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Treeleaf Zen

Jundo says: Zazen is a perfect non-doing, even when imperfectly done. However, good balance in body yields good balance in mind. Yonotsune zasho niwa atsuku zamotsu o shiki, ueni futon o mochiu, aruiwa kekkafuza, aruiwa hankafuza. Do not aim to become a buddha. How could it be connected with sitting or lying down? Usually on…

Below is a picture of the ‘Medicine Buddha’, typically found in Tibetan and other esoteric schools of Buddhism, and a chanted request that the sick be healed. In our Zen practice, we do believe in nursing and comforting the sick of this world. It is the Precepts in action. But, we ask in Zen, what…

Day after day Ma-tsu sat in meditation. His Master (Nan-yueh) finally questioned him about it. Ma-tsu explained that he was hoping to attain Buddhahood. The Master picked up a piece of tile and began to rub it with a stone. When Ma-tsu asked him what he was doing, the Master replied that he was polishing…

This was unplanned. So much of life is unplanned. We are traveling today, and My wife and I do not feel well suddenly (a touch of the stomach bug). When the Buddha was not well, he would recline, as in the picture below. So, I will do today’s Zazen lying down, just as the words…

Some meditation promises amazing stuff like this … A secret practice developed by Aboriginal tribes almost 40,000 years ago, will take you to states of extremely deep and serene meditation … the use of vibrational sound which helped them to access higher dimensions of reality…dimensions not seen, heard or touched in the normal waking state,…

“Sweep away thoughts!” means one must do zazen. Once thoughts are quieted,the Original Face appears. Thoughts can be compared to clouds. When clouds vanish, the moon appears.The moon of suchness is the Original Face. — Master Daito Kokushi (1282-1337) Master Dogen said … Abandon all involvements. Give the myriad things a rest. Do not think…

Grab a broom, sweep out the room that is your mind. Abandon all involvements. Give the myriad things a rest. Do not think of good and bad. Do not care about right and wrong. Stop the driving movement of mind, will, consciousness. Cease intellectual consideration through images, thoughts, and reflections. [Nishijima] Put aside all involvements…

Is Zen a ‘religion’? A ‘philosophy’? Something quite else? I don’t think about these questions much in my life. I just live life. Does ‘God’ exist? Not exist? Whose ‘God’? I don’t think about these questions much in my life. I just live life. Is there ‘Life-after-Death’? ‘Reincarnation’? ‘Nothing’? I don’t think about these questions…

I like to mix the Buddhist philosophical talk and Dogen-think with just sitting, just being-experiencing … life. Our practice is not complete without both sides of the coin, I believe. So, when this thunderstorm came along today … nature’s summons to the Zafu. We are leaving Coconut Creek in a couple of weeks, back to…

I’ve been asked several times whether Zen is a ‘religion’, a ‘philosophy’, or just what it is. My teacher, Nishijima Roshi, has written that all people necessarily have a ‘religion’, no matter that they call it a ‘philosophy’, or claim that they are ‘atheists’, or that they have no religion at all. [My] definition of…
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