The Contents of Zazen: A Veteran Master's Response

The Contents of Zazen

(A veteran Buddhist Master responds to yesterday's post)

The idea that the essence of Zazen is to enter and experience samadhi, is true.

The idea that samadhi is our original and our natural state of being is true, but without getting the regular posture we can never realize samadhi.

Samadhi comes when we keep ourselves in the regular posture, and so it is all for us to keep ourselves in the regular posture in Zazen, and so there is no intention for us to avoid any habit.

To sit in Zazen is just the act of avoiding habit, and so there is no necessity to avoid habit intentionally.

It is just the practice of Zazen, which transcends both something habitual and something occasional.

There is not any kind of intention in Zazen.

Therefore there is no necessity for us to promote any kind of intention, and just sitting is Zazen.

"It is different from thinking" suggests that Zazen is just an act.

Thesis and antithesis belong to the intellectual area, but synthesis belongs to the area of act.

It is the main effort to transcend from any kind of intention completely in Zazen.