Posture

These forms are not the means of obtaining the right state of mind. To take this posture is itself to have the right state of mind. There is no need to obtain some special state of mind.

When you sit in the full lotus position, your left foot is on your right thigh, and your right foot is on your left thigh. When we cross our legs like this, even though we have a right leg and a left leg, they have become one. The position expresses the oneness of duality: not two, and not one.

not two, and not one

Our body and mind are both two and one.

But in actual experience, our life is not only plural, but also singular.

We die, and we do not die.

The most important thing in taking the zazen posture is to keep your spine straight.

Your hands should form the "cosmic mudra."

You should be sitting straight up as if you were supporting the sky with your head.

To take this posture itself is the purpose of our practice.

When you do you try to attain anything, you have your own body and mind right here.

"Kill the Buddha!"

But the purpose of these rules is not to make everyone the same, but to allow each to express his own self most freely.

The most important point is to own your own physical body.

We must exist right here, right now!

When we have our body and mind in order, everything else will exist in the right place, in the right way.

But usually, without being aware of it, we try to change something other than ourselves, we try to order things outside us. But it is impossible to organize things if you yourself are not in order.

So try always to keep the right posture, not only when you practice zazen, but in all your activities.

keep the right posture. This is the true teaching. The teaching which is written on paper is not the true teaching.

but it is more important to be yourself by practicing the right way of life.

He was not interested in some metaphysical existence, but in his own body and mind, here and now.

The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is, itself, enlightenment.

there is no need to talk about the right state of mind. You already have it.