Tag: Kyogen

Case 94 in the Book of Serenity tells of a time when Master Dongshan (Tozan Ryokai) was very ill. A monk came to him and asked, “Is there someone who does not get ill?” Donshan answered, “There is,” and the dialog goes on from there. Does this contradict the First Noble Truth? What’s going on… Read more »

Kyogen Carlson I realized the other day that Thanksgiving this year is also the 18th anniversary of my mother’s passing. It’s odd that I don’t recall that she died so close to Thanksgiving. The holiday had been five days before that year, and I have no memory of it at all. In looking for old… Read more »

Part of our regular Sunday morning chanting service, “The Precious Mirror Samadhi” by Dongshan Liangjie (Tozan Ryokai) is compelling, beautiful, and most find it utterly mysterious. With imagery like “a silver bowl filled with snow,” and references to “the Illumination hexagram,” it is an utterly Chinese expression of Dharma. Related to and developed from the… Read more »

From our Archives – an article printed years ago, and used as a handout – By Kyogen Carlson Next to Jukai, which comes every spring, Segaki is the most important festival on our calendar. The name “Segaki” means “feeding the hungry ghosts,” and the rituals and practices done for this festival contain a great deal… Read more »

From our Archives: an article by Kyogen  Carlson Based on a Dharma Talk Kyogen gave at Dharma Rain  Zen Center August 15, 2010 and published in Still Point May 2011. I had a conversation with a sangha member a few years ago. He said he had been looking at his life, at all his difficulties… Read more »

Last Monday, September 23rd, a group from the Lummi Tribe on the Washington coast came through Portland with totem pole 22 feet high carved by elder Jewell Praying Wolf James, who is accompanying it on a journey from eastern Montana to Vancouver BC. Some years ago the Lummi started a tradition of taking poles to places… Read more »

No, this is not a Monty Python sketch, or anything like that, although bringing up the issue, these days, is taken as absurd. Not long ago I found myself telling someone that you can, in fact, discover the meaning of life, or at least your deeper purpose. However, when you do you will find it… Read more »

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