ZaZen in SHINDOKAI Dojo
silence sitting breathing The way to oneself.

The Way (quotations)

Zen is primarily practised in two ways: by meditation and by communication between master and student. Zen daily practises sitting in meditation (ZaZen), which in Rinzai Zen, means meditating about a koan, and, in Sato Zen, sitting without thinking, aim, and intention (shikantaza). Practising Zazen means letting your body and spirit fall. By gradually letting all concepts of life go, the Zen practitioner is to open himself/herself to the true reality in a dynamic way.
"The uniqueness of ZaZen lies in the following: The mind is freed from the servitude of all separate forms, visions, things, and ideas, however sacred they may be, and transferred into a state of perfect emptiness, from which alone it may become aware of its own true character or that of the universe one day". (Kapleau)

In achieving this goal koans play an important role. A koan is a paradoxical riddle which excites, confuses, ridicules, exhausts, and, finally, "destroys" the mind. Many koans deal with anecdotes, legends, biographic events, dialogues and sayings by great Zen masters. The monk is to solve such a riddle, and often it takes him several years of daily efforts until he succeeds, which coincides with the experience of satori. A koan makes the mind experience its limits.
"The dancing monkey", i. e. the thoughts, come to rest with its help, because discursive thinking is the archenemy of enlightenment. "When thinking has run its course, man is ready for enlightenment". (Deshimaru)

Zen master Nansen, who outwardly did not distinguish himself from his students in any way, was working in a field together with his monks. An itinerant monk who was coming by stopped in front of the monks and asked the one standing nect to him, wtihout having any idea that he was Master Nansen, "Which way leads to Nansen's monastery?"
Master Nansen held up the sickle he was just working with and said, "I paid thirty yen for this." The monk replied, "Good man, I did not ask about the price of your tool, but the way leading to Master Nansen."
Nansen said, "It cuts excellently."

(from "Was ist die ewige Wahrheit?", by Marco Aldinger. Published 1998 by Herder Verlag, Freiburg.
ISBN 3-451-05011-0
Translated for Shindo-Dojo by Heribert Sander)