(Translated by Adrian Chan-Wyles PhD) Ch’an Master Ma Zu Dao Yi lived between 709-788, or 688-763, and his lay surname was ‘Ma’ (马). He was
Category: Buddhism
Exploring the philosophy (and practice) of Early and Later Buddhism.
A Taste of Ch’an Tea
Ch’an Mind is like a Clear Mountain Spring; Tea Contains the Ten Thousand Things Original Chinese Language Article: Bao Guang Temple (宝光寺) (Translated by Adrian
The Ch’an Master Visits to Worship
The Ch’an Master Visits to Worship Green Onions and Ginger in the Garden The ancient temple – with its gurgling water – is free and
The Buddha Teaches How to Achieve a Successful Livelihood and a Tranquil Household – Without Abandoning Ancestral Worship
Original Article: Golden Lotus Rain (金色莲华雨露) Blog (Translated by Adrian Chan-Wyles PhD) Translator’s Note: Buddhism has had to integrate into an essentially Confucian culture in
The Patriarch’s Ch’an Can Not Be Bought
Daoxin stared at this young Dharma-vessel. Later the boy became his student and eventually inherited the Dharma and became the Fifth Ch’an Patriarch – Hongren. Hongren would eventually choose an illiterate man for his successor, who would become the Sixth Patriarch of Ch’an – Hiuneng. This is a significant statement to humanity, because Hongren had many students who were affluent and well educated.
On Seeing Behind the Eyelids – A Marxist Critique of Buddhism in the West
The Christian monastic tradition, as manifest through Western Christianity, has generally combined a stringent discipline with voluntary poverty and celibacy. The idealised image of the Buddhist monk, as it has entered the Western psyche, is one of a man who has abandoned what is here (real material life), for what is over there (imagined religious realms). Of course, as what is over there, by definition, is never here and now, its presence can never be empirically confirmed. The Buddhist rules followed by monastics and the laity take the place of Christian piety in the West, but are adhered to by most Westerners with a similar fanatic attitude that completely misses the point the rule is assumed to be designed to achieve. The physical practice of Buddhist meditation is of course the act of Christian prayer wrapped in saffron robes. Western converts meditate as if they are praying to a divine being, but with the added titillation that the divine being in question is their own imagined self-essence – or god removed from his heaven and relocated into their own head. Chanting mantras – the holy syllables of the East – replaces the singing of hymns and the chanting of monks, and sutra reading is bible study by other means. Just as god in heaven can never be logically verified, enlightenment in the head can not be seen in the environment or known to exist.
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 