Author Archives: Jiryu Mark

Dosho Port over at Wild Fox Zen picked up one of the strands of the Sanjie Jiao conversation that also had a little activity here some time ago – in his latest post he links to a talk I gave … Continue reading →

There’s an important book in the academic Buddhist Studies world called Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha – I’ve mentioned pieces of it in previous posts (here and here).  What was important about the book, if I understand correctly, was that it was … Continue reading →

I recently heard what may be the most important piece I’ve come across on American Zen, and though I share some thoughts about it below, the bottom line of this post is that I can’t recommend highly enough this profoundly … Continue reading →

Warning:  This blog post has nothing to do with sex. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to post here at No Zen in the West.  As my last two posts (ancient, by blog standards) mentioned, it’s that … Continue reading →

I was explaining recently to a friend in the Dharma – the inmate shuso of our San Quentin practice period, as it happens – how I think of my study of Japanese language as an act of devotion to the … Continue reading →

Many of you know that I’m soon to begin formal graduate studies at UC Berkeley in East Asian Buddhist Studies.  (The program I’ll start in is technically an MA in Asian Studies, as a Buddhist MA isn’t offered, but my … Continue reading →

It’s been very interesting to include you all in Hondo and my discussion of a small issue – whether we should move this blog to an ad-supported platform – that touches larger ones, like: What is the “value” of the … Continue reading →

I’ve been thinking about the dynamics of disclosure and concealment, a concept elaborated in Huayan Buddhism and expressed in Zen as, “When one side is illuminated, the other side is dark.” That is to say, I’ve been feeling like I … Continue reading →

As many of you know from recent posts, I’ve been gearing up to teach a six-week class at Green Gulch Farm on “The Practice and Problem of Buddha Nature”.  Some of you have expressed an interest in following along with the … Continue reading →

Thinking about Buddha Nature lately, as I mentioned in my last post, I’ve come around to the question of whether the world is “real”. Or the question, at least, of whether the Buddhadharma – with it’s tropes of “illusion,” “bubble,” … Continue reading →