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Shōgen Blair Thomson

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Category archives: Art & Buddhism

Snow Chanting

Walking in Glasgow in the beautiful soft snow chanting the short Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo Sutra 💚❄️ Please join me and friends from the Glasgow Zen Group on Sunday 7th of March @12.30pm UTC+0 …

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18 February, 202118 February, 2021Posted inArt & BuddhismTags: Buddhism, Chanting, Glasgow Zen Group, Scotland, Soto Zen

Meditatively stitching a zen robe

Having been born to meet the spread of this Dharma, if we cover our body with the kasaya only once, receiving it and retaining it for just a ksana or …

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23 July, 202023 July, 2020Posted inArt & BuddhismTags: Rakusu and Okesa Sewing

Kusen 255 collaboration with John Fraser

Dragons see palaces (heavy rain is falling) In the Mountains and Waters Sutra, Dogen says that when human beings see water, fish and dragons see palaces. He doesn’t say that …

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20 June, 202022 June, 2020Posted inArt & BuddhismTags: drawing & painting, John Fraser, Kusen collaboration

Shakyo – bringing the Sutra to life with each brush stroke and pen mark

Our first online Shakyo 写経 practice event saw us come together from Scotland, and elsewhere such as the rest of the UK and Canada, forming a lovely group of sutra …

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11 June, 202016 June, 2020Posted inArt & BuddhismTags: Glasgow Zen Group, Shakyo, Shodo calligraphy, Soto Zen

Walking and chanting the Lotus Sutra Odaimoku

The Odaimoku お題目 chant – repeating the title of the Lotus Sutra Namumyohourengekyou 南無妙法蓮華経 – is principally associated with the Nichiren-shu school but was originally part of a Tendai chant, …

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8 June, 202015 June, 2020Posted inArt & BuddhismTags: Chanting

Walking chanting the Boundless Life Ten Line Kannon Sutra

The Boundless Life Ten Line Kannon Sutra is chanted at various times such as by monks at Takuhatsu ritual begging while they walk in all weathers. It has a lot …

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7 June, 202015 June, 2020Posted inArt & BuddhismTags: Chanting

Tracing the heart of the Heart Sutra – Tokyo 2019

Towards the end of the year as the dry leaves rustled across the pavements, Blair practiced Shakyo Sutra tracing at temples in Tokyo, working mainly from Genjo’s version of the …

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5 February, 202011 June, 2020Posted inArt & BuddhismTags: Shakyo, Shodo calligraphy, Soto Zen

Kusen

After zazen when we chant the Heart Sutra we are chanting the short condensed version – heart/essence – of the massively longer Great Real Wisdom Perfection Sutras (an early Mahayana …

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14 August, 201915 August, 2019Posted inArt & BuddhismTags: drawing & painting, sketchbook, Soto Zen, Zazen

Limitless – Kusen collaboration

John Fraser’s Kusen No. 197 “A teacher and his student were standing by the shore. In the distance was a boat. The teacher said to the student ‘forgetting about your …

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11 May, 201822 June, 2020Posted inArt & BuddhismTags: Dogen, John Fraser, Kusen collaboration, Soto Zen

Reworking Dogen’s white mountain poem from Sanshodoei

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From the Sanshodoei poems, I have been working on the English translations with John Fraser – 我庵は こしのしらやま 冬ごもり 凍もゆきも くもかかりけり waga iho wa koshi no shirayama fuyugomori kouri mo …

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1 March, 201825 November, 2019Posted inArt & BuddhismTags: Dogen, Poetry, Soto Zen, Waka

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