We at the Missouri Zen Center were recently invited to a college class on Happiness to show why and how to do sitting meditation. It was a beautiful autumn day with bright sunlight shining on yellow, red, and brown leaves. Amazed at the brilliant colors and filled with joy on seeing them, I remembered an 800 year old great gingko tree at Zuioji Temple in Japan, where I practiced under my teachers Tsugen Narasaki and Ikko Narasaki many years ago. Whenever I recall its abundant resplendent yellow leaves in autumn, a Zen phrase comes to mind: The body exposed to golden wind.

I told the students that “just sitting” (shikan-taza, intent sitting) is the direct and practical way to happiness. Anyone can witness this “come and see” way here and now without discrimination of race, religion, gender, generation, age, area, etc. It is good for oneself and others in the beginning, in…

We at the Missouri Zen Center are frequently invited to talk about Buddhism and Zen at schools and other institutions. This Civil Religion site provides a forum to engage in interfaith dialogue and discussion. While we enjoy and seek out opportunities to have these discussions, we also note the paradox of the situation. An essential characteristic of Zen Buddhism is the recognition that, ultimately, human language is incapable of expressing the truth. Language is like a finger pointing to the moon of truth. By practicing zazen, or meditation, we seek to witness truth by going beyond language and other human creations.

Language is just one of the many things that humans create. We dwell in things – cities, civilizations, castles in the air – and then we hold onto things such as money, matter, and mind. Ultimately, we are shut in and bound by these things, becoming separated (selfish, sinful) and disintegrated…