VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1 SPRING 2015

How do you explain that the intellectual, reading interest in Zen prevails over willingness to truly practice it? K: It has always been like that. Zen is not a religion, nor a philosophy or ethics. It is practice, as you said. One has to first expe- rience many things in life, only then can he/she get to Zazen. Not everybody can practice it. But, if someone wants to be responsible for oneself and see what is like, and not to deal with what others say about him or her, he or she will then dedicate himself or herself to Zazen. Or, they will join another order, e.g. a Christian one, and devote themselves to contemplations. But, contemplation and meditation is not for all. Why is it important to sit and meditate in Zazen? K: It is important that a person, their body and spirit, forget themselves in their nature. That means we concentrate on breathing, totally and fully, until we stop to notice there is any observer and the observed. We do not realise that somebody would be judging us. Once an odour of a person vanishes, what remains is only brightness, light. What practical gain does this have to a person from the Western civilisation? K: They begin to live their life naturally. Practising Zazen leaves an imprint of naturalness on our entire behaviour. That means that the person can better cope with problematic situations which life brings? For example with partner separations, death of the close ones, and so on? K: We learn to relativize life. We discover the non-permanent character of the world. That is because we also have a spirit that changes constantly. And, moreover, there appears silence, peace that transcends emotions and feelings. But, if somebody close dies, we have the right to be sad; we have the right to cry. For, in this divine there is also part of a human, therefore we must live a life of a human, too. Fully. Exactly. For the Western lifestyle it is typical to try to see position, power, and relationships as if they were changeless and stable. This brings along lots of psychological problems, from which we try to set free in some way. What would you recommend to people who are trying to search for their self? K: We carry many illusions, numerous traps in our minds, and therefore I would recommend them to come back to reality. Sitting in Zazen helps in this, too. Then we are seated in the presence. We always have to take care to be in the presence and not to wander somewhere else. For example, when we walk, we should do only that. It is necessary to be firmly rooted in the presence, which means, for example, in our work at the computer, too. We can suppose that it is the people who want to come to terms with their own personal problems who are interested in various spiritual movements. They want to get rid of them. But, when they start to practice Zen, it can happen that their problems, anxieties and depressions, nervousness, weakness, cowardness, sexual deviations, aggression, desires, which Q Q Q Q Q Q A A A A 92 (2) Sandó Kaisen

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