In our zazen we have to let go of any kind of thinking, even thinking about dharma.
Buddhist meditation
Looking Deeply, by Thich Nhat Hanh
During the exercise, we identify the in-breath as the in-breath, and the out-breath as the out-breath, like a child’s game. It is very easy. If you enjoy it, concentration just comes without any attempt at getting it…
Tathata or Suchness
When I first came across this word ‘Suchness’ in Zen literature, I thought, ‘What the heck is Suchness?
Meditation In Daily Life — emotional states, by Bhante Bodhidhamma
The moods, once so solid, now seem softer and there is a general uplift towards calmness, peace and joy…
Brothers and sisters in suffering, old age, sickness and death, by Ajahn Sumedho
If the Buddha had started with the teaching that there is no suffering, none of us would have believed it: There certainly is! He certainly got that wrong! So he started with: There is suffering…
Birth and Death, by Shen Hui
However hard I practise seeing my true nature, I am always brought back into birth and death. What method must be practised in order to obtain the birthless and the deathless?
Part 1 Zazenshin: Acupuncture Needle of Zazen, by Shohaku Okumura
When we practise for certain lengths of time we find that our motivation itself is influenced by poison. Then we often have doubts about our practice and whether or not it works to lessen the suffering caused by the three poisons. Sometimes we might even quit because we feel it doesn’t work…
A Good Dose of Dhamma: For meditators when they are ill, by Upasika Kee Nanayon.
You can’t prevent pleasure and pain, you can’t keep the mind from labelling things and forming thoughts, but you can put these things to a new use. If the mind labels a pain, saying, `I hurt,’ you have to read the label carefully, contemplating it until you see that it’s wrong. If the label were right, it would have to say that the pain isn’t me, it’s empty. Or if there’s a thought that `I’m in pain,’ this type of thinking is also wrong. You have to take a new approach to your thinking, to see that thinking is inconstant, stressful, and not yours…