Now you know clearly: what is called ‘mind’ is the great earth with its mountains and rivers; it is the sun, the moon, and the stars. Shobogenzo, Soku Shin Ze Butsu, Hubert Nearman It really is that simple – the eyes are horizontal, the nose is vertical. There is nothing cryptic or esoteric about this, [...]

The Skin, Flesh, Bones, & Marrow of Emptiness Dogen goes to great lengths to show that nonduality is only meaningful and effective if it fully embraces duality as coessential in the nonduality of duality/nonduality. In his commentary following this “wrong view,” Dogen makes it clear that his main concern here is to expose the fallacy [...]

As in all the great spiritual and literary traditions, in Zen Buddhism the experience of awakening, realization of nirvana, Buddhahood, or satori (enlightenment) are described in terms of vision (rather than hearing). To hear the Buddha Dharma is to learn about it and to study it, to see the Buddha Dharma is to experience it [...]

Truly, great realization is limitless, and returning to delusion is limitless. Shobogenzo, Daigo, Gudo Nishijima & Mike (Chodo) Cross The Zen masters assert that all the myriad things are Buddha. Thus, if there is anything real in the particular mistaken views that block us from seeing truth, it too must be Buddha. In Dogen’s works [...]

Ever already enlightened, ever already deluded It is axiomatic to Zen that Buddha can never be found “outside” our own mind or nature. As Dogen asserts, there is not one “objective molecule” in the whole universe; the human body-mind (shinjin) is the whole universe in the ten directions. There is no Buddha in the “outside,” [...]

In reality, reading and studying the teachings of Buddhism and engaging in the physical activity of Buddhism (including seated meditation) are not two separate things. All aspects of the Buddha Dharma are the Buddha Dharma. For Dogen it is meaningless to talk about the Buddha Dharma in terms primary and secondary or superior and inferior [...]