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Zen Practice for Life

Zen Practice for Life

A article by Mark Shozan Joslyn, PhD, which looks at Zen in everyday life and during ordinary activities, including the importance of the family in Zen practice.

Absolute

Absolute

An article by Shozan on the nature of the absolute.

Zazen (Sitting Zen)

Zazen (Sitting Zen)

Beginning instruction in zazen (Zen sitting meditation), including posture, breathing, and hand position.

Beginning Zen Practice

Beginning Zen Practice

From a talk given by Roshi in 1974 at Cimarron Zen Center in Los Angeles on the topic of beginning Zen practice (philosophy, not sitting instruction).

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.

From T.S. Eliot’s Four Quarters; Contributed by Gregg Onewein
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From Eliot’s Burnt Norton

Breathing

Breathing

An article by Shozan on one of the most important parts of zazen practice: breathing.

What is Religion?

What is Religion?

What is religion and how does it relate to Zen? Shozan addresses this question in this article.

Religion for Sale

Religion for Sale

What is Entsuan selling? Nothing! So what does Zen have to offer?

Watching the moon
at dawn,
solitary, mid-sky,
I knew myself completely:
no part left out.


Poem by Izumi Shikibu (974-1034) from The Enlightened Heart, Stephen Mitchell (Ed.), Harper & Row ,1989.
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No Part Left Out

Meditation on a poem by Izumi Shibuku about looking at the moon.

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