TREELEAF ZENDO PODCAST

Rev. Taigu continues his comments on sitting posture for beginners. (We are always beginners.) He says: “What I am suggesting is to give the body-mind a direction, namely to sit up but not to do it. If you instruct yourself to sit straight and do it, with a straight spine, all you are going to do is to use a lot of tension and will end up taking a very rigid, military-like position. Once you instr...

We continue our video series on how to do Zazen, and how to allow the thoughts and emotions that appear during Zazen to drift from mind. I often use the analogy of clouds (of thought and emotions) drifting in and out of a clear, blue spacious sky (a mind open and clear of thoughts).Our mind in Zazen may be compared to the sky; We are open, clear, spacious, boundless, like the clear blue sky… Our a...

It is important to understand from the very outset of beginning practice that Shikantaza (“Just Sitting”) Zazen is a radical, to-the-marrow, dropping of all need to attain, all “running after.” And we work very very diligently to attain this “non-attaining!“ Last time, I compared it to a foot race in which we keep on pushing forward for our whole lives, but knowing that each step-by-step of the ra...

Rev. Taigu offers a few more perspectives on the “sitting” of “just sitting.” He says: Sitting on a cushion is what we normally do. The actual flexibility of this cushion called a zafu makes it possible to position it at an angle which makes sitting much more comfortable. A zafu is a very personal item and one should search around to find the right thickness for the cushion. When putting hands tog...

Continuing our “How to” series on Zazen… Shikantaza “Just Sitting” is an unusual way of meditation, and might be compared to running a long distance foot race in a most unusual way. In most ordinary races, people run to win something, seeking to cross the finish line at the end of the course, far down the road and over the distant hills. So the runners keep on pushing ahead, striving with all thei...

There was a devastating earthquake in the news yesterday — great human suffering. So much sadness in this world… war and violence, poverty, hunger, disease. Yet, in our Shikantaza Zazen, we are to instructed to sit with life without thinking “good” or “bad,” dropping all resistance and judgments about how things are, not wishing that our self or the world ’should be’ or ‘had better be’ some other...

Like me (Jundo Cohen), Rev. Taigu Turlur is also teacher at Treeleaf Sangha. Born in France in 1964, he started Zazen early — at age 13! — and received Shukke Tokudo ordination in 1983 — at age 18! — from Rev. Mokudo Zeisler of the Deshimaru Lineage, and Dharma Transmission from Chodo Cross in 2003. A lifelong student and servant of sewing the Kesa (Buddhist robes), he now resides near Osaka, Japa...

Continuing our series “Zazen for Beginners” (because we’re always beginners) ... Here’s a basic perspective of Buddhism: Our mind creates conflict and separation from this life/world because our mind is constantly filled with thoughts dividing this from that, worries and “what if’s“, desires and “if only’s,” judgments of good and bad and high and low, resistance to situations, fears for the future...

So, today, let's begin “Zazen for Beginners.” Because we’re always beginners. We’ll talk the basics of “Just Sitting” Shikantaza Zazen… There’s a bit more to “Just Sitting” than “just sitting around.“ In a series of talks over the coming days, Taigu and I will discuss this and that about “Just Sitting,” which has much to do with dropping thoughts of “this” and “that.” We’ll talk about where you ca...

Rev. Taigu closes his series on the Ten Oxherding Pictures… “In the world, entering the marketplace… as we get up  and leave our hermitage, we just don’t leave Shikantaza behind. If we do so, what would be the real meaning of our practice? Merging with people, being nobody, we disappear into the crowd. But we let the life of Shikantaza shine through and reveal the real face of this, every single s...

Rev. Taigu brings to life the 9th of the Ten Oxherding Pictures… “Fabulous weather and great cherry blossoms. Loud and busy street, towers of steel and glass. We are reaching the source, or should we say that we are fully back to where we were originally? Anyway, the bull and the self have disappeared to fully merge with every single thing and being we meet. The ten thousand dharmas, the countless...

  For the 8th of the Ten Oxherding Pictures, Rev. Taigu offers this from Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo Genjo-Koan: To study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains...

Rev. Taigu re-emerges with his next teaching on the Ten Oxherding Pictures. He writes: “Once we  drop whip and rope, once we stop manipulating reality, it appears by itself and we understand that we are exactly at the same spot as we were when it all started. The ox has and has not disappeared, it is now perfectly merged with this life as it comes and goes, nothing special to chase or ride anymore...

  Rev. Taigu again takes us for a ride with the next of the Ten Oxherding Pictures. He writes: “Riding the bull home… As one mounts the bull, rides the bull, the world and practice itself  are not experienced as  obstacles anymore. The bull as an object to grasp, a goal to reach has disappeared. Practice and self are intimate. In this, carefreeness, detachment, joy arise from the silence space of...

  Rev. Taigu again take the reigns to lead us through the next of the Ten Oxherding Pictures. He writes: “Taming the bull is the story of discipline. One has to take the lead and establish a regular and steady practice. That is, at least, the traditional reading of this image. I would like to come forward with something very different: taming the bull can also be giving a specific direction to sit...

  Rev. Taigu continues his series of talks on the Ten Oxherding Pictures. He writes: Getting hold of the tail is the moment were we may think we have got it. The gesture is firm, the grasp strong and the will to tame the ox very much alive. If we stay there, we may think with pride that the journey is over and that our understanding is stronger than anybody else’s. A lot of arrogance coupled with...

Continuing our glimpse at ... ... catching a glimpse, the watcher (After a lovely year here at Beliefnet.com, our daily "Sit-a-long with Jundo" Zazen netcasts will be moving home on January 1st to SHAMBHALA SUNSPACE, the webpage of the Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma magazines, where we will be a daily featured Buddhist blog ... sitting there just as we do here. )

catching a glimpse, the watcher (After a lovely year here at Beliefnet.com, our daily "Sit-a-long with Jundo" Zazen netcasts will be moving home on January 1st to SHAMBHALA SUNSPACE, the webpage of the Shambhala Sun and Buddhadharma magazines, where we will be a daily featured Buddhist blog ... sitting there just as we do here. )

dancing with shadows ...   At the waters edge, under the trees - hoofmarks are numerous. Balmy grasses grow abundantly - can you see them or not? Even if you go deeper and deeper into the mountains, How could his nostrils, well compassing the heavens,     hide him at all?

The first picture    ...  The Seeker On his blog, Mike Dosho Port quotes Andy Ferguson's translation  of a poem by Sensu Tokujo, one of our Chinese ancestors: Letting down the line ten thousand feet, A single breaking wave makes ten thousand ripples. At night in still water, the cold fish won't bite. An empty boat filled with moonlight returns. The fish is the golden fish and stands for a metaphor...

The Tenth of the Bodhisattva's Ten Virtues is .... Knowledge (Jñāna)  ... In Saving All Sentient Beings ... Knowledge Goes a Long Way ...

This is an Enso from the great Zen teacher Nantembo who lived a century ago, his temple in Nishinomiya is very close to where I live. It says: Everything fundamentally is perfect roundness in this world. As soon as you are born in this world, your mind is fundamentally perfect roundness.

More of the Bodhisattva Virtue of Miraculous, Mystical Powers (bala) In the Tashin tsû (Penetration of Other's Minds) portion of the Shôbôgenzô, the subject is mental telepathy, one of the supernormal powers (abhijñâ) regularly said in Buddhist literature to be accessible to great meditators. Here, Dôgen takes up the famous story of a Zen master's test of the mind-reading powers of an Indian monk...

We now come to the Bodhisattva Virtue of  ....   Miraculous, Mystical Powers (bala) Mahayana sutras and lore refer to a variety of supernatural powers developed through meditation and Buddhist practice, said of aid to the Bodhisattva ... such as the ability to foretell the future, to see the past lives of beings, to read minds, to radiate light and to cause rain ... others too ... There are more t...