“The big, practical trick to understanding egolessness is to tune into the fact that sensations arise on their own in a natural causal fashion, even the intentions to do things. This is a formal practice instruction.”

-Daniel Ingram

Gateless Gate Case #39: Unmon and a Mistake in Speaking
A monk said to Unmon, “The brilliance of the Buddha silently illuminates the whole universe…”
But before the monk could finish the verse, Unmon said, “Aren’t those the words of Chõetsu the Genius?”
“Yes, they are,” answered the monk.
“You have slipped up in your speaking,” Unmon said.
Afterward, Shishin Zenji brought up the matter and said, “Tell me, at what point did the monk err in his speaking?”

“The foolish reject what they see, not what they think. The wise reject what they think, not what they see.”

-Huang Po

Gateless Gate Case #21: Un-mon’s Shit Stick
A monk asked Un-mon in all earnestness, “What is Buddha?”
Unmon replied, “A shit-stick.”

“I considered, could jhana be the path to enlightenment? Then came the realization: ‘That is the path to enlightenment.’”

-The Buddha

Gateless Gate Case #1: Joshu’s Dog
A monk in all seriousness asked Master Joshu: “Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?”
Joshu retorted: “Mu!”

“If we listen from a silent mind, as free as possible from the clamor of preconceived ideas, a possibility will be created for the truth of the teachings to pierce us—and for the meaning of life and death to become increasingly and startlingly clear.”

-Sogyal Rinpoche

Gateless Gate Case #16: Un-mon’s Seven Fold Robe
Un-mon said, “The world is vast and wide. Why do you put on your seven-fold robe at the sound of the bell?”

“It is no exaggeration to say that the entire practice of ethics and morality boils down to the means of decreasing the delusory attachment to an individual self.”

-Yamada Koun

Gateless Gate Case #15: Tozan’s 60 Blows
Tozan went to Un-mon and Un-mon asked him where he had come from.
Tozan answered, “From Sato!”
Then Un-mon asked, “Where were you then during the Summer?”
Tozan answered, “At Hoji Temple in Konan Province.”
Un-mon further asked Tozan, “When did you leave there?”
Tozan replied, “I left on August 25.”
Un-mon told Tozan, “You deserve 60 blows, but I will forgive you today!”
The next day Tozan knelt and deeply bowed to Un-mon and said, “Yesterday you forgave me the 60 blows, but I still do not understand in what respect I was wrong.”
Then Un mon told Tozan, “You are really a good-for-nothing rice eater! No wonder you wandered around Konan and Kosei for nothing!”
At this very moment, Tozan was awakened.

“When you surrender the grasping at the level of the gut, it may feel like you are going to die. But you don’t die; the illusion of a separate self dies. Still it may feel like you are going to die. Only when you are willing to die for the sake of truth can that grasping truly and authentically let go.”

-Adyashanti

Book of Equanimity Case #40: Unmon’s White and Black
Unmon asked Kempô, “May I ask for your answer?”
Kempô said, “Have you ever reached this old monk or not?”
Unmon said, “If so, I must say I was too late.”
Kempô said, “Is that so? Is that so?”
Unmon said, “I thought I was Marquis White, but I find that here is Marquise Black.”

“In zazen practice, we stop our thinking, and we are free from our emotional activity. We don’t say there is no emotional activity, but we are free from it. We don’t say there is no thinking, but our life activity is not limited by our thinking mind. In short, we can say that we trust ourselves completely, without thinking, without feeling, without discriminating between good and bad, right and wrong.”

-Shunryu Suzuki

Gateless Gate Case #44: Basho’s Stick
Basho said to the assembled monks, “If you have a staff, I will give you one. If you have no staff, I will take it away from you.”

“Instead of fixating on what you want and trying to get reality to accede to your wishes, as we’re taught to do from an early age in our achievement-oriented culture, listen closely to the current of life as it flows through you, and allow it to carry you where it will. Ultimately, you realize that you’re not actually in control of your life at all—you’re being lived by life itself.”

-Stephan Bodian

Practice Meetings
Friday Nov. 20, 7:00pm

This Week’s Koan

Blue Cliff Record Case #33: Chinsô Has One Eye
National Minister Chinsô went to see Shifuku.
When Shifuku saw him coming, he drew a circle.
Chinsô said, “Your student has come, and that’s already a failure. Why do you bother to draw a circle in addition to that?”
Thereupon Shifuku closed the door of his room.
(Setchô said, “Chinsô has but one eye.”)

“This odd sense of an unfindable ‘watcher’ to which all of life is happening yet which is seemingly separate from all that is happening, which sometimes seems in control of ‘us’ and yet sometimes seems at the mercy of reality—what is it really? What is going on here?”

-Daniel Ingram

Practice Meetings
Friday Nov. 13, 7:00pm

This Week’s Koan

Book of Equanimity Case #75: Zuigan’s Everlasting Principle

Zuigan asked Gantô, “What is the intrinsic, everlasting principle?”
Gantô said, “It has moved.”
Zuigan said, “What if it moves?”
Gantô said, “You can’t see the intrinsic, everlasting principle.”
Zuigan thought for a moment. Gantô said, “If you acknowledge it, you are not yet free from the roots and their dust. If you do not acknowledge it, you are immersed in endless birth and death.”

“It’s ironic that the thing that terrifies people the most is the fact that their ‘self’ doesn’t exist, but it’s this exact same realization that gives rise to liberation. Indeed, the liberation from ‘self’ is what you are seeking.”

-Adyashanti

Practice Meetings
Friday Nov. 6, 7:00pm

This Week’s Koan

Book of Equanimity Case #43: Razan’s Appearing and Disappearing

Razan asked Gantô, “What if things appear and disappear without ceasing?”
Gantô scolded him saying, “Who appears and disappears?”