Category: The Jewelled Garden

For more about the 13th century Soto Zen patriarch Dogen Zenji, see this earlier post. There is a simple way to become buddha: When you refrain from unwholesome actions, are Continue Reading →

For more about this Jewish poet of Andalusia, see this earlier post. Sent down from a luminous fountain of life,     drawn from a sacred place, and pure,created as one, though not Continue Reading →

Samuel Ha Nagid (993 – 1056 CE), also known as Samuel Ibn Nagrilla, was the leader (the ‘Nagid’) of the Jewish community in Granada when Al-Andalus was at its cultural Continue Reading →

For more about the Persian Sufi Mahmud Shabistari and his important work, The Garden of Mystery, please see this post. Intoxicated from the pure draughtwhich I had drained to the Continue Reading →

Abdullah Ibn Umar was one of the companions of the Prophet Mohammed, and the son of the second Caliph, Umar. Although a young boy at the time, he retained vivid Continue Reading →

Wonhyo (617 – 686 CE) was a highly influential writer and thinker in the Korean Buddhist tradition. He was famous for singing and dancing in the streets, activity that Buddhist Continue Reading →

Linji or Lin-chi (d. 866 CE) was a highly influential Chinese monk in the Chan tradition. He is said to have used a rather unorthodox, ‘iconoclastic’ style of teaching, sometimes Continue Reading →

It is reported that the Messenger of God visited a young man who was dying, and asked how he was. “I wish for God, O Messenger of God, and I Continue Reading →

Muso Soseki (1275 – 1351 CE) was a Japanese Buddhist monk who adopted the zen school after a dream seemed to guide him in that direction. He was known as Continue Reading →

For more about the Persian Sufi and poet Fakhruddin Iraqi (1213 – 1289 CE) see this earlier post. A lover sees his beloved’s image in the mirror of his own Continue Reading →