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    Zen Meditation in Plain English
    Zen Meditation in Plain English
    Zen Meditation in Plain English
    Ebook119 pages1 hour

    Zen Meditation in Plain English

    By John Daishin Buksbazen and Peter Matthiessen

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    An excellent, practical introduction to Zen meditation. Written in a warm and easily accessible style, this book appeals to anyone with an interest in meditation, Zen, or, as is often the case today, a combination of the two. The book emphasizes the importance of receiving good instruction and of finding groups to practice with, yet it lays out the necessary steps to practice Zen meditation on your own. The book includes easily followed exercises to help the reader along. For anyone looking to uncover a clear and insightful path into the philosophy and practice of Zen meditation, this book represents the culmination of that search.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWisdom Publications
    Release dateJun 10, 2005
    ISBN9780861719488
    Zen Meditation in Plain English
    Author

    John Daishin Buksbazen

    Sensei Daishin was born in London, England, to a Jewish-Christian family of Eastern European backgrounds. He began Zen practice in Philadelphia in 1967, receiving both lay and Priest ordination in the Korean Chogye Order of Zen from the Venerable Seo Kyung-bo. He later practiced with (then) Maezumi Sensei at the Zen Center of Los Angeles (ZCLA), where he was in residence until 1979. He served as pastoral counselor, and was publishing editor of the ZCLA Journal and the Zen Writings Series. In 1999, Daishin renewed his Priest vows with Sensei Yoshin Jordan, and returned to ZCLA to study with Roshi Egyoku. In 2003 he received Preceptor Transmission and was empowered as Dharma Holder, and subsequently received Dharma Transmission in June 2008. Sensei Daishin has a PsyD in Psychology from the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute. He is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a private clinical practice. He leads an affiliated sitting group, the Ocean Moon Sangha, in Santa Monica and teaches Buddhist psychology and zazen to mental health professionals. Daishin is the author of To Forget the Self and Zen Meditation in Plain English (Wisdom, 2002) and is co-editor with Roshi Egyoku of the On Zen Practice collection). He is married to Concetta Getsuren Alfano, a Zen practitioner, psychoanalyst and co-founder of the Center for Mindfulness and Psychotherapy. Daishin has one son.

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    Reviews for Zen Meditation in Plain English

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      The book contains exactly what the title says. The opening outline recounts the standard legend of origins of Zen, taking us from Buddha to Maezumi Roshi in 6 pages. There is then a direct explanation of zazen in about 40 pages. Refreshingly free of arcane philosophical riddles and baffling quotations from obscure medieval masters (though sprinkled with bon mots from Maezumi Roshi), this section of the book suggests why you might want to explore zazen, and then simply tells you how to sit and breathe. The third section - less than 20 pages - discusses some of the features and advantages of practice in some sort of community rather than in isolation. There is then a brief FAQ, a guide to helpful physical exercises, and some suggestions for further reading. All in all, an ideal little handbook for someone who would like to try Zen but doesn't have immediate access to instruction.MB 12-vi-2013
    • 4/5
      This book does what it sets out to do: explain Zen meditation in an easy to read manner. However, only the short middle section focuses on the promise made by the title. The first section is a brief history of Buddha and Buddhism (which seems to be de riguer in books on Buddhism), and the final section is an essay on the importance of having a teacher when moving beyond basic meditation. So while the "meat" of the book is only pamphlet-length, it's still worth reading for the clarity of exposition.

    Book preview

    Zen Meditation in Plain English - John Daishin Buksbazen

    001

    Table of Contents

    Praise

    Dedication

    Acknowledgements

    Foreword

    Introduction

    PART ONE: BUDDHAS

    Background

    The Story of Shakyamuni Buddha

    The Lineage

    Buddhas in America

    PART TWO: SITTING

    The Problem and its Solution

    The Nature of the Problem

    The Nature of the Solution

    The Practice

    Starting to Sit

    Laying the Foundations

    Some Rules of Thumb

    Sitting Supports

    Positioning the Body

    Positioning the Legs

    Positioning the Rest of the Body

    Zazen Checklist

    Breathing

    Breathing in Zazen

    The Mind in Zazen

    PART THREE: COMMUNITY

    What is Community?

    Group Practice

    An Intensive Training Period in a Zen Monastery

    Sesshin

    Realizing the Harmony

    Afterword

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Appendices

    About the Author

    About Wisdom

    Copyright

    PRAISE FOR ZEN MEDITATION IN PLAIN ENGLISH

    Here is a lucid guide to the first step of any serious spiritual journey. All of the usual fat that accompanies works of this type has been trimmed away, leaving the bones and marrow—the essentials that any newcomer needs to know to enter the way.

    John Daido Loori Roshi

    Abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery

    Authentic Zen meditation is easy if you are given clear, step-by-step instructions. This wonderful book gives just such instructions and teaches you how to calm your body, breath, and mind. Follow these steps, and right here, now, you will be on the path of the ancient Zen masters.

    Sensei Wendy Egyoku Nakao

    Abbot of Zen Center of Los Angeles

    John Buksbazen’s book is an authentic presentation of a universal and timeless teaching, particularly valuable because of the practical clarity and warmth of its style.

    Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi

    Abbot of Kanzeon Zen Center

    Clear, simple, and well-grounded in years of experience, Daishin’s book is a real gift to anyone interested in Zen practice.

    Bernie Glassman Roshi,

    Founder of the Zen Peacemaker Order

    001

    To my teachers,

    Taizan Maezumi Roshi,

    Roshi Bernie Glassman,

    Sensei Wendy Egyoku Nakao;

    to my wife

    Concetta F. Alfano;

    and to my dear friend

    Rick Fields,

    this book is gratefully dedicated.

    You showed me the Way.

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    SPECIAL THANKS to my editor at Wisdom Publications, Josh Bartok, without whose patient and writer-friendly guidance this book would not have ripened as it did.

    Great appreciation also to my Dharma teacher and Abbot of Buddha Essence Temple, the Zen Center of Los Angeles, Sensei Wendy Egyoku Nakao, for her encouragement and support throughout this project and in my life. And to my wife, Concetta, for who she is.

    I am also most grateful to the sangha of ZCLA, and especially to my fellow Zen practice instructors, for their help in putting together the Frequently Asked Questions section of this book.

    FOREWORD

    Peter Matthiessen

    THIS GENTLE BOOK, reflecting the wise teachings of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, is a wonderful introduction to Zen Buddhism, and also an invitation to new life. To practice Zen means to realize one’s existence in the beauty and clarity of this present moment, rather than letting life unravel in useless daydreaming of the past and future. To rest in the present is a state of magical simplicity, although attainment of this state is not as simple as it sounds: most of us need dedicated training under the guidance of a roshi (a Zen master) in order to let the debris of existence fall away. From the very beginning, the sitting meditation called zazen will bring about a strong sense of well-being, as body and mind return to natural harmony with all creation; later there comes true insight into the nature of existence, which is no different from one’s own true nature, or the nature of the Buddha—whose name means The-One-Who-Knows.

    Zen has been called the religion before religion, which is to say that anyone can practice, even those committed to another faith. And the phrase evokes that natural religion of our early childhood, when heaven and a splendorous earth were one. For the new child in the light of spring, there is no self to forget; the eye with which he sees God, in Meister Eckhart’s phrase, is the eye with which God sees him. But that clear eye is soon clouded over by ideas and opinions, preconceptions and abstractions, and simple being becomes encrusted with the armor of ego. Not until years later does an instinct come that a vital sense of mystery has been withdrawn. The sun glints through the pines, and the heart is pierced in a moment of beauty and strange pain, like a memory of paradise.

    After that day, there is no beauty without pain, and at the bottom of each breath, there is a hollow place that is filled with longing. That day we become seekers without knowing that we seek, and at first, we long for something greater than ourselves, something far away. It is not a return to childhood, for childhood is not a truly enlightened state; yet to seek one’s own true nature is, as one Zen master has said, a way to lead you to your long-lost home.

    Most of us cast about for years until something in our reading, some stray word, points to the vague outlines of a path. Perhaps this book is the beginning of your homeward way; if so, count yourself lucky, for it offers no tangled analyses, no solutions, only the way to forgetting the self, the way to zazen, to just sitting. Through zazen, ideas dissolve, the mind becomes transparent, and in the great stillness of samadhi (Melville called it, that profound silence, that only voice of God), there comes an intuitive understanding that what we seek lies nowhere else but in this present moment, right here now where we have always been, in the common miracle of our own divinity. To travel this path, one need not be a Zen Buddhist—call yourself a zazen Buddhist if you like! Zen Buddhist is only another idea to be discarded, like enlightenment, or Buddha, or God.

    INTRODUCTION

    ZEN BUDDHISM, according to various authorities, is a religion, or a philosophy, or a way of life, or a mental and physical discipline. Some say it is all of the above; others say it is none.

    Fundamentally, Zen is a way of seeing clearly who we are and what our life is, and a way of living based on that clear vision.

    Many people wonder what Zen is all about, and how it works. They find much of the literature about Zen confusing and are unclear about how it applies to daily living.

    This book is in large measure directed to those people. Its aim is to give enough information to get them started in Zen practice, especially in the form of seated meditation called zazen or just sitting. The assumption is that this practice will do more for the inquiring individual than reading any number of books or articles. Once actual practice has begun, then books (carefully chosen for their relevance and reliability) can enrich and broaden one’s understanding. But if there is not a sound foundation of experience,

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