Checklist for Zen, and Zazen

To listen to the audio dharma talk, click on Checklist for Zen and Zazen

0. Original Mind -- Origen -- Source -- Nirvana -- Emptiness

Shunryu Suzuki Roshi:

"The Truth, or Source, is something beyond our consciousness, something we cannot approach through our feeling or thought, or even through our senses. It is the source of all being, including our thoughts and whatever we can see, touch, smell, taste, or hear. Yet through practice (of Zazen) we may realize it." From his book of talks "Branching Streams Flow in the Darkness" ... much later in the same book "... source is stream, steam is source ..."

Note that this statement also applies to most other Ideals, e.g., Truth, Emptiness, Freedom, ...

Kobun "... like finding the source (of wisdom) of a river in the mountains ... pathless, strange, misty, cool and damp

1. Oneness .. Being .. Reality .. Body .. Posture .. Practice

Upright, seated firmly but comfortably cross-legged, shoulders relaxed, hands in mudra, ...
Dogen: "... this lump of red flesh... the human body ... the universe
... Zazen has nothing whatsoever to do with whether you are sitting up or lying down ... "
Harada Roshi: "...this thing" is one with everything ...
Uchiyama Roshi: " ... Zazen is our flesh and bones practice ... the Self Selfing Itself

... "not attaching to anything is giving" ... Suzuki Roshi, in Zen Mind Beginner Mind
Non-Self ... "For generosity (first Paramita), just stop clinging to Self" ... Milarepa


... do not even hold a perception of Self ... the Diamond Sutra

Thich Nhat Hahn:

"Peace is all around us, in the world and in nature, in our bodies and our spirits. Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed. It is not a matter of faith; it is a matter of practice."

Tibetan Dzogen: empty cognizance, love essence, primordial consciousness, timeless awareness,

Zen-ish: silent illumination, unborn, just this, soup, being nobody going nowhere, wholehearted practice

editor: numinous, luminous, sacred, pure, pervasive, immanent, radiant, transcendent, empty, nirvana, ...

2. Duality .. Thinking and Breathing .. Understanding;

profoundly dualistic culture: I vs other, Subjective vs Objective Experience
Suzuki Roshi: Body and Mind are Not 1, Not 2 ... perhaps both
Source and Being -- also "Not 1, Not 2" ?

Thich Naht Hahn Koan: When Priest Yaoshan was sitting in meditation a monk asked

Kobun: ... "One must disappear in the sitting. That is the only way." ...

Krishnamurthi " ... mind in meditation ... quiet but intensely active, like a noiseless dynamo

Freud's Me-I-Ego as center of consciousness vs Self as center of all including the unconscious vs Non-Self, Just This
(impulses, ego, id, super-ego, shadow, anima/animus, store consciousness, etc.)

3. Trinity of Three: Treasures, Pure Precepts, Doors of Liberation, Marks, Realities, Poisons ... Attitude

Tilopa Sheri Huber: In your meditation Eihei Dogen 12th century Japan, Soto Zen's patriarch (out of context)
Kobun: Harada Roshi: Three essentials in Zen practice:

4. Four: Marks, Noble Truths, Establishments of Mindfulness, Unlimited Minds

Four Establishments of Mindfulness, The practice of conscious breathing to realize dwelling in the Anapananusmrti Sutra --
Four Unlimited Minds
Factors of Success: diligence, energy, full awareness, penetration
Boddhisatva's Four Methods of Guidance: Giving, Kind Speech, Beneficial Action, Identity action

5. Five: Faculties, Kleshas, Poisons

Five Faculties (Indriyana) ... see also seven factors below Kleshas Five Poisons Hui Neng:

6. Virtues (Paramitas)

Seven Factors of Awakening

Anapananusmrti Sutras -- Full Awareness of Breathing and Four Foundations of Mindfulness Clear understanding and liberation.

8. Eight-Fold Path

View, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, meditation

9 Koans, Contemplations (corpse)


Nines stages of disintrigration of a corpse -- swelling to dust

10. Ten Prohibitory Precepts, Ten Internal Formations


Ten Internal Formations To listen to the audio dharma talk, click on Checklist for Zen and Zazen

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