tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862793520034080112011-07-07T18:39:41.122-06:00O little root of a dreamCafé Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.comBlogger401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-13230763100625762812010-08-10T08:28:00.005-06:002010-08-11T16:01:58.121-06:00

Robert Aitken Roshi (1917-2010)Guiding teacher for the Zen Center of Denver & other Diamond Sangha centers; respected Roshi, scholar, translator, writer,lover of birds, fighter of social injustice, beloved by countless students, students' children, and readers around the world.www.tricycle.com/blog/?p=2166http://robertaitken.blogspot.com/2010/08/goodbye-dad-grandfather-papa-friend.html

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-75927500470490731072010-08-03T07:07:00.002-06:002010-08-05T16:06:45.890-06:00

Zen is not about creating positive change in one's life; it's about realizing the miraculous in the imperfect.

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-70514750402888845132010-08-02T15:26:00.001-06:002010-08-02T15:31:11.832-06:00

Zen is not about a higher self; it's about no-self. Looking up at the night sky, the stars are just this body.

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-80069467197057221422010-06-24T22:46:00.003-06:002010-06-24T22:53:55.980-06:00

Grasshopper, a short film which premiered at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-36216608459290068022010-06-20T17:43:00.001-06:002010-06-20T17:45:08.002-06:00

Spirituality and cleaning out the cat box are not two separate things. How could they be? Form is emptiness; emptiness is form.

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-24196338618516820682010-05-11T15:59:00.008-06:002010-05-11T16:08:12.301-06:00

A trailer for Practice of the Wild, a film on the one, the only, Gary Snyder. Thanks to Paul Lynch at Zen Mirror.

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-89310121621640388262010-05-11T09:26:00.006-06:002010-05-17T17:04:21.592-06:00

I'm reading the letters of Yuanwu, author and compiler of the Blue Cliff Record, one of the seminal koan collections. He's one of those masters whose depth of realization sings on every page, in almost every line:"Everywhere everything becomes the Great Function, and every single thing flows forth from your own breast. The ancients called this bringing out the family treasure. Once this is

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-52143204901273662302010-04-01T09:48:00.005-06:002010-04-01T09:55:46.395-06:00

SKIING ZARLENGO moose tracks bewitching the breathblack squirrel daggled with powderno lodgepole but this tree this boughtoo many to read but one is enough

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-645126074454353292010-03-21T12:25:00.003-06:002010-03-21T12:30:18.575-06:00

A great interview with Gabor Mate, MD.

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-87892359812337252882010-02-07T14:22:00.003-07:002010-02-07T22:26:39.902-07:00

Great is the matter of birth and death.Life slips quickly by.Time waits for no one.Wake up! Wake up!Don’t waste a moment!

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-78672514667053026552010-02-01T16:10:00.019-07:002010-06-20T17:49:21.901-06:00

Dizang asked Fayan, "Where are you going?"Fayan said, "Around on pilgrimage."Dizang said, "What is the purpose of pilgrimage?"Fayan said, "I don't know."Dizang said, "Not knowing is most intimate."The Book of Serenity, Case 20Can we abide in not-knowing and still acknowledge fundamental interdependency and interconnectedness--regardless of scientific data and the interpretation of the data?Arctic

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-73015120089335425102010-01-29T18:05:00.004-07:002010-01-29T18:08:39.809-07:00

"Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath. Every moment is the Guru." --Charlotte Joko BeckCharlotte Joko Beck (born 1917) is a Zen

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-52100542939931030352010-01-27T11:25:00.004-07:002010-04-01T10:03:33.757-06:00

Another Symphony of Science: Our Place in the Cosmos

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-75648165426549228742010-01-18T09:32:00.005-07:002010-01-18T09:46:30.595-07:00

Here's a whimsical little interactive piece on Zen from Japan. Be prepared to click on an image to advance the narrative.

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-50244182725588567722010-01-04T11:17:00.008-07:002010-04-01T10:10:22.873-06:00

207 actors freeze, on queue, in one of the more bustling places in the world.

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-4706416947523155032009-12-29T12:34:00.012-07:002009-12-30T15:08:06.653-07:00

Because cross-country skiing exists, there is non-cross-country skiing. Because poetry exists, there is non-poetry. Because breathing in exists, there is breathing out. Because hatred exists, there is compassion. Because greed exists, there is generosity. Because birth exists, there is the unborn. Because death exists, there is no-death. Because the self exists, there is no-self. And when you

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-62666661836415683432009-12-23T07:47:00.021-07:002010-02-04T15:03:15.713-07:00

Deep winter nights definitely encourage and evoke inwardness and stillness—a chance to stop and reflect on what's vital. In deep zazen we devour the breath and the breath devours us. There's no separation. The barking of the neighborhood dog devours us. The sound of traffic replaces us. The cell phone in the other room rings in the center of the mind. We light lights and come together in

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-43940470165375891472009-12-08T08:36:00.014-07:002009-12-22T05:47:34.029-07:00

Thanks to James Ishmael Ford's blog Monkey Mind for this video posted today, the day widely recognized as the anniversary of the Buddha's supreme enlightenment. It's gratifying to see scientists speak in a more holistic way than usual, ie, that our investigation into the nature of the cosmos is, in fact, the cosmos investigating itself, the cosmos being aware of itself. We are made of star stuff,

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-60051148555303246932009-11-27T11:09:00.021-07:002009-12-22T05:46:57.573-07:00

There's something inherently daunting about trying to describe or talk about the Dharma or Zen or just the practice of sitting. Words can't reach it and the Zen adepts of old would often respond or teach non-conceptually by remaining silent, shouting, drawing an enso like the one above, or even hitting disciples who asked questions like: What is Zen? What's the teaching of the Buddha? What's the

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-87060025888554976872009-11-11T07:57:00.063-07:002009-12-10T11:09:02.215-07:00

Henry David Thoreau famously believed that the vast majority of people "lead lives of quiet desperation." Imagine Thoreau saying this today on Larry King Live or on Oprah!. I think he'd probably sound like some condescending dean or like he was getting ready to introduce the Thoreau Personal Empowerment Plan. But surely most people feel at some point that something profound is missing from their

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-79738109161586511382009-11-03T15:59:00.013-07:002009-12-10T11:07:04.311-07:00

If past and future are private/social constructs and the present is ungraspable, how do we understand time? It's so easy to think of time as passing us by or passing quickly but aren't we right here in the river with it, as it?.Nagarjuna (150-250 CE): "Time has no concrete reality.".Robert Aitken Roshi (b. 1917 CE): "Time and no time, substance and the void, existence and nonexistence - these are

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-73229410085423880272009-10-15T06:09:00.028-06:002009-12-30T14:33:58.607-07:00

Zen is sometimes equated with philosophy, but the two are very different. The former is "thinking about thinking," according to the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, and the latter is a path beyond words and silence. Accordingly, philosophy texts and Zen Buddhist texts differ in at least one fundamental way. Philosophy texts seek to say something new in the usual way while Zen Buddhist texts seek

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-30733105685444738792009-10-10T07:46:00.030-06:002009-12-10T11:04:30.584-07:00

In 2008 the Denver Zen Center dedicated the June sesshin to John Daido Roshi who had just started aggressive chemotherapy for lung cancer. I happened to be jisha and so called Zen Mountain Monastery to let them know of the dedication. Daido's assistant said that earlier in the day he had joked about people not realizing that the cure was killing him, not the cancer. I never had the privilege of

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-73843756348836777412009-09-24T09:42:00.020-06:002009-12-10T10:58:59.567-07:00

There's a single frame in a Robert Crumb comic strip (I'll replace Mr. Natural here with it, if and when I find it) with a close-up of a typically bugged-out Crumb character who seems shocked and panicky—sweating profusely, eyes popping—saying, "I...I just realized. Everything is cosmic!" Yes! There's no place more cosmic than right where you are, no activity more cosmic than what you do each

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-91903764906329098882009-09-02T16:59:00.014-06:002009-11-04T09:29:16.275-07:00

Herman Hesse's novella Knulp is a great tale about the wisdom of not-knowing and our obligation to trust and rest in that vast space. It's a story about a man named Knulp (spoiler alert!) who spends his life wandering from town to town, from relationship to relationship, from job to job, never committing, never tying himself to anything or anyone. He's sort of monk-like but without any

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-60807034844196702582009-08-05T15:07:00.006-06:002009-09-08T09:49:17.088-06:00

From the Greek philosopher Parmenides in the fifth century BCE to Beckett and Sartre in the 20th century, the concept of nothing gets pretty bad press, whether pitched as ontological anti-matter or a gut-churning absence of meaning. But the nothing of Zen is entirely different. It’s sometimes more accurately rendered as no-thing, signifying the absence of any single entity separate from the

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-14180729002842665582009-07-31T16:42:00.037-06:002009-12-10T10:42:29.181-07:00

The word "save" has a lot of weird baggage and turns off a lot of people as though Buddhists are supposed to fly around like superheroes saving all mere mortals. So perhaps one way to savor more deeply the vow to save all beings is to see it as realizing the unborn original mind--since there is nothing outside this mind. As one Zen teacher put it: "We save the many beings by including them." To

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-68246438032829900032009-07-27T09:07:00.006-06:002009-09-07T16:19:56.495-06:00

....sacred & profaneboth obscure the moon....

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-41529288635096272042009-07-23T06:25:00.001-06:002009-07-23T06:26:41.466-06:00

Zazen 2Curdled laugh of coyote illuminating the hull of a dinghy scooped into granite two miles above the seaThe air is news Cold declares treeline;lichen storms quartzite

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-51134168673857705732009-07-20T15:10:00.058-06:002009-12-10T10:52:43.843-07:00

It's difficult not to wonder sometimes how the Dharma will fare as we race toward ever-more dazzling bio-tech intimacy, with The Singularity looming as the evolutionary event horizon where all boundaries between the digital and the human vanish. This recent article in the The Atlantic addresses the increasing complexity of the human/tech mosh pit and our apparently increasing intelligence as a

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-72085333636453949152009-07-17T05:47:00.029-06:002009-09-26T07:51:00.920-06:00

“The danger of civilization, of course, is that you will piss away your life on nonsense.” So begins the novella The Beast God Forgot to Invent in Jim Harrison’s collection of the same name. Sounds like a distant echo of Yung-Chia, who, in China about 13 centuries ago, said “Just get to the root—never mind the branches!” in his "Song of Realizing the Way" (from The Roaring Stream: A New Zen

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-9395757809938364372009-07-16T08:29:00.038-06:002009-12-30T15:45:06.273-07:00

Yes. We can now eat freshly-baked muffins and enjoy other cushy amenities at the Mt. Everest basecamp (17,600 feet).Could it be that scaling Everest has been pretty much de-clawed as an authentic existential adventure as more and more people pay lots of money to be ferried to the summit by sherpas who climb ahead setting ropes and routes for their clients? Is it still a frontier? I'm sure I'll

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-61967333253607951172009-07-16T06:56:00.011-06:002009-07-17T13:03:14.978-06:00

"Pain in the knees is the taste of Zen," says Peter Matthiessen, and I agree (during sesshin anyway.) But the sound of the garbage truck backing up in the alley is also the taste of Zen. All we need to do is enter. Or better yet: all we need to do is not resist our intimacy with the sound of the garbage truck backing up in the alley.

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-33656939162924385202009-07-15T07:38:00.001-06:002009-07-15T07:40:22.121-06:00

White hair's very, very hard to change,and real gold can't be manufactured.To get rid of the ailments of age,there's just one thing: study the Unborn!--Wang-Wei, from his poem "Fall Night, Sitting Alone"

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-82190438755696384702009-07-14T10:29:00.016-06:002009-09-26T07:54:26.956-06:00

Space out, notice it, come home. That's zazen: drifting, noticing the drifting, coming home. Coming home to this breath exclusively. Coming home to Mu. No end, no beginning.

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-12132477895546970322009-07-14T07:50:00.012-06:002009-07-30T13:21:47.669-06:00

"We must be prepared for a lifetime of practice" says Nicki Doane, yoga teacher, in the liner notes of her DVDs. True for yoga, true for Buddhism. Greed, hatred, and ignorance rise endlessly (as we chant in the Great Vows) in all manners of subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Surely this means we need to do our best to sit every day. Philip Whalen said he was a professional Zen Buddhist because he sat

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-54697968947543572202009-07-13T06:16:00.011-06:002009-07-23T08:26:11.924-06:00

Zazen 1 being devoured by the sounds of Speer Boulevard

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-50251339713753794912009-07-11T14:12:00.001-06:002009-07-11T14:14:00.276-06:00

"My body's so big there's no place to put it." --Master Yun-Men

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-61366012351525573392009-04-30T10:10:00.004-06:002009-07-11T17:06:39.188-06:00

Zen Buddhism is either legitimate or not. If not, it's a 2500 year-old multi-level marketing scam. We might say this of any religion or spiritual path, but with Zen we can find out in this lifetime—right now in fact—whether or not it's legit. No need to wait for an afterlife.

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1586279352003408011.post-5447286660301570512009-04-15T18:38:00.003-06:002009-09-26T07:55:32.025-06:00

Zen Buddhism, the living 2500 year-old spiritual discipline illuminating the path beyond all words--sometimes by using words.

Café Zenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15332384800804513129noreply@blogger.com0