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
Breathing in, Yes! Breathing out, Thanks.
Breathing in, Present Moment; Breathing out; Wonderful Moment.
Koan: When Priest Yaoshan was sitting in meditation a monk asked
What do you think about, sitting in steadfast composure?
Yaoshan said, I think not thinking.
The monk said, How do you think not thinking?
Yaoshan said, Non-thinking.
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
Three Treasures: Buddha, Sangha, Dharma
Three Pure Precepts: Embrace and Sustain Right Conduct, Every Good, All Beings
Three Doors of Liberation: Desireless, Notion-less, Emptiness/boundlessness
Three Marks of existence: Suffering, Impermanence, Emptiness
Three Realities: Mind/Imagination, Interdependence/Causes/Conditions, Actualization/Suchness/Emptiness
Three Poisons: Greed, Anger and Delusion
Tilopa
Let go of the past, let go of the future, let go of the present
Don't try to figure something out, don't try to make something happen
Just relax, right now, and rest
Sheri Huber: In your meditation
Pay attention
Don't believe anything
Don't take it personally
Eihei Dogen 12th century Japan, Soto Zen's patriarch (out of context)
... to study the self ... is to forget the self
... dropping off body and mind
... zazen is the dharma gate of great ease and joy
Kobun: " ... Three aspects to sitting exist because we can observe our sitting from three angles.
We breathe naturally and appreciate our breath and really understand what the breath does to our body and mind.
To really connect the three, body, mind, and breath, is the point." ...
Harada Roshi: Three essentials in Zen practice:
asking a master about the dharma
the practice of zazen
observing the precepts
4. Four: Marks, Noble Truths, Establishments of Mindfulness, Unlimited Minds
Dukkha (suffering), dissatisfaction in the face of life's ongoing changes
Anatta (non-self), delusions of self caused by dissatisfaction, clinging
Anicca (impermanence), everything changes, but suffering can be ended through
Emptiness/boundlessness, following the eight-fold path below (8).
Four Establishments of Mindfulness, The practice of conscious breathing to realize dwelling in the
Awareness of the Body in the Body,
Awareness of the Feelings in the Feelings,
Awareness of the Mind in the Mind,
Awareness of the Mind Objects in the Mind Objects
Anapananusmrti Sutra --
Breathing in and out I observe the impermanent nature of things
Breathing in and out I observe the nature of letting go
Breathing in and out I observe the nature of no more craving
Breathing in and out I observe the nature of cessation
Four Unlimited Minds
loving kindness
compassion
joy sharing
equanimity
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
confidence
energy
meditative stability
meditative concentration
true understanding
Kleshas
Ignorance
ego
repulsion
attraction/acquistion/grasping
clinging
Five Poisons
Anger
Greed
Delusion, ignorance
Sloth/Torpor
Anxious worry, agitation
Hui Neng:
At all times, in every moment of your mind, you must
Purify your mind by our own effort
See your own teachings by your own practice
See your own Buddha by your own exercise
Reform yourself by observing your own commandments
And further, the five elements of your own nature are
Commandment--it is inate within you that you do not wish to kill, steal etc.
Tranquility--you do not wish to lead a bustling life or to make money
Wisdom--you do not wish to live in delusion
Emancipation--you do not wish to suffer the pangs of conscience, and you wish to live a life of sanction
Teaching--you know how you were emancipated, so you will teach it. This is the hardest.
6. Virtues (Paramitas)
Giving/generosity (danaparamita)
Morality/precepts (silaparamita)
Patience/equinanimity (ksantiparamita)
Devotion/energy (viryaparamita)
Meditation (dhyanaparamita)
Wisdom (prajnaparamita)
Seven Factors of Awakening
Anapananusmrti Sutras -- Full Awareness of Breathing and Four Foundations of Mindfulness
mindfulness
investigation of dharmas
energy
joy
ease
concentration
equinanimity, letting go
Clear understanding and liberation.
View, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, meditation
9 Koans, Contemplations (corpse)
Numinous? Luminous? Emptiness?
Awake? Surya Das ... Awakening to the Sacred
Hongzhi ... silent illumination
Yaoshan ... thinking not-thinking ... non-thinking
Who am I?
Where am "I"?
What is This? Why This, rather than Nothing? Why This? vs alternatives ....
Realization
... the rise and fall of beliefs -- traces left by the four seasons
Nines stages of disintrigration of a corpse -- swelling to dust
10. Ten Prohibitory Precepts, Ten Internal Formations
do not kill, steal, lie, misuse sex, intoxicate self or others
do not dwell on mistakes, praise or blame, hoard, be angry, disrespect
Ten Internal Formations
desire, caught in the wrong view of self
hatred, hesitation
ignorance, caught in superstitious prohibitions and rituals
pride, craving
hesitation, hatred and anger
belief in a real self, desire for the worlds of form
extreme views, desire for the formless worlds
wrong views, pride
perverted views, agitation
views advocating unnecessay prohibitions,ignorance
To listen to the audio dharma talk, click on Checklist for Zen and Zazen
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