Dharma Talks

Our bowls are a deep teaching. They are the bowls of receptivity, of accepting whatever is coming, moment after moment after moment—bitter, sweet, salty, sour—yes, yes, yes and yes. In this koan (Mumonkon Case 13 and Book of Serenity Case 55), a student publicly chides his master for prematurely appearing for the meal. The master receives his student’s correction without complaint, turning and taking his empty bowls back to his room. A beautiful teaching of acceptance. Yet th

The koan of Mu is the first classic exchange in the tradition. It may sound a little stale until we feel this monk’s desperation: “Does a dog like me have Buddha nature?” Like us, the student is full of uncertainty, despair and self-doubt. We are encouraged to take Joshu’s “No” in with the whole body and mind, to become Mu.

As he is dying, the Buddha invites his followers to make the teachings our true refuge. Contemplating our own mortality, we ask: What is unfinished? What do we fear? When we release our material and ego attachments, the dying process is an invitation to a final stage of growth and liberation.

“Ordinary Mind is the Way” (Case 19 of the Mumonkan) beckons to all of us who seek the Way somewhere “out there.” We are called to leap...