Zazen Notes

Someone on a forum site I follow wondered if there was any redeeming value to “The Diamond Sutra”. Here’s my response, and a bit more.

Let me first say that I have not personally read the Diamond Sutra, except in occasional excerpts that I’ve encountered. What I’ve encountered did not ...  read more

Huineng was an illiterate woodcutter in 7th century China (C.E.), who heard a lecturer in the town square say “Let the mind be present, without abode” (a line from the Diamond Sutra), and went on to become a patriarch of Zen. Here’s part of a speech attributed to Huineng:

The Vimalakirti Sutra says, ...  read more

The forms we use to train the body in Zen – how to sit, stand, and so on – can be described in general like this: the energetic currents of the body are gathered with the breath at the tanden and in the lower portion of the body, the sacrum drops, the spine extends upward, and the eyes are used broadly and with sharpness. There are ...  read more