Dharma Library

The Pang family lived in China in the 8th century and all were lay Zen practitioners. The father is the most well-known with many of his encounter dialogues and poems being recorded. His wife was also an accomplished practitioner as were his son and his daughter, Ling Zhao, and she also has a number of her Zen conversations recorded and used as koans. This story is from those recorded sayings and…

I was thinking today that I really don’t know anyone who doesn’t like toast. I'm sure they are out there, but they must be few and far between. 

I love toast. 

Because my old trouble plays up now and then, I’m limited to sourdough, but I’ve got the knack of it. A while ago I noticed that I eat it in such a way as to provide the maximum amount of satisfaction. Eating bits I find boring first and…

1994 

I attend my first Western Zen Buddhist retreat at Maenllwyd. The small Welsh farmhouse stands on a hillside at the end of a rough track below a narrow wooded valley, which leads up to a bare horizon. It just sits there, with no electricity, amidst the fields of sheep, aloof and barely visible from the straggly village some way below. The eastern horizon offers wide skies for the sunrise and…

Rushing off to begin a solitary retreat last month, I suddenly remembered that I wanted to check something in the liturgy so, in a hurry (yes, I know!!), I grabbed the first copy I could find and set off to my hut. Only later, once I’d settled down, did I take a look and realise that it was a very old copy indeed. To my surprise, there, on the front cover (see overleaf), is some writing in John’s…

What is the Satipatthana Sutta? Taken from the early Pali canon it seems, at first, a straightforward teaching of the Buddha, but as I read articles and listened to online talks it opened out into something with an endless depth and opportunity for a lifetime of study. A nuanced, ever growing exploration of the human condition showcasing the Buddha’s skilful teaching. I have become mildly obsessed…

For a few moments I believe I’ve forgotten what day it is. The pandemic has removed an element of usual time for me as my accustomed props and punctuations of the week have become redundant and my old map for time spent has become obsolete. Global and local are now not so separated as ‘remote’ acquires a new meaning and I can spend time, described as real, with distant friends. I idle away at bits…

So, what might the Buddha have said nearly 2500 years ago as a means to resolve conflict, disputes and arguments? The solution to that question is perhaps even more relevant today, with a perceived increase in polarisation amongst groups as well as in our interpersonal relationships. 

Well, there is an account in a lesser known Sutta within the Pali Canon which may provide pointers. In the Kosamb…

Fanfares
celestial choirs
no
a soft ‘aha’
paradigm shifted 

eating my breakfast
cat on my lap
if I need to add to it
I have not grasped it 

I have misunderstood
we zen practitioners
need to
get over
our selves [sic]

just sit …
too simple …
we are desperate
to add to it … 

Don’t 

Drop attempts at explanation.
Drop teachings.
Sit.
Live life.
Nothing extra.
Nothing missing.
Nothing lasts.

Gratitude.

Hughie Carroll’s public début as a poet began on social media during the first national lockdown in May 2020. The variety of direct, colloquial, honest, and tender poems were immediately engaging: pared to the core and punchy. I joined with the many who encouraged what rapidly became two books of poetic memoir: Yarn and Sunshine and Shadow. 

The early poems take us to the perilous edges of being…

I've had a sense that in the past weeks things have emotionally changed. I seem to get fewer silly videos through whatsapp, I receive and send out fewer e-mails and I know I'm reading the news about coronavirus less avidly. People that I talk to on the telephone appear to be just waiting for things to change. Initially there was a great feeling of the need to be creative and flexible with how life…