"All Becomes One"

For a practice that emphasizes the ultimate unity of all dharmas, practitioners can sometimes overlook that. "You're the Lesser vehicle, I'm the Greater vehicle." "Oh yeah, well I'm the Diamond Vehicle, so there." "But Diamond, you have all these deities and weird rituals...Decidedly not the Buddha's original teaching." (Mahayana nods in agreement). 

Malintha Hwamin Citta occupies a somewhat unique position--having grown up in Sri Lanka, she practiced Vipassana meditation, then started practicing with One Mind Zen, and through an association with a nun in Sri Lanka from the Tibetan tradition, she is also practicing that form as well. Not one instead of the others, not a jugdemental view of one tradition over the others, just practice. Situation, relationship, function--when practicing Zen, practice in the Zen way. But the teachings from one tradition always inform and influence the other forms, notably in "putting it all down" and (slams table) "all becomes one."

Malintha gave the Dharma talk at One Mind Zen on November 29, 2023, just before leaving for a 3-month long retreat in Nepal.

"Awakening from the Dream"

Lojong is a practice the gradually cultivate the sudden awakening experience. Like a hwadu question that raises Great Doubt, the slogans are statements used are used to raise Great Faith. Both require consistent practice to have any effect on the dormant mind. The slogan "regard all dharmas as dreams" means that all conditioned phenomena are like dreams, they are dreams. They are of course subject to impermanence, but they are also interpretations--stories--that we tell ourselves to get through daily existence. They rarely go beyond partial perceptions of reality. There is no phenomena--a dharma--that is worth clinging to, as none have any substantial nature. Realizing this results not in Fear, but Faith. 

To rest in the nature of awareness of the present moment--alaya--likewise gives great comfort. We realize there is the Dharma, we don't necessarily perceive everything completely accurately, but this is OK. This is all preparation for that sudden moment where all becomes clear, and indeed seeing this is part of the moment of awakening itself.

Dae'An Citta gave the Dharma talk on November 15, 2023 at One Mind Zen. 

"The Pastness of the Past"

The past and future are nothing more than fabrications made by our thinking. They don't exist outside our thinking. That's easy enough to see when we talk about the future. We know it hasn't happened...yet. But we fully expect it will, withy us playing fortune teller creating a narrative in which we are already participating. The past is in many ways equally concocted, with us still creating a narrative based on a selection of events that we use, once again to fit the narrative, and again with ourselves as active participants. We try to use the Five Skandhas--form, feeling perception, impulses, and consciousness--to immerse ourselves in this imaginary world we try to make sense of, it having existence and permanence. With all things created by thinking, past, future, the skandhas, self, etc, we remove ourselves from the indeterminant present moment, which never leaves. Master Ma and Baijang were out walking one day, and a flock of ducks few overhead. Master Ma asked him where the ducks were. "They've flown away," came the response. For the ducks, they never left their present moment, just flying as ducks do. Baijang created a narrative of them flying somewhere before being overhead, being overhead, and then going into the future where they were no longer overhead. Confused? Don't ask Mazu, lest you want tour nose to suffer the same fate as Baijang's. And all of that I just made up, selectively picking and choosing from memories I have a a story I may not remember correctly. The good news is that if Mazu or Baijang were to tell you what happened, they'd be making it up too! Robert Koho Epstein gave the Dharma talk on November 11, 2023 at One Mind Zen. At least in my mind he did.

Zen Talking Heads

What is Western Zen?

Is it different from Asian Zen?

Is one more legitimate?

What about lineages—are they important? Are they real?

How about rituals/ceremonies/defined practice forms? Do they matter?

Are different types of practice more valid than others—seated/walking/bowing/chanting/kongan, hwadu?

How about robes/rakusus, gasas, ban gasas—important or not?

What about requirements--# of hours in retreats/sessions/kong-an curricula

What about titles/ordination levels/transmission—are they legitimate? Do they serve any purpose?

How about Dharma transmission?

What about people referring to themselves as “Zen Master?”

Our panel of Zen pundits--Robert Koho Epstein, Wayne Dae'An Bivens-Tatum, and Haengdal Citta--weigh in on these topics from host & moderator Myeong Jin Eunsahn.