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6 Brief Universal Lessons
Nov. 8 | Your mind cannot hold two thoughts at once. This means that a single thought can occupy your entire mind. Whether good or bad, everything stems from a single thought. If we are careful with that first thought, even tragedies can be prevented. – Haemin...
How Encouragement Now Transforms The Future
Nov. 1 | In a way, Buddhas confer predictions of future attainment of Buddhahood as the purest ‘self-fulfilling’ prophesies – by inspiring greater practice towards it, with which definitely reaches it, as predicted. – Shilashanti As I was reading...
A Zen Master’s 3 Lessons
Oct. 25 | If you think you are either superior or inferior to someone, an invisible wall goes up between you. Treat him like an old friend you haven’t seen in a while. When you let your guard down, so will he. – Haemin Sunim I heard a story from Korea…...
Just Work Harder
Oct. 17 | Should you desire the great tranquility, prepare to sweat white beads. – Zen Master Hakuin There are no shortcuts or ways to bypass the Apprenticeship Phase. It is the nature of the human brain to require such lengthy exposure to a field, which allows...
How To Guard Your Six Senses?
Oct. 11 | To experience things as they are, as clearly as you can, do so with as little attachment, aversion and delusion as you can. – Shilashanti And how does a noble disciple guard the sense doors? When a noble disciple sees a sight with the eyes, they don’t...
The Glass Is Already Broken
Oct. 4 | [Mis]fortune falls heavily on those for whom she’s unexpected. The one always on the lookout easily endures. – Seneca (On Consolations To Helvia, 5.3) There is a story of a Zen Master who has a beautiful prized cup. The master would repeat to...
Be Ever More Sober
Sep. 27 | The height of cultivation runs to simplicity. – Bruce Lee The great philosopher king Marcus Aurelius… wrote to himself, he must ‘fight to be the person philosophy tried to make you.’ This is why Zen philosopher Zuigan is supposed to...
One Hell Of An Act Of Compassion
Sep. 20 | Hell is absence of compassion by oneself and for oneself, by others and for others. – Shilashanti We may be surprised to hear how the Buddha[-to-be] first generated compassion in the hell realm. In one of his past lives the Buddha[-to-be] was born in...
There Is No Need To Be Depressed
Sep. 13 | The Buddha’s first teaching was a message with the greatest hope – telling us that all beings have Buddha-nature. – Shilashanti There is Buddha-nature in every sentient being‘s mind, no matter how many negative actions living beings...
Pure Land Teachings Within Earliest Found Buddhist Scriptures (Before The Pāli Canon Formed)
Sep. 5 | We have the impression [through the earliest found sūtras]… that [the] Mahāyāna [tradition] was NOT distinct from [so-called] ‘mainstream’ Buddhism at this period [when these sūtras were being recorded], as it became [institutionalised...
The Buddha When Just A Gardener Sage
Aug. 29 | Cherry blossoms Scatter at the peak of their beauty – It is much harder for us To fall away from our own Attachment to the world. – Rengetsu The Bodhisattva, a gardener, decides to leave home to fully practice the Way when he sees his old spade...
The Three Bodies Of Buddhas
Aug. 22 | Everything the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas do and not do are expressions of perfect compassion for all. – Shilashanti The Buddhas are described as having three bodies (Trikāya 三身) or aspects of existence, though they are in ultimate reality one in...
Repair & Repurpose Before Rebuying
Aug. 15 | Learn to do more with less before wanting more and more. – Shilashanti One of the principles of a Buddhist lifestyle is to take care of things and repair them. The unsui monks of Eihei Temple designate days that contain the numbers ‘4’...
Don’t Put It Off Till Tomorrow
Aug. 8 | To live each day fully, is to live each life fully. – Shilashanti ‘Zengosaidan’ is a Zen expression meaning that we must put all our efforts into each day so that we have no regrets, and that we must not grieve for the past or worry about...
