Article: Zen Practice Is Difficult And Dangerous

[Dosho]

Hi all,

Just saw this article posted:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-zesho ... 73769.html

Thoughts?

Gassho,
Dosho

[Kaishin]

Sometimes teachers of other Buddhist traditions say that Zen meditation is too difficult for most people. It is my experience that almost all meditation practices lead to the same place -- the experiential evidence of not having a separate "self". Zen merely starts at this place. I often liken Zen practice to jumping into the deep end. Are you ready

As Dogen says in Shobogenzo Bendowa, "Sitting upright, practicing Zen, is the front gate to the unconfined realm of this samadhi."

And as Josho Pat Phelan Roshi notes in the Jukai essays, in other traditions there is something of a progression from ethics practice, to concentration practice, to wisdom practice. Whereas in Zen, everything is really taken all at once. So in that sense, I can see that it might be viewed as "difficult and dangerous."

But it's not some esoteric practice for the skilled elite. As Dogen said, zazen is for everyone!

[Earthling]

I agree, Matt, Zen is for everyone. Zen is simple. It is we who try to make it complicated!

Every person has beneath his feet
Ground enough to do zazen.
~ from the Zenrin Kushu

Perhaps our "need" to make Zen complicated arises from an implicit lack of trust in the present moment (which is to say, everything)?

() josh