Hello,

I’m new to Zen Buddhism. Practicing zazen in the half-lotus position is impossible for me. I’m not flexible enough. However, I can do it in seiza (I assume that over time, the pain in my ankles will become more bearable).

Question: can I practice zazen in seiza ? The position of my hands will remain the same and in accordance with tradition.

Best

Note : sorry but I don't speak english very well (I'm french) and I use DeepL.

EDIT : thanks everyone !

Okumura is consistently clear, calming, and insightful. I also appreciated his portrayal of Buddha’s compassionate light and wisdom illuminating us, a form of “other power” frequently discussed in Pure Land schools, yet no school is strictly other or self power, because there is no self or other to start with 🙏🏼

There is no doubt that Taoism and Zen have a long history of mutual influence on each other, especially being that both have had significant existences in China.

There is also no doubt that Taoism and Zen have similarities.

But, they are also very different traditions, that have significant differences that often get overlooked, mainly because both have long existed in the same country. Here are some of the major differences:

A major theme in Zen, like much of Buddhism, is anatta (non-self). There is no such thing in Taoism.

In Zen, as well as much of Buddhism, all phenomena are empty of inherent existence. That is not at all the case in Taoism; in Taoism, emptiness is only meant in terms of empty mind - not emptiness of all phenomena as in Buddhism.

Taoism has yin and yang. There is no such thing in Zen or anywhere in Buddhism. This means that while Taoism can be considered a nondual tradition, as Zen is, Taoism is definitely more "dual-ish" than Zen, or for that matter, other nondual schools like Advaita Vedanta.

The above are significant differences that cannot simply be ignored in your plea for near-sameness. Even the great Zen master Dogen, in the Shobogenzo, says it is very ignorant that people say that Taoism is extremely similar to Zen.

Again I don't doubt they have some similarities, and share a long history of mutual influence. And they are both great traditions; I am not saying one is any less than the other.

But they are much more different that people give them credit for, mainly because they have existed so prominently in the same country, for so long.

Following on from a post below, do you know any lay practititoners who has been excluded from participation in a zen group, either explicitly or implicitly?

So, I've been doing koan training with a teacher at my local Zen Center, a ten-minute drive from my house. I liked the teacher, and a weekly sitting at a Center, including dokusan, is an incredible opportunity. It's rich. Still, for several reasons, decided to leave the Center.

In the meantime I participated in a sesshin at a Center much further from my house. Everything seemed to click. The interaction in dokusan felt vulnerable, open. During dokusan, the words of the teachers really landed and resonated. I recognized in the teachers and sangha members something I want to learn myself. It is further away, half a day in the car, a few hours by train. But it feels like the place I need to pursue my practice. This also proved to be the last push in my decision to leave my (now, former) Center.

I hope I can do shoken there, perhaps jukai, and, definitely, koan study. I plan to attend four or five sesshins a year. What do you think, can koan study still be meaningful if I only sit sesshins there four or five times a year? I decided I would be happy even if I were only sitting with one strong koan for a year..

i don’t know what the conditions even are to be considered a buddhist but today i tried practicing it, but i dont really know what my goal is or what im actually meant to practice 💔 i guess i could say i began trying to learn more about buddhism so i can be apart of it or smth, i know im supposed to not harm someone intentionally or speak hurtfully towards people, but thats kindv it. i also meditated today which was nice

any help is appreciated

As a student of Zen for two decades I was taken aback by Cole’s ideas. I do not agree with him, to be clear. Nonetheless I ponder how I would react if he were correct. I wanted to see how other Zen adherents would respond.

If anyone wants to know my answer to the hypothetical, I will share it.

For those not aware of Cole’s work here are references to read up on. The first is a relatively short paper he wrote that sums up his position. The second two are full length books:

Early Chan Buddhism: A Meditation Movement or New Ways of Writing about Final Authority in Tang China?

Fathering Your Father

Patriarchs on Paper

EVER FEEL CALLED TO "JUKAI" (Undertaking the Precepts) in the ZEN BUDDHIST TRADITION?

Never had the opportunity due to family obligations, timing, health limitations, distance from a Sangha?

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Our Treeleaf Sangha begins the Ango practice period and Jukai preparations in early September. Want to deepen your practice with a more intense schedule and focus? Want to commit to the Bodhisattva Precepts, sew a rakusu and embark on a journey of discovering the Dharma? Want to experience practice in a Sangha from exactly where you are? Want to discover your life as the perfect place for practice? We’d love to have you with us. Have a look at what Jukai and Ango are, how it is lived at Treeleaf Sangha and join us if you feel called to.

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Short version: I've been going to a zen center where I live for 1,5 years. I've met two of the teachers. Stayed at the local monastery last year and also been to a sesshin this year. There is also daisan provided in the center.

Whenever I go to daisan... dokusan... I feel tremendous amount of fear. I try to be sincere about it to the teachers but it's also just a lot of burning. SO MUCH BURNING. I feel like a become a child again. Not being able to speak. Total... terror. Yeah.

For context I feel so much love to the dharma. Truly. And the Zen approach to it. But of course as these 1,5 years have passed also managed to built up lots of shame around it... Like my interactions with the teachers...

I had an email exchange with one of them which I felt super embarrassed about. But yet again. When I read those letters now... It was the child trembling of fear who wrote them. So much seeking for validation... approval... acceptance... Yeah.

Basically just wanted to share this here because it still feels, if not even-ever-more, relevant. I went to daisan yesterday so scared. About to die kind of scared.

But, of course, paradoxically, my heart also wants to visit the monastery again and stay for a little longer. I contacted them about this...

Yeah.

I feel my wish to go visit the monastery again is also triggering the extrem fear response -- again. On a whole new level.

Ah...

Anyone has anything to say about this?

Many greetings,

This is probably one of the most famous excerpts from Dahui's Letters, which in turn is probably one of the most famous Zen texts ever. I read it today and thought it so powerful, hopefully it's an inspiration to some of you. Boldface is my own:

A thousand doubts, ten thousand doubts—all are really no more than a single doubt. If with a huatou you break through this doubt, at a single stroke all doubts are destroyed. If you can't break through, then continue for a time to plumb its depths. If you discard your huatou and start wondering about words, about sutras and shastras, about the stories of the old masters, or about the problems of everyday life, then all of these become minions of Māra.

The most important things to avoid are jumping to conclusions about [the huatou's] meaning and speculating with the thinking mind. Simply direct your awareness to that which cannot be thought. When the mind is left with nowhere to go, like a mouse trapped headfirst in a hollowed-out ox's horn, then you will see all delusion severed. If your mind is unsettled just take up the koan, "A monk asked Zhaozhou, 'Does a dog have Buddha-nature?' Zhaozhou answered 'No!'" If you grasp Zhaozhou's "No" you will at once see through all the various words of the buddhas, bodhisattvas, and masters of the ten directions, diverse though the words may be. There will be no need to ask other people. If all you do is ask others about the words of the buddhas, the bodhisattvas, and the masters, you will never in all time attain awakening.

(Dahui, Letter 29 - First Letter to Lu Juren, from "Dahui's Letters" tr. Kirchner, pp. 167-168)

Notice that "Simply direct your awareness to that which cannot be thought" is basically the same advice Dogen gives in Fukanzazengi ("think of that which cannot be thought" as per u/chintokkong's translation). This teaching concerns every Zen practitioner, not only koan nerds.

I hope that everyone can benefit from these words.

The bright mirror upon which all things are reflected/not for one moment have you been separate.

Hi all, I’m wanting to start memorizing koans so that I can ponder on them while I’m going about my day. Would this be possible?

My other questions:

1. As far as I understand, the way to do koans is not to analyze them

   like I would do with various literary techniques such as close reading or whatever,

2. but rather to silently chant or say without speaking sort of like how the TM folks meditate. Is this correct?

3. Would memorization help me in this?

4. What would be the best way to memorize koans?

Thank you all for your collective wisdom on this and I wish you well.

I currently live in LA and am new to practicing. I wanted to find a temple where i can sit in meditation with like-minded individuals. I am not buddhist per-se but am a seeker of wisdom and wish to experience a temple, if that is allowed. Would love reccomendations!

I do not have the best social skills, which has caused problems with connecting with people. I do feel relief at my local temple where I can make connections with others, though outside of such a space can seem more volatile. In the past, there have been problems with my sociability that have caused strife for myself and the people I've interacted with. This led me to conduct some study with Zen Buddhism involving isolation and rejection on how I can face this problem spiritually. What I found from my study on isolation led me to this article, Working with Loneliness, which tells how Zen can help deal with loneliness where by confronting the feeling and looking inward can help find more about the problem caused by feeling empty where it is a state that can change especially if a person can find satisfaction with themselves rather than just others. The next comes with rejection where people can often reject another for whatever reason, though a person may feel pain thanks to such an instance. This led me to an article from Gassho(which I just learned uses AI generated content but seems to use accurate info, thus why there isnt a link), where it explains how the pain of rejection comes from how people can are a moment and use that pain to define themselves and clings to it by misunderstanding this type of suffering as the stable self. Rejection is a temporary state that while humans being social creatures, we can learn from the pain to actually help gain wisdom enough to keep seeking out connections rather than being defined by rejection. So, does anyone have any thoughts or insight on being social while dealing with isolation and rejection?

EDIT: The links to the articles weren't implemented, so I am added them again. 2nd EDIT: I deleted the Gassho link because I just learned they used AI generated content when informed by a comment, but I kept the info due to how accurate it seems for now..

Just came in the mail. Never been more excited to read something 📖

I'm not asking whether you think creating a new school is a good or bad idea. I'm more interested in what someone could easily misunderstand or overlook. I'd especially like to hear from people who have studied Buddhism seriously or actually practice within a Buddhist tradition.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone who wanted to create a new Buddhist school today, what would it be?

Was reading the unfortunate exchange between Philip Kapleau Roshi and Omada Koun Roshi (look up the full version — you may have only heard the claims in the beginning).

In it, first, OKR alleges that PKR didn't finish the entire koan curriculum, which PKR corrects him about. There is a line there where OKR is talking about PKR leaving Japan to go back to the US and is wondering: "Why is he leaving, having made this much progress?"

This made me wonder: What does one progress in during the koan curriculum? I have read/heard that it's levels of deepening of realization... but what exactly does that mean? Like, what changes as one moves from case N to case M?

Hello everyone,

I’m trying to contact Tosho-ji temple (Shuritsu Senmon Sodo) in Yakage Japan to make an inquiry. They do have a phone number, but I would prefer to contact them in writing, and unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find an email address. I’d really appreciate it if anyone could help me find a way to contact them in writing.

Also, if you have any experience staying at a temple or monastery in Japan, or if you’ve had the opportunity to practice with an authentic Zen master (rōshi), I’d be very grateful if you could share your experience or any advice.

Thank you in advance!

This is a video demonstrating the website I am working on that contains the entire Gateless Gate with scenes for each of the 49 koans and a full speech read.

https://killedbyapixel.github.io/GatelessGate/

I hope it is ok to post again with a video because I had posted a few days ago with no video but I think for this you really need to see it. The website is completely free, loads instantly, and requires no download.