

… one of the most spectacular and popular rituals in Chinese Buddhism, Shuilu fahui […] constructs and represents a unified religious world

… quietly ignoring much in the Buddhist heritage that suggested that birth as a woman indicated that one was less prepared to attain enlightenment than men, Ch’an teachers urged upon their students the point of view that enlightenment was available to everyone at all times; any other view was seen as a hindrance to practice

Position your buttocks in the center of the zafu and cross your legs.

Simple, step-by-step instructions for doing Zen meditation, with accompanying illustrations.

Fulfill One’s Duties and be Responsible

A basic introduction to Chinese Mahayana Buddhism.

With Ch’an but no Pure Land, nine out of ten people will go astray.

How Ch’an and Pure Land were combined over a thousand years ago.

… a lot of the practice is figuring out how to get your whole self moving in one direction

A former Rinzai Zen monk explains the intense training he underwent in Japan.

Because of the difficulty of understanding the more abstruse concepts of Buddhism, popular Buddhism took over and modified Indian mythology

A very brief overview of the history of Pure Land Buddhism.

A reading of this essay can also be seen on YouTube

I have no problems with doing ‘Otsutome’ at the Hondo of our temple every morning and every evening. Chanting sutras to praise the virtue of Amida Buddha, and reciting the nembutsu to express gratitude for the process of interdependence at the end of Otsutome makes me feel great!

A few memories from a Japanese Shin Priest.

Didn’t you know beforehand how the world of men is? Sometimes we have to let go of the things we like.

An orphaned boy is raised by an old hermit on a small barge in the middle of a scenic, mountain lake where he learns about the cycle of life and death.

For an overview of critical interpretations of the film’s symbolism, see Green and Mun’s 2019 article, “Representing Buddhism through Mise-en-scène, Diegesis, and Mimesis” (IJBTC 29.1).

If you want to find a resting place,
Cold Mountain will keep you long.
A gentle breeze blows the hidden pines:
The closer you come, the better it sounds.

A corpus of over three hundred poems attributed to a legendary Tang (618–907) era recluse who took the name Hánshān (Cold Mountain) from the isolated hill on which he lived in the Tiantai 天台 range. In pre-modern times, editions of the collection usually included fifty-some poems attributed to Hanshan’s monastic companion, Shídé 拾得­ (“Foundling”) and two poems attributed to another monk, Fēnggān 豐­干. This translation contains the complete text of the earliest surviving edition.

南無本師釋迦牟尼佛
Nammô Bổn Sư Thíchca Mâuni Phật
Veneration to the original master, the Buddha Shakyamuni

The Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist liturgy presented in multiple languages
thiền môn nhật tụng bằng nhiều thứ tiếng

… he believed in nothing but himself. Actually, this is neither Buddhism nor Chan

… simultaneously donning a tolerant posture while claiming the overriding-ness of one’s religion was in fact a distinct phenomenon from what could be called “synthesis,” and has in actuality characterized many syncretistic endeavors in Chinese history.

How Ming era Buddhist apologists adapted Chan to Yogacara doctrine.

Zen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Strictly speaking, for a human being, there is no other practice than this

This modern classic of Japanese Buddhism has introduced several generations of Westerners to the simple yet challenging beauty of Zen practice.

… trying to control the breath, it becomes abnormal. Don’t pay attention to any phenomenon that occurs to the body; if you are concerned with it, problems will arise. It is the same with the mind. You will be unable to practice unless you disregard everything that happens to you

A series of retreat talks explaining the Third Chan Patriarch’s famous inscription of the same name.