Buddhism and Zen: what are the differences? Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that developed in 6th-century China from a cultural blending with Taoism & Confusianism. It spread to Vietnam, Korea, and finally Japan. It is called Chan in China and Zen in Japanese which means meditation. Key Differences in Approach & practice: While […]
Meditating on silence : Its positive impacts on your brain as if you were inside it. During meditation we focus on a specific target such as breathing to anchor our mind to slow down its flow of thoughts and feelings besides achieving a relaxing effect. There are already few Dharma talks on our website describing […]
Heasy path to happiness We all seek happiness and naturally avoid suffering. Yet most of us look for happiness outside ourselves—in possessions, achievements, relationships, or recognition. The challenge is that everything external has limitations. It is temporary and cannot last forever. Even when we obtain something we greatly desire, the pleasure often fades with time. […]
Do you exist without an ego? A Zen perspective. The answer depends entirely on which lens you look through. If you talk to a Zen practitioner, a Western psychologist, or a neuroscientist, you will get 3 completely different answers. To make sense of it, it helps to first separate the two terms, because we often […]
UNLOADING : A core skill from Zen teaching to practice. In Zen, the concept and practice of "unloading or undoing" doesn't mean destroying something or making yourself stupid, transparent and passive. Instead, it is the deliberate process of stripping away our layers of conceptual thinking, labelling, conditioning, habits, and our ego-driven behaviour. All of them […]
Mindfulness of Feeling Tones The Buddha taught four foundations of mindfulness: mindfulness of the body, feelings, mind, and mental objects or teachings. Together, they provide a framework for exploring our experience with greater awareness and understanding.Today, we will focus on the Second Foundation of Mindfulness: mindfulness of feelings. In everyday language, we often use the […]
We talk a lot about the importance of mindfulness and its practice without explaining how it works. Here is a possible explanation: Because the human brain cannot process 2 mental activities at once, being mindful in a non-judgmental way on X such as breathing or Y such as working with our non-dominant hand, we are forcing our brain to activate […]
Serenity & equanimity Is there a difference ? A Zen perspective In Zen philosophy, equanimity and serenity are closed related states of peace ,but they function differently. A simple way to distinguish them is that serenity is an intermittent emotional state of calmness, while equanimity is a permanent structural stability of the mind. Here is […]
The 3 Great Pillars of Zen practice according to Z.M. Dogen 1. Great Faith (Daishinko) dictates the stability of practice Great Faith is not about being complesant, having blind & rigid belief in unproven dogmas or sort of deities surrendered by supernatural events. Instead, it is a deep, and profound double trust. 1)In your own […]
Meditation: Why is it so hard to meditate? Up to 80% of people starting meditation will quit within a few weeks. Despite being too impatient and disappointed with their achievements, they quit because it is hard to meditate. It should be the simplest thing in the world, right? You just sit down, close your eyes, […]
