Status Updates From The Circle of the Way: A Co...

“Buddhism has much to offer the West if it can be transmitted correctly and not watered down into just one more self-help fad.”

“In Zen, the teacher is more of a guide or a mentor than a guru, and it’s important to be clear about that.”

“Enlightenment is not about escaping from the world and one’s own suffering, Hakuin says. It is about offering oneself to the world to relieve the suffering of others.”

Dogen paraphrase: “Enlightenment is already present. The function of practice is to embody it.”

Paraphrase of Dogen: “To fully and mindfully engage in practice, to sit in meditation, to keep the precepts, to prepare a meal as a sacred offering and not as a chore, is to step into the circle of practice/enlightenment where enlightenment is forever unfolding.”

“The prerequisite of maleness for enlightenment has been a persistent belief throughout Buddhist Asia.”

“Anything to which our ego attaches is a barrier to enlightenment, and egos can attach to anything. Even the Buddha’s teachings, if practiced fanatically, can be turned into something for the ego to cling to. Other religions are to be respected, not opposed, to avoid falling into the trap of thinking one’s own path superior.”

“We tend to think that scriptures must come with some sort of divine authority to be believed without question. Buddhists would argue that what is written in scriptures should stand or fall on its own merit.”