Quotes About Meditation

The prayer type of religions are characterized by the idea that the Whole (God) exists outside the one who prays. In the meditation type, the individual is regarded as primarily identical with the Whole (God). This distinction is easy to understand.

What we call the source of human personality—the True Self—is said to be this kind of eternal existence, yet it does not exist outside the living body. The realization of this fact is the essence of the meditation type of religion. At the same time, it is the way of human self-realization in Rinzai Zen.

Therefore, in Zen one awakens to one's True Self and takes firm hold of it. To give life to one's True Self sufficiently in all the affairs of daily life and to practice living as a human being while purifying the entire world is perhaps the most complete way of saying it.

Thinking that a koan is something to be thought about and solved objectively is out of keeping with Zen teachings.

Wisdom originates in samadhi is what this sutra teaches us.

According to the dictionary, "en" of "enza" is defined "to be peaceful and to rest peacefully." Thus, "za" means "to rest in peace." Therefore, "enza" is "to sit peacefully." It is the same as samadhi.

It is said that there are as many as one thousand seven hundred koan. They are classified according to the specific styles of the different schools in which they have been employed. In our School of Tekisui, koan problems are generally classified into hosshin (The body of Dharma), kikan (dynamism), gonsen (verbal expression), nanto (difficulty in passing through), kojo (stage of refinement), and matsugo no rokan (the final gate).

As long as we make the Truth and the Absolute our primary objects without transcending the duality of subject and object, we are not said to be in zazen, even if we formally sit in strict conformity to its requirements.

Just as in the phrase jyo-e enmyo (full and clear perception in the wisdom of concentration), jyo (concentration) necessarily gives birth to e (wisdom) and e (wisdom) must be based on jyo (concentration).

Some of you may practice zazen all alone at home with this book of mine as a guide. If you do, you must be well prepared for suffering. If there is no suffering, your sitting will be futile and you will find it difficult to continue zazen.

Seeing one's true self-nature in itself is samadhi, and samadhi in itself is seeing one's true self-nature.

the differences between the Soto and the Rinzai sects seem to be due to differences between two major types of human beings,

shikan means that the sitter must be totally integrated with sitting itself and sit in a commanding manner.

Ashikaga Takauji41 had an evil reputation as a traitor, but it is said that he sat zazen for some time every night and never failed to engage in this daily practice even when he became intoxicated. I think this should be a lesson to students of Zen.

The word "doubt" may be interpreted as "becoming the object of doubt itself.

It is especially desirable to let the concentrated state of mind, samadhi, operate in our everyday activities.

Talking, laughing, quarreling, and moving the limbs should all be integrated into the one and the same samadhi.

nirvana, which is another name for samadhi.

Soku is the most suitable kind of breathing for those of us who sit in meditation. What kind of breathing is it? It is described as the breath coming in and going out without any break, as if existent and yet non-existent. This description of soku is not complete, but I am sure it corresponds to the lower abdominal breathing (tanden-soku) discussed earlier.

As for those of us who breathe with the tanden, the frequency of our breathing ranges from two or three to five or six times per minute.

At first the power of concentration nurtured during sitting for thirty minutes may be lost in an instant as soon as we stop sitting. But later we will be able to retain it for five or ten minutes by means of hoben and kufu.

Hearing this, Master Eno scolded Shisei, "To calm the mind and contemplate is a Zen disease and not Zen. To what avail is it in principle to sit for a long time and suffer physical pain?

The lay Zen Master Kawajiri Hogin also warns against this empty type of sitting: To begin with, most people who practice zazen consciously try to make themselves empty. This is a grave mistake because you have thoughts about becoming empty, and it is futile to sit however long you may try to do so.

This operating power of our minds is called joriki. It is, in short, the operation of no-self. Master Sogaku writes about it as follows, "The right mind operates at each time and in each place to make you take the right attitude and act properly without deviating from the Way.