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 at our monthly chanting group 🙏☺️
Tag archives: Soto Zen
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 tracing and copying practitioners. This was a joint event I led for the D+P Studio and Glasgow Zen Group. Beginning with an introduction about the …
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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 Hannya Shingyo – Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. You can see the hanging scroll of Genjo / Xuanzang in the Soto Zen shakyo …
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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 work begun around the 1st Century). The Japanese title is Maka hannya haramita shin gyo. What we chant is the most common version chanted in …
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 mind for the moment, point to the boat’. The student pointed to the boat. The teacher then said ‘forgetting about the boat for the moment, …
Reworking Dogen’s white mountain poem from Sanshodoei
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 yuki mo kumo kakari keri my hut in the white mountain of Koshi enclosed in winter’s ice and snow wrapped in cloud Eihei Dogen
Bring me your mind – Kusen Collaboration with John Fraser
John’s Kusen 130 Eko said to Bodhidharma, “my mind is not at peace, please pacify it” Bodhidharma said, “bring me your mind and I will pacify it” After a while Eko said, “I have looked everywhere for my mind and I cannot find it” Bodhidharma said, “There! I have pacified it” In Eko’s question, we …
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Shodo zen calligraphy practice
Trying out the zen enso circle, symbol of universality and the idea of beauty within imperfection. Small to medium fude for sho on single hanshi sheets. Working on the character nen – commonly translated as mindfulness or mindful, also attention or care. There is a balance needed between the two parts of the kanji. The …
Sho calligraphy mark making
Making some marks with fude brushes and fudepen using Japanese sumi ink. Beginning practicing for a series of three Drawing and Painting Studio workshops. Experimenting with the brush stopping and flicking, speed of the marks and energy. In the first Shodo group the Kanji characters ten – heavens/ sky and shin or kokoro – heart/ …
The light will not break – Kusen Collaboration with John Fraser
John’s Kusen Book Of Serenity, Case 36: Master Ma Is Unwell The Case: Master Ma was unwell. The monastery superintendent asked, “Master, how is your venerable state these days?”The Great Teacher said, “Sun face buddha, Moon face buddha” Commentary: “unwell” is a euphemism. Master Ma (Baso) was mortally ill, and died the following day. Sun …
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