The most precious thing
There was a monk who lived in a small temple in the mountains. He lived alone, in utter poverty. One winter day when it was cold and the rain was falling incessantly, a traveler knocked on the door. He was soaked and shivering with cold. He…
Becoming a true, free human being
Zazen 11 a.m. The Buddha's teaching asks us not to remain at the level of appearances, not to remain on the surface of things, in the foam of phenomena—that is, not to be carried away by rumours, by hearsay, by what we hear or read. Shakyamuni…
Unthinkable, inconceivable
Zen masters say: ‘What we must cherish above all else is the present moment.’ The past no longer exists. The future does not yet exist. The past ends in the present. The future begins in the present. This present moment is that of existence,…
Seeing oneself
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,…
What is Buddha? What is Reality?
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…
Non-separation
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…
La pratique de l’esprit éveillé
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 :…
La compassion: rester au contact de la réalité
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.…
The universe is a shining perl
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…
Body-mind at the heart of the universe
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…