Beginning Zazen
Welcome to the Instruction Hall, featuring talks on meditation techniques, pitfalls, and encouragement given to students of past masters. These have been taken from the Archives of the Daily Zen Journal and are a suitable starting place for the beginner and the experienced practitioner alike.
As we create the Teishos, if we come upon one that will help the beginner, we will add it here.
Practice of Meditation
Many are just beginning practice, and for those who have practiced for years, Dogen’s piece on meditation has points that even the “advanced” students have not mastered.
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
People say that practicing Zen is difficult, but there is a misunderstanding as to why. It is not difficult because it is hard to sit in the cross-legged position, or to attain enlightenment. It is difficult because it is hard to keep our mind pure and our practice pure in its fundamental sense.
About This Mind
Simplicity and clarity are to be valued in any teacher… The instructions given for watching the breath couldn’t be more simple, and the freedom to adapt the practice leaves us no excuse for not practicing.
Harmony – Part 1
No matter how many years we have practiced, or how many weeks, it is always refreshing to return to the beginning and look at meditation as if we are just being introduced to it. We can all benefit from a return to beginner’s mind.
Harmony – Part 2
This selection takes us into deeper steps of preparation to sit with attention to breathing clearly spelled out. Rather than following the breath into the abdomen and back out, Chih I has us breathe into every pore and out to the periphery of our entire body.
Harmony – Part 3
Like so many of the early teachers of Zen and meditation, there is an outline of preparing oneself for meditation, but there is seldom too much direction about what exactly it IS you are entering into.
Following the Breath with Mindfulness
No matter how many years we have practiced, or if we are just discovering a way to practice, we can maintain beginner’s mind. Beginner’s mind is that state before we know too much, before we can explain principles to anyone else, where everything is fresh and unexplored and full of wonder.
Mind is the One Vehicle
We have all asked questions of a teacher and kept on asking without pausing to experience the answer. It is like having a greed for views where there is this insatiable drive to collect answers without discovering anything for oneself.
Correct Practice
In this chapter on practice, Chih I covers a tremendous amount of territory. With a simple name like stop-look Zen meditation, we are introduced to a short-hand view of this technique. The straightforward reasons for practice are all ones we can relate to, and perhaps a few are a bit surprising to consider as reasons to practice meditation.
On Meditation – Part 1
Simplicity and great depth resound in this piece. What does it take to develop a mind firmly established in the Way? The foundation of any practice involves some type of meditation, whether it’s “just sitting” or koan practice, the entry point is the same. The above guidelines serve the beginner and more experienced practitioner quite well.
