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Blue Cliff Record Case 43

A monk asked Master Tozan, ‘When heat and cold come, how can we avoid them’?
Tozan responded, ‘why don’t you go to the place where there is no heat and no cold’?
The monk asked, how do I get to that place’? Tozan replied, ‘When it is hot, heat kills the monk, when it is cold, cold kills the monk
In this video, John explains this Koan, and the message of non duality that Master Tozan was getting at with his apparently curious statement.

Blue Cliff Record Case 43: 29th August 2020

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Shinji Shobogenzo, Book 2, Case 91

In this video John discusses this metaphor from Master Sekito about a familiar trope of Buddhism:

“The wide sky does not hinder the flying white clouds.”

The metaphor of sky and clouds is common in Zen. The original meaning 7th century meaning was fairly specific: just as the sun may be temporarily obscured by clouds yet we know it’s always there,  likewise, although our mind may be in turmoil, we can sit in confident faith in our intrinsic Buddha Nature. This initially simple formulation was gradually woven into a complex of interrelated ideas.

Master Sekito’s apparently simple repetition of the image has a lot packed into it and John explains how Sekito urges us not to discard the life flooding through us for a false ideal of quietism.

Adapted from Kusen given on 25th August 2020

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Kinhin 経行

“The Zen masters say it is like the tiger slipping into the forest or the dragon sliding into the sea”

Taisen Deshimaru

Stand, with the spine upright but flexible, the back of the neck straight, your head balanced and weightless, the shoulders without tension and your chest open. The tip of your tongue rests gently on your hard palate, just behind your teeth. Be aware of your body being in a dynamic relationship with earth and space and sky. Be aware of your weight dropping down and pushing the earth, and a corresponding upward push from the earth, uncompressing the spine and torso, travelling up the spine and out through the top of the head at the fontanelle (crown chakra). Don’t consciously stretch the back of your neck or intentionally tuck your chin in.

Make a soft fist of the left hand, the thumb inside the fingers, placing it with the lower knuckle of your thumb resting against the sternum and your right hand, palm down, on top of the left. This position of the hands is called isshu 揖手.

Let your gaze be soft and rest on the ground a few yards ahead. Leave space between your elbow and your torso. Lift your elbows so that your forearms are horizontal. Don’t have tension in the arms, so don’t strain your arms to keep horizontal, if this is uncomfortable let your elbows drop. Allow the back to relax and widen.

Breathe in fully and step forward with the right foot, about half the length of the foot, landing first on your heel then rolling the weight gradually forward towards the ball of your foot, feeling a strong connection between the ground and your foot. As you place the heel on the ground, start to breathe out, and in the course of that outbreath, roll the weight from the back of the right foot to the front, so that almost all your weight is on the front of the right foot. All of the back foot remains on the ground, stretching the back leg. Pay attention to the soles of the feet throughout. There is a continual dance and movement of weight: front to back, side to side.

At the end of the outbreath, your weight is on the front of the right foot, largely on your big and second toe and the area immediately below that. You are rolling over and activating an energy point on the sole of the foot, bubbling spring, which is slightly below the junction of the big toe and the second toe. To enhance this, it is helpful to slightly splay your toes as you are bringing your weight forward. At the end of the outbreath, roll the right foot slightly back so you are on this point as you breathe in. The leg is slightly bent.

Breathe in from the bubbling spring point, and allow the energy of that in breath to travel up the leg to the base chakra at the perineal area, then up the back to the occipital joint ( the jade pillow area) then in a forward curve through the centre of the brain, to the third eye. At that point, start to breathe out, bring the breath back down the front of the torso, back to the base chakra, then back to bubbling spring and back down into the earth.

As you breathe in, the front leg slightly straightens, but doesn’t lock. The body should be soft, enlivened and responsive throughout. In particular, keep the torso soft and don’t stick the chest out. Keep the hands soft. They are next to the heart for a reason.

At the end of the inbreath, step forward with the back foot and repeat the process.

Move at the pace of your breath, but try to inhale and exhale slowly and fully.

When the bell rings, rotate your hands into shashu 叉手 position so your knuckles are pointing forward, bow forward from the waist and return to your place. Gassho to your zafu and sit in zazen posture, alternate leg on top if you are sitting in a cross legged posture.

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Buddhist Language

In this video John discusses this quote by Pai Chang: “All verbal teachings are just like cures for diseases, because the diseases are not the same, the medicines are also not the same, that is why it is said that there is Buddha, and sometimes that there is no Buddha. True words cure sickness, if the cure manages to bring about healing then all are true words, if they cannot cure sickness they are false words. True words are false words, insofar as they bring about views, false words are true words, insofar as they cut off delusion, because the diseases are unreal, there are only unreal medicines to cure them.”

Adapted from Kusen given on 21st August 2020

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Start of New Study Group 7/10/20

We will be starting a new study group on Wednesday 7 October, 5.30-7.00pm UK time.It will meet fortnightly. We will be covering Nagarjuna and early Mahayana. We will study some chapters of Nagarjuna’s main work, the MMK and will also study The Heart Sutra, The Diamond Sutra and the Vimalakirti Sutra.

If you are interested, please email us at glasgowzengroup@gmail.com

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Pai-Chang’s Three levels of Zazen

Pai-chang, who lived during Tang Dynasty China, and was a successor of Master Mazu (Baso), said that there were three levels of Zazen.
The first level, which he equated with Theravadan practice, is non-attachment.
The second level, which he calls ‘the trap of Bodhisattvas’, is when we are no longer attached to non-attachment, but retain a sense of ourselves.
The third level is when the residual sense of self is dropped off, leaving just this is-ness.

In this video John examines this  to clarify the meaning as not pointing to a progressive system which we go through, aiming to attain and remain at the ‘highest’ level, but that each level is  more like a particular space within this vast hall of practice, and  we move freely between these spaces within our actual sitting.

Adapted from Kusen No. 303 given on
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Practice Realisation

In this video John examines the relationship between teachings and practice.

Adpated from kusen given on 8th August 2020

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The Buddha’s Enlightenment

In this video John examines the story of the Buddha’s enlightenment.
In the classic version, the Buddha attains enlightenment while sitting underneath the bodhi tree, vowing not to get up until he has finally awakened. In the night Mara attempts to unsettle him with apparitions of fear and desire.As dawn approaches the Buddha touches the ground and Mara disappears. As dawn breaks, the Buddha looks up to the sky and sees the morning star, at this point attaining awakening.

Adapted from Kusen given on 1st Augst

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Faith

In this video John talks about faith within the framework of practice. In contrast to the common western view where ‘faith’ is synonymous with ‘belief’, here it has a subtler meaning. This has significant implications for how we approach our own practice and our fellow practitioners and how we engage with the lineage.

Adapted from Kusen given on 25th July 2020
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The Eyes of Practice

In this video John discusses the difference between seeing the world through the eyes of the self, and seeing the world through the eyes of practice.
“When we see the world through the eyes of the self we grasp things with our certainty. So we say things like, “oh that’s a wall”, “there’s the sky out there”, “oh time is passing”, “my zazen isn’t very good today”, and so on, the quality of our experience has a slightly weird apparational quality about it, neither existence nor non-existence because seeing in this way, through the eyes of the self, through the eyes of certainty, the world exists within our mind, and, as it were, we exist within our mind as well.
Seeing through the eyes of practice is entirely different, we do out best not to grasp our moment to moment experience with our certainty, but sometimes we can’t help ourselves, and when we do we just learn to release that grip of certainty. And the feeling tone when we see in this way is entirely different, it’s as if we become soft, and open, and connected.

Adapted from Kusen given on 21/07/2020