The Zen Gateway

The Blue Marble, a photograph of the planet Earth made on December 7, 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft... By NASA/Apollo 17 crew; taken by either Harrison Schmitt or Ron Evans - https://web.archive.org/web/20160112123725/http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-001138.html (image link); see also https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_329.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43894484 .................................................. 20th JUNE 2020 Sharing the Spirit of Temple Life - Zen Meditation and Practice . At 2:30pm today from Shobo-an Zen Temple in London. A free online event. The Great 14th: Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama In His Own Words . A streamed event to celebrate the Dalai Lama's 85th birthday. BuddhaFest Online begins June 22. Tricycle magazine online festival featuring Mathieu Ricard, Tara Brach Susan Salzberg. Buddhist Monks in Wuhan Stir Up Social Media Storm with Offer to Share Vegetable Crop...

Vajrapani, whose name means ‘He who holds the vajra’ ( a symbolic thunderbolt), is one of the Dharmapalas or Dharma guardians - protectors of those who preach and practice the Buddha’s teachings. He is seen as complimentary to Avalokitesvara and Manjushri. While the two latter are functions of the Buddha’s compassion and wisdom, Vajrapani is seen as the Buddha’s power. According to some legends he accompanied the Buddha during his life, witnessing his birth in the Lumbini gardens and facilitating Prince Gautama’s flight from the palace.  Originally, it seems likely that he was a deva responsible for the rains imported from Indian religion.  This supposition derives from the way he is depicted in statues at Gandhara.  He is depicted in a wrathful form, often with multiple heads and limbs and is one of the earliest Bodhisattvas appearing in the Pali Canon. He is known and revered in Theravadin Buddhism as well as more generally in several different forms throughout Mahayana...

The T'ang Dynasty Zen Master Gensha admonished his monks. He said that everywhere he went he heard them talking about 'Saving all beings', yet, he challenged them, if they came across someone who was blind, deaf and unable to speak, how were they going to preach the Buddha-dharma to them? In this talk: The arising of the Bodhisattva Path The mutual dependence of the ordained and the laity The dangers of over-idealism Abandoning both good and evil Who is the one who is blind, deaf and mute? Discerning different levels of consciousness in daily life.

A 3D rendering of Indra's net... By No machine-readable author provided. Schnerf~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). - No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1679429 Man often resembles Warty Bliggens, the toad in Don Marquis’ poem: i met a toad the other day by the name of warty bliggens he was sitting under  a toadstool feeling contented he explained that when the cosmos was created that toadstool was especially planned for his personal shelter from the sun and rain through out and prepared  for him do not tell me said warty bliggens that there is not a purpose in the universe the thought is blasphemy a little more conversation revealed that warty bliggens considers himself to be the center of the said universe the earth exists to grow toadstools for him to sit under the sun to give him light by day and the moon and wheeling constellations to make beau...