Monday 10 October 2011

October zazen

Just a quick note to confirm that there will be no cancellations of zazen in October - initially I had thought that our equipment might be needed at Crosby, but it seems this is not the case, so the Monday sessions will continue with no breaks.

No zen holiday for us! :-)

Video: How to meditate

From Yokoji Zen Mountain Center in the US (which whom we are associated) comes a new video on how to do zazen. Good, basic pointers which will really help beginners as well as gently remind more experienced practitioners!

Thursday 6 October 2011

Fukanzazengi and Zazenyojinki - Translations for your perusal

So last week we finished looking at Taizan Maezumi's commentary on Dogen Zenji's Fukanzazengi, and this week we looked at the first section of Keizan Zenji's Zazenyojinki. Next week we're going to move back to some more modern texts, though we're going to carry on focusing on texts about zazen in particular, as I want this to really provide a sound basis in practice for the group. Hopefully you'll find these more accessible... and will be curious to return to some of the older texts in a while.
However, I thought it might be a good idea to provide some links to the original texts that we looked at so that you can refer back to them later if you like:
Dogen Zenji's Fukanzazengi
  • Kiezan Zenji's Zazenyojinki

  • Oddly, the Soto Zen sect has just celebrated Ryosoki, which memorialises Dogen and Keizan (sometimes referred to as the 'father and mother' of Soto Zen respectively!), who both died on 29 September of different years.
    We'll come back to work by both of these towering figures in due course, but from next week we'll head forward into the twentieth and twenty-first century for our inspiration...

    EDIT: Both the above links are broken (2016) - alternate sources for both these texts can be googled, though. Such is the way of the web.