330. ZEN REMARKS

330. Before a step is taken the goal is reached? Practice is enlightenment and enlightenment is practice? Nirvana is right here before your eyes? This very place is the lotus land? This very body the Buddha? Many of us may have trouble accepting that the job, as it were, is done. Perhaps the difficulty has to do with the focus of our attention. If we are preoccupied with our self, then, naturally we will be overwhelmed with a sense of imperfection and so miss our inherent Buddhahood. But if we forget the self our Buddha nature is confirmed by the ten thousand things. No need to take refuge in a spirituality of imperfection.

329. ZEN REMARKS

329. The assembled monks look to the Buddha for a sermon. But he just holds up a flower. They are dumbfounded. Only Mahakashyapa smiles broadly and the Buddha acknowledges his smile. The practice of shikantaza is like this. For here practice is enlightenment and enlightenment is practice.  

328. ZEN REMARKS

328. Following the breath and body awareness are basic practices at Bodhi Zendo. They are similar to but not exactly the same as shikantaza which entails the further step of faith in one's inherent Buddha Nature. Breath and body awareness can open the practitioner to the realization that 'practice is enlightenment and enlightenment is practice', as Master Dogen would say. The practice of shikantaza, then, is the manifestation of one's True Self, one's Buddha Nature. In this 'just sitting' one can rest in the realization that 'the Nondual is one with the trusting mind'.

327. ZEN REMARKS

327. Following the breath in zazen you may be surprised to notice that your familiar pain, from the tension in your legs, has disappeared. Now you are aware of your whole body engaged in the act of sitting. But in the absence of the struggle with pain that has always accompanied your zazen you are suddenly at a loss. Your body is at rest and there is just you sitting quietly in this place and starting to wonder if there isn't something else. No unexpected insights, no world shattering experiences. It's just this.  

326. ZEN REMARKS

326. The practice of following the breath requires one to slow down and become attentive to the different phases of the breathing process. Notice how the in-breath starts of its own accord. Follow its passage from the tip of the nose down into the hara. Take careful note of how the in-breath comes to an end. Pay close attention to the transition from the in-breath's ending to the out-breath's beginning. Feel the outward movement and how it too comes to an end. Feel how the cycle begins again and experience the sheer wonder of it. 

325. ZEN REMARKS

325. Sitting alone, far from the hustle and bustle of politics, just following my breath, attending to body awareness, and all the while one's country is at a crossroad, and the planet itself is in crisis. The sense of helplessness can be overwhelming. Can taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha save one from despair? 

324. ZEN REMARKS

324. When on the road bear in mind these words of Zen Master AMA Samy: 'Your self is an openness to the All, which can be realized only in the journeying. The journey begins with the first step Here and Now. And every step is the first step. Where do you begin?'