We have roots in two worlds, it can’t be avoided. The world of appearances and the world of things as they are deep down, of how things work deep down: ultimate reality. There is a very famous saying that goes: don’t be fooled by appearances, go further. The Buddha had accepted and ordained a convict […]
Master Dôgen wrote: The Buddhas and Patriarchs sweated blood. How could we get out of making efforts? We who have strayed so far away from the normal condition, how could be come back to the normal condition without making any efforts? The patriarchs were people like us, but they tore themselves away from the claws […]
The one who walks in the world with a peaceful mind, helps the world. The one who walks in the world with a peaceful mind and who cares for others, helps the world. The one who chooses at every moment to go in the direction where his or her actions, words, thoughts are beneficial for […]
Don’t go back into the past stirring up cold ashes to find the truth. Don’t mistake dreams of the future for reality either – for the living, warm reality, reality that is always here, that pulses. This is a choice to make: to be here together as the day is rising, as nature is wakening. […]
One can begin to practice for all sorts of personal reasons: to have a more successful life, a better health, higher intellectual capacities… In fact, at the beginning, people often mistake the Way of the Buddha for a means of personal development. But soon other more profound questions on the meaning of life arise. What […]
It is always good to remember that zazen is no ordinary meditation. Zazen is to experience reality as it is, one’s inner reality as well as the outer reality. Hōkyō Zanmai is a fundamental text in our school, of which the title could be translated as the Samadhi of the Precious Mirror, the Samadhi of […]
Last weekend, fifteen persons or so came to discover Zen practice. On the first day, after sitting in zazen, a person decided to leave: “I haven’t come to sit.” But Zen is nothing but zazen. No one can be forced to practice zazen. Kodo Sawaki wrote: “Zazen is a request from the depths of our […]
In a sutra, Buddha says: To practice the Way is to put right all that has been upset. To put right all that has been upset, that can be difficult. When he awakened, Shakyamuni Buddha said to himself: “My fellow human beings are not going to accept my teaching because their mind is upside down”, […]
Someone asked Master Dôgen: – Why do say that zazen is the great gate that cannot be by-passed? For a person considered as one of the greatest philosophers of mankind, Master Dôgen gives an unexpected answer: – I say that zazen is the grate gate that cannot be by-passed because my master before me said […]
To study the Way, to practice the Way, is to study oneself. To study oneself is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to become one with all beings. To practice the Way is to forget oneself. To study the Way is not to study in the academic way, in books. To study is to […]