Kōdō Sawaki wrote: “We must examine our motivations with our eyes wide open. Because even before we are aware of it, we perform for an audience, like a comedian anxious to please. If our practice is a kind of performance intended for an audience, it cannot be the Dharma of the Buddha.” We must examine […]
Although reality cannot be captured in words, human beings constantly want to comment on it. Although Buddha’s practice is at work in every corner of the Universe, it is difficult to talk about it. One thinker even said, quite rightly, that all the unhappiness in the world comes from not knowing how to name things. […]
To forget oneself is to forget everything that separates us, everything that confines us. To forget oneself is to return to totality, to embrace all existences. To forget oneself is wisdom; to embrace all existences is true love. When a drop of water returns to the ocean, there is no longer any separation: the ocean […]
Assis en zazen, sans chercher à attraper la vérité, sans chercher à éviter les illusions, laissez l’esprit se laver au son pur du présent. Plutôt que d’entretenir son agitation mentale, laissez l’esprit se laver au son pur du présent : abandonnez sans regret les vues anciennes, abandonnez les idées reçues, accédez à l’esprit neuf, à l’esprit […]
Restez en contact avec la réalité, même si elle est mystérieuse et inconnaissable intellectuellement, impossible à enfermer dans les concepts et les pensées. Seulement rester en contact avec la réalité, c’est la définition de la compassion. À un disciple qui l’interroge sur la pratique de la compassion, le maître répond : « Kannon, le bodhisattva […]
Open your eyes, open your ears, open your hands to reality. As Bodhidharma said: “Don’t dig the cave of the daemons of the black mountain.” Don’t close yourself off from reality to pursue your flights of fancy, your imaginations, your suppositions.In a word, stay present to reality. Leave the bubble of mental activity. Let truth […]
Zen master Taiun Jean-Pierre Faure was ordained as a monk by master Taisen Deshimaru in 1981. In 2003, he received the transmission of the Dharma from Minamizawa Zenji, a high authority in Zen and abbot of Eiheiji temple in Japan. He is now abbot of Kanshoji Monastery in the Dordogne region of France. He transmits […]
When we talk about the zazen posture, we are talking about the posture of the body-mind. The body is involved, the mind is involved. In fact, we cannot separate the body from the mind, the mind from the body. What is asked is to keep this body-mind poised at the heart of the universe, without […]
If you let your life be led solely by the ego, don’t be surprised if you encounter suffering. It is important to make room for Buddha, for what is as it is, for that which exists by itself, for that which is beyond our personal consciousness, for reality as it is. The ego must give […]
Believing that peace can be brought about through war is not only a common view, but also a counterproductive one. It’s not through hatred that we can bring about harmony and peace. It is not by entering the world with angers, indignations, and ideologies that we bring peace to the world. Buddha, the patriarchs, and […]