Zen Meditation - Zazen

 

Zazen: Quiet Abode

Zen Meditation, Zazen: rediscovering one's true being
Liberating ourselves from conditionings, and the awareness that a new, wider and deeper dimension exists in ourselves. 
Learning to listen, getting in contact with one's self, free from the grip of greed and from the ego's judging attitude: opening to fluidity and gratuitousness.
Realizing that there is no separation between us and the universe.
The Living Practice, in everyday life, naturally turns into a gift and benefit for us and for all beings.

Shikantaza: Just Sitting

Sitting on a zafu (a round cushion), spine well straight, without strain.
Legs crossed in the lotus or half-lotus position, or parallel to each other on a stool or a chair, knees firmly rooted to the ground.
The left hand resting on the right hand,  thumbs gently touching.
Chin recessed, shoulders relaxed.
Gaze open, directed downwards.

Mushotoku: the Free Spirit

Mind focused on the body posture, and on breathing.
Thoughts flow like clouds in the sky.
We observe them rising and vanishing, without holding them.
The Spirit frees himself from its compulsive inclination to dominate, to control, to obtain.

 

 

"Is it possible to attempt a description of what Zazen is using the means of our language?

Zazen is to rely completely, unconditionally on the force that makes us live and die, that has led us into being, that makes our heart beat and our thoughts rise and set, that is inside and outside the scope of our control: to rely, with the presence of all of ourselves, with the posture of body and spirit.
For the body, Zazen is to take the posture handed down to us, that is stable and not contracted, relaxed and not abandoned.. The body is the shrine: Returning to the posture of the body is returning to reality, reconstructing the integrity of body and mind.
And for the mind, Zazen it is not to discriminate, not to choose, letting uncontaminated reality become manifest through sitting there, in that very moment."
Written by Jiso Forzani and Yushin Marassi, editors of Eihei Dogen, Bendōwa