Our posture should not be closed up. Our posture should spread in all directions, in the numberless directions, it should open indefinitely. The infinity of forms is nothing but non-form. It could be said that forms come from non-form and return to non-form. More poetically, we could say: The white cloud is born of the […]
If you look at zazen from the outside, you don’t understand. People sometimes tell me: “But you are loosing your time, sitting there doing nothing…” To practice zazen is to practice the normal condition of the mind. The opposite of the normal condition is madness. Nowhere are we being taught what to do with negative […]
There is a mountain of which the summit stands higher than the other mountains, a mountain of which the summit is hidden from the human eye, a summit wrapped in pure air, free from any pollution, always covered with sparkling snow. This mountain is the mountain of zazen. It is sometimes called the Mountain […]
For the great elephant* who got bogged down, who went too far in the morass of opinions, there is no other way out than to step back, to find the strength by himself; no-one can do it for him, he will have to put all his faculties into it. The great elephant who got bogged […]
At the smallest thought, you begin to ramble. You ramble, that is to say, you leave the Way. Journalists always comment the news. Truth is sufficient unto itself, life is truth, truth is the Way. Any comment we add only makes us loose the Way, the truth, life. At the smallest thought, we begin to […]
What we must cherish more than anything else is the present moment, which never comes again. It is nothing more than to be standing in the stream of life, to be standing in the eternal now, nothing more than not wasting our life trailing behind in the past or anticipating the future. To be standing […]
There is a saying: “The soul is reflected in the eyes.” The mind is reflected in the eyes. Do not try to catch anything, do not fix your eyes on anything. This is what is meant by to look inside. There are two ways to look at the world. One is to look outside, to […]
Dear friend, don’t you see this man of the Way,who does not seek the truth,nor flees from delusions? This is the first verse of the Shodoka, the Song of Awakening, written by Master Yoka Daishi. Yoka Daishi gives us a piece of friendly advice. This man of the Way understood that the three poisons – […]
2600 years ago, Shakyamuni Buddha invited his fellow human beings to reconsider their relationship to the world. As he was dying, he gave eight recommendations, called the Eight Satori of the Great Man. The first satori was to have few desires, to be content with the satisfaction of legitimate desires, to be content with very […]
Sotoshu :
Ecole zen Sôtô
UBF :
Union Bouddhiste de France