REMIXED – Who Are You?
Sinner – Emerging Buddha? OK. You’ve Made Mistakes. You Feel Like a Failure. You’re not alone; small comfort! Who are you? I can’t say… Read More »REMIXED – Who Are You?
Essays by Yao Xiang Shakya
Looking at the Cloth and How it is Put Together – Finding the Flawless Silk
I see you look only at the constructions of the I-ego and end up thinking and believing that those constructions are who you… Read More »Looking at the Cloth and How it is Put Together – Finding the Flawless Silk
It’s a Jungle of Faith
Shraddha – Confident Faith We take in our life through our sense doors. We see what is there and we see what is missing.… Read More »It’s a Jungle of Faith
The Capacity to Open
We all have some capacity to be open, to both give and receive. Sometimes, however, we close down and are unable to give… Read More »The Capacity to Open
ADVANCED TEACHING: Living Without a Storyline
The field of boundless emptiness (unconditioned love) is what exists from the very beginning. You must purify, cure, grind down, or brush away all the… Read More »ADVANCED TEACHING: Living Without a Storyline
ANNOUNCEMENT: Please Welcome a NEW Monk!
Old Fire Lao Huo Shakya We are happy to welcome a new monk (unsui) to A Single Thread | Contemplative Order of Hsu Yun.… Read More »ANNOUNCEMENT: Please Welcome a NEW Monk!
ADVANCED TEACHING: Live Without Desire
All phenomena, the Buddha once said, are rooted in desire. Everything we think, say, or do — every experience — comes from desire. Even we come from desire. We were reborn into this life because of our desire to be. Consciously or not, our desires keep redefining our sense of who we are.
Hard to imagine living life without desire! We are filled with propaganda which keeps us in the dark. This essay is an advanced teaching on how to work with desire — it is simple, but it ain’t for the faint of heart.
Indeed, Everything Comes to Awaken Us!
The current situation in the nation of separating children from their parents and the following turn around is a case in point. It was a misstep. A mistake. A failure. But the President seemed unable to admit any misstep. Any mistake. Any failure. Instead, he made it into a photo opportunity; a show of words of compassion by signing an executive order to stop a policy that he instituted. On the footsteps of the turn around of the policy he declares a dictum to the Attorney General to file legal proceedings in California to alter the longstanding 1980’s Flores settlement that protects unaccompanied minors (children) crossing the border.
Two Leashes: Narcissism or Humility
Imagine entering every moment, every encounter with what comes into your life with a realization of not only not striving, not knowing but with the attitude of being ready and flowing out below the radar. In this essay, Fashi Lao Yue looks at the definition of humility from a number of angles and suggests humility is a force that strikes us — nothing to be toyed with — but requires a self-exam…..
The Dharma of the Rat’s Ass
In Memory of Venerable Ming Zhen Shakya My teacher, more times than I can remember, would say to me at the end of a… Read More »The Dharma of the Rat’s Ass
Where Suffering Cooks UP
Although Pandora’s box was really a jar, when she, who was made of clay, took off the the lid out came all the evils and troubles for the world. We do the same thing. When we open the My, Me, Mine, I, letting the ego escape from the Pot we let all our troubles out. This pot is our very own version of a Pandora’s box.