"Making it a Habit"

Buddham Saranam Gacchammi

Dammam Saranam Gacchami

Sangham Saranam Gacchami

We go for refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha--the Triple Gem. That's how one takes the first step in Buddhism. But do we know what going for refuge means? Haengdal Citta gives us a number of different interpretations & translations in his talk from August 23, 2023. We can go for refuge in the Three Jewels, we can make a habit of going for refuge, and we can stay in this state of refuge. It's all good! We have the Buddha, the Dharma, and our Sangha to rely on. It is a safe place.

#zen, #dharmatalk #refuge

"Form & Formless"

We do things, we experience things. We can have that separation between action and actor, as if we were a disembodied narrator to our own lives. If we look at a drop of dew at night, we can see the reflection of the moon in it. The eye, the sense of sight, and the form being seen are all irrelevant. The moon can be in the dewdrop, the dewdrop can reflect the moon, and the moon. The dewdrop, the moon, and the reflection constitute a single experience. There is no obstruction between any of those elements, they permeate each other freely, leaving no separation, while still being identifiable as moon, dewdrop, and reflection. There is no need for a play-by-play announcer telling us, "There's the moon, and now it's being reflected in the dewdrop, the dewdrop isn't passing the moon, Score!" The experience is...Just This.

A thought investigates the arising of thoughts, the succeeding aware of the arising of the preceding thought, the self studies the self until there is no self, and we are meshed into the one experience. Who is it that is experiencing these things?

Robert Koho Epstein gave the Dharma talk on August 9, 2023 at One Mind Zen.

"Mind Of Buddha, Words of Buddha "

The Sutras are the words of the Buddha, Zen is the mind of the Buddha. We use the Sutras (words) to get to the wordless, Zen uses the wordless to arruve at the wordless. The Buddha held up a flower, Mahakashyapa smiled, thus came the Mind to Mind transmission through all of the Patrirarchs and ancestors, right up to you right now. 

But the Flower Sermon (words of the Buddha about silence), Mahakashyapa's smile, Vimilakikrti's Thunderous Silence are wonderful! Silent meditation is wonderful! Both point to our intuitive before-thought nature, which manifests with no interference from our brains and mouths. 

I've typed too much already. 

Myeong Jin Eunsahn gave the Dharma talk on August 2, 2023.