In our societies, we devote a lot of energy to the pursuit of pleasure, to satisfying our desires, to constantly improving our well-being, our comfort. But as Einstein said: “It is only good for cattle.” The slightest disagreement, the slightest conflict is resolved with axes or bombs. Our greed has no limit, our aversion has […]
Zazen is no ordinary practice. In fact, Zazen requires great humility. Humus means earth, returning to the earth of the mind, returning to the mind in its most original form. Zazen requires us to let our thoughts pass, not to identify with our thoughts; thoughts are productions of the mind or rather, a particular functioning […]
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 […]
Summary of an interview of Jean-Pierre Taiun Faure for the magazine Sagesses Bouddhistes Why is awakening or liberation so difficult to describe? How to describe that which cannot be described? When awakening is realized, we enter the realm of pure existence, the realm of total existence. We totally exist because we are not watching ourselves […]
“Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto…”, sings Mercedes Sosa: Thanks to life that gives me so much, that has given me so much. Some people cannot resolve to enter life without any weapon or armour, just as they are. We could say that Buddhism is a way to live the human condition […]
Influenza is infectious, but karma, on the other hand, is not. Each one of us has our own karma. In the case of influenza, something substantial is transmitted. But within the Dharma, nothing substantial is transmitted. Our mind uses excuses. Our neighbour’s practice is not good, so we say to ourselves: “Why should I make […]
Each of us is a world; in this sense, we are sacred. From the moment we are born, we construct our world. All our experiences, all our encounters at each moment with reality, participate in the creation of our world. So, each of us has our own world, made of our experiences, encounters, conceptions, memories, […]
A man and his son are coming home at night. They pass a field full of melons. The father says to the son: “I’ll take a few. You’ll keep watch and let me know if anyone comes.” The father goes into the field and picks a few melons. “Do you see anyone coming?” he asks […]
Many people in the West are interested in Zen. Some see Zen as something magical, where one should not have to make any effort. The proposition of Zen is to live one’s life with integrity, to live a life of integrity. When we talk about the integrity of a territory, integrity means totality. From a […]
When the Buddhas address us, they say: “Good men and women, be true. Don’t tell yourself stories, don’t tell others stories. Good men and women: there’s no flattery, it’s just that your true nature is good. As you are, you are Buddha: this is what Buddha teaches us. So don’t go and play in the […]
Sotoshu :
Ecole zen Sôtô
UBF :
Union Bouddhiste de France