Zazen Notes

I continue to work with the description in “The Mudra of Zen”, and in “Translations of Motion in the Lotus”. This morning I was able to correlate a feeling for the ilio-lumbars with relaxation in the extensors, and a certain uprightness in the area of the low back. Interesting, for me, as I have never followed the advice to ...  read more

I, too, feel a deep sense of gratitude to the Zen teachers who came to this country, and to some of the teachers who became authorized to teach here and have kept the practice going for anyone who is interested. The real question is how do we inspire ourselves to sit the cross-legged pose for thirty minutes or forty, once or twice or several times ...  read more

I guess the question for us both is how the chi comes to be “stored” in the tan-t’ien. Chunyi Lin seems to encourage you to think the long sitting will work the trick for you; his remark about looking at how long someone can sit the lotus to see if they’ve mastered energy says it all, in that regard.

I realize that there can ...  read more