Shinto, New Japanese Religions & Taoism
First, we’re going to go to Japan to talk about Shinto, the native religion of Japan. Then we’ll cover some of the new religions of Japan. The defeat of Japan in World War II brought so much disillusionment to the Japanese that it led [...]
The Way of Mindfulness
Now we come to the Way of Mindfulness (Satipatthana in the ancient Pali language), the Buddha’s great meditation that directly led to his all-encompassing enlightenment 2500 years ago. Only one man in historical times has been called Buddha, meaning Fully Enlightened One. Other [...]
Summary of Practices for Heightened Awareness
Chapter 1: • Watch posture and determine state of mind • Shift weight mindfully from right to left foot Chapter 2: • Count out-breaths to 50 (observe breaths – short, long, rough, smooth) • Click teeth 10 times, then 10 more (slowly) • Hold [...]
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, [...]
All Things Are As They Have Always Been
As soon as we have words we have concepts. No matter how articulate the speaker, how believable the teacher, using words forces the speaker to form concepts in order to convey ideas to others. When one Zen teacher continually counsels his followers to [...]
General Instruction for T’ai Chi Chih
The movements, and their variations, that you are about to learn are the results of many years of experimentation. From a development of the original two movements shown me, adding the leg motions and making other changes, I expanded and added 18 more, [...]
Provincialism
Provincialism seems to be the most universal characteristic among human beings; it even seems to supplant greed for the number one spot. It isn’t that we each think ours is the best way of life; we usually believe that ours is the only way [...]
Indian Buddhism
Indian Buddhism is really the key part of the course. Indian Buddhism today is taught only in Burma, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, which used to be called Ceylon. You remember, when I talked about Zen Buddhism, I said, "Zen is life affirming, everything [...]
Mantra & Breath Counting
MANTRA A Mantra is a special formula, a word or group of words possessed of great power. It represents a name or aspect of God, and was supposedly revealed to a sage in India after long periods of austerity and meditative discipline. Their [...]