Buddha Mind

Sentient beings are in essence Buddhas.

It is like water and ice.

There is no ice without water.

There are no Buddhas outside sentient beings.

What a shame, sentient beings seek afar, not knowing what is at hand.

It is like wailing from thirst in the midst of water,

Or wandering lost among the poor

Although born a rich man's child.

The cause of rebirth in the six realms

Is the darkness of our delusion.

Treading dark path after dark path

When can we escape birth and death?

Mahayana Zen meditation goes beyond all praise.

Giving, keeping precepts, and the other perfections,

Chanting Buddha's name, repentance, training and many

Other kinds of wholesome deeds

All find their source in zazen.

When you sit even once,

The merit obliterates countless wrongdoings.

How can there be evil realms?

The Pure Land is not far.

If by good fortune you have the occasion

To hear this teaching,

Admire it and rejoice in it.

You will attain boundless happiness

How much more if you dedicate yourself

And realize your own nature directly.

This "own nature" is no nature.

You are already apart from useless discussions.

The gate opens where cause and effect are inseparable.

The road of not-two, not-three goes straight ahead.

Make the form formless form,

Going and returning, not anywhere else.

Make the thought thoughtless thought,

Singing and dancing, the Dharma voice.

How vast the sky of unobstructed concentration!

How brilliant the full moon of fourfold wisdom!

At this very moment, what can be sought?

Nirvana is immediate.

This place is the lotus land.

This body is the Buddha body.

-Hakuin

(1685-1769)

The Story of Buddha 

Lecture by Swami Tyagananda

Zen is the meditation school of Japanese Buddhism,
Zen is a transliteration of the Chinese word chan,
Which is itself an abbreviation of chan-na, 
From the Sanskrit word dhyana,
Meaning meditation, or absolute stillness of the mind.

Buddha's Message to the World

Article by Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda said of Lord Buddha...

Surely he was the greatest man who ever lived. 

He never drew a breath for himself. 

Above all, he never claimed worship. 

He said, "Buddha is not a man, but a state. 

I have found the door. 

Enter, all of you!"

Buddha and His Beliefs

Lecture by Swami Bhaskarananda





If the heart is in accord with what is,
All single strivings have ceased,
All doubts are cleared up,
True faith is confirmed;
Nothing remains,
Nothing need be remembered.
Empty, clear, self-illuminating,
The heart does not waste its energy.

- Sosan 
The Third Zen Patriarch

Paranirvana

If you want to
Know Buddha, it's pointless
To seek him in the temple;
The Buddha is simply you
Wishing to see Buddha.

The mind seeking

Buddha outside

Is the worst

Illusion of all.

Translated by Soiku Shigematsu
A Zen Harvest : Japanese Folk Zen Sayings (Haiku, Dodoitsu, and Waka)

Lewis deSoto: Paranirvana (Self-Portrait) | Santa Barbara Museum of Art 2016

Buddha's Teachings  
Lecture by Swami Sarvadevananda

Give up anger, give up pride, and free yourself from all bondage. No sorrow can be fall those who never try to possess people and things as their own. Those who hold back rising anger like a rolling chariot are real charioteers. Others merely hold the reins. Conquer anger through gentleness, unkindness through kindness, greed through generosity, and falsehood by truth. Be truthful; do not yield to anger; give freely, even if you have but little: by these three steps you will come near the gods. More than those who hate you, more than all your enemies, an undisciplined mind does greater harm. More than your mother, more than your father, more than all your family, a well disciplined mind does greater good. 

-Dhammapada, 221-225, 42-43

Buckle Up! Buddha

Peacefully sitting in a hidden corner of the discount department store, he waited for me. Unhurried and with a dignified sweet smile he humbly sat, waiting patiently until I eventually found him. I was thrilled! He was the one. And the price was right! The perfect finishing touch to my Zen garden. :) Today I had found a Buddha statue that wanted to come home with me. With my new meditation buddy safely buckled in my car we made the short journey home. Instantly the perfect garden spot revealed itself. I gently placed him in position surrounded by passion fruit vines and flowers. I breathed a sigh of relief and lit a candle offering a prayer of gratitude to the divine consciousness for bringing us together.

I've discovered that creating a serene Zen-ish environment is paramount to my progress in spiritual life. A quiet sacred space where my mind can relax and focus on God. Some days the weight of the world seems to be clouding my mind and it becomes restless. By committing to a daily sitting practice in a peaceful sunlit garden, the divine seems more easily revealed through nature. Surrounded by sacred art, birds chirping, bees humming, leaves fluttering, and clouds effortlessly floating on a fragrant orange blossom breeze, I momentarily transcend... bliss.

We are told... One day, after much practice, if we do not grasp at enlightenment or run away
from it, realization will catch up to us. Blissfully shining the great "I Am" sits as witness to all... as if to say, "I knew you would finally remember who you really are!"

Song of Zazen

By Hakuin Zenji

All beings by nature are Buddha,

As ice by nature is water.

Apart from water there is no ice;

Apart from beings, no Buddha.

How sad that people ignore the near

And search for truth afar:

Like someone in the midst of water

Crying out in thirst;

Like a child of a wealthy home

Wandering among the poor.

Lost on dark paths of ignorance,

We wander through the Six Worlds;

From dark path to dark path

When shall we be freed from birth and death?

Oh, the Zen meditation of the Mahayana!

To this the highest praise!

Devotion, repentance, training,

The many perfections

All have their source in Zen meditation.

Those who try Zen meditation even once

Wipe away beginning less crimes.

Where are all the dark paths then?

The Pure Land itself is near.

Those who hear this truth even once

And listen with a grateful heart,

Treasuring it, revering it,

Gain blessings without end.

Much more, those who turn about

And bear witness to self-nature,

Self-nature that is no-nature,

Go far beyond mere doctrine.

Here effect and cause are the same;

The Way is neither two nor three.

With form that is no-form,

Going and coming, we are never astray;

With thought that is no-thought,

Even singing and dancing are the voice of the Law.

How boundless and free is the sky of Awareness!

How bright the full moon of wisdom!

Truly, is anything missing now?

Nirvana is right here, before our eyes;

This very place is the Lotus Land;

This very body, the Buddha.

*Translation by Robert Aitken

The Story of Buddha

Lecture by Swami Tyagananda

I have arrived.

I am home.

In the here.

In the now.

I am solid.

I am free.

In the ultimate I dwell.

-Thich Nhat Hanh

Sitting with Our Father and Mother

Guided 10min meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh

Breathing in, I invite the Buddha to breathe with my lungs.

Breathing out, I invited the Buddha to sit with my back.

Buddha is breathing, Buddha is sitting.

I enjoy breathing, I enjoy sitting.

I know that the quality of the breathing, in the Buddha breath, is excellent.

I know the quality of his sitting is excellent.

I enjoy breathing. I enjoy sitting.

I am aware that my father is fully present in every cell of my body.

I invite my father to breathe in with me. Breathe out with me.

I would like to invite my father in me to sit with my back 

– this is my back, but it is also his back.

Father and son. Father and daughter. Breathing together.

Breathing in, I feel so light. Breathing out, I feel so free.

Daddy, do you feel as light as I do? Do you feel as free as I do?

I know that my mother is fully present in every cell of my body.

I invite my mother to breathe with my lungs, to sit with my back.

This is my back, but it is also hers.

Mother and son breathing in together. 

Mother and daughter breathing in together.

Mother and son breathing out together. 

Mother and daughter breathing out together.

Breathing in, I feel so light.

Mother, do you feel as light as I do?

Breathing out, I feel so free.

Mother, do you feel as free as I do?

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Buddha's Spiritual Humanism
Lecture by Swami Tattwamayananda

Do you have the patience to wait

Till your mud settles

And the water is clear?

Can you remain unmoving

Till the right action arises by itself?

-Tao Te Ching

Pray For What You Want

Zen in it's simplicity, a note in a fortune cookie gave me much to ponder. Could the universe be trying to tell me something? Today it seems even my food was preaching Vedanta philosophy. This bold demand to pray was fascinating to me especially coming from a cookie. It sounded a lot like what my Swami would say. For by definition, prayer is talking to God in a spirit of love. Through daily personal prayer we connect with our spiritual reality and develop virtues that enrich our lives and purify our spiritual channel to God. Prayer empowers us to take control of the way we respond to any of life's given situations. Through prayer and meditation our spirits are guided on a purposeful journey. As a result, prayer naturally extends to our actions (i.e."Work"). A fundamental teaching in all the world's religions is that our actions should reflect our prayers so that our deeds, our very lives, may be purposeful, virtuous, and beneficial to our fellow man. Living in a prayerful state occurs when every decision we make, every action we undertake, every word we say, is motivated by the remembrance of God. And that's the way this cookie crumbles!

Power of Prayer lecture by Pravrajika Vrajaprana

Buddhism & Hinduism

Please Call Me By My True Name
by Thich Nhat Hanh

Don't say that I will depart tomorrow -- 

even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving

to be a bud on a Spring branch, 

to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,

learning to sing in my new nest,

to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,

to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,

to fear and to hope.The rhythm of my heart 
is the birth and death of all that is alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing

on the surface of the river.

And I am the bird 

that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily

in the clear water of a pond.

And I am the grass-snake

that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,

my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.

And I am the arms merchant,

selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,

refugee on a small boat,

who throws herself into the ocean

after being raped by a sea pirate.

And I am the pirate,

my heart not yet capable

of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,

with plenty of power in my hands.

And I am the man who has to pay

his "debt of blood" to my people

dying slowly in a forced-labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm

it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.

My pain is like a river of tears,

so vast it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names,

so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,

so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names,

so I can wake up, and so the door of my heart

can be left open, the door of compassion.

Buddha, Shankaracharya and Swami Vivekananda Lecture by Swami Tattwamayananda

Training in Mindfulness - Deer Park Monastery