Zen Meditation

Sambodhi Zen Centre, Alleppey

Bodhidharma – bring me your mind, and I will put it to rest.

Upholding the precepts,
repentance and giving,
the countless good deeds,
and the way of right living
all come from zazen.  ~Haukin  

Zazen :

The practice of zazen (sitting meditation) is extremely simple and straightforward. You simply sit with a straight posture and maintain awareness of your experience without getting caught up in assessing, comparing, or trying to change it. Basically you start exactly where you are, and in the end you are also just where you are. Along the way, there is no special technique and no pursuit of any special experience.

Zazen is not about imposing calmness, stillness, or any special state of mind. It simply involves moment-by-moment awareness which sets the ground from which calmness and peace of mind eventually develop as natural side-effects. Initially this approach can seem similar to “mindfulness”, except that with zazen there is no object of awareness and none of the self-consciousness commonly associated with “trying to be mindful”.

Zazen relies on regularity and habit much more so than on any special skill. Certainly it is no performance, contest, or forced activity. To sit zazen is really as simple as choosing to do so. If you choose to do so, there is no question that you will be capable of it. So the real issue is not whether or not you will “succeed”, but whether or not you may be willing to start accepting your experience just as it is.

Just sitting is to be one with your present experience. Being one with your present experience is to become one with yourself. And being one with yourself is actually to start losing our ideas about who you are. Whatever benefits that may come from zen practice, they will come not from trying to control or change our lives, but from being wholeheartedly present and letting go.

Sutras:

The Heart Sutra

Maha Prajna Paramita Hrdaya Sutra | Heart Sutra

Full title: Heart of Great Perfect Wisdom Sutra

(English Translation )

Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva,

practicing deep Prajna Paramita

clearly saw that all five skandhas are empty,

transforming all suffering and distress.

Shariputra, form is no other than emptiness,

emptiness no other than form;

form is emptiness, emptiness is form;

feeling, perception, mental reaction, consciousness

are also like this.

Shariputra, all dharmas are essentially empty:

not born, not destroyed;

not stained, not pure, without loss, without gain.

Therefore in emptiness there is no form, no feeling,

no perception, mental reaction, consciousness;

no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;

no color , sound, smell, taste, touch, objects of mind;

no seeing and so on to no thinking;

no ignorance and also no ending of ignorance

and so on to no old age and death,

and also no ending of old age and death;

no suffering, cause of suffer ing, cessation, path;

no wisdom and no attainment.

Since there is nothing to attain,

the Bodhisattva lives by Prajna Paramita

with no hindrance in the mind; no hindrance, thus no fear:

far beyond delusive thinking right here is Nirvana.

All Buddhas past, present, and future

live by Prajna Paramita,

attaining AnuttaraSamyakSambodhi.

Therefore know that Prajna Paramita is

the great mantra, the wisdom mantra,

the unsurpassed mantra, the supreme mantra,

which completely removes all suffering.

This is truth, not mere formality.

Therefore set forth the prajna paramita mantra,

Set forth this mantra and proclaim:

Gaté, Gaté, Paragaté, Parasamgaté,

Bodhi Svaha.

The Four Great Vows | Shi-ku sei gan mon

Shu jō mu hen sei gan do

bon nō mu jin sei gan dan

hō mon mu ryō sei gan gaku

butsu dō mu jō sei gan jō.

Though the many beings are numberless,

I vow to save them all;

Though delusive passions and thoughts rise endlessly,

I vow to turn them around;

Though the Dharma is vast and fathomless,

I vow to realize it in full;

Though the Way of the Awakened is unsurpassed,

I vow to walk along, all the Way.