Zen: good and bad, man and woman, doing and not-doing

This post contains three pages from the book “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” by Shunryu Suzuki. These three pages, if brought into your life, will bring you depth and equanimity.

BREATHING “What we call I is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.”

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

Shunryu Suzuki:

Cover of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

“When we practice zazen our mind always follows our breathing. When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say “inner world” or “outer world,” but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think, “I breathe,” the “I” is extra. There is no you to say “I.” What we call “I” is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no “I,” no world, no mind nobody; just a swinging door.

Zen: shin ku myo u

“Moment after moment, everyone comes out from nothingness. This is the true joy of life. So we say shin ku myo u, “from true emptiness, the wondrous being appears.” Shin is “true”; ku is “emptiness”; myo is “wondrous”; u is “being” : from true emptiness, wondrous being.”

excerpt from

NATURALNESS

There is a big misunderstanding about the idea of naturalness. Most people who come to us believe in some freedom or naturalness, but their understanding is what we call jinen ken gedo, or heretical naturalness. Jinen ken gedo means that there is no need to be formal—just a kind of “let-alone policy” or sloppiness. That is naturalness for most people. But that is not the naturalness we mean. 

Zen Meditation

Zazen

As the name Zen implies, Zen sitting meditation is the core of Zen practice and is called zazen in Japanese (Chinese tso-chan [Wade-Giles] or zuòchán [Pinyin]). During zazen, practitioners usually assume a sitting position such as the lotus, half-lotus, Burmese, or seiza postures. To regulate the mind, awareness is directed towards counting or watching the breath or put in the energy center below the navel (Chinese dan tian, Japanese tanden or hara).

“I have arrived, I am Home…”

True Home

Our true home is in the here and the now. The past is already gone and the future is not yet here. “I have arrived, I am home, in the here, in the now.” This is our practice.

You can recite this gatha, or poem, during walking meditation or sitting meditation. You can practice this poem when you drive to your office. You may not have arrived at your office, but even while driving you have already arrived at your true home, the present moment. And when you arrive at your office, this is also your true home. When you are in your office, you are also in the here and the now.

Just practicing the first line of the poem “I have arrived, I am home” can make you very happy. Whether you are sitting, whether you are walking, whether you are watering the vegetables in the garden, or whether you are feeding your child, it is always possible to practice “I have arrived, I am home.” I am not running anymore; I have run all my life; now I am determined to stop and to really live my life.

I have arrived, I am home
In the here, In the now
I am solid, I am free
In the ultimate, I dwell

Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh

Related articles

• B4Peace June – Peace at Home with the Buddha (newearthpulse.wordpress.com)
• Zen: What is Nirvana? Thich Nhat Hanh (newearthpulse.wordpress.com)
• Thich Nhat Hanh: ‘Peace is every breath’ (rappler.com)
• Zen: Purpose (newearthpulse.wordpress.com)

Zazen – Dogen

“…joins with all things in contemplation and calmly connects with all moments of time…”

 

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