Following the paragraph on "Preparing yourself", "How To Do Zazen" continues with a section on clothing:Avoid wearing either dirty or soiled clothing as well as luxurious or expensive garments. It is also advisable to avoid heavy garments.…

Sawaki Rôshi concludes the paragraph on Physical preparations (or "preparing yourself", as it is called in "Shikantaza") with the advice: "Wash your face and feet so that you feel refreshed."This is a quote from Keizan Zenji's Zazen-yôjink…

When we work and live in a Zen monastic environment, the question isn't really if we work to live or live to work - work has to be a manifestation of life in this present moment, it is not a means to an end. Last month I said that both the…

Sawaki Rôshi tells us to "avoid sitting when you are physically exhausted", but the question is why we feel so tired and stressed out in the first place? This relates again to the question of our use of time and our attitude towards work a…

In Germany, there is a saying that you should "eat like a king in the morning, at mid-day like an emperor, and at night like a beggar". Basically, the meaning is that you should eat more at breakfast and lunch, when you still have work ahe…

The problem posed by the Sarin attack of the Aum cult in the Tokyo subway was defined by the officials of the Rinzai and Ôbaku sects as a "question of responsibility of the Zen sect as an established religion in modern society".So what ans…

We had a look at the sesshin schedule at Antaiji last month. The new schedule consists of fifteen 45 minute periods of zazen, 12 sets of 15 minute walking kinhin, two meals and two breaks after each meal. When people hear that we sit one p…

Who is to be held responsible for the Salin attack in the Tokyo subway ten years ago? No-one but the Aum cult itself of course. On the other hand, many Buddhists excuse themselves by saying that this cult is only pseudo-Buddhist and that t…

Reading Keizan's Zazen-yojinki, it is quite obvious that he thinks not only of sitting indoors, but also considers "green waters, deep mountains and hidden valleys", but warns against robbers, fires, floods, women ("widows, virgins, whores…

"When we examine the Aum incident, we can discover in it the cultural and social sickness of our modern world. The incident itself will sooner or later be forgotten. But the sickness of our modern world itself that manifested in the attack…

Wherever you sit, there will be plenty of opportunity to practice the perfection of patience. When I became the abbot of Antaiji three years ago, I did not make many changes. Still, one of the changes that I made right at once was that I m…

In the English booklet "Sôtô Zen", Okumura Shôhaku Rôshi points out that zazen means to let go off all maps. He says: "Zazen is not correcting the distorted map." So if instructions for zazen can be called a kind of map, what we are lookin…

How did Japanese Zen deal with the Sarin attack that was performed by the Aum cult in the Tokyo subway ten years ago? First I want to start to investigate how the Rinzai and Ôbaku sects related to the problem. Today there are three differe…

Last month we had a look at one version of "Instructions for Zazen" by Sawaki Kodo Roshi. Comparing them to a map, we found that it was a rather crude map that needs to be handled with a lot of care and good common sense, otherwise we will…

"Aum Shinrikyo" is the name of a Japanese cult that released sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subway on March 20th 1995, and thus killed 12. Several others were killed before in smaller incidents. Although the cult worshipped Hindu God Shiva a…

Let me start to explain about the actual way how to sit. Some people have been asking me if there was a "manual for zazen", and my answer has always been "no!" (see for example the "Shitpaper" September 2004), but to tell the truth, there …

We are having a warm winter here this year, and the first snow fell only a couple of days ago. When it gets cold during the winter, the temperature can fall well below the freezing point even inside the temple building, and during these mo…