Our practice is not so simple that when we sit in zazen, we automatically have fantastic experiences.
Zazen
The Four Vows. Harada Sekkei Roshi
As expressed in these words, we vow to awaken to the Way of Buddha. To receive the precepts means that by repeatedly making repentance, it is possible to awaken to the Dharma and this is why we chant these vows. Using these four vows as a common guide for all mankind…
There is No Buddha-Dharma Outside the Mind, by Harada Sekkei Roshi
If you say there is not enough, there is nothing lacking. This is the mind which neither increases nor decreases and which is completely free and unrestricted. To really study and investigate this mind is the Dharma vehicle of the ancient Buddhas; it is the gate to the Dharma…
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…
Our bodies are the great universal life
Put your body in order. It will follow naturally that the mind will improve. Mind—body—mind—body—mind . . . Mind and body will always be in harmony.
True Peace of Mind, by Harada Sekkei Roshi
The Chinese character for ‘Dharma’ is written with the components for ‘water’ and ‘to leave’. This implies that water flows from a high place to a low place.
Great Peace of Mind, by Harada Sekkei Roshi
With regard to religion, we tend to think of it as belief in something outside of ourselves. But please understand and accept that in Buddhism, the person who conveys the teaching as well as the person who hears and listens to the teaching are both you…
To Study the Way of Buddha, by Harada Sekkei
The habit of dividing the essential nature of oneness into self and other, life and death, pain and pleasure, rising and falling, and so on, is the source of all delusion and anxiety…