"Hares With Horns"

It's easy enough to realize a the rabbit with antlers isn't real. And we can probably realize that having an argument with someone who isn't in the same room as us probably won't resolve anything. Maybe not so easy to realize is that our projections about how something is or will be, might just not be reality. And yet we do it again and again, thinking that it'll have to be better next time, like someone expecting that the house won't win at a gambling table. The Lankavatara Sutra goes over these projections that separate us from reality. The painting isn't the real scene or person. Even that guy in the mirror isn't you. The mirror is just glass, it doesn't choose what to reflect, it just reflects. We impose name and form and meaning upon the image, the argument, the person, place, or thing that isn't anything more than a figment of our imagination. All things are no more real than the hare with horns, if only we weren't so attached to our thoughts telling us stories we believe to be true.

Myeong Jin Eunsahn gives the Dharma talk on March 22, 2023 at One Mind Zen.

"The Cracked Pot"

Kevin Hae Seong Sheridan uses the old story about the water carrier to reflect on what happens between our ears when we don't quite measure up to our own standards. "Oh, I'm not a strong meditator...but she's got a really strong practice." "How can I save all beings when I can't even help myself?" All expectations are resentments waiting to happen, and as such, impediments to our awakening to our true Buddha Nature. Who cares about perfection? The talk from March 15, 2023 at One Mind Zen.

"What Other Side?"

We often hear that once the other shore has ben reached, the raft may be discarded. Our Zen practice tells us that we're already on the other side, and that maybe lugging around the raft, the tent, the waterproof matches, and all the other accoutrements are just obscuring that we are already there, never left it, and there was no place to be other than right here&now to leave. Haengdal Citta gives us the Dharma talk on March 1, 2023.