Consider two people, one screaming his or her head off out of excitement over a football game on TV and another sitting in a meditation hall with a sore back. Some will say that the smart one is the one enjoying the game and some will say that the smart one is the one engaged… Continue reading No Zen Practice, No Life?
Category: Meditation
Zen, Clear Water And Muddy Water
My law partner walked into my office a few years ago and announced that he had just had an amazing conversation. You won’t believe this, he began, but I just spoke to a guy who said he has no cell phone, no computer, and no idea what the Internet is, and this guy was bragging. Well, my clientele… Continue reading Zen, Clear Water And Muddy Water
Zen And Dreams Within Dreams
We can all agree that nothing happens in a dream. Most dreams are classified as anxiety dreams – we dream about what we worry about. More than once we have all awakened and realized with a sense of relief that we have been dreaming and all those worrisome thoughts were about something that wasn’t real. Any hack can… Continue reading Zen And Dreams Within Dreams
Follow NASCAR or practice Zen?
A client who had invented a very clever way to keep track of NASCAR driver standings (we applied for and obtained a patent for it) explained to me that getting kids involved with NASCAR would solve the problems of the world. The drivers, he advised me, were the ultimate role models. Keeping track of… Continue reading Follow NASCAR or practice Zen?
Zen Practice: Arousing the Mind
Rinzai Zen teachers assign koans to students in order to arouse the mind of the student. So we apply logic in order to answer the koan, as if it were a riddle, and the teacher tells us we are getting colder, not warmer. So we switch to non-logic and start giving Zen-like answers to the… Continue reading Zen Practice: Arousing the Mind
Zen Practice And Sakkaya Ditthi
Sakkaya ditthi, the wrong view of self, is the first of the ten fetters that bind unenlightened beings. Its counterpart or antidote is Right View or Right Understanding, the first fold of the Eightfold Path. Until we arrive at samma ditthi, the correct view of self, it’s hard to loosen the other nine fetters. Who practices… Continue reading Zen Practice And Sakkaya Ditthi
Zen Emptiness Is Fullness
“All sentient beings” includes ourselves but “no sufferer is found, no doer of the deeds is there.” No person enters Nirvana and the path has no traveler. So who suffers, who does deeds, who enters Nirvana and who travels the path? Who finds the answer to these questions? When the Buddha announced the doctrine of… Continue reading Zen Emptiness Is Fullness
Empty the cup, Practice Zen
A learned professor once sought out Japanese Zen master Nan-In. He told the master that he was well-read on Zen matters and did not need introductory lessons. He just wanted advanced instruction as to what should be done to attain enlightenment. The master offered the visitor a cup of tea and began pouring tea… Continue reading Empty the cup, Practice Zen
The Zen Bell Tolls For No One
If there is no independent self, what is there? Buddhism teaches that nothing exists independently of anything else. Everything we see, hear, smell, taste or touch is connected to something else. Nothing exists in a vacuum. John Donne’s Meditation XVII, published in 1624, includes the passage made famous by Ernest Hemmingway: No man is an… Continue reading The Zen Bell Tolls For No One
Why do we practice Zen?
Modern Zen practitioners usually sit on mats and cushions indoors but we practice outdoors whenever it’s reasonable to do so. Even the Buddha eventually established monasteries where people could sit indoors. The purpose of sitting in meditation is not to see how much hardship a person can endure. We don’t sit because we believe that… Continue reading Why do we practice Zen?