Journal
On zen phrases, garments, and seals carved in Tokyo.
50 entries
-
Entry 50
30 June 2026
On 'Ordinary Mind Is the Way'
From the Gateless Gate (Mumonkan), Case 19, "Ordinary Mind Is the Way" (平常是道).
-
Entry 49
30 June 2026
-
Entry 48
30 June 2026
On 'The Four Sacred Verses of Bodhidharma'
The four verses that state the marrow of the Chan/Zen school — "a transmission outside the teachings; not founded on words and letters; pointing directly at the human mind; seeing one's nature and becoming a buddha." Traditionally ascribed…
-
Entry 47
30 June 2026
-
Entry 46
30 June 2026
On 'Even the Unrefined Is Refined'
Traced to the Wudeng Huiyuan (Compendium of the Five Lamps), book 12; also gathered in the Zenrin Kushū, the standard anthology of Zen phrases.
-
Entry 45
30 June 2026
On 'Neither Arising nor Ceasing'
From the Heart Sutra (Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya): "all things are empty in form — neither arising nor ceasing, neither defiled nor pure, neither increasing nor decreasing." The same pair opens the eight negations of Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakak…
-
Entry 44
30 June 2026
On 'Neither Born Nor Perishing'
From the Heart Sutra (Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya), in Xuanzang's Chinese translation: "all things bear the mark of emptiness — not arising, not ceasing; not stained, not pure; not increasing, not decreasing."
-
Entry 43
30 June 2026
On 'Wind and Banner'
From the Gateless Gate (Mumonkan), Case 29, "Not the Wind, Not the Banner"; the same exchange is preserved in the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch.
-
Entry 42
30 June 2026
-
Entry 41
30 June 2026
On 'White Clouds Come and Go'
The latter line of the couplet "The green mountain does not move; the white clouds come and go of themselves," derived from the Wudeng Huiyuan (Compendium of the Five Lamps), fascicle 4, entry on Chan master Lingyun Zhiqin of Fuzhou — give…
-
Entry 40
30 June 2026
On 'One Flower Opens Five Petals'
From Bodhidharma's transmission verse, recorded in the Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp (Jingde chuandeng lu), vol.
-
Entry 39
30 June 2026
On 'Be a Lamp Unto Yourself'
Attributed to the Buddha's final instruction to Ānanda before his passing.
-
Entry 38
30 June 2026
On 'The Straightforward Mind Is the Place of Practice'
From the Vimalakīrti Sutra, the Bodhisattva chapter, where the layman Vimalakīrti answers the youth Glorious Light: "the straightforward mind is the place of practice, for it is without falsity."
-
Entry 37
30 June 2026
On 'Permanence, Bliss, Self, Purity'
From the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (Nirvana Sutra): the four virtues of nirvana — permanence, bliss, self, and purity.
-
Entry 36
30 June 2026
On 'Flower and Zen, One Taste'
No direct source in the classical Zen records could be confirmed.
-
Entry 35
30 June 2026
On 'The Worn Awl'
From the Avatamsaka Sutra (Flower Garland Sutra), the Gandavyuha chapter, in the pilgrimage of the youth Sudhana.
-
Entry 34
30 June 2026
-
Entry 33
30 June 2026
-
Entry 32
30 June 2026
On 'Go and Drink Tea'
From the recorded sayings of Zhaozhou Congshen (Joshu, 778-897), the Record of Zhaozhou; the same exchange appears in the Compendium of Five Lamps, fascicle four.
-
Entry 31
30 June 2026
-
Entry 30
30 June 2026
On 'Wholly Manifest, Wholly Bare'
From the Recorded Sayings of Yuanwu Keqin (Engo Kokugon), where a monk raises the phrase "wholly manifest, wholly bare" and the master answers, "the eight-edged staff in the diamond hand."
-
Entry 29
30 June 2026
On 'Awakening at a Sound'
From the Record of Yunmen (Yunmen Guanglu): "hear a sound and awaken to the Way; see a form and the mind grows clear." It echoes the old accounts of Xiangyan, awakened by a pebble striking bamboo, and Lingyun, awakened at the sight of peac…
-
Entry 28
30 June 2026
On 'Open the Gate, Fallen Leaves'
From a poem by the Tang poet-monk Muka, sent to his cousin Jia Dao: the couplet "Listening to rain, the cold night ends; opening the gate, the fallen leaves are many." Recorded in the Complete Tang Poems (vol.
-
Entry 27
30 June 2026
On 'Leaving No Trace'
From the exchange between Chuanzi Decheng, the Boat Monk, and his heir Jiashan Shanhui.
-
Entry 26
30 June 2026
On 'Within Nothing, an Endless Store'
From a verse by the Northern Song poet Su Shi (Su Dongpo), "In Praise of the Blank Silk" (Baizhi zan, in the Dongpo Chan-xi collection): "The undrawn silk—how lofty its intent; once color is laid on, it falls into duality.
-
Entry 25
30 June 2026
-
Entry 24
30 June 2026
-
Entry 23
30 June 2026
On 'The Inexhaustible Store'
A Buddhist term for "the storehouse that never runs dry." As a Zen phrase it is drawn from the Song-dynasty poet Su Dongpo's line "mu-ichi-motsu-chū mujinzō" — within having nothing at all, an inexhaustible store — long inscribed on scroll…
-
Entry 22
30 June 2026
-
Entry 21
30 June 2026
On 'The Verse Sewn into the Robe'
A gāthā that Prince Nagaya had embroidered in gold thread along the hems of a thousand kesa robes sent to the monks of Tang.
-
Entry 20
30 June 2026
On 'Taking Refuge'
A Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit namas / namo ("salutation, homage, surrender").
-
Entry 19
30 June 2026
On 'Holding the Flower, a Smile'
From the Gateless Gate (Mumonkan), Case 6, "The World-Honored One Holds Up a Flower." On Vulture Peak the Buddha held up a flower; among the assembly only Mahākāśyapa smiled.
-
Entry 18
30 June 2026
On 'Dwelling Nowhere'
From the Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedikā): "give rise to a mind that dwells nowhere" (応無所住而生其心).
-
Entry 17
30 June 2026
On 'Let the Mind Arise Dwelling Nowhere'
From the Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā), the "Adorning the Pure Land" section — chapter 10 in Prince Zhaoming's thirty-two-fold division.
-
Entry 16
30 June 2026
On 'Touch the Flower, the Scent Fills the Robe'
From the Tang poet Yu Liangshi's poem "Spring Mountain, Moonlit Night" (春山夜月): "Cup the water and the moon rests in your hand; touch the flowers and their scent fills your robe." Later taken up in the Chan/Zen records as a teaching line.
-
Entry 15
30 June 2026
On 'Both Forgotten'
A term in common use across the Zen tradition; it cannot be confidently traced to a single source text.
-
Entry 14
30 June 2026
On 'Willow Green, Blossom Red'
A Zen phrase traditionally traced to a line by Su Dongpo (Su Shi) of Northern Song China — "the willow green, the blossom red, the true face of things." It is often said to derive from the Dongpo Chanxi ji, though the original source is co…
-
Entry 13
30 June 2026
On 'Verse of the Snow Mountain'
A four-line verse from the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (Nirvana Sutra, northern recension), fascicle 14, "Chapter on Holy Practice" (聖行品): "All things are impermanent; this is the law of arising and ceasing.
-
Entry 12
30 June 2026
On 'Say It Is a Thing and You Miss'
From the Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp (景徳伝灯録), in the chapter on Nanyue Huairang.
-
Entry 11
30 June 2026
On 'The Four Wisdoms'
A term from the Yogācāra (Consciousness-Only) tradition, systematized in the Cheng Weishi Lun.
-
Entry 10
30 June 2026
On 'The Great Way Is Not Hard'
From the Xinxin Ming (Inscription on Faith in Mind) of the Third Patriarch Sengcan: "The supreme way is not hard; it only refuses to pick and choose." Zhaozhou's citation is recorded as Case 2 of the Blue Cliff Record.
-
Entry 09
30 June 2026
On 'The Common Precept of the Seven Buddhas'
From the Dhammapada, Buddhavagga (verse 183), transmitted as the precept shared by the seven Buddhas of the past: "Do no evil; do good; purify the mind — this is the teaching of all Buddhas." Known in Zen through the exchange between Bai J…
-
Entry 08
30 June 2026
On 'The Great Matter of Life and Death'
Found in the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (Pivotal Conditions / 行由品) as the Fifth Patriarch Hongren's words to the assembly, "for people of the world, life and death is the great matter." It also appears in the Jingde Record of th…
-
Entry 07
30 June 2026
On 'Grasses, Trees, and the Land'
The opening of "sōmoku kokudo shikkai jōbutsu" — grasses, trees, and the land all attain Buddhahood.
-
Entry 06
30 June 2026
On 'Harmony, Reverence, Purity, Stillness'
A core principle of the way of tea, transmitted as the "four regulations" (shiki).
-
Entry 05
30 June 2026
On 'Seated in the Water-Moon Hall'
The couplet "坐水月道場、修空華万行," collected in Zen phrase anthologies.
-
Entry 04
30 June 2026
On 'Master Wherever You Stand'
From the Record of Linji (Linji Lu), the discourses of the Tang-dynasty master Linji Yixuan: "Be master wherever you are, and every place you stand is true."
-
Entry 03
1 June 2026
-
Entry 02
1 June 2026
About hosen
Carrying a zen phrase not on paper, silk, or stone, but on a garment. hosen stands quietly as that vessel.
-
Entry 01
1 June 2026
On 'Every Day, A Good Day'
A saying of Yunmen Wenyan, recorded in the Record of Yunmen and set as Case 6 of the Blue Cliff Record. On the source, and on the fifteenth day. The first zen phrase in the collection.