Zen Contents

ZEN TEXTS 112 Meditations Heart Sutra On Believing in Mind Song of Enlightenment Song of Zazen Vimilakirti Ox-Herding Pictures Zen Daily Service Sutras Manual of Zen Buddhism Awakening of Faith 50 Verses on Consciousness

MODERN TEISHOS Teisho Collections

DOGEN ZENJI Actualizing One Bright Pearl

LINKS Zen Links The Buddhist Way Christopher McLean Psychotherapy

Once mortals see their nature, all attachments end. Awareness isn't hidden. But you can only find it right now. It's only now. If you really want to find the Way, don't hold on to anything.

Zen Buddhism has gained a lot of popularity in the West partly because of this emphasis on the here and now. It is very simple and straightforward.

"This mind is the Buddha. I don't talk about precepts, devotions or ascetic practices such as immersing yourself in water and fire, treading a wheel of knives, eating one meal a day, or never lying down. These are fanatical, provisional teachings. Once you recognise your moving, miraculously aware nature, yours is the mind of all buddhas. Buddhas of the past and future only talk about transmitting the mind. They teach nothing else. If someone understands this teaching, even if [she's] illiterate [she's] a buddha. If you don't see our own miraculously aware nature, you'll never find a buddha even if you break your body into atoms." Bodhidharma (5th cent.)

Zen teachings are said to be 'non-dual', emphasising that our usual way of being is like living in a trance of dualism. The philosophy of emptiness - no subject, no object - has become the hallmark of Zen teachings. (It should be said, however, that in calling into question the traditional, egological subject-object split, Zen is no different to other forms of Buddhism).

In Zen there is an emphasis on the interdependence of body and mind. 13th cent. Japanese Zen master, Dogen Kigen:

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