Made by Shingen

When we discover Zen practice, we may hold out a hope that it is going to solve our problems and make our life perfect. But Zen practice simply returns us to life as it is. Being our lives more and more is what Zen practice is about. Our lives are simply what they are, and Zen helps us to recognize that fact. The thought “If I do this practice patiently enough, everything will be different” is simply another belief system, another version of the promise that is never kept.

Practice is about moving from experiences to experiencing.

Although we think that we are looking at the same cup, the reality of life is that each one of us looks at this cup with their own retinas, with their own feelings, and from their own particular angle. The most understandable example is money. A one-thousand yen bill for a penniless person is totally different in value as well as in actual feeling than it would be for a millionaire. The same is true for an item of clothing or a drop of water. Each of us lives within our own world. Nevertheless, since childhood we have been trained to abstract reality by using words. We do so by habit and then we come to believe that all of us share the same social world in which we express everything in words. For instance, now I am speaking and you are listening. It seems we understand each other. But it is questionable whether each one of you understands my words completely and in the same way.

Shinjin Datsuraku (身心脱落), “Dropping off body and mind,”

Start each day as if you were born that day. Always make every day your first.