Record of Going Easy

A collection of 32 posts

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Record of Going Easy

Is Just Sitting Facing a Wall Enough?

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Record of Going Easy

Nanquan Beheads a Cat: Putting the Two Together with One Stroke of a Blade

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Record of Going Easy

Favor and Disgrace Are Disturbing, So Deeply Trust Yourself

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Record of Going Easy

Not Two: Marvelous Function Without Limit

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Record of Going Easy

At All Times, Do Not Give Rise To Deluded Thoughts (Not)

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Record of Going Easy

Do People Today Still Need Satori Or Not?

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Record of Going Easy

Engrave It On Your Bones, Carve It In Your Flesh

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Record of Going Easy

This Breath Turns Millions Of Scrolls: An Invitation For The Ancestor To Go To East India

Vine of Obstacles Zen Featured

Vine Zen Writing: '23 Roundup and What's Coming in '24

I'm writing today to give you a quick and organized way to view what's been offered here from the Vine Writing Department over the last several months and what is probably coming in '24.

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Record of Going Easy

Dizang Planting the Fields: “What Do You Call the Three Worlds?”

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Record of Going Easy

The Method is Knowing How to Soar: Linji's Blind Donkey

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Linji

Linji's Great Satori and All-Encompassing Awe-Inspiring Great Function: Dharma Talk and Text

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Record of Going Easy

Unless You Know Bitter Suffering, You Won't Know Zhaozhou's Cypress Tree

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Record of Going Easy

Not Knowing is Most Intimate

Record of Going Easy

Belly Laugh and Special Experiences

Warning: Although the koan below seems like a meeting of old friends, a proverbial dip into the warm mud bath at the Zen Spa, there are thorns in the mud. As you might expect.

Record of Going Easy

Eyes Asked Eyebrows...

In sorrow we grieve together. In laughter, we find the same joy.

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Linji Zen

Linji's True Person

Awakening Featured

Gnawing Through Qiánfēng’s Three Illnesses and Two Lights

"... You will see the infinite compassion contained in Qiánfēng’s instructions...."

Record of Going Easy

Absorption, Awakening and Spiritual Fascination: Juifeng Does Not Agree

We're back from sesshin and a little vacation. Both were wonderful, as is being home again in the hermitage and walking along the great lake. Today, as promised, I'm sharing my translation of The Record of Going Easy (Japanese, Shoyoroku, aka, Book of Serenity), Case 96:

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Record of Going Easy

The Inner Meaning of Zen: Dying While Sitting Doesn't Reach It

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Record of Going Easy

How Can You Recuperate From An Illness Caused By Medicine?

Record of Going Easy

Messing With Yasutani Roshi Again and Again: Don't Sit Down in the World of Awakening

In this post, I'm concluding the series of re-edits of Hakuun Yasutani Roshi's (1885–1973 - pictured above) comments on the main case of Record of Going Easy (J., Shoyoroku), Case 11 Yunmen’s Two Illnesses, inserting my translation of the case into his commentary. The

Record of Going Easy

Messing with Yasutani Roshi Again: Real Happiness and Peace

In this post I'm going to continue messing with Hakuun Yasutani Roshi (1885–1973, pictured above). The original version of Yasutani Roshi's commentary that I'm working with appeared in The Hazy Moon of Enlightenment, by Taizan Maezumi and Bernard Tetsugen Glassman. But, as with

Record of Going Easy

The Vigorous Nature of Working Zen

Zen students sometimes seem to think that Zen is a passive process. One just sits and the magic happens. Nonsense! And Sōtō students sometimes dismiss wholehearted application of the method by attributing "hair on fire" training to Rinzai Zen. Double nonsense!! Here's a bit from the

Record of Going Easy

Messing With Yasutani Roshi: The Verse for Yunmen's Two Illnesses

Recently, in my translation work and personal practice, I've been playing again with Record of Going Easy (J., Shoyoroku), Case 11 Yunmen’s Two Illnesses. This case is so important, in my view, that in addition to the introduction, koan, capping phrases and Hongzhi's verse, I&