PRACTICE VIDEOS FROM TESSHIN

Please click the below button to download the Soto School Scriptures for Daily Services and Practice.

Please click below to listen to Tesshin chant

 

 

Home Mediation Practice

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach Tesshin via the email form on the contact tab

 

 

Step 1 – Create a dedicated space for meditation and practice

LOCATION
Choose a place in your home that you know to be somewhat isolated and private. It can be outdoors if  screened to protect from insects, clean, and in a quiet part of the grounds. Fresh air and moderate light and temperature are of utmost importance.

FURNISHINGS
In addition to the quietness and cleanliness of your place for sitting you may want to have certain items on hand to support your practice. Many people replicate the environment and atmosphere of the Zen enter to the degree reasonable and feasible. For a few examples, you may want to include:

• Sitting mat (zabuton) and cushion (zafu)
• Kneeling bench (seiza)
• Timer (if not using stick incense)
• Altar with or without Buddha or other image, and:

• Incense and holder
• Candle(s)
• Water bowl
• Flower vase

 

Step 2 – Meditation Hints

It is best to get Zen meditation (zazen) instructions in person, from a qualified teacher. However, as a brief reminder for home practice, please remember the basics:

SPACE

Sit in a clean and quiet place and at a time you are not likely to be distracted by telephone, visitors, et cetera.

TIME

There is no one-size-fits-all formula, but most people seem to arrive at an average of sitting once or twice a day (e.g. morning and evening) for a half-hour to an hour or so each time. If you wonder if you are sitting enough, you are probably not.

POSTURE

Sit upright as comfortably as you can without slumping. Sit on a cushion cross-legged or kneeling, on a bench, or on a chair. The most important thing is that the head neck and back be straight.  Let the gaze become fixed on a point in space some 3-9 feet in front of you, eyes about half open, teeth touching but not clinched.

BREATH

Breathe deeply without forcing it; find the natural breath. Count the cycles in a simple way and follow the breath into the lower abdomen and back out the nostrils.

Click HERE for a link on a talk Tesshin gave on breathing.

ATTENTION

Let the attention open up to all sensation, perception, et cetera.  Let thoughts come, but also let them go. Return the attention to the posture and breath until all three come together in a unified way. 

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Step 3:  Chants and Sutras  (optional after meditation session)

 

Heart Sutra

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva doing deep Prajna Paramita

Perceived the emptiness of all five conditions,

And was freed of pain.

O Sariputra, form is no other than emptiness,

Emptiness no other than form,

Form is precisely emptiness,

Emptiness precisely form.

Sensation, perception, reaction and consciousness are also like this.

O Sariputra , all things are expressions of emptiness,

Not born, not destroyed, not stained, not pure,

Neither waxing nor waning.

Thus emptiness is not form;

Not sensation nor perception,

Reaction nor consciousness;

No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind;

No color, sound, smell, taste, touch, thing;

No realm of sight, no realm of consciousness;

No ignorance, no end to ignorance;

No old age and death; no cessation of old age and death

No suffering, no cause or end to suffering,

No path, no wisdom and no gain.

No gain – thus Bodhisattvas live this Prajna Paramita

With no hindrance of mind –

No hindrance therefore no fear.

Far beyond all such delusion, Nirvana is already here.

All past, present and future Buddhas live this Prajna Paramita

And attain supreme, perfect enlightenment.

Therefore know that Prajna Paramita Is the holy mantra, the luminous mantra, 

The supreme mantra, the incomparable mantra

By which all suffering is cleared.

This is no other than truth.

Therefore set forth this Prajna Paramita mantra,

Set forth this mantra and proclaim:

Gate, Gate, Paragate Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha

Prajnaparamita Sutra.

 

Four Bodhisattva Vows

Beings are numberless;  I vow to free them

Delusions are inexhaustible;  I vow to end them

Dharma gates are boundless;  I vow to enter them

The buddha way is unsurpassable;  I vow to realize it