This “Remove the Object Meditation” comes from the Buckeye Sangha and Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh from his book, Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child): Linji, the founder of Zen Buddhism in China, was fond of saying, “remove the object.” The object is the person or situation we’re thinking about, the story. So the practice is […]
Words Lose Their Meaning
September 17, 2015 by
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) has been recovering from the stroke he had last November in San Francisco at the UCSF Medical Center. It must be the best place in the world for stroke rehabilitation, or he would not be there. Words lose their meaning when you try to describe how well his treatment […]
Let the Thought or Feeling Go
May 30, 2015 by
These words of wisdom from Lama Surya Das teach us how to let the thought or feeling go. This works especially well when we allow ourselves to breathe in and breathe out and remove the object from our mind. This is reminiscent of Linji‘s directive to remove the object. The object, of course, is the […]
The Best Season of Your Life
March 7, 2015 by
These words of wisdom from Wumen touched me the moment I read them. He was the compiler or and commenter on the Mumonkan (The Gateless Barrier) – a collection of 48 koans – stories, dialogues, questions or statements used to trigger enlightenment in Zen Buddhism and Chan Buddhism. This was one of the first books […]
The Leonard Koan
July 24, 2014 by
These words of wisdom from Leonard Cohen form what is called the Leonard Koan! Not much has to be said about the amazing singer musician Leonard Cohen. He is pretty famous in all circles. He is now turning 80 on September 21, 2014. Many people don’t know the other side of Leonard Cohen. He was […]
Walk on Earth
June 8, 2014 by
Today’s words of wisdom come from my Teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, known as Thay by his followers. I have heard him say that the miracle is to walk on Earth, in many of the dharma talks, and in many of the books and magazine articles I’ve read by him. Thay quotes Linji (Lin […]
The Chan Practices Of Buddha Gate Monastery
March 22, 2014 by
There has been a lot of discussion about the 5 Contemplations on the OI1 discussion group lately. In the previous article I reported on some issues my dharma brothers were having and compared two versions of the 5 Contemplations with each other. One of the principle areas of discussion was related to the second contemplation, […]
6 Things Uniting in Harmony
December 26, 2013 by
The 6 things uniting in harmony to be remembered were spoken by the Buddha. These came to me in an email from Bhikkhu Samahita The Blessed Buddha once said: These six things are to be remembered in order to unite any community in harmony: Which six? Friendly Behavior both in public & in private. Friendly […]
Buddha Gate Monastery
May 4, 2013 by
Last Saturday, my wife and I visited the Buddha Gate Monastery in Lafayette, California. The monastery is on 17 acres of beautiful land in what is know as the East Bay of San Francisco. [Read More…] The monastery is supported by the Chan tradition of Grand Master Venerable Wei Chueh who organized many monasteries in Taiwan as well as […]
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