Meditation & Concentration
Concentration and meditation are two, but they are often linked together under the heading meditation. Concentration is intense focus on an object, often until one becomes the object and the mind is one-pointed. Zazen in Zen is like this, as is the practice of the [...]
The Personal, Part 3
Each time I go to Kyoto, I visit Honen-in to pay my respects to old Honen, the teacher of Shinran. Honen-in is a small Buddhist temple with beautiful grounds, located on the "Tetsugakusha na Michi" ("Philosophers' Walk") in the eastern mountains (hills, really) of [...]
To Cling Or Not To Cling
"You’ve been on the spiritual path for 40 years. What have you learned?” “I’ve learned that there is nothing to be done.” “Ah, but if you hadn’t been on the path for 40 years, you wouldn’t know there’s nothing to be done!” It is hard [...]
Spiritual Stories of the East: Who & What You Are
Volume 1, Track 7 It seems to me that the great task in life is to find out who and what you are. Once that is discovered and your true nature uncovered, your troubles tend to disappear. Many serious seekers have asked the question: [...]
Around the Platter Variation (left)
As the hands move left and the weight begins to shift forward, the hands move to cradle a ball (Figure 2) and are held that way until they reach the halfway point in the circle. Then we let go of the ball and the hands [...]
Kashmir Shaivism
Now we're going to talk about Kashmir Shaivism, which may appeal to you more than any of the six insights or Darshanas. Kashmir is located in the northern tip of India. While the founder is said to be one person, it is said that he [...]
Final Word for Heightened Awareness
The true aim of spiritual practice is to ultimately culture mind, breaking the associative thinking pattern that results in the creation of innumerable attachments and the making of new karmas. This is what Patanjali, sometimes called the Father of Yoga, meant when he said, “Yoga [...]
Monkeys and Holy Men
Often, while staying on the second floor of a two-family house in Baroda, India, I noticed numerous monkeys watching me intently outside the window of my room. I asked my host Kaushik why this was so. “They are waiting for you to leave your window [...]
Spiritual Stories of the East: Forgetting Self, Self Clinging
Volume 1, Track 12 We live in a dualistic world where something is not big, it is small, and where a statement is either true or false. It is a world of either or. Buddhism is more apt to speak of neither nor, which [...]