Zazen back home: Berkeley Zen Center

BASIC ZAZEN INSTRUCTION Founder Sojun Mel Weitsman Roshi (berkeleyzencenter.org)

What were we expecting for a Dharma talk? Something more like (San Francisco Zen Center) "Beginner's Mind" by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, archived Dharma talk, Nov. 11, 1965

WHAT HAPPENED?

Why'd I come from the West?

UPDATE: We returned to the daily noon zazen (sitting session) and found it silent, powerful, and very uplifting. Ten assembled quietly on a Tuesday, seven on Wednesday, and the orientation really paid off. Many attend on their lunch breaks.

A group of seven meditators gathered Saturday morning at 8:40 am on Russell St. between MLK Jr. and Adeline at BZC. Zen Joe welcomed us into the Zendo for instruction, which is also online (Zoom). We were oriented on how to hold our hands, where to walk, where not to talk then got instruction on how to sit and hold ourselves erect. We got a short sit, walked out, came right back in for a full session of zazen.

After that, following last week's lay entrustment ceremony, Sue (Ju'en Soetsu), 83, gave a Dharma talk, with precious little Dharma and lots of pablum, ordinary chitchat, very down homey and a whole lot of air.

One was reminded of seeing Thich Nhat Hanh in one of his last visits to the Pasadena Auditorium, possibly his very last, articulating next to no words, just giving darshan, uncomfortably, with 5,000 or so onlookers hanging on his every exhale, singing songs, feeling so very in the moment, smiling, settling...until Thay finally made the point that "a flower is composed out of all non-cloud elements," an instruction meant to show [the impersonal nature of] emptiness (shunyata, anatta) that all we take to be so special about flowers is actually water from clouds, nourishment from mud and atmospheric gases, solar radiation, and so on. All that disparate stuff gives us flowers, just as the Five Aggregates give us living beings, who rarely if ever realize they are ultimately only that. One had to think, unless one had been inducted in the Zen cloud of not expecting anything, "Is that all there is, Cristina?"

Instead here, when Sue made some uber-generic observation, one of the helpers signed at the magnificence of the simplicity of her utterance. When we set up no expectations, it's hard to be disappointed. When we do, watch out. Some men in the audience of 40 tried to ask some deeper questions, Sue brushed them off as if she had been studying how to be a difficult Zen interviewee. "Yes," she answered to a multiple-choice question about the meaning of life. "Will you ever answer my question," the audience member persisted, "Yes."

"Will you do it now?" - "Don't worry about it," was her retort to the gleeful squeals of others in the know. Linda Roshi, the committee-selected BZC abbess of the last two years, gently nodded as if in approval. "What are we here but body, breath, and brain [mind]?" she asked rhetorically then quoted Woody Allen of all people, "Showing up is 80%."

More heads nodded, and all we could think was, "This is a 'Dharma' talk?" Someone was viewing it on Zoom, so maybe it's recorded for anyone to review. We asked Zen Joe afterward, "Was that a normal Dharma talk?" He shrugged his shoulders and answered, "Yeah, pretty typical."

What's shikantaza ("just sitting")?

(Zen Fields) What is Shikantaza 1 (6 minutes)

Maybe all she said was a big "Zen" lesson?

"Some say that to speak of the meaning of the coming from the West is already wrong."

"People these days all make unconcern an understanding. Some say, 'There is no delusion or enlightenment: it's not necessary to go on seeking. Even before the Buddha appeared in the world, before Bodhidharma ever came to this country, it could not have been otherwise. What's the use of the Buddha appearing in the world? What did the Patriarch still come from the West for?"

All such views -- what relevance do they have? You must have greatly penetrated and greatly awakened: then as before, mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers, in fact all the myriad things are perfectly manifest. Then for the first time you can be an unconcerned person." - Roshi Reddit

We think that if we were to ask Sue what she meant, she would rightly say to us, "Don't worry about it."

• Ep. 144: "Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?"
• Review: "Why Has Bodhidharma Left for the East" by BYK

Zazen (sitting meditation) instruction

In-person Zazen instruction and beginner orientation

Why did Bodhidharma come?

BZC now offers Zen meditation instruction and orientation every Saturday morning, at 8:40 am. Visit BZC at 1933 Russell St., Berkeley by the Thai Theravada temple, next to the library.

BZC shares how we meditate and also some details about how to move around in the zendo (meditation hall) and join services (bowing and chanting).

Zen Master Bodhidharma | Quizlet

After orientation, participants are welcome to join the next period of zazen in the zendo (9:40 am) and a lecture at 10:15 am. The Saturday program ends at 11:30 am. There is no need to sign up. ALL are welcome!

Online instruction is no longer offered live. Please check out the link to Sojun Roshi’s instruction. Or explore the Teachers Page to make an appointment for a one-on-one zazen instruction.

More about zazen instruction

A 45-minute video meditation instruction from BZC's late Founder Sojun Weitsman Roshi: Sojun’s Roshi’s Sept. 2020 Zazen Instruction

• Abbot Hozan Alan Senauke 2020 essay: My Zazen
• Sojun Roshi: Dead or Alive? | Berkeley Zen Center

Hakuryu Sojun Roshi (Mel Weitsman)

ABOUT: Hakuryu Sojun Roshi (Mel Weitsman) began to practice at San Francisco Zen Center on Bush St. in 1964. In 1969 he was ordained by Suzuki Roshi as resident priest at the Berkeley Zendo. He received Dharma Transmission from Suzuki Roshi’s son and successor, Gyugaku Hoitsu, at Rinsoin Temple in Japan in 1984 and was officially installed as abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center in 1985. Along with his responsibilities in Berkeley, Sojun Roshi helped train students and teachers at several affiliated temples. From 1988 to 1997 he served as co-abbot of the San Francisco Zen Center. He gave Dharma Transmission to numerous students... More

Meditation: When it's "Just Sitting" (Zen)

Kirk McElhearn (The Loop Magazine #28); Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

Just Sitting: The Zen Practice of shikantaza

Once or twice a day, I sit facing a wall in my home.

• In the Sōtō Zen tradition, one meditates with the eyes partially open, facing a wall. This is to minimize the distraction of seeing other people while you meditate. Many other traditions involved closed-eyed meditation, and you can sit anywhere.

Zen enso or circle: empty zero?

I just sit. I sit for 20 minutes, a half-hour, sometimes more. But I just sit. I sit and think not thinking; I do that by non-thinking.

 

This is the Zen practice of shikantaza or “just sitting.” You sit, cross-legged if you can, and let your mind alone.

When you stop thinking, you reach a point of non-thinking. It’s one of the typical paradoxes of Zen that makes your brain try and twist around those words, “not,” “non-,” and “thinking” to figure out what they mean.

 

Zen Crossword Puzzle (bizarro.com)

Unlike other forms of meditation, shikantaza doesn’t involve concentrating on an object, such as your breath or a mantra.

It is “objectless meditation,” where you focus on everything you experience [and therefore not objectless as one shifts to what is salient in the internal and external environment] -- thoughts, sounds, feelings -- without attaching [clinging] to any of them.

When you get there, you know what it is.

Instruction

Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form.

“Once you have adjusted your posture, take a deep breath, inhale and exhale, rock your body right and left, and settle into a steady, immobile sitting position. Think not-thinking. How do you think not-thinking? Non-thinking. This in itself is the essential art of zazen.”

- Master Eihei Dōgen, Fukan zazengi

  

I’ve been practicing meditation off and on for about 25 years. After following the Tibetan tradition [Vajrayana] for a while, I drifted among other forms of practice, notably Theravada insight meditation [vipassana], before settling on Zen.

There are many different schools of meditation, and even in Zen, there are two main currents, Rinzai and Sōtō. It is the latter, Sōtō Zen, founded by Eihei Dōgen in the 13th century, that feels right to me. It’s the one whose main practice is just sitting. More

• For more about shikantaza see The Art of Just Sitting: Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Shikantaza. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind is one of the best books for an introduction to Zen.
• Look for a local Sōtō Zen center, or visit Treeleaf, an online Zen community that has members all over the world.

"And what are you supposed to be?" "Anthony Weiner." Happy Halloween! (bizarro.com)

Japan: Land of the Disappearing Buddha (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; World Geographic Channel

(The Long Search) "The Land of the Disappearing Buddha"

10 Easy Steps to "Zen"

Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; WikiHow.com

Here are 10 easy steps to a "zen" (jhana) state of mind. Zazen (just sitting) is a type of meditation unique to Zen Buddhism. It functions at the heart of the practice. Zen (Chinese Ch'an, Sanskrit Dhyana, Pali Jhana) is the Japanese word for "meditation," so Zen Buddhists could be called "Meditation-centric Buddhists." This outlines how a beginner can practice zazen, which literally means sitting meditation.

Why Zen is not "Zen" (video)

Wisdom Quarterly, Robert Buswell, Yoga Garden (recommended by PasaDharma)

Patrick Reynolds has a book for desk workers (Knowledge Workers Survival Guide). Here he introduces the basics of Zen-style sitting meditation -- called zazen -- and what to expect from daily practice. Patrick has more about Zen on his weekly podcast: ZenIsStupid.com. If visiting Yokohama, Japan, join Patrick Wednesday evenings at 7:00 pm for zazen at Yoga Garden. (Music from The American Analog Set, Ulrich Schnauss, The Dining Rooms, and George Handel).

• Wisdom Quarterly: Za is Japanese and means "seat" as in zafu and zabuton. Zen simply means "meditation," from the Sanskrit word dhyana (jhana in Pali, as a verb jhaneti, "practicing for jhana"). Meditating (jhaneti) means settling back into an original serene state.

Did the Buddha talk about Zen?
Wisdom Quarterly
The historical Buddha frequently talked about jhana. He often commended meditating (jhaneti), which is the intensive development of wholesome qualities.

But what we call "Zen" -- a mix of Buddhism, Shinto, Taoism (going with the "flow" or the path of least resistance) -- is modern.

Zen today is wonderful for not attempting to interpret experience or the Buddha's teachings. But it was originally very academic. Its monks in Japan were very well versed in sutras, philosophy, and other elements of the Dharma. The West assumes that Zen is as iconoclastic as we pride ourselves for being.

Myth-Busting: Why Zen is not "Zen"
UCLA professor of Buddhism Robert Buswell, who was a Zen then a Theravada monk before disrobing and going into academia, taught Wisdom Quarterly a whole different story about Zen. It's not what we Americans usually imagine. He wrote of his adventures in the Zendo:

The Zen Monastic Experience
[This book is] a myth-shattering foray behind the walls of a Korean Zen Buddhist monastery. The common Western image of Zen as a religion that features unpredictable, iconoclastic teachers "bullying their students into enlightenment'' is, says Buswell (UCLA), grossly inaccurate.

And he should know, having spent five years as a monk at Songgwang-sa, one of the largest Zen monasteries in Korea. Here, deftly weaving scholarship and memoir, Buswell depicts what life in a Zen monastery is really like....

Buswell explodes Zen's reputation as bibliophobic, artsy-craftsy, and reliant on physical labor. Ironically, the narrative takes flight with the author's description of the aspect of Korean Zen that matches its reputation -- the arduous life of the monastery's "elite vanguard,'' the meditators.

Although meditators comprise only a small percentage of the monks (with the rest devoted to support activities or ritual), their efforts astonish: sitting in meditation for 14 hours a day; for one week a year, sitting seven days straight without sleep; engaging in such severe practices as extensive fasting, never lying down to sleep....

But for most monks, Buswell notes, it's "a disciplined life, not the transformative experience of enlightenment,'' that's crucial. Less the sound of one hand clapping than of hands, mind, and heart working together to lead a sanctified life -- and, as such, a sound corrective to Western misunderstandings about Zen.

• Buswell: Building a Base for Buddhism
  Buddhism may champion the concept of detachment, but UCLA Buddhist scholar Robert Buswell admits his ego got bruised when he returned this summer to the Buddhist monastery where he practiced for five years in his early 20s. A friend who had remained at the monastery looked...

Zazen Checklist

Pasadharma.org (Pasadena, CA)

Sitting like Bodhidharma sat -- eyelids missing. Meditating boys in India

Zazen, the formal practice of seated meditation, is the cornerstone of Zen training. Za means "sitting." Zen, which derives from the Sanskrit word dhyana, means "meditation." In its beginning stages, zazen is a practice of concentration, with a focus on following or counting the breath.

More than just meditation, zazen is a powerful tool of self-inquiry, boundless in its scope and ability to reveal the true basis of reality. Through zazen, we realize the unity of the self with the ten thousand things, which has the potential to transform our lives and those of others.

HOW TO SIT

• Sit on the forward half of your zafu, bench, or chair.
• Arrange your legs -- full lotus, half lotus, Burmese, kneeling, or chair; choose the most stable position you can sustain comfortably.
• Center your spine by swaying in decreasing arcs, left to right, forward and backward.
• Straighten and extend your spine, and align your head (by "pushing up the ceiling" and then relaxing).
• The origin of thrust is at the small of your back so your belly and buttocks both protrude slightly.

BODY PARTS

• Head -- should neither tilt forward, backward, nor lean to either side
• Ears -- should be parallel with shoulders
• Tip of nose -- centered over navel
• Chin -- tucked in slightly
• Eyes -- neither fully opened nor fully closed, lowered to a 45 degree angle; unfocused, "gazing" at the floor 2 to 3 feet in front of you so blinking is minimized.
• Mouth -- lips and teeth closed; place the tip of the tongue against the roof of the mouth, just behind the front teeth. Swallow any saliva in your mouth, and squeeze out the air so there is a slight vacuum. This inhibits salivation and overly tense jaw muscles.
• Hands -- place in "cosmic" mudra:
• Right hand -- palm up, blade against lower belly
• Left hand -- on top of right, middle knuckles overlap
• Thumbs -- tips lightly touch, forming an oval

REMINDERS

Make sure your whole body is arranged the way you want it before beginning zazen. And keep as still as possible during zazen. If you must get up for the restroom, or if a coughing spell requires you to get a drink of water, please rise and exit quietly and quickly. Take care of your immediate needs, and return in a mindful manner, re-joining the group as soon as you can. After a short sit there is walking meditation (kinhin).