©2005-2025 Mark A. Foote
When formulating lay precepts based on his distinction between skillful and unskillful, the Buddha never made any allowances for ifs, ands, or buts. When you promise yourself to abstain from killing or stealing, the power of the promise lies in its universality. You won’t break your promise to yourself under any conditions at all.
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I do think some of the Western, second-generation Zen teachers are actually established in the teaching (if I may say so), even though they may not be monsters, as Kobun Chino Otogawa once described his own teacher (the Rev. Chino).
The question is really, can they teach? At least, that’s the question in my mind.
My take is that Western Zen is ...
The pain in the left knee, I’m pretty sure is related to the support or lack thereof for the fifth and fourth lumbar vertebrae in inhalation and exhalation.
Cheng Man-Ch’ing prescribed relaxation from the shoulders to the finger tips, from the groin to the soles of the feet, and from the sacrum to the crown of the head, followed by relaxation ...