Author: dorakuan

Real Zen should be hidden, I thought for many years. The True Master is supposed to live in his cave high up in the mountains, or in his thatched roof hermitage deep in the forest. Not affected by worldly matters and hard to access even for the dedicated seeker of The Way. He won’t share his wisdom unless The One Student gives a blood and flesh proof of his unequivocal commitment. And even then, The Master will only teach him how to cook rice and wash his bowl …

I feel much ashamed today for not considering earlier why those generous people who willingly shared all their art and wisdom with me, were exactly not living hidden away, and not particularly hard to access. My teachers all preferred to live in the cities, teaching here and there all over the place, maybe had a web-page on-line and flyers distributed. You could just call them on the phone and come … and by no means they were not True Masters of their art!

In the famous Ten Ox Herding Pictures, the spiritual development from a first aimless search until full Enlightenment is depicted.

The tenth and last picture of this series, interesting enough, is not showing a Saint living far away from the world on a mountain top or in his forest. It displays a kind and funny person with a big belly, happily sharing with other people on the market-place what he brought along in his bag.

The True Master is only hidden to those who can’t see and search too far away … he or she might just be here, right amongst us, big belly out and laughing!

If you intend to practice Zazen during a visit to Japan, let me recommend a few places to go:

• My first location to suggest is Shunko-in, a Rinzai-Zen temple within the large Myoshin-ji Temple complex in the North-West of Kyoto (my Dojo is affiliated to). The deputy head Priest Rev. Taka Kawakami speaks fluent English, so you can experience Zazen at this beautiful ancient temple without worrying how to communicate in Japanese, or any fear of doing “something wrong” as a beginner. Be sure to expect a warm welcome when you go there!
  Shunko-in also offers accommodation, and in addition to Zazen you can enjoy a guided tour (in English) and learn a lot about the temples history and interesting details concerning hidden Christianity in Japan.
• For the dedicated student planning to spend more than a few days for Zazen, there is Tekishinjuku, an international Zen-Dojo in the countryside out of Kyoto. I have not yet been there, but the place was recommended to me by various people. It is headed by Gensho Hozumi Roshi, a former student of Omori Sogen Roshi, the famous calligrapher, swordsman and Zen-master.
• Whenever I stay in Tokyo, at least once I try to visit the morning Zazen (Gyoten Zazen-kai) at Engakuji-Temple in Kita-kamakura.Engaku-ji offers various opportunities for lay people to practise Zazen (admission free), but all information is exclusively in Japanese, and they are not prepared to receive foreigners (although occasionally I met friendly people there speaking some English). Better be prepared for basic communication in Japanese, and have an open eye on what the other participants are doing, when you go there!

We all know the joyful feeling of doing something with our full heart and full attention: playing music, cooking, sports maybe, or watching a fascinating movie or soccer game. It helps us to relax, gain new energy, and it makes us completely happy!

What if all, or almost all activities of our daily life could give us this kind of joy? We could recover while working, while doing chores, or while driving our car!

For a moment, think about what it is, that lets you enjoy and recover, maybe even in spite of heavy physical or intellectual activity? Regardless what your list may contain, I bet one point is about “forgetting time and space”, “not thinking of anything else”, “100% doing this one thing”, “not wishing to be anywhere else” … 

In other words, it is living in the moment! Not having your mind wander around in the past or future or here or there.

Of course, in our every day life we need some planning. Where I live, shops are closed on Sundays. When I want to eat, I must think of it already on Saturday. For being in office on time, I must consider the traffic jam on Monday morning, and so on …

But most of my time, I do not have to think of past or future. Nothing goes wrong, if I live just in the moment, and think of nothing else but the thing I am actually doing, right here, right now. And be it chores, driving my car long distance or working on the computer, it is joyful and very relaxing!

This will not work on command “Do what you do, and nothing else!”. You need some practise with “living in the moment”, of course, like with everything new breaking up old routines. But then, it will by and by become a perfect method of emotional and physical  energy saving …

With a Zen-friend, who is leading a Dojo in the south of Germany, I recently discussed which qualifications one should have for teaching Zen. Is it just showing how to properly sit on a pillow? Does it require a deep understanding of Buddhist literature and philosophy? Is an impressive personality with a master-like behaviour necessary?

Many years ago, I did not much enjoy teaching Zazen and Hitsuzendo. Most participants of our Sesshin were just going on my nerves. Was it their strange behaviour, their over-expectation, their demanding attitude or their laziness … what so ever, no student who came, was right. Only politeness towards my former teacher and ignorance towards our students made me not correct and criticise them all day long. I am sure, during all these years, I was a pretty bad assistant and teacher…

Fortunately, nowadays, all students coming to my Dojo are just right!

Did they change that much? I don’t think so … still, some appear to me a bit like big rocks or boulders tumbling down and blocking the way; others sit on their pillow like withered flowers in urgent need of water. Some students’ mind flies here and there, busy like the bumblebees breeding at my house; and others’ progress seems like that of a snail, aiming to climb up a high mountain …  very few are just the person they are, possibly close friends of the Buddha in the Zendo or in the garden of my Dojo.

My teaching is not much different from all the years before, just showing how to sit in a good and healthy posture on a pillow and breath deeply. Alas, it took me so many many years until I could learn how to just be there and see, and not criticise.

Today, I believe, the most important qualification required for teaching Zen is compassion. Enlightened or not, saint or samurai, witch or devil, I don’t care! Whoever takes the effort to come to my Dojo and practice Zazen with his or her own body, is heartily welcome!

Let me share some strange experiences I made during the first couple of years just after I started regular Zazen practise:

After ten minutes, the wall in front of me became liquid and kind of transparent. It was fascinating, a bit like sitting in front of a waterfall. But then I was slowly sucked into the wall, and panicked: in case the wall solidifies again, I’d be enclosed by the stones! The vision was so strong that I jumped up from my pillow, shivering from head to legs…

Another time, I was obsessed by the idea that one of my flat-mates stole a book from my room. My concerns became so dominant, that eventually I interrupted my Zazen and went to the bookshelf to have a look. The book was standing there, and I felt very very silly …

During a several days Sesshin I suddenly saw an Enso (a Zen-circle) floating in front of me each time we did Zazen. I could blow it up or shrink it, change its size and colour … it was amazingly beautiful, and the vision returned the whole week through, whenever I wanted.

What is the meaning of such visions? Are they good or bad? Did I, after all, become mad?

These visions are not of any importance! After the initial beginner’s stadium, when fighting against hurting legs and stiff shoulders is slowly getting less severe and your concentration is getting better, your brain produces any kind of visions. In the Zen tradition they are called Makyo (魔境), which can be translated as deamons’ visions. And by no means they indicate you are becoming mental!

What to do with such visions?

Ignore them! Let them come and go, and focus on your Zazen posture, your breathing. With the years, Makyo will completely go away. And better don’t ask your teacher, if this or that vision you just had during Zazen indicates a pre-mature experience of Enlightenment … it does not!

My guest’s wife and baby took a Sunday afternoon nap, so we decided to sit Zazen for a round or two. With little kids, keeping up a regular schedule is often not possible, but this is no problem at all!

Zen is not in the first place meant to follow rigid schedules, but adopting to the circumstances.

When my daughter was still very little, I explained to her that when daddy is sitting on his “resting pillow”, she may come any time, but not talk, unless there is something really really very urgent. That was o.k. for her, and from time to time she came to sit on my laps during Zazen and share a precious moment of silence.

Occasionally, she even enjoyed the privilege of sitting on the “silent pillow” herself, since scolding her after doing something not o.k. was not allowed for me either, as long as she was sitting in silence. Same rights for all doing Zazen! Very likely, reflecting silently for a few minutes about her doings was anyway much better than parent’s advice …

Of course, when the teddy bear was sick or her doll crying, interrupting my Zazen was always allowed. Compassion for others, and be it a teddy or a doll, stands above all rules!

What is the best Zazen? my former Zen-teacher often asked during his talks.

Nowadays, I believe I misunderstood him in that aspect. I always had the impression his very answer to this question was setting up and following a most perfect schedule for our Sesshin, with each and every detail for each minute meticulously planned, and no deviation from the plan tolerated.

If you force yourself too much to follow a plan or an idea of how the best Zazen should be, even the very best Zazen can turn into something pretty unpleasant: 

I have to sit every day!
I have to sit at least twice for 25 minutes!
I must stop thinking or dozing during Zazen!
I must sit in a perfect full Lotus Posture!

Although this all might be true to a certain extend, the best Zazen is always the Zazen you are actually doing, right now! Without hesitation and with all your energy, however good or bad that may turn out to be.

It is not necessary to have any specific idea of what the best Zazen could be.
Just do it!

In a past posting Too Complicated? I wrote about the complex system of Buddhist believe, displayed in the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum I visited in Singapore a few weeks ago.

Now, I learned that my recent posting about Zen and Science is also too complicated (it is gone now, I will work it over some time).

Zen does not require much words, and what you say should be simple and clear.

If an idea or a thought comes along in confusing and complicated words, too difficult to understand, there is a certain chance that your time is better spent sitting 20 minutes Zazen on your pillow, than working through the words, until your mind is spinning.

I always try to keep a healthy balance between reading and sitting Zazen, and especially if reading time becomes dominant, I do not feel well …

When I started practising Zazen as a young student, I sat down on my pillow whenever I liked, and as long as I felt good. That wasn’t all bad, but soon I found it hard to improve my practise with this random schedule:

Should I really get up early in the morning to sit? Shall I answer the phone during Zazen or not? What if my flat-mates come in my room, they never know when I sit? It is boring now, should I stop, or sit a bit longer? Shall I go back to bed and sleep a bit longer?

I realised, when each and every time I first have to decide if I want to sit or not, and if so, when to stop, this is making my Zazen practise incredibly complicated and tiring. Fortunately, around this time, I relocated and joined the regular Zazen-practise in the Dojo where I then lived.

Although following a strict schedule was completely against my intentions and in contradiction to what I thought I understood from Zen (eat when hungry, sleep when tired, sit when …), after some, time I found the daily routine a great help!

It is already difficult enough for a beginner to keep up the motivation for doing Zazen alone at home. But if you constantly have in mind that not sitting on my pillow is an alternative, it becomes unnecessarily complicated.

Let me suggest to set up a routine, a schedule for your Zazen:

• Prepare a special Zazen place in your flat, one square meter is enough!
• Practise Zazen regularly, every day, or every other day, or every Sunday …
• Always sit at the same time, maybe at 7 after getting up, or at 9 in the evening.
• Always sit for the same duration, 5 minutes, or 15 or 20.
• Let no minor events interrupt your schedule, but better stay flexible in case of sickness, holiday, family matters or guests at your place.
• Announce your schedule, to yourself, your partner, your family. Communicate (and make clear to yourself) that this is your Zazen time, that it is important for you and nobody, not even you yourself, may interrupt you without a very good reason.
• Follow your schedule without any doubt or hesitation, and only from time to time, maybe every couple of months,  re-consider if it is still suitable for you, or if you want to modify it.

I am confident, this will help you to develop a stronger and more joyful Zazen experience!

To our yesterday’s seminar, one participant brought cherries and a salad to share with all of us during the lunch-break.

Usually, I ask the students to bring food for themselves to eat, and that’s just what they do. In the evening, they take back home in their bellies what they brought the morning in their rucksacks.

Though, when you generously share what you brought, be it food, humour or pain, your rucksack will be a bit lighter and easier to carry when going home!

My work on our seminars and Sesshin is not aimed to fill the students’ brains and hearts with lots of stuff, so they go home even more heavily loaded. I wish my Dojo to be a place to alleviate a bit of the load you carry with you. If it is nice food we all can enjoy, I say thank you!