“From the start of your training under a wise master, have no recourse to incense offerings, prostrations, recitation of buddha names, repentances, or sutra reading. Just sit in meditation and attain the dropping off of mind and body.”
zazen
From “Dharma Record of Mind Transmission”, by Huang-po Hsi-yün 黄檗希运 (d. 850)
“When you are attached to outer form, to meritorious practices and performances, this is a deluded understanding that is out of accord with the Way.”
From ‘Resuming Big Mind’, in “Not Always So”, by Shunryu Suzuki
“So we don’t practice zazen to attain some big enlightenment that will change our whole being or solve all our problems. That is not the right understanding. That may be what people call “Zen”, but true Zen is not like that. […] Forgetting all about any idea of gaining anything, we just sit there.”
‘Finding out for Yourself’ (from ‘Not Always So’, by Shunryu Suzuki)
” […] the way to study true Zen is not verbal. Just open yourself and give up everything. Whatever happens, whether you think it is good or bad, study closely and see what you find out. This is the fundamental attitude. Sometimes you will do things without much reason, like a child who draws pictures whether they are good or bad.”
catching the bull 