WHY SHOULD I TRY THE BIG MIND BIG HEART APPROACH?

We all have questions about the meaning and purpose of our lives and about how to get the most out of life. The Big Mind Big Heart approach will show you how to answer these questions for yourself, for what’s true in your own unique and special life. Big Mind Big Heart is not someone else’s interpretation of who you should be and how you should live but rather a way you can come to your own deep understandings, and directly experience your life, your relationships and the world at large in a new and rich way.

Big Mind Big Heart is non denominational. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Christian, Jew, Muslim or Atheist, you will benefit from the wisdom and insights of Zen and you will be able to immediately apply it to your own life.

We also offer many workshops and retreats around the world. Learning the Big Mind Big Heart approach live with Genpo Roshi is fun, exciting and profound. You’ll probably laugh, you might shed a tear, but, either way, you’ll come out of it with a deep sense of appreciation for yourself and others, and a new, richer, more enlightened view of life.

Found at http://www.bigmind.org/Home.html

Big Mind Fall Retreat Weeks 1 and 2 •Register Now $3250

DOGO BARRY GRAHAM

When you think your happiness is in the hands of another person, or set of circumstances, you attach. And when you attach to something, you try to control it….

Pay attention. Wake up to the Buddha that you are and have always been. Wake up and see that you already are where you need to be, and already have what you need - because you already are the person you have always wished you could be…..

It's up to you.

POSTED BY DOGO BARRY GRAHAM AT 3:21 PM FOUND AT HTTP://DOGOBARRYGRAHAM.BLOGSPOT.COM/

YASUTANI ROSHI IN HIS OWN WORDS:

(The following two paragraphs are taken from Yasutani Roshi’s commentary on case number 1 of the Hekigen-roku : “Boddhidharma’s Emptiness.”)

Speak of zazen and right away you want enlightenment. Don’t act like a beggar. With wobbly zazen how can you be easily enlightened? To embody the real thing is what is important. When a person really becomes zazen, that is in fact enlightenment in its entirety. It is only that the person concerned is not aware of it. The cause which is zazen and the effect which is enlightenment are simultaneous. Although this cause and effect are simultaneous, the cause which is zazen and another effect which is conscious awareness of enlightenment are distinct, and so the person doing zazen suddenly becomes aware of great enlightenment afterwards.

Those who fail to catch the Great Vehicle of Buddhism do not know distinct cause and effect. That is the failing of Soto Zen’s blowing its own horn. When it comes, awareness of sudden great enlightenment is distinct cause and effect. On the other hand, narrow-minded Buddhist beggars don’t know simultaneous cause and effect. They only want enlightenment. This is a failing of koan Zen. They don’t know that together with zazen there and then a bountiful harvest is being reaped. They thus say that their enlightenment is due to useless zazen. It is not useless. While eating with a full belly, those who are stuffed call themselves hungry. Just to become aware of having eaten one’s fill is enlightenment.

Found at http://pariszen.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/happy-birthday-yasutani-roshi

Once again I confess it is hard being me, trying to absorb all of this Buddha stuff.