Zazen Notes

Be like a person who has ‘died the great death’; after your breath is cut off, then you come back to life.

(“Zen Letters- Teachings of Yuanwu”, trans. Cleary brothers pg 84)

I have this experience often when I sit (my breath is “cut off”), particularly in the transition from exhalation to inhalation, and the focus ...  read more

I only mean that right at the moment where my exhalation turns to inhalation (and to a lessor degree where inhalation turns to exhalation), observing the activity without altering the activity requires that I be waking up or falling asleep to it- that is to say, in a state where I am observing the action but the normal linkage to conscious motor ...  read more

For me, memories of Suzuki Roshi are things I think about in the past, but I find different ways of bringing him present. Like, how would you put on your socks if Suzuki Roshi were standing right there? Or how would you do anything?

(Brit Pyland, from an interview by David Chadwick, here)

Pyland points to what he felt in Shunryu Suzuki’s presence, ...  read more