teaching Dec 28, 2022 What is this thing that I call, “I”?  What is it really? We think we know who we are—we have stories about ourselves. But what is it really?  We have our own limited human perception of things, and that's good, that helps us somewhat. But it's not the truth. We create stories and ideas then we believe them and we get farther and farther away from the experience of the moment. This question, “What am I? What is this?”, brings us back to the moment. If we can stop the story for a moment, then we can actually experience, “Wha...

teaching Dec 22, 2022 A monk asked a master, "I just became a monk and would like to know how to enter Buddhahood." The master said, "Do you hear the waterfall?" "Yes I do" replied the monk. Master said, "Enter there."

teaching Dec 15, 2022 If you go into the realm of metaphysics about life after life after life, you're in the world of supposition. But take everything about our past actions creating a future life and substitute the word “moment” for “life”. Our action in this moment creates our life in the next moment. Bring it down from the metaphysical to the very practical, “What am I doing right now?” because this moment, my action in this moment, brings about my life in the next moment. Whatever it is that you are facing in this moment, how you deal with...

teaching Dec 08, 2022 Great Effort, I think of as the hinge-point of our practice. If we don't have this great effort, then we really don't have a practice. Because unless we bring our practice to the difficult parts of our lives, it's not much of a practice. In fact, what often seems to happen is many people will practice when things get difficult in their life, but as soon as things start to get better, then they don't feel like they need it anymore. So in a sense for a Zen practice, great effort really needs to be applied when things are goi...

teaching Dec 01, 2022 "Before thinking" is easy to talk about but difficult to practice. Our desire, anger, and ignorance are so powerful, so encompassing, and solid that we don’t even recognize their impact. Many people who first hear about before thinking find it absurd. Others feel that it is impossible to not attach to their thinking. This leads us to the realm of Zen practice. Though our delusion seems enormous and our suffering feels so daunting and profound, Zen practice offers us a way to deconstruct our delusion. We can live a more cen...

jason quinn jdpsn teaching Nov 15, 2022 When we see the impermanence of this world and discover who we truly are, we can realize a truth that goes beyond impermanence. The truth is something every human being can perceive intrinsically and is already clear in every moment. It is acknowledging the difficulties and dissatisfaction in our own lives, which helps us to see the difficulties and dissatisfaction in the lives of others. We can see that many people are in a great need of help. When we perceive that need clearly, the meaning of life turns...

That combination of the cause and the action leads to a result. That result becomes the next cause. I remember Zen Master Seung Sahn pretending to hold a match in his hand, and he said, “This match is the cause. Fire is the result.” But you need to strike the match in order to create fire. So it's in the action that determines what the result will be. It's only by being awake that we can have some new impact on what that result will be. The wheel of samsara goes around and around. We're trapped in this cycle that's never ending and it always le...

teaching Nov 03, 2022 We're actually more focused on the question than the answer because answers change. There's no one fixed answer. The point of questions is to open us up to the experience of our lives. So, this moment is the answer. Our practice is to open up to this moment. It's usually our ideas, our opinions, our beliefs, our fears, and all of the psychological commentary that goes on in our mind, that separates us from the moment. So we're inquiring and asking to open up to right now, just to be in the moment completely. By Zen Master ...

teaching Oct 27, 2022 Self Doubt is quite different than Great Doubt. Self Doubt is more like, "I am no good, what am I doing? "I should be able to do this better." It’s centered on “I”. This "I" is a construct. The fundamental concept of suffering is that attachment to "I". With this self-image, this concept and idea of what I think I should be, we get disappointed and lose our way. Great Doubt is “What is it?” So when we feel disappointment, we can hold it with a question, “What is it?” Then we look and pay attention to our experience. Pay at...