The Daily Zen Teisho

The Fundamental Expedient Teachings

Daily Zen — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:20:29 +0000

This translation comes from the Tun-huang documents discovered in Cave 17 sometime around 1900. While we don’t usually explore where these translations actually come from, this story deserves some attention.

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Illusion = Satori

Daily Zen — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 14:18:15 +0000

At times we feel like we are “successfully” walking with a foot in both worlds where illusion and reality seem balanced. Similar to walking a balance beam, we adjust our heart/mind and respond to what is happening within and without with a sense of naturalness.

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King of Samadhis

Daily Zen — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 18:44:00 +0000

Most of what we have read or heard about sitting meditation has come from contemporary vehicles for Buddhism. This lovely piece, King of Samadhis, helps communicate the direct teaching of sitting meditation expounded hundreds of years ago to monks in Dogen’s assembly.

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The Platform Sutra

Daily Zen — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:11:19 +0000

Many of us are familiar with the first part of the Platform Sutra, recounting the story of Huineng’s life and how he obtained the robe and bowl after arriving at the monastery as a commoner.

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To Live is Just to Live

Daily Zen — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:34:00 +0000

All of us have been known to complicate our lives and our practice at times. We overthink problems, over-dwell on emotional states from time to time, and try to quantify where we are in practice. To simply sit without the complications, the trappings of practice, even something this simple, can be challenging for us.

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Shikantaza

Daily Zen — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:48:22 +0000

Time to return to the beginning with Spring/Fall around the corner. Many of you have asked for more instruction on beginning meditation.

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Informal Talks

Daily Zen — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 10:38:03 +0000

Dogen speaks clearly about the mind that seeks the way and how to maintain the intensity of practice over time. We couldn’t ask for a world of more distraction than the one we currently inhabit.

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What is the Way?

Daily Zen — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 11:17:47 +0000

There are always layers of understanding and misunderstanding in practice. It is similar to a snake shedding its skin; at one stage that is the only protection it has; then, at some point it is time to expand and let go of that empty skin that no longer serves.

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Divine Light

Daily Zen — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 11:38:18 +0000

In the beginning, I was seeking that one essential point to connect with, to focus on, which would allow me a foundation that didn’t clutter up the mind with too many concepts or formulas, or rules.

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Zazen

Daily Zen — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 13:01:14 +0000

There’s room in practice for many kinds of students; at some stage in practice, we have been them all. Everything is in a constant state of change, including us, and anything we think we understand about zazen is to be discarded to make room for even vaster insights.

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Skeletons

Daily Zen — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 15:50:00 +0000

Death, the great equalizer, has a way of bringing life into a different kind of focus. Ikkyu’s skeletons share teachings from their point of view, which is accessible to those of us who remember we too will be those skeletons, and in fact carry them with us daily.

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Kuan-shin lun – Contemplation of Mind

Daily Zen — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:07:39 +0000

Sometimes less is more. There is no technique discussed other than contemplating the mind. We might translate this into turning the light of awareness inward, or leave it open to experience and discovery.

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Skeletons – Part 2

Daily Zen — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 16:21:41 +0000

Ikkyu’s skeletons teach in rich and evocative koan-like poems. Any one of them can be read alone, and in fact, each one deserves quiet contemplation rather than a single reading. Powerful in imagery and content, these skeletons have much to share.

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The Enlightenment of Chiyono

Daily Zen — Tue, 19 May 2026 16:58:43 +0000

Mugai Nyodai, known also as Chiyono, was one of the first Japanese women to receive transmission in Zen.

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What is Ch’an?

Daily Zen — Tue, 12 May 2026 09:08:00 +0000

This is a time to return to the roots of practice. With new people coming into Daily Zen every month, it is fitting now for a piece like this. Sheng-yen skillfully paints a history of how Buddhism traveled from India to other parts of the East, and the transformation that became known as Zen today.

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The Awakening of Mugai Nyodai – Part 2

Daily Zen — Mon, 04 May 2026 08:32:29 +0000

Mugai Nyodai, known also as Chiyono, was one of the first Japanese women to receive transmission in Zen.. While she is well known through her founding of many women's Zen monasteries, she is relatively unknown to those of us in the West who are more familiar with the Patriarchs of Zen, like Hui-neng or Bodhidharma.

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On the Transmission of Mind – Part 12

Daily Zen — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 12:29:29 +0000

This piece of Huang Po’s touches elements of practice that seem to turn your mind inside out at first. He seems to raise more questions than answers, and thus helps us return to beginner’s mind—that place where we don’t know as much and are ready to learn.

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True School of the Ancient Buddhas

Daily Zen — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 11:50:37 +0000

Down to earth and, at the same time, a most expanded view of practice; each line is an invitation to explore.

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On the Transmission of Mind – Part 3

Daily Zen — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 12:24:01 +0000

We are exhorted to aspire to a paradoxical way of learning/unlearning in Zen; to “think” the unthinkable. Many words are used to help us see the limitations of words, and yet, we keep reading, studying, and aspiring to something we inherently possess.

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The Activity of the Reality of Life

Daily Zen — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 12:46:50 +0000

Uchiyama Roshi begins with a powerful line that stops us right at the very beginning of this reading. To live the reality of true fluidity existing between ourselves and the world is a profound experience in anyone’s life and practice.

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A Lotus in Fire

Daily Zen — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 08:00:00 +0000

This collection of letters written to teachers, students, and lay people reveals a side of Yuanwu that is personable and easily understood. He is better known as the author of the famous Blue Cliff Record, which offers challenges to students at all levels of practice.

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Mud and Water 1

Daily Zen — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 19:25:48 +0000

We live in very different times from those in Japan in the 1300s, but the search for a true teacher or master beckons to students in every century. Bassui’s quest began the way it does in any person strong enough to question for themselves.

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A Single Handful

Daily Zen — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Perhaps we should begin at the beginning, where Buddhadhasa starts with the fundamental principles in the first chapter of this teaching, because in the above piece, he alludes to the handful of teachings that are all we need, but what are they?

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The Teachings of the Fourth Chan Patriarch Tao-shin

Daily Zen — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 07:00:00 +0000

There is something for everyone in this profound teaching. We don’t know who the questioner is, but really it is us. Who hasn’t asked these questions in their own time? And how many have had the Fourth Patriarch to hang out with and ask questions to?

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On Cultivating the Mind

Daily Zen — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:44:49 +0000

Nothing much to grab onto here, not even instructions to meditate! However, we realize that a Zen master is teaching meditation; how else does one learn to turn the light around and look inside?

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