Core tenet of Zen
Sitting is itself enlightenment, not a means to it.
Zazen is not a technique aimed at a result; the sitting itself is the realized state.
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held
Dogen's radical identity, sharpest in the Soto school: zazen is not a technique aimed at a future awakening; correctly taken, the sitting itself is the realized state — practice and realization are one thing seen from two sides. You do not sit to become a buddha; you sit the way a buddha sits.
From the sources — the passages this rests on; concise renderings, cited
To study the way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be verified by the ten thousand things.
Dōgen — Genjōkōan, Shōbōgenzō
The same ground, other faiths
claims that share this one's ideas
Zazen — just sitting.
Buddhism · rite
Go deeper →
The koan breaks thought open.
Rinzai
Go deeper →
Just sitting.
Sōtō
Go deeper →
Many paths, one goal: knowledge, devotion, action, discipline.
Hinduism
Go deeper →
Samayika — forty-eight minutes as a monk.
Jainism · rite
Go deeper →
The four who went into the orchard.
Judaism · story
Read it in full →
Sign in to open the first thread. Everything here is attributed.