The Koan Brothers
@thekoanbrothers.bsky.social
On the path of Rinzai Zen
#rinzai #zen #bodhidharma #buddhism #hakuin
#rinzai #zen #bodhidharma #buddhism #hakuin
Pinned
Let‘s not take this too seriously.
Try to follow me without being attached!
Try to follow me without being attached!
“If your mind is on your opponent, you are his guest. If your mind abides nowhere, you are the host.”
- Takuan Sōhō
- Takuan Sōhō
October 6, 2025 at 5:09 PM
“If your mind is on your opponent, you are his guest. If your mind abides nowhere, you are the host.”
- Takuan Sōhō
- Takuan Sōhō
“When the host meets the host, they do not greet each other. When the guest meets the guest, they do not recognize each other.”
- Yunmen
- Yunmen
September 28, 2025 at 10:20 AM
“When the host meets the host, they do not greet each other. When the guest meets the guest, they do not recognize each other.”
- Yunmen
- Yunmen
In this lump of red flesh there is a true person of no rank, who is always going in and out of the gates of your face. Those who have not yet testified to this, look! Look!
September 10, 2025 at 6:16 AM
In this lump of red flesh there is a true person of no rank, who is always going in and out of the gates of your face. Those who have not yet testified to this, look! Look!
“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood and the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are all made of star-stuff.”
- Carl Sagan
July 10, 2025 at 12:46 PM
“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood and the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are all made of star-stuff.”
- Carl Sagan
"What Zen values is not the trance-like Samadhi, but the functional Samadhi"
Meido Moore Roshi
Meido Moore Roshi
June 10, 2025 at 8:26 AM
"What Zen values is not the trance-like Samadhi, but the functional Samadhi"
Meido Moore Roshi
Meido Moore Roshi
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
C.G.Jung
C.G.Jung
May 31, 2025 at 8:31 AM
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
C.G.Jung
C.G.Jung
POV after morning Zazen.
May 25, 2025 at 4:49 PM
POV after morning Zazen.
Reddit-gang!
Come an check out our sub at
r/zenpractice
Come an check out our sub at
r/zenpractice
May 24, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Reddit-gang!
Come an check out our sub at
r/zenpractice
Come an check out our sub at
r/zenpractice
Recent science shows that life may have not started in the primordial soup, but in the crevices and cracks of the primordial ocean's coast.
When I listen to my inhales and exhales, I wonder if our breathing function was shaped by the coming and going of the waves that crashed into these places.
When I listen to my inhales and exhales, I wonder if our breathing function was shaped by the coming and going of the waves that crashed into these places.
May 19, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Recent science shows that life may have not started in the primordial soup, but in the crevices and cracks of the primordial ocean's coast.
When I listen to my inhales and exhales, I wonder if our breathing function was shaped by the coming and going of the waves that crashed into these places.
When I listen to my inhales and exhales, I wonder if our breathing function was shaped by the coming and going of the waves that crashed into these places.
"A physicist is a hydrogen atom’s way of learning about hydrogen atoms."
- Carl Sagan
- Carl Sagan
May 14, 2025 at 9:02 AM
"A physicist is a hydrogen atom’s way of learning about hydrogen atoms."
- Carl Sagan
- Carl Sagan
"When sitting in Zazen, I become nothing, and everything becomes nothing.
That is to say, I and everything melt into one. So when I see a flower, the flower is I. When I see the moon, the moon is I. All things become I. There is no greater love than this."
- Yamada Mumon Roshi
That is to say, I and everything melt into one. So when I see a flower, the flower is I. When I see the moon, the moon is I. All things become I. There is no greater love than this."
- Yamada Mumon Roshi
April 2, 2025 at 11:23 AM
"When sitting in Zazen, I become nothing, and everything becomes nothing.
That is to say, I and everything melt into one. So when I see a flower, the flower is I. When I see the moon, the moon is I. All things become I. There is no greater love than this."
- Yamada Mumon Roshi
That is to say, I and everything melt into one. So when I see a flower, the flower is I. When I see the moon, the moon is I. All things become I. There is no greater love than this."
- Yamada Mumon Roshi
"The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow"
William Blake
William Blake
March 22, 2025 at 12:48 PM
"The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow"
William Blake
William Blake
They are not long,
the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long,
the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while,
then closes
Within a dream.
- Ernest Dowson
the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long,
the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while,
then closes
Within a dream.
- Ernest Dowson
March 18, 2025 at 8:49 PM
They are not long,
the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long,
the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while,
then closes
Within a dream.
- Ernest Dowson
the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long,
the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while,
then closes
Within a dream.
- Ernest Dowson
"In the same way a dam prevents the leakage of water, samadhi prevents the leakage if wisdom"
Dogen
Dogen
March 7, 2025 at 5:42 PM
"In the same way a dam prevents the leakage of water, samadhi prevents the leakage if wisdom"
Dogen
Dogen
The four Brahma Viharas:
Metta (loving kindness)
Karuna (empathy and compassion)
Mudita (sympathetic joy)
Upeka (open-hearted equanimity)
If each of us can practice each one of these even just once a day, the world will be a better place.
Metta (loving kindness)
Karuna (empathy and compassion)
Mudita (sympathetic joy)
Upeka (open-hearted equanimity)
If each of us can practice each one of these even just once a day, the world will be a better place.
March 6, 2025 at 12:00 PM
The four Brahma Viharas:
Metta (loving kindness)
Karuna (empathy and compassion)
Mudita (sympathetic joy)
Upeka (open-hearted equanimity)
If each of us can practice each one of these even just once a day, the world will be a better place.
Metta (loving kindness)
Karuna (empathy and compassion)
Mudita (sympathetic joy)
Upeka (open-hearted equanimity)
If each of us can practice each one of these even just once a day, the world will be a better place.
Practice doesn’t mean that you have to manifest continuity like a string connecting beads — you just have to become each bead, in each moment.
March 5, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Practice doesn’t mean that you have to manifest continuity like a string connecting beads — you just have to become each bead, in each moment.
All beings are primarily Buddhas,
Like water and ice,
There is no ice apart from water,
There are no Buddhas apart from beings.
- Hakuin Ekaku, Song of Zazen
March 5, 2025 at 8:37 AM
All beings are primarily Buddhas,
Like water and ice,
There is no ice apart from water,
There are no Buddhas apart from beings.
- Hakuin Ekaku, Song of Zazen
A monk once told his master:
I want happiness.
The master said:
First get rid of 'I'.
Then get rid of 'want'.
Then you have hapiness.
I want happiness.
The master said:
First get rid of 'I'.
Then get rid of 'want'.
Then you have hapiness.
March 2, 2025 at 5:07 PM
A monk once told his master:
I want happiness.
The master said:
First get rid of 'I'.
Then get rid of 'want'.
Then you have hapiness.
I want happiness.
The master said:
First get rid of 'I'.
Then get rid of 'want'.
Then you have hapiness.
"All of us are originally endowed with our own fertile Buddha natures, from which we are temporarily alienated in our unenlightenment. Kensho, therefore, means nothing other than the rediscovery of our temporarily concealed Buddha natures"
- Omori Sogen
- Omori Sogen
March 1, 2025 at 9:34 AM
"All of us are originally endowed with our own fertile Buddha natures, from which we are temporarily alienated in our unenlightenment. Kensho, therefore, means nothing other than the rediscovery of our temporarily concealed Buddha natures"
- Omori Sogen
- Omori Sogen
Reposted by The Koan Brothers
A nun winnows rice at Fuxing An Nunnery, on the trail down from Tiantai Temple on Jiuhua Shan. This reflects the monastic rule of the Tang Dynasty monk Baizhang Huaihai (Japanese Hyakujo Ekai) who said, "One day not work, one day not eat."
February 25, 2025 at 1:37 PM
A nun winnows rice at Fuxing An Nunnery, on the trail down from Tiantai Temple on Jiuhua Shan. This reflects the monastic rule of the Tang Dynasty monk Baizhang Huaihai (Japanese Hyakujo Ekai) who said, "One day not work, one day not eat."