In the moonlight a worm... (Haiku Reference Section)

Article about Zen and Haiku:

"Awakened at midnight
by the sound of the water jar
cracking from the ice"

Zen Blog Vimala Sangha

Interesting discussion of bowing:

"The unique quality of Buddhist bowing is that, in essence, we are not bowing to an “other,” but to our own (and everyone's) innate Awakened Buddha nature. At least this is the feeling in contemplative practice. Very few Buddhists in today's world are meditators, or contemplatives, and many pray directly to Amida Buddha, or some emanation of Buddha, in much the way Christians or Jews pray. Still, we bow, as Suzuki Roshi would say, just to bow. In Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, he came up with a curious phrase: we bow to “horizontalize the mast of the ego.”"

A journey within: one reporter's experience with Zen - News

A newcomer learns about Zen.

I count: In (one). Out (two). In (three). Out (four). In (five). Out (six)… I think about classes, about my fiction workshop. How can I develop my unnamed character? Why didn't I name her? Oh, right - breathing.

As if meditation were a debt

I thought this was interesting:

"There are some who act and seem to feel as if meditation were a debt they have to pay to the Divine; they are like men who go to church once a week and think they have paid what they owe God....To enter the spiritual life means to take a plunge into the Divine, as you would jump into the sea. And that is not the end, but the beginning"

Dogen and the game of Go

Varying translations of a passage from Dogen using a Go analogy:

"What is the meaning of “two people playing go”? If we say “Two people are playing go” it means we are a third party not actually playing. If we say such things then we must stop talking and directly face our opponent."

Zen Saying from Blue Heron Zen Buddhist Centre blog

Great Doubt, Great Awakening,
Little Doubt, Little Awakening,
No Doubt, No Awakening.
~Zen Saying~