CHOSEI ZEN BLOG
Zen: The Calm in the Storm
Fear, anger, despair, hopelessness, helplessness: These feelings make us want to hide, to run away, and to protect ourselves from the pain we see around us. This, however, we have learned, is a downward spiral into depression and sickness. So, how do we get out? What is the secret sauce?
“They” Don’t Make Granola
The daily functioning of a dojo happens through the action of individuals. Someone takes out the trash. Someone opens the zoom room. Someone makes granola. There is no “they”.
Selfless Service
Genuine service, or selfless service in whatever form, is never a choice.
Clarity is the ability to see things as exactly as they are - when there is clarity, there is no need to exercise will or choice.
Pilgrimage As Practice
A pilgrim chooses to leave home in order learn something, or find an answer, to grow, or to heal. The pilgrim leaves, to be able to return, transformed.
Shikoku Pilgrimage Photos
These images are from the 1200 km circuit of Shikoku Island, a path that visits 88 Buddhist temples established over the past thousand years.
Facing Uncertainty
We need to train to see through the noise. To find our own center and our own way. To not completely unravel or disengage. But, how do we stay engaged?
The Evolving Spring Green Kyudojo
We are pleased to announce the completion of the Kyudo Matoba, or 'Target House,' at the Spring Green Dojo.
Out Of Our Heads - Into Our Bones
Zen training is 24/7, and it involves discovering any opportunities to get out of our heads and take our training more deeply into our bones.
The World Inside My Skin
The topic at hand is the physical training we do in Chosei Zen. But I would turn that into a question: How do you develop a refined sense of all that lives inside your skin?
Transformation Through Shugyo
Now instead of performing kata to the point of exhaustion, we blow one note each with one breath to the same extreme… Tanouye Rotashi said “to practice so that one note puts someone into samadhi”
Three-Sided Mountain of Zen Training
In this video, Esteban Martinez Sensei talks about "How We Train" in Zen using meditation, physical training, and fine arts.
Feast Of The Senses
Relationships that were heard, food that was felt, and music that was alchemy.
Why is Mushin (No-Mind) Important?
One of the lesser known laws of the universe (like gravity) is that the state of no-mind can be transferred to others. We call it “transferring samadhi” but also talk in more serious terms about “giving fearlessness.”
How Can We Practice Mushin (No-Mind)?
I’m highlighting another type of tool besides your breath and posture – it gets described as “concentration,” “awareness,” or “our senses.” Usually, we give far less instruction in this area than about breath and posture, letting people discover for themselves, which can take years.
Mushin (No-Mind) as a Trainable Practice
Somehow I knew that living in the world of my head wasn’t the correct way to live as a human being. No one told me that. I just knew. This led me to seek out zazen (Zen meditation) and Zen training with our school.
Voice of an Ancestor
In a growing series of publications we are presenting edited versions of talks that Tanouye Roshi gave more than forty years ago in various settings, some of them quite informal while others are formal teisho given during sesshin.
Okyo as Zen Training
The objective of practicing okyo is to change the way you vibrate. If you change the way you vibrate, you can change the way others and your environment vibrate as well.
Origin of Chosei Zen Shakuhachi
The reason that repetition is the best way to master any martial art, because it will lead to perfection of desired skills, since incorrectly performing a skill wastes energy and is inefficient.
