Zen Master Huang Po

As recorded by the scholar P'ei Hsiu of the T'ang Dynasty. Rendered into English by John Blofeld (Chu Ch'an) [Excerpts. Complete text (.pdf) HERE]

P'ei Hsiu's Preface – The great Zen Master Hsi Yun lived below the Vulture Peak on Mount Huang Po, [From which he takes his posthumous name] in the district of Kao An which forms part of the prefecture of Hung Chou [In the modern province of Kiangsi]. He was third in the direct line of descent from Hui Neng,[Wei Lang] the Sixth Patriarch, and the pupil of a fellow-disciple of Hui Hai. Holding in esteem only the intuitive method of the Highest Vehicle, which cannot be communicated in words, he taught nothing but the doctrine of the One Mind; holding that there is nothing else to teach, in that both mind and substance are void and that the chain of causation is motionless. Mind is like the sun journeying through the sky and emitting glorious light uncontaminated by the finest particle of dust. To those who have realized the nature of Reality, there is nothing old or new, and conceptions of shallowness and depth are meaningless. Those who speak of it do not attempt to explain it, establish no sects and open no doors or windows. That which is before you is it. Begin to reason about it and you will at once fall into error. Only when you have understood this will you perceive your oneness with the original Buddha-nature. Therefore his words were simple, his reasoning direct, his way of life exalted and his habits unlike the habits of other men.

Disciples hastened to him from all quarters, looking up to him as to a lofty mountain, and through their contact with him awoke to Reality. Of the crowds which flocked to see him, there were always more than a thousand with him at a time. In the second year of Hui Ch'ang (A.D. 843), when I was in charge of the district of Chung Lin, I welcomed him on his coming to that city from the mountain where he resided. We stayed together in the Lung Hsing Monastery where, day and night, I questioned him about the Way. Moreover, in the second year of T'ai Chung (A.D. 849), while governing the district of Wan Ling, I again had occasion to welcome him ceremoniously to the place where I was stationed. This time we stayed quietly at the K'ai Yuan Monastery, where also I studied under him day and night. After leaving him, I recorded what I had learnt and, though able to set down only about a fifth of it, I esteem it as a direct transmission of the Doctrine. At first I was diffident about publishing what I had written; but now, fearing that these vital and penetrating teachings will be lost to future generations, I have done so. Moreover, I gave the manuscript to the monks T'ai Chou and Fa Chien, requesting them to return to the Kuang T'ang Monastery on the old mountain land to ask the elder monks there how far it agrees with what they themselves used frequently to hear in the past.

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Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

“"Seek," he says, "Thy servant, because I have not forgotten Thy commandments [Ps 118:176]. Come therefore, Lord Jesus, seek Thy servant, seek Thy weary sheep; come, Shepherd, seek, as Joseph sought the sheep [Gen 37:14]. Thy sheep hast wandered while Thou didst tarry, while Thou hast been about in the mountains. Leave behind Thy ninety-nine sheep, and come seek the one which hath wandered [Mt 18:12 ff; Lk 15:4]. Come without dogs, come without evil doers, come without the hireling, who does not know how to pass through the door [Jn 10:1-7]. Come without a helper, without a messenger. I have been waiting for Thy coming for a long time. For I know that Thou wilt come, for I have not forgotten Thy commandments [Ps 118:176]. Come not with a rod, but with charity and in the spirit of meekness [1 Cor 4:21].” — Saint Ambrose, Expositio Psalmi CXVIII, 22, 28.[1]

The sacred time of Advent is of ancient institution and we find mention of it from around the fifth century, as a moment of the Liturgical Year destined for the preparation of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ secundum carnem. Indeed, Advent marks the beginning of the Liturgical Year, allowing us to seize this opportunity to follow, with holy resolutions, the voice of the Church.

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Eckhart von Hochheim

Benedictus Deus et Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, [Pater misericordiarum, et Deus totius consolationis]. [Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.] (2 Cor. 1:3f.)

The noble apostle Paul says this: ‘Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all consolation, who comforts us in our tribulation.’ There are three kinds of tribulation which affect and oppress us in this place of exile. The first comes from damage to our worldly goods, the second from the harm which befalls our relatives and friends and the third comes from the injury we suffer when we become the object of others’ disdain, when we experience hardship, physical pain and emotional distress.

Therefore it is my intention in this book to record certain precepts with which men and women can find consolation in all their distress, grief and suffering. And this book has three parts. In the first there are a number of truths from which it can be deduced what can and will give us appropriate and complete consolation in all our suffering. Following this, there are some thirty extracts and maxims in every one of which we can find complete consolation. Finally, the third part of this book contains examples of words and deeds which wise people have spoken and done in the face of suffering.

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Andrew Torba

Everyday I see Christians from across the faith, be it Catholics, Protestants, or Orthodox believers, sharing their testimonies, discussing God’s Word, buying things from one another, supporting one another, praying for one another, and leading people to Christ. I see the early foundation and fruits of a parallel Christian economy.

I have a testimony to share with you. – Typically Christians don’t share testimonies like this because they are “afraid of what people will think.” I posit that Christians should instead start caring about what God thinks. We should also never be afraid to discuss the many ways that God works in our lives or makes His presence known to us.

So I’m going to share this testimony and I’d love to hear from you if you have ever experienced anything similar. I’d also encourage you to openly share your testimonies on social media, at work, or with a friend in the hope and prayer of lifting up our Brothers and Sisters and bringing someone new to the Lord.

This past week I have felt the presence of the Holy Spirit overwhelm me to the point of tears, fear, and trembling. It was absolutely surreal and incredible. I can’t even find the words to describe it.

I instantly became distinctly aware of God’s presence, love, grace, and glory. More importantly I became aware of how utterly unworthy I am of it. I remember praying “Lord have mercy on me a sinner” over and over again. This was followed by a flood of peace and joy.

The interesting thing is that this has been happening all week shortly after I spend time in the presence of other Christians. For example on Sunday night after church or after grabbing dinner with Christian friends, etc.

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Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

Archbishop Viganò: 'What we see happening corresponds to an inhuman project by forces who hate not only the health of the body, but also and above all the salvation of the soul.'

TURIN, Italy, (LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò addressed anti-vaccine passport protesters gathered on a square in Turin on Sunday in a prerecorded video message in which he denounced the use of the pandemic by higher powers to bring about the “Great Reset.”

Archbishop Viganò’s 10-minute video message was transmitted on a giant screen on Piazza Castello in Turin, where anti-vaccine pass protesters were gathered for a “No Paura day” (“No fear day”) on Sunday. The former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States established a connection between the imposition of the “green pass” in Italy and the establishment of the Great Reset he has warned about on many occasions.

Viganò began by expressing his support for the people gathered on Castello square as well as many other squares in Italy and congratulated them for their determination in resisting “the narrative of lies” from the mainstream media.

He then denounced the establishment of a health dictatorship in which both lay people and clerics have taken part:

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Hans Ucko

Deep listening to the other doesn’t just provide space for the other to be who he or she really is. Listening to the other also provides space for the listener’s own religious wanderings and pilgrimage.

The duo Simon and Garfunkel is famous for many songs. One of them is entitled “The Sound of Silence:"

"And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening."

Most of us have noted the same. People talk but don’t communicate. People hear but are not listening. It’s not unusual, and we come across it, even in that which we refer to as dialogue. The realm of dialogue, where two or more people exchange ideas or opinions on a particular issue, is not always true to the inner meaning of the word. The word dialogue [διάλογος] itself is maybe to blame. The word is derived from the Greek words διά (diá), meaning “through,” and λόγος (logos), meaning “speech” or “discourse.” Dialogue thus means “through speech.” The word dialogue itself, from which of course the very concept of dialogue arises, may actually make us believe that listening is somehow subordinated to talking. It does not seem to offer space for listening, as if through speech alone we could dialogue.

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R. B. Johannessen

Consider for a moment the world to be like an infinite cloud, one in which you’ve been living your entire life, one in which there were no limits and where the cloud never stopped being a cloud. You have had it wrapped around you since the beginning of time. In this cloud people and things have been appearing to you out of nowhere. It was always like that; there never was anything else than this, never anything else but your world.

Over the years you’ve become better at managing your fears, better than you used to, and have come to feel more secure, even though things are not quite as you would have preferred them to be. But anyway, it’s your world, the normal one, the one you’ve grown used to. You’ve made some choices and have created this world in some sense, according to what you needed and to what you thought was right. The things you didn't like appear to be «gone» now. Maybe there were people you didn’t like; they appear to be «gone» now. You would like to keep it this way.

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Vincent Di Stefano

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, the Capuchin priest who carried the wounds of the crucified Christ, embodied truths that have been stridently denied by many who would tell us how we are to think and what we are to disbelieve during these times of overwhelming power and overwhelming impotence. This remarkable man bore witness to the essential truth carried in the Christian understanding of the Incarnation, of the human embodiment of the living Christ. As one who bore the stigmata, the five wounds of the crucified Christ, Padre Pio projected historical truth.

He shares this witness with such others as Saint Francis of Assisi and Therese Neumann, both of whose lives shatter the certainty of what has been considered the limits of the possible.

We pride ourselves on the cogency of the scientific knowledge and understanding that have enabled us to crack apart atoms and atolls, leave flags and footprints on the moon, and map the structure of cellular DNA. This same pride has decreed that only through such methods as those sanctioned by science can we arrive at Truth. But despite our proofs and our powers, many aspects of the phenomenal world continue to defy scientific interpretation.

Sixty years ago, historian of science Thomas Kuhn described how our ways of thinking can become so fixed that we refuse to accept any evidence that cannot be explained or accommodated by our view of the world or the paradigm through which we interpret reality. Kuhn went on to describe the progressive accumulation of "anomalous" evidence that does not fit in to our way of thinking. This can often force a complete reassessment of the paradigm or model through which such evidence is interpreted. This process underlies the periodic revolutions that occur in scientific understanding.

There is no shortage of "anomalous" manifestation in the world. And there is much that occurs in the experiences of many that simply cannot be accommodated by an exclusively materialistic and rationalistic view of reality.

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Christopher Calder

Meditation is inner astronomy. You discover the stars, the moon, and the sun are all inside you.

What is Meditation?

Most dictionaries define the Western (Jewish, Christian, Islamic) meaning of the word "meditation," but usually do not describe the Eastern (Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist) concept of meditation. The most appropriate dictionary definition I could find reads as follows: "If you meditate, you give your attention to one thing, and do not think about anything else, usually as a religious activity or as way of calming or relaxing your mind." This definition very subtly implies that meditation means thinking about something, be it religious or mystical in nature, and that a constant thought process goes on while one meditates. The purest Eastern definition of the word 'meditation' means not thinking at all, but rather focusing the consciousness on the cosmic whole, "the all and the everything" as George Gurdjieff called it, without thought, judgment, or distraction.

We define the word 'meditation' here as the art of consciousness becoming aware of itself on the grand and cosmic scale. Meditation cannot honestly be called a science because any real science requires objective testing, which is not currently possible for the practice of meditation. The real art of meditation is beyond thought, beyond society, and beyond time.

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This is another excellent documentary from RT on the spiritual awakening taking place in Russia.

Valaam Monastery (the name means “high mountain ground”) sits on an island in Lake Ladoga, the largest lake in Europe and the 14th largest freshwater lake in the world. The island on which the monastery sits is also called Valaam, and is located in the northern part of the lake—north of the city of St. Petersburg and east of Russia’s border with Finland.

The Valaam monastery is one of the Russian Orthodox Church’s holiest and most isolated sites. You can go here and visit the monastery’s official website.

“The foundation of the Cloister is hidden in the mists of time, but the historical evidence we have allows us to state the the Monastery was founded at the dawn of Christianity in Russia,” the site states. Of special interest are audio files of the monastery all-male choir. Here is an especially beautiful one entitled The Troparion of the Nativity of Christ, recorded in 2004.

RT produced a somewhat similar documentary, entitled “Sacred Road,” which I posted several months ago. If you have not yet seen it, check it out here. It too is quite good. (Big screen video)

Russel Means

Russell Means, an Oglala Sioux, as a young leader of the American Indian Movement who helped resuscitate Indian nations throughout the hemisphere, had the privilege of learning traditional Lakota ways and knowledge from Elders who were steeped in these ancient teachings.

Russell died Octdober 22, 2012, at the age of 72. His wife, Pearl, carries on the task of passing along this timeless and timely wisdom to a world starved for balance and truth. The book is co-written with Bayard Johnson.

Foreword by Russel Means: The reason we decided to write this book is because The Trickster has completely tricked my people. The Trickster, or Iktomi, has come into our land, and completely colonized the Lakotah Nation. In February of this year I cut my hair in mourning. This was for my own people, who are dead, and are only play-acting at being Indians. Only a few even realize that they are colinized. The Heyoka, the one who lives backwards, has come into our land to try to get the people out of this death condition, but it's not working - the people are not listening. They are not learning.

My Great-Grandma Aggie, my Grandma Twinklestar, my Auntie Faith, my Mother, my Grandpa John Feather, and many others too numerous to name, all taught me many things. What they didn’t teach me was that as the oldest brother, I was supposed to pass this knowledge down to my younger brothers. I didn’t do it because I didn’t know. Not until I joined the American Indian Movement, AIM, did I realize this.

When I joined AIM was when I met the old people – those who were born in the latter part of the 1800s, had never been to school, and were raised by people who were born free. There was Pete Catches, Frank Fools Crow, Frank Kills Enemy, Henry Crow Dog, John Fire, Severt Young Bear Sr., Sally Red Owl, Mrs. Janis, and many old ladies on Rosebud and Pine Ridge whose names I never knew. They taught me and counseled me, all of them. They would all visit me and I would visit them.

So this book is about what I learned from these old people. This book is an introduction – a very sketchy introduction – to Matriarchy. The Indian way of life is very much misunderstood, and has almost disappeared from the Earth.

This book is a partial collection of everything I’ve come to know from my people – from my ancestors, from people who were born free, from my relatives, and from my own experience...as well as from other Indian Nations in the Western Hemisphere who all shared the same world view.

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Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku

From the very beginning all beings are Buddha. Like water and ice, without water no ice, outside us no Buddhas.

How near the truth yet how far we seek, like one in water crying ‘I thirst!’ Like a child of rich birth wandering poor on this earth, we endlessly circle the six worlds.

The cause of our sorrow is ego delusion. From dark path to dark path we’ve wandered in darkness.

How can we be free from birth and death? The gateway to freedom is zazen samadhi — beyond exaltation, beyond all our praises, the pure Mahayana.

Upholding the precepts, repentance and giving, the countless good deeds, and the way of right living all come from zazen.

Thus one true samadhi extinguishes evils; it purifies karma, dissolving obstructions. Then where are the dark paths to lead us astray? The pure lotus land is not far away.

Hearing this truth, heart humble and grateful, to praise and embrace it, to practice its wisdom, brings unending blessings, brings mountains of merit.

And when we turn inward and prove our True-nature — that True-self is no-self, our own Self is no-self — we go beyond ego and past clever words.

Then the gate to the oneness of cause and effect is thrown open. Not two and not three, straight ahead runs the Way.

Our form now being no-form, in going and returning we never leave home. Our thought now being no-thought, our dancing and songs are the voice of the Dharma.

How vast is the heaven of boundless samadhi! How bright and transparent the moonlight of wisdom!

What is there outside us, what is there we lack? Nirvana is openly shown to our eyes. This earth where we stand is the pure lotus land, and this very body—the body of Buddha.

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