articles by Willard
These aren’t written with a particular audience in mind other than anyone who wishes to read them. I suspect that they might not make much sense to someone completely new to Soto Zen practice, (they might not to anyone).
This isn’t to say that they are ‘advanced’ in any way. Zazen though, does change how we habitually see ourselves and the world. The mind of the way is not limited to commonly accepted ways of understanding and it doesn’t stand against them either. In other words, the mind isn’t caught in opposites and this may contribute to some difficulties in reading.
I have posted some information on suggested introductory reading on this page.
Articles here may be continued to be worked on.
Space There is a quality of existence that doesn’t come, go, or stay. This quality has no shape, colour, or size. It manifests completely as the smallest things as much as the large. No location to this quality can be found. Space is a good likeness to this quality. If you are sitting […]
Kinds of Kindness In the 1990’s, in my mid – twenties and a new member of the monastic community at Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey, I was asked by the temple officers to phone a long standing supplier and give notice that that the monastery was ceasing our regular order of tea. The community and guest
Meditation – true form of the self There are no difficulties in the heart of meditation. Meditation, as practised in the Soto Zen way, is manifesting the true form of the self. As the true form of the self is formless, meditation is not limited to any particular posture, activity, situation or time. Hence, in
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Home Late September 2022, Our frail and pinched mum, sister and I, exposed on the sweeping expanse of Godrevy beach. A place thinly transparent to everything beyond sight, at least for a time. We come together, we move apart, no one is in charge or knows how it’s going to go. The three of us
The Dharma Gate of No Restriction If you want to realize what the Buddha taught, then simply: when eating, just eat; when walking, just walk; when sitting, just sit; when thinking, just think; when talking, just talk, and so on. That’s it, gather yourself together, diligently apply yourself to directness, and let your intrinsic nature
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Compassion and a dreamlike world The material and physical world is as dreamlike as the world of the mind. So the self of a human being is dreamlike too. Dreamlike – but not – a dream. Though both are equally valid aspects of experience, they are not the same. Part of the ongoing examination of
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What do I get? ‘And what is blind ignorance? All wordly beings from time immemorial have matters turned around in a variety of ways so that they keep returning to the same place, just as anyone does who is lost and wanders off in all directions. They mistakenly perceive the four elements to be properties
Stages If you think of practice in the sense of a verb, then it’s an activity. The activity of practice is the giving of yourself to respecting (being attentive to), allowing for and immersing yourself in, your true nature. Your true nature manifests as you are respecting and loving it. The meaning of true nature
Beggars Banquet All that continues to obstruct you revolves around thought. Both acceptance and faith are active states of unobstructed being. Letting go of thought is how acceptance and faith are made actual. Acceptance and faith are essentially two sides of the same coin, which is worth reflecting on, I think. Both reveal the immeasurable
Just eat “To just eat a meal, is the most difficult thing in the world.”* When you eat, do you ever just eat? Forgetting for a moment any meals that you share with others, if you find yourself sitting down and eating alone, do you ever just eat or do you always have to have
