Chan Magazine

"People who have never had a taste of Chan often like to speculate about enlightenment. But lacking a clear sense of what the Dharma actually entails, they tend to delight in the exotic and cook up all kinds of strange fantasies . . . Enlightenment is not something that can be comprehended by philosophical speculation or flights of the occult imagination. Should you even be tempted to conjecture…

"Our world is evolving from regionalism into globalism; we have transformed our closed ethnic societies into societies characterized by multi-cultural diversity; we are moving away from nationalistic concerns toward concerns for the shared security and well-being of the entire human race... Therefore, in the twenty-first century, people who continue to engage in stirring up interracial hatred, in…

Dear disciples of the beloved Roshi Philip Kapleau:

I just received the sad news of Roshi Kapleau’s death and would like to send my condolences. He is a very dear friend of mine. Years ago he visited me at my Center in Taiwan. He also kindly invited me to visit his Center in Rochester, and wrote the preface for my book Complete Enlightenment. We shared a deep relationship between us, and I am…

"With Bantetsugu Roshi, a disciple of Harada Roshi, I attended winter-long retreats at his temple in the harsh environment of northern Japan. He was particularly scathing about my learning and studying at university. When I left him, he told me to go and teach in America. I complained that I did not know English. He said, 'Do you think Zen is taught with words? Why worry about words?'"

– Chan…

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