articles by Willard
These articles are written from the experience of meditation practice and to encourage its practice and are usually not of an introductory nature. I have posted some information on suggested introductory reading on this page.
Articles may be continued to be worked on and change over time.
The joyful activity of the life of meditation cannot be taken away by anything. Whatever comes, pleasurable or painful, is liberated when freed from the tight grip of a self concerned with itself. The open way of what is good to do can always be found. This joy is not whimsical or reckless, within its […]
Words Sandokai1, a well known Buddhist teaching poem, contains the lines, “If from your experience of the senses basic truth you do not know, how can you ever find the path that certain is, no matter how far distant you may walk?” It’s straightforward enough to understand the logic of of such a simple piece
So you want to be a meditator? The founder of the OBC, RM Jiyu, said something along the lines of, “it is better not to start at all, than to start and then try to stop”. Once the bliss of ignorance has had a little light shone on it, it will be painful to try
So you want to be a meditator? Read More »
No birth and no death What I am at now doesn’t know that it is alive, it has no need to see itself in this way and so it doesn’t fear or doubt death either. Sometimes this is clear, sometimes it isn’t. What is clear is that this life is not a possession of mine
No birth and no death Read More »
Because the way of zazen is indivisible from everything, it is the activity of faith. If there’s any division, then faith in enlightenment cannot take effect and it becomes belief. Faith opens up experience, effecting a receptive and responsive engagement within time and place. There are aspects of trust in this but this trust is
Without impermanence, there would be no beauty. If it were possible to eradicate impermanence, from that point on there would only be a hellish eternity where nothing moves or breathes. My shoes Then and now, now Doubting impermanence, we may attempt to create a permanence and imagine that it is working. This could be a
Indestructible Impermanence Read More »
“When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly”. This dropping away is integral to the practice of zazen and the Soto Zen tradition, it is immediate realization of our true form and the
Wherever we are, whatever is going on, attention can move effortlessly around breathing, thought, sensation, the immediate surroundings, and so on. This integrated functioning is not special and is not a skill acquired through a technique, something to switch on or off. It’s the functioning wisdom of our real nature. We have probably become
Harmonizing Body and Mind Read More »
In trying to become an accepting person, we get in our own way and smother the possibility of real acceptance. At best we make a clumsy imitation of what is always energetically liberated, cannot be contained and is simply unconditional. If our actions are tinted with signs of resigned frustration, defensiveness, striving and the like,
