Teachings

Student: It is very difficult to practice without expectation. Because we are putting in all the energy and time and... So how to do it?

While there are many approaches to practicing, practicing with a sangha – together action – is the most powerful. It forces us to confort our limitation, which in turn helps us to overcome them.

So everything is truth. But how much do you believe that? Every day we use truth, but we don't understand truth.

But it’s in everyone’s face. Now this is in our face in a way that it’s never been before. So we have to meet that. We have to not hole up in our bunker it a way that’s about us — like those rich people flying their airplanes out to islands — that’s not the way to do it.

Is there a god or a creator? Is Buddhism a religion or is it just practicing Buddha’s teaching?
Buddha was asked things like, "why did the universe appear?" "Is there some being that made the universe?" Things like that. "Does the Tathagata still live after the body dies?"
Then he kept silence.

If you come to the Zen Center, nobody asks what you believe, and nobody tells you what to believe. We tell you our practice forms: how to meditate, how to chant and so on. What you believe is your own business.

What does it mean to reach for perfection: perfection of what or who? What does it mean to wake up? What does it mean to be free? These are some of the great questions of life. So, what is Zen about? Zen is the study of our minds. When we sit in silence, we look at the theater that appears in our minds. When we sit correctly, we perceive without judging what is appearing, or without wanting to stop the stream of thoughts.

Question: In many families now, both parents have to work. They also have children and social responsibilities. How can the parents make a living, raise a family and still have time to practice?

Here is one more story alluding to the benefit of Sangha. A monk was going to do a ten-year solo retreat in a cave high up in the mountains. As he passed through the plain and foothills below the mountain he met a farmer who asked him where he was going.

Open the gift. Inside is only don’t know. Such an expensive gift, and yet few will accept it. Accepting it means abandoning the familiar, and that can be terrifying. And yet, not knowing is very familiar territory for us all, a place where we can be empowered.