Teachings by Dogo, Scottish Zen Buddhist Monk
by Dogo
Many people go through life with one identity, based on an aggregate of subordinate identities, often a hybrid of job and family role. When we don't hold on to identities, when we let go of old things as we move on to new things (without clinging to the new), we can be amazed as we realise all the different people we have been.
#zen #buddhism #rebirth #identity #impermanence #dogobarrygraham
by Dogo
When the heart awakens, we no longer try to become something or someone. We stop asking the Blue Fairy to make us a real boy. Life isn't in the future, it's here and now.
#zen #buddhism #dukkha #samsara #suffering #palmofthehandteachings #dogobarrygraham
by Dogo
At today's sangha meeting, we discussed the dangers of judging our meditation, of thinking of it as something to fail at. How some people say, “I can't meditate,” when what they mean is that their meditation isn't what they think it should be.
It never is. And that's okay.
The only way you can do it wrong is by thinking you're doing it wrong. If you're meditating, then whatever your mind is doing — being focused, being distracted, happy, sad, angry, bored — is what it should be doing.
by Dogo
Today is publication day for the French translation of my book on Zen practice, Kill Your Self, published by Pocket as La Vie Apres L'Ego. A deep bow of thanks to Mikael Demets, Charlotte Lefevre, Elise Boulay and Ghizlaine Guevel.
#zen #buddhism #meditation #mindfulness #barrygrahamauthor #dogobarrygraham #lavieapreslego
by Dogo
I wonder if what those who make Zen our lifelong practice have in common is that when we're young we experience what John Tarrant Roshi describes in his book Bring Me the Rhinoceros: “None of the usual solutions to life that were on offer meant much to me.”
Even before I'd heard of Zen, the things that were supposed to be important seemed trivial, and based on a crazy assumption of permanence. I annoyed my first girlfriend by saying life was only varying degrees of suffering. So, when I heard about the First Noble Truth, it was a relief.
I suspect that's the difference between lifers and those who come to it for comfort or support during a period of crisis (not that the one is better than the other, just different).
#zen #buddhism #mindfulness #meditation #contemplation #johntarrant #dogobarrygraham
by Dogo
At today's online sangha meeting, I gave a Dharma talk about jisei, Japanese death poems, particularly this tanka by Shimaki Akahiko:
Where did that dog that used to be here go? I thought about him once again tonight before I went to bed.
For more, read the book Japanese Death Poems, compiled by Yoel Hoffman.
#zen #buddhism #death #poetry #jisei #impermanence #mononoaware #dogobarrygraham
by Dogo
An apology without amends is no apology at all. To acknowledge causing harm while offering no atonement or explanation is to deliver a taunt. “I'm sorry” is only an apology if it is followed by a comma, not a period.
#zen #buddhism #atonement #apologies #remorse #makingamends #palmofthehandteachings #dogobarrygraham
by Dogo
Some people in the Buddhist world like to talk of “noble silence,” or, even, “Noble Silence.” Silence is neither noble nor ignoble; it's silence. If we try to make it more than it is, we make it less than it is, by imposing our small story on it, so that we experience not the silence, but our ideas about the silence.
by Dogo
Once in a saintly passion I cried with desperate grief, “O Lord, my heart is black with guile, Of sinners I am chief.” Then stooped my guardian angel And whispered from behind, “Vanity, my little man, You're nothing of the kind.” — James Thomson
Self-loathing is the same narcissism as self-adoration. Vanity prefers to be Satan than just another ordinary sinner. Contemplative practice is not about learning to love, or accept, ourself, but getting over ourself.
by Dogo
Of the Three Treasures — the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha — the third is the most important, because it contains the other two.
#zen #buddhism #triratna #community #palmofthehandteachings #dogobarrygraham