daijiinen

In Zazen, it is thought that your body, breathing, and heart are all connected. Stress builds up in your muscles. A distorted body causes shallow breathing, and shallow breathing creates an irritated and depressed heart. In zazen, you first remove the distortions from your body and fix your posture. Your breathing will then naturally become deep and calm. And when your breath becomes deep and calm, your heart becomes peaceful.

During the construction of Senbon Shakadō — Kyoto's oldest temple hall, built 800 years ago — a carpenter accidentally cut one pillar too short. His wife offered an unexpected solution: rather than trying to lengthen the mistake, cut all the other pillars to match. The hall was built that way, and it still stands today. We all carry a short pillar inside us — some lack of talent, some mistake we cannot undo. We spend so much energy wishing it were longer. But everyone, if you look closely,...

Zen is to quietly calm the heart and mind. Our hearts can be compared to water with waves of emotion (joy, anger, suffering and pleasure) on the surface. Quietly performing zen meditation (zazen) calms these waves. Samadhi (a sublime state of concentration or consciousness during meditation) is when the surface of the water becomes perfectly flat. The water will become clearer, and it will be possible to look deep into the bottom. After returning to life as usual, our minds once again become...