Dogen Zen Belfast

Master Dogen's instructions for zazen continue... If we rise from sitting, we should move the body slowly, and stand up calmly. We should not be hurried or violent.  It's considered bad form to move quickly in the zendo, as it may disturb others, but also our legs may have gone to sleep and standing up quickly could therefore result in a most excellent 'Zen fail' YouTube video. We see in the past that those who transcended the common and transcended the sacred, and those who died while sitting or died while standing, relied totally on this power. We allow earthly, mundane thoughts and feelings to 'drop off' in zazen, but also 'spiritual' thoughts and feelings and daydreams. Although the main practice is sitting, this sitting informs the rest of our conduct in life (and death), including standing up. Moreover, the changing of the moment, through the means of a finger, a pole, a needle, or a wooden clapper; and the experience of the state, through the mani...

Master Dogen continues his zazen instructions with more essential directions on the nature of, and practice of, realisation... This sitting in Zazen is not learning Zen concentration. It is simply the peaceful and joyful gate of Dharma. It is the practice-and-experience which perfectly realizes the state of bodhi. The Universe is conspicuously realized, and restrictions and hindrances never reach it. Some other schools of Buddhism, and other religious and philosophical traditions, emphasise methods of training or focusing the mind on an object, or analysing aspects of our self or our experience or such. But the practice Master Dogen teaches is not like that. Rather, it requires that, in just sitting in the real world and in our life, we give up mental striving and any goals that we can imagine around realisation, or anything else. We just stop it when we notice we're doing it and let go. It requires us to surrender our will for a time. This can be challenging, and it certainly chal...

  When the physical posture is already settled, make one complete exhalation and sway left and right. Sitting immovably in the mountain-still state, “Think about this concrete state beyond thinking.” “How can the state beyond thinking be thought about?” “It is different from thinking.” This is just the pivot of Zazen. Having explained the cross-legged physical posture of zazen, Master Dogen now addresses the mental area of zazen, or the area of mind. The quotes in this section are from this famous koan exchange:    Once, when the Great Master Hongdao of Yueshan was sitting [in meditation], a monk asked him, "What are you thinking of, [sitting there] so fixedly?" The master answered, "I'm thinking of not thinking." The monk asked, "How do you think of not thinking?" The Master answered, "Nonthinking." This 'nonthinking' (Japanese: ' hishiryo ') has been translated by Nishijima/ Cross and others as 'different from thinking...

  We usually spread a thick mat on the place where we sit, and use a round cushion on top of that. Either sit in the full lotus posture or sit in the half lotus posture. To sit in the full lotus posture, first put the right foot on the left thigh, then put the left foot on the right thigh. To sit in the half lotus posture, just press the left foot onto the right thigh. Spread the clothing loosely and make it neat. Then put the right hand above the left foot, and place the left hand on the right palm. The thumbs meet and support each other. Just make the body right and sit up straight. Do not lean to the left, incline to the right, slouch forward, or lean backward. The ears must be aligned with the shoulders, and the nose aligned with the navel. Hold the tongue against the palate, keep the lips and teeth closed, and keep the eyes open. Breathe softly through the nose. The next section of Fukan-zazengi is directions for the upright bodily posture of zazen. Master Dogen describes the ...

More essential, incisive directions from Master Dogen in his instructions for zazen... Do not aim to become a buddha. How could [this] be connected with sitting or lying down? The nature of many everyday activities is basically transactional - I go to work and expect that my paycheck will arrive at the end of the week, I show people friendship and respect and expect a level of the same in return, I work out and expect to feel the physical benefits of it... so if I sit zazen I'll eventually be all blissed out, everyone will love me, and I'll have remarkable intuitive powers, right? Zazen isn't like that. Basically, in zazen we can observe that our thoughts (our imaginings and beliefs about, and expectations about, reality) are not reality itself. They are just our own very partial, limited mental representation of it. The state of 'buddha' is just being in reality in accordance with reality, seeing thoughts and feelings for what they are. It's therefore not what ...

Do not consider right and wrong. Stop the driving movement of mind, will, consciousness. Cease intellectual consideration through images, thoughts, and reflections. When we look closely at it, we might find that we're very often (leading with our thoughts) trying to drive ourselves forward towards 'good' and away from 'bad'. This can appear more obvious -- like we may be thinking about something nice that has happened to us, or imagining something that we'd like to happen to us -- or, strangely, we may be remembering something bad that happened to us because we can sometimes prefer the feelings that this evokes to the perceived emptiness or lack of identity/ lack of 'self' that comes with not imagining, thinking, reflecting... This can all get quite subtle. Behind the layer of obvious thought (the 'voice in our head' that we may tend to identify with) there can be layers and clouds of whispy thoughts and intentions which seem to come and go of th...

This section of Master Dogen's zazen instructions, that is a number of pithy directions for practice, continues...  Do not think of good and bad. Do not consider right and wrong.   The constant rotations and regurgitations of our thinking mind can be annoying. One of the things that I, and many people, experienced in first trying zazen was becoming aware of the slew of thoughts that the mind throws up in a panic when we do the very scary thing of just sitting down for 10, 20 or 30 minutes to do very little. Seeing these thoughts as something 'bad' (as opposed 'peace', 'calm', 'enlightenment'  or whatever... 'good' in other words), or as something to try to resist or stop, is not what we are instructed to do here. We just let all that go when we notice we're doing it. We don't really try to notice this either ('awareness' or 'good' vs 'inattention' or 'bad'... good/bad thinking can get a bit subtle!), w...

Fukan-Zazengi continues with its section of short, pithy directions for practicing zazen... Cast aside all involvements. Give the myriad things a rest.  I was brought up in the 1970s and 80s and, like a lot of people in the west maybe, am one of the 'TV generations' - the gogglebox was always on in the corner of the living room, whether we were actively watching it or not. It was like it provided a constant low-level background of half-heard conversation, incidental drama, unimportant information, and (most importantly) distraction . 'Distraction from what?' I ask myself. Well, from each other, and from the self, from the uncomfortable, knowing silences where what is unsaid between us might quietly start demanding to be said and heard, or at least consciously thought, and where the feelings of dis-ease, loneliness, emptiness and the longing for the something-that-we-don't-quite-know-that-we-want-or-need come to the fore. In short, we may often be inclined to crowd o...

Master Dogen continues his zazen instructions with a short section of pithy directions on how to practice. I thought I'd offer just a few reflections on them... In general, a quiet room is good for practicing [Za]zen, and food and drink are taken in moderation. For the first while when I was practicing, I used to get crabby when outside noises distracted me from *MY* practice - people laughing in the street outside interfered with *MY* zazen, the sudden sound of car horns from the main road sullied *MY* pristine awareness, the cat scraping at the door prevented *MY* arse-clenchingly important 'enlightenment'... After some time I came to notice that all these things ARE practice, and are the non-self manifesting moment-to-moment. Also, there is really no quiet/silence - there are always sounds from the environment while we're alive, sounds from the living body, that are our life here-and-now. Zen Master Bansui posed the great koan 'who is the master that hears these ...