Thousand Harbours Zen

We may not be able to let go of our preferences, but we can learn to let go.

What are we capable of offering? Everything. And it starts now, where you are.

Jizo can go anywhere—including to hell. Where can we go? Where are we afraid to go?

The Buddha started with a question. Dogen started with a question. What's yours?

A re-examination of the fourth bodhisattva vow: "The awakened way is unsurpassable; I vow to embody it.".

A re-examination of the third bodhisattva vow: "Dharma gates are infinite; I vow to enter them."

A re-examination of the second bodhisattva vow: "Delusions are inexhaustible; I vow to put an end to them."

A re-examination of the first bodhisattva vow: "Beings are countless; I vow to free them all."

In the face of injustice, don't let compassion be an endpoint. Don't let not-knowing be an endpoint. Move, somehow—that's what a bodhisattva does.

On Shantideva's Prayer, and what it means to commit to something—to really commit—forever.

Those who are staying at home right now may find themselves falling into little rituals meant to make things feel regular, and safe; in this practice, ritual is something else.

Does Covid-19 have buddhanature? Do you? Why do we even ask things like that?

Dogen likened the spiritual life to the experience of falling off a horse. Can you feel it happening?

It can feel like it's all too much, too much to hold. We need to look at that.

On the tenth precept, "Not defiling the three treasures." The three treasures are just fine, but still, we forget who we are in relationship to them.

Freedom—the freedom we want (perhaps especially in the age of social distancing), and the freedom we already have.

Fearlessness is one of the four types of generosity. Why? And how do we get there?

A simple act of refraining, like not touching your face in a pandemic, can be both a practice of mindfulness and an act of generosity.

Buddhism offers what looks like two contradictory ways of meeting our mind in each moment. But maybe we can hold both.

If you knew you were dying, how would that change how you see others? Because you are.

On Precept 9 (not indulging in anger)—it doesn't say there aren't good reasons to feel anger, just that we should learn not to be seduced by it.

On Precept 8 (not withholding dharma assets), clinging vs. letting go, and realizing what you're capable of giving.

On Precept 7 (not elevating yourself and blaming others). We have more capacity for sympathy—and for delusion—than we're comfortable admitting.

On Precept 6 (not speaking of the faults of others) and how the keyword isn't "faults," it's "others."

On Precept 5 (not indulging in intoxicants) and the ways in which we feed our addictions.

On Precept 4 (not lying) and the reasons why we lie. What narrative are we trying to control?

On Precept 3 (not misusing sex) and the messiness of intimacy.

On Precept 2 (not stealing) and the question of what we have been offered versus what we just think belongs to us.

On Precept 1 (not killing) and the mindset we can bring to all the precepts. It's not about becoming more pure.

Imagine that taking refuge in buddha, dharma, and sangha isn't about choosing to enter some new space, but rather that it's an act of falling without any hope of control.

A reflection on climate activist Greta Thunberg and others who have shaped their lives around a singular intention. How do we root ourselves that deeply?

On taking up a path that has boundaries that were created by people centuries ago—why do we do it, and how do we do it sincerely?

The three poisons—attachment, aversion, and ignorance—and how sometimes ignorance is at the centre.

What do we need to take with us on this path? If that's different from what we want, how do we reconcile the two?

There is a difference between how we address the complexity of identity in ourselves, and how we relate to it in others. The approach can't be the same.

We chant, "Now, actualizing the buddha ancestors means to bring them forth and look at them respectfully. It is not limited to the buddhas of past, present, and future, but it is going beyond buddhas who are going beyond themselves." What's it all about?

Every teacher and every temple have different ideas about the student-teacher relationship; Koun shares some of his perspective on the complexity of it all.

Bodhidharma famously described Zen as a "special transmission outside the scriptures". What does that mean and why does it matter?

The ground of this practice isn't what we experience, or what we feel, or even what we see—it's what we do, regardless of the rest.

We talk a lot about some experience called "awakening," but the real task is simply to be awake.

On how we work with the feeling that there's no way out of wherever we are, or whatever we're experiencing.

In the Terminator movies, Sarah Connor has the burden of knowing what's coming and having to cultivate someone who can address it. We're in the same position.

There isn't anything you have now that you won't eventually lose. So why not start letting go now?

Zen usually frames itself in terms of "goallessness", or at least of a practice without object. But that doesn't mean there isn't a method to it.

The last of eight talks on the Noble Eightfold Path - Right Resolve.

The seventh of eight talks on the Noble Eightfold Path - Right View.

The sixth of eight talks on the Noble Eightfold Path - Right Concentration.

The fifth of eight talks on the Noble Eightfold Path - Right Mindfulness.