During the golden age of Zen in the T’ang dynasty there were many sublime Zen Masters that glorify the non-conceptual mind. For example Huang Bo, the teacher of Lin Qi (Rinzai in Japanese) states, “This Mind is no mind of conceptual thought and it is completely detached from form.”[1] And further on “If you can […]
Humans are part of an ecosystem which we usually refer to as ‘reality’. This also allows us to say that, as an inseparable part of that system, we are also that system. In the sense that every part of a system, precisely by being inseparable, is also the whole system. Thich Nhat Hanh calls this […]
Maar het is niet “What You See is What You Get”. Net zoals in de foto hierboven duidelijk wordt dat het plantje dat wij kunnen zien slechts een klein deel is van de werkelijkheid, zo is het lichaam van Thay slechts een heel klein deel van hem. Wat voortleeft zijn de lessen en de daden […]
Daar sta ik dan voor de ingang naar mijn tent waar ik 3 maanden gebivakkeerd heb. De afscheiding van draad en een houtje is voor de koeien die daar rondzwerven. Die zijn totaal ongevaarlijk, maar het is toch prettig als ze niet in mijn tent komen. Ik heb wel een paar nachten gehad dat ze […]
I was 15 years old and living with my mum and younger brother in a hut at the edge of our little town. Every day I would go into the woods with my brother to collect dead wood and load it on a self made sledge. We would pull the sledge into town and tried […]
It started last summer in the retreat with my teacher Ton Lathouwers. I was feeling quite free and open. Then suddenly, during zazen, I was aware that I had been sitting for some time without a narrative. I was fully present and completely without any feelings of it having to be otherwise. Deep contentment without […]
An interesting post someone in the US shared with me. ‘FROM QUORA – This photo was taken sometime between May and December 1944 (when the bodies of thousands of murdered Hungarian Jews were burned in open fire pits, because the crematoria couldn’t handle these numbers). These people are enjoying a bit of “down time” before […]
When everything appears as a continually flowing process, then there are no things or nouns, just verbs. But language stops!
Ranging anywhere from a crippling or paralyzing experience to a soft mesmerizing feeling on the edge of our consciousness. In Buddhism the three basic afflictions at the base of the wheel of life (i.e. Samsara) are greed, anger and ignorance. Some forms of Buddhism expand that with jealousy and pride. But to my personal opinion […]
Now we are back in the Netherlands for a month already. After the Pilgrimage (see previous blogs) I returned to Bodhgaya to meet my wife. And to follow teachings of Tai Situpa. He was explaining the intricacies of the Ngöndro practice mainly for the monks and nuns of the Rumtek monastry from Sikkim. There were […]