What will you rely upon: Raising up teachers

One of the things I’ve noticed about spiritual practice is the urge to see someone else as a perfect or enlightened practitioner.  But this has terrible consequences.  I’m not sure where this desire comes from. Is it simply that they show our goal is possible? Or is it more insidious: that he or she is [...]

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Buddha’s Birthday at Bangkok Hanmaum

I arrived yesterday afternoon just in time for the final rehearsals, with the altar looking just as gorgeous as it did for the Buddha’s Birthday last year, if not more so. Seeing all the offerings arranged before the Buddha image, fruit and flowers, candles and boxes, and so many people busy with the final touches [...]

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Buddhism and Debt

Has anyone ever noticed anything in the teachings of Buddhism about the need to avoid financial debt? There’s a great financial advisor in the US who really gives a lot of good practical and Biblical reasons to avoid debt, and I was wondering if there’s something similar in the Buddhist teachings. (He often brings up [...]

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Herding the Ox (Part 2)

 (This is the second part of Daehaeng Kun Sunim’s version of the Tex Ox Herding verses. These are traditional verses that describe the progress of spiritual practice, with the ox symbolizing our inherent nature.)      6. Riding the Ox Home    As I ride the ox, making my way home, it turns out he already knows the [...]

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the dance of emptiness and form

Form here is only emptiness, emptiness only form. Form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form. -the Heart Sutra During a trip to Thailand, I bought ‘A Brief History of Time’, by Stephen Hawking. Like the best Dharma books, it was written with the intention of being understood by any common layperson [...]

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Running Errands for the Dharma-realm

If you’re doing what the Universe needs done, the Universe will support you. Years ago I read this by the thinker and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller, and was really impressed.  He went on to say that if no support is forthcoming, you’re probably not working on what the Universe needs, and you need to change direction asap.  [...]

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Everyday Korean Buddhist Practices

Following on from my piece a week or so ago about entusting and devotion, I’d like to post an updated review I wrote last year of the little booklet called “Everyday Korean Buddhist Practices” by Seon Master Ilta, translated and very kindly gifted by Brian Barry. I think Master Ilta says so much better than I can just how there need [...]

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Herding the Ox (part 1)

The Ten Ox Herding verses describe the process of uncovering our inherent, enlightened Buddha-nature, represented here by the ox. Variations of these are popular throughout East Asia as a way of describing the spiritual path. This translation is from Daehaeng Kun Sunim’s Korean version.  For Barry, at Ox Herding :-)   1. Searching for the Ox [...]

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Illuminating the Buddha Within

This is a short Dharma talk Daehaeng Kun Sunim gave for the Buddha’s Birthday. We celebrate the Buddha’s Birthday every year, but this year I feel strongly that we need to use this opportunity to exert ourselves. As you light lanterns this year, and brighten and develop your mind, think of the Buddha’s teachings, which showed us [...]

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Happy Birthday

Seon Master Toeong Seongcheol, the late Patriarch of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, wrote a wonderful poem for Buddha’s Birthday in 1986 which was printed in ‘Echoes from Mt. Kaya’, a book of his teachings now sadly out of print. The book was translated by Brian Barry, the Korean-based artist who painted, among other [...]

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