By Barbara O'Brien — 2019
You've heard of Zen. You may even have had moments of Zen—instances of insight and a feeling of connectedness and understanding that seem to come out of nowhere. But what exactly is Zen?
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CLEAR ALL
Today does not become yesterday, and Dōgen-zenji states that today does not become tomorrow. Each day is its own past and future and has its own absolute value.
Buddha’s teaching put the emphasis on selflessness. Buddhism is not a special cultural heritage.
When your practice improves, and you have good control over your desires and your everyday life, then you will have big freedom from everything. That is the goal of our practice, both for priests and for lay people.
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We practice zazen because that is the only way to go beyond thinking mind—emotional activity.
When you can sit with your whole body and mind, and with the oneness of your mind and body under the control of the universal mind, you can easily attain this kind of right understanding. Your everyday life will be renewed without being attached to an old erroneous interpretation of life.
In our practice the most important thing is to realize that we have buddhanature. Intellectually we may know this, but it is rather difficult to accept.
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind there are few.” — Shunryu Suzuki
Our effort in Zen is to observe everything as-it-is. Yet even though we say so, we are not necessarily observing everything as-it-is.
The point of zazen, says Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, is to live each moment in complete combustion, like a clean-burning kerosene lamp.