gyomaykubose

This week, over at my new premium Substack podcast, Words From My Teachers, I released Episode 6, continuing readings from the book, The Center Within by Rev. Gyomay Kubose. In the episode I read the following essays: Middle Way, Water, Purposeless Purpose, No Mind, and How the Buddha Taught.

As a special bonus episode for the Everyday Buddhism podcast, I am sharing the reading of the essay Purposeless Purpose. It's a wonderful essay to reflect on, as they all are in The Center Within, but I'm releasing it here on the Everyday Buddhism podcast as a companion piece to Episode 103.

As a special bonus episode for the Everyday Buddhism podcast, I am sharing the reading of the essay Purposeless Purpose. It's a wonderful essay to reflect on, as they all are in The Center Within, but I'm releasing it here on the Everyday Buddhism podcast as a companion piece, which you will find in the next episode, 104.

But as a special introduction to the bonus episode, I am adding new content in this re-release of an episode I did in June of 2022, called Why Nonsense Makes the Most Sense, which was built on the essay, Purposeless Purpose.

The new addition is some insight about meditation that is related to the purposeless-purpose message.

In this episode of Words From My Teachers, an Everyday Buddhism podcast, I am reading the first five chapters from The Center Within by Rev. Gyomay Kubose:

• Awareness

• A Shining Star

• Buddha Nature and Gassho

• Buddhism Is Everyday Life

• Empty-Handed

I hope you enjoy these readings and I hope you will take my suggestion and cue to do some reflection at the end of each essay. As my teacher, Rev. Koyo Kubose taught, "Don't just read. Ask yourself how you can use what you heard? How can you add it to your spiritual toolbox?"

This is the last of the episodes released in full as public episodes, so be sure to subscribe to receive 5 essay readings weekly.

And please share this feed using the convenient "Share" button on the Substack post.

Subscribe to Words From My Teachers Premium Podcast

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For more about Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism: Bright Dawn.org

Introducing Words From My Teachers, a premium, weekly Everyday Buddhism podcast. Words From My Teachers features readings from the books written by and about my teachers from the Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism and the Kubose Dharma Legacy … Rev. Gyomay Kubose, Rev. Koyo Kubose, and Haya Akegarasu.

This is the first of 2 episodes that will be offered as public podcast episodes … then make sure to sign up to receive them weekly through the Substack link.

In this first episode, I will give a background of Bright Dawn, based on an article I wrote some years ago. I called it The Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism: Buddhism with Attitude—Keeping it REAL and ALIVE. It summarizes the history of the Kubose family and Bright Dawn and I have shared a link to a PDF of the original article in my Everyday Buddhism Substack feed.

Rev. Koyo Kubose and his father, Rev. Gyomay Kubose, continued the mission started by the Japanese Pure Land teachers, Honen and Shinran—bringing the Dharma to everyone in their everyday lives. Rev. Gyomay Kubose’s lifework was dedicated to promoting Buddhism in America, so that the Dharma could be part of the lives of those in a Western culture, where Buddhism was not native.

It is my hope that this Words From My Teachers podcast will help keep Rev. Gyomay's and Rev. Koyo's voices alive by bringing them to listeners not familiar with the Bright Dawn teachings and reinforcing them to those who already appreciate them.

Stay tuned for the next episode, with a reading from Rev. Gyomay Kubose's book, The Center Within, that will be offered as public podcast episodes … then make sure to sign up to receive them weekly, on Mondays, by subscribing to my Everyday Buddhism Substack premium content.

Subscribe to Words From My Teachers Premium Podcast

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For more about Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism: Bright Dawn.org

Introducing Words From My Teachers, a premium, weekly Everyday Buddhism podcast. Words From My Teachers features readings from the books written by and about my teachers from the Bright Dawn Center of Oneness Buddhism and the Kubose Dharma Legacy … Rev. Gyomay Kubose, Rev. Koyo Kubose, and Haya Akegarasu.

I started the Everyday Buddhism podcast in June of 2018 so that I could share the everyday approach to Buddhism that was instilled in me by my teacher Rev. Koyo Kubose and the Bright Dawn Lay Ministry program. It is an approach that was not widely taught or communicated at the time … and, honestly, it still isn't.

The lineage from which the Bright Dawn teachings derived is unique in the Dharma-sphere and its teachings are what I built my podcast and virtual sangha approach on.

It is my hope that this Words From My Teachers podcast will help keep Rev. Gyomay's and Rev. Koyo's voices alive by bringing them to listeners not familiar with the Bright Dawn teachings and reinforcing them to those who already appreciate them.

Stay tuned for the first 2 episodes that will be offered as public podcast episodes … then make sure to sign up to receive them weekly by subscribing to my Everyday Buddhism Substack premium content.

Subscribe to Words From My Teachers Premium Podcast

Rev. Gyomay Kubose, my teacher's father, wrote about "purposeless purpose." He said: "Too much intelligence or too much efficiency can create trouble. So, we must learn non-intelligence, which is super intelligence." Does that sound nonsensical?

Our sangha is studying The Diamond Sutra now and it is filled with reasoning (or non reasoning?) like that. It is the the superpower of the Dharma because the wisdom it contains is transcendent. You can't "get there" from here, by what is normally considered intelligence. You can only get there by learning "non-intelligence", as Rev. Gyomay teaches.

My overall word of advice for enjoying being a student of the Dharma is to relax and not try to "figure it out." One of the main points of practicing with the Prajnaparamita sutras is to NOT try and understand it. That is what these sutras are teaching: It's NOT understanding. It's NOT about concepts. It's about living.

Support the podcast through the affiliate link to buy the book, Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices for Real Change: Buy the book, "Everyday Buddhism"

Red Pine's translation and commentary of The Diamond Sutra

And books from Rev. Koyo Kubose and Rev. Gyomay Kubose:

Bright Dawn: Discovering Your Everyday Spirituality

Everyday Suchness: Buddhist Essays on Everyday Living

The Center Within

In the past year I've noticed a feeling of "disappearing" in the world ... and to the world. A sense of my slipping relevance to the people and world around me. Yet, the good news about seeming to disappear is that it reveals the absolute truth of things as they are.

Am I disappearing or am I transcending? It's a simple twist of the head. A change in perception. A change in awareness that I realize through an understanding of emptiness, Japanese psychology, and the experience of meditation.

Listen as I talk about my incredible disappearing self that happens through meditation and through the understanding that active acceptance is the key to transcending. Holding on to what I think I might be losing keeps me suffering like a shimmering ghost that is unable to let go. Actively accepting the naturalness of this disappearance kills me completely.

Book, by Karl Brunnholzl, mentioned in this podcast: The Heart Attack Sutra: A New Commentary on the Heart Sutra

My book, mentioned in this podcast: Everyday Buddhism: Real-Life Buddhist Teachings & Practices For Real Change