Please ask permission to reprint. OBC Copyright Policy.
Rev. Master Jiyu, Ryokan and Dogen
In 1971 I heard of an English Zen teacher who had studied and practised Sōtō Zen in Japan. Rev. Master Jiyu had gone to America where she established a Zen training monastery, Shasta Abbey. She came over to England to … Continue reading →
Dōgen’s Rules for Meditation
From a talk given at Reading Buddhist Priory in 2013. On this retreat we are studying Dōgen’s Rules for Meditation. The version we are familiar with is just one way to receive this teaching, the version Rev. Master Jiyu brought … Continue reading →
Rules for Meditation Dōgen’s Fukanzazenji
This is the translation recited in OBC temples and at affiliated meditation groups, in the booklet Scriptures and Ceremonies. Why are training and enlightenment differentiated since the Truth is universal? Why study the means of attaining it since the supreme … Continue reading →
Notes on some of the ways Scripture appears in daily life
I first met the words of Fukanzazengi, or Rules for Meditation while reading them aloud, along with other people, all of whom were strangers, the first Saturday afternoon of my first retreat at Shasta Abbey. Meditation halls, monks with shaven heads, … Continue reading →
At the crossroads
An extract from Returning to Stillness: Zen Training in Everyday Life When we’re at a crossroads at twilight, unfamiliar with the terrain, it can be difficult to see which way to go. If a storm is signaling its arrival, there … Continue reading →
Journey through paranoia and quality
A boy is born early in World War II. After four years as the war ends, his widowed mother remarries and has another child, a boy. It is necessary. The emotional impact on the elder son marks him for life. … Continue reading →