Reference Library

In Buddhism, the "imponderable" or "incomprehensible," (Sanskrit: अव्याकृत, Pali: avyākata, "unfathomable, unexpounded,") are unanswerable questions or undeclared questions. Such questions are "beyond the sphere of reason", should not be thought about, and are questions which the Buddha refused to answer. This refusal was because such questions distract from practice, and hinder the attainment of liberation.

Buddhism has developed multiple "vehicles", schools, and lineages over a 2,500-year stream of practice based on geography, historical schisms, and the differing teachings and interpretations of Buddhist texts.

Chigen Jundo Cohen (智源 純道 b. July 14, 1960, New York, New York) is a Sōtō Zen Priest, founder and teacher of the Treeleaf Zendo, a Soto Zen Sangha located in Tsukuba, Japan. He was ordained in 2002 and subsequently received Dharma Transmission from Master Gudo Wafu Nishijima in the Niwa-Nishijima Lineage

Gudo Wafu Nishijima (西嶋愚道和夫) (November 29, 1919 - January 28, 2014) practiced Zen Buddhism for over seventy years, taught students from around the world, founded the group known as "Dogen Sangha", and translated Buddhist texts from Japanese and Sanskrit, including Dogen's ninety-five-fascicle Kana Shobogenzo, Dogen's Chinese-language koan collection Shinji Shobogenzo, and Nagarjuna's Fundamental Verses of the Middle Way.

Kalyāṇa-mittatā (Pali; Skt.: -mitratā; CHN: 善知識) is a Buddhist concept of "admirable friendship" within Buddhist community life, applicable to both monastic and householder relationships. One involved in such a relationship is known as a "good friend", "virtuous friend", "noble friend" or "admirable friend" (kalyāṇa-mitta, -mitra). Contemporary self-described “Buddhist” groups conceive of the term as designating “spiritual friendship (among peers),” a usage distinct from and implicitly critical of the term's traditional signification.

Ōryōki (Japanese: 応量器) (Chinese: 鉢多羅, Japanese: はったら, romanized: hattara), is a transliteration of Sanskrit pātra, also called 應量器 (pinyin: yìng liàng qì), meaning "vessel that contains just enough" is a set of nested bowls and other eating utensils for the personal use of Buddhist monks. In addition to the name of the physical objects, "ōryōki" also refers to a practice form of eating using these utensils that originated in Japan and emphasizes mindfulness awareness practice by abiding to a strict order of precise movements.

Practice and realization are not confined to the formal container of the zendo. The forms (sitting, liturgy, retreat) are indispensable, but they are not the boundary of the path; the same awakened activity expresses itself in the kitchen, the forest, the workplace, and the work of easing suffering in the world. Dharma can be met and enacted beyond the meditation hall or monastery

Shikantaza (只管打坐, shikan ta za) — "just sitting," or more precisely, "nothing but wholeheartedly sitting" - is the zazen practice central to Soto Zen Buddhism. It is objectless, goalless, method-free meditation: open awareness without a focus point, without striving toward any particular state.