Dr Dosti Regmi Blog

For forty-five years after enlightenment, the Buddha repeated a simple declaration: “I teach only suffering and the transformation of suffering.” This statement, attributed to Gautama Buddha, has often been misunderstood. Many conclude that Buddhism proclaims: “Life is suffering.” But that is not what the Buddha taught. He taught that suffering must be recognized, understood, and transformed. He never taught that suffering is the ultimate truth of existence. In fact, the Third Noble Truth affirms precisely the opposite: the cessation of suffering is real. Joy is real. Liberation is real. The First Dharma Talk: Not Pessimism, But Medicine: After his awakening beneath the Bodhi tree, the Buddha walked to Deer Park in Sarnath and delivered what is known as the “Turning of the Wheel of Dharma.” Three themes characterized this first teaching: The Middle Way — avoiding both self-mortification and indulgence. The Four Noble Truths — a diagnostic path of healing. Engagement in the world — ...

1. What was your face before you were born? This question from Hakuin Zenji is often the first barrier in Rinzai Zen. It asks the practitioner to look prior to identity, memory, and form. It points not to a physical face but to the fundamental, unborn source of awareness itself—one’s original nature. No intellectual answer suffices; the koan demands a dropping away of the thinking mind to realize what is present before and after all coming and going. 2. What is it that is not a thing, not the mind, and not the Buddha? This koan systematically strips away every possible conceptual handle. It negates the external world (not a thing), the internal world (not the mind), and even the highest spiritual ideal (not the Buddha). It leaves the mind nowhere to stand, forcing a leap into the unnameable, immediate reality that precedes all categories. It points directly to absolute suchness, free of all designation. 3. Mu (Joshu’s Dog) = Neti Neti A monk asked Joshu (Zhaozhou), “Does a dog have Bud...