It-with-a-Capital-I: The Zen Version of God
Zen is non-theistic, but a worldview without a sense of That-Which-Is-Greater can be pretty bleak. Fortunately, Zen does have a version of God.
Instructions for Zazen in Eight Verses – Explained
Sit in a balanced, stable position with your spine erect. Body and mind are one and posture is dynamic; proper sitting requires your full attention. Instructions for physical posture may seem uninteresting or elementary because we conceive of our minds and bodies...
How Physically Sitting Zazen Keeps the Precepts Perfectly
Parts in bold are from the text of the Bodhisattva Precepts; parts in italics explain how we keep a particular precept during the simple act of zazen. The Gateway of Contrition All my past and harmful karma, Born from beginningless greed, hate and delusion, Through...
Genjokoan #13: If Everything’s Okay, Why Do Anything?
[From the Genjokoan:] [The] Zen Master of Mt. Magu was waving a fan. A monk approached him and asked, “The nature of wind is ever present and permeates everywhere. Why are you waving a fan?” The master said, “You know only that the wind’s nature is ever present—you...
Genjokoan #12: We Don’t Have to Be Other Than What We Are
[From the Genjokoan:] When a fish swims, no matter how far it swims, it doesn’t reach the end of the water. When a bird flies, no matter how high it flies, it cannot reach the end of the sky. When the bird’s need or the fish’s need is great, the range is large. When...
Genjokoan #11: The Nature of Truth
[From the Genjokoan:] When the Dharma has not yet fully penetrated body and mind, one thinks one is already filled with it. When the Dharma fills body and mind, one thinks something is [still] lacking. For example, when we sail a boat into the ocean beyond sight of...
Genjokoan #10: The Individual Versus the Universal
[From the Genjokoan:] When a person attains realization, it is like the moon’s reflection in water. The moon never becomes wet; the water is never disturbed. Although the moon is a vast and great light, it is reflected in a drop of water. The whole moon and even the...
Genjokoan #9: The Nature of Life-and-Death
[From the Genjokoan:] Firewood becomes ash. Ash cannot become firewood again. However, we should not view ash as after and firewood as before. We should know that firewood dwells in the dharma position of firewood and has its own before and after. Although before and...
Genjokoan #8: The Paradox of Seeking, and Everything Is Moving
[From the Genjokoan:] When one first seeks the Dharma, one strays far from the boundary of the Dharma. When the Dharma is correctly transmitted to the self, one is immediately an original person. If one riding in a boat watches the coast, one mistakenly perceives the...
Genjokoan #7: Learning the Self
[From the Genjokoan:] To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by all things. To be verified by all things is to let the body and mind of the self and the body and mind of others drop...