Welcome!

This teaching was written by Ron Kidd, Senior Dharma Teacher in the Kwan Um School of Zen, resident teacher of the Lincoln Park Zen community, and retired professor of world religions and introduction to Buddhism at DePaul. He designed this “Busy Person’s Retreat” with someone in mind who has no or very little recent experience sitting zen, but who is at least a little familiar with zen literature and the sometimes unexpected way zen masters have of expressing themselves.

The directions which follow envision a period of about 15 or 20 minutes for the first three days, 25 minutes or 30 the fourth day and longer on the fifth.

If you currently already practice zen with a community, you know what to do to make a five day retreat: your regular practice + some other additional thing like a moment or two pondering the writings of your teacher (that’s ponder, not think about!) or five extra minutes of a mantra practice (like “Kwan Seum Bosal” or “Namu Dai Bosa”) or really being faithful to your basic daily practice or even seriously following your breath every time you wait for the bus or el or a red light. You may even find the text excerpts reproduced here a call back to where each of us really lives—only here, only now.

Day 1: Zen - how to do it

Centuries ago Dogen, the great founder of Soto Zen in Japan, wrote:

To do sitting zen, find a quiet place. Spread a thick mat. . . . The place where you sit should be bright, both day and night. It is wise to keep it warm in winter and cool in summer. Cast aside all involvements and discontinue all affairs. Do not reflect on good things; do not think of evil ones. Zen is not the mind, the intellect, consciousness, not thoughts, ideas or perceptions. . . . Be moderate in food and drink. Cherish each passing moment . . . .

When you sit in meditation, sit on a cushion. Sit in the cross-legged position. For the full position, first place your right foot on your left thigh and your left foot on your right thigh. Or you may sit in the half cross-legged position: simply rest your left foot on your right foot [or calf or thigh]. Place your right hand on your left foot and your left hand in your right hand. Touch the tips of your thumbs together. Then straighten your body and sit erect. Do not lean to the left or right, forward or back.

It is helpful to sit about six inches or so above your mat. You can purchase cushions made for zen practice, but for now one way to get something solid is to use a phone book; then put a soft cushion on top of it.

When you begin, first breathe in and out mindfully. Be aware of the air coming into your nostrils and going down into your lungs. Be aware of your diaphragm moving in and out.
Use “diaphragmatic breathing”: when you breathe in, your stomach moves outward. When you breathe out, your stomach moves in.

Zen is an aligning of body, breath, and mind. Be aware of each. When you breathe in, connect with your own vital mind, clear, present, unthinking. When you breathe out, say to yourself, “Don’t know, don’t know, don’t know.” Right now, there’s nothing to know, nothing to think about, no questions to raise, no answers to seek. Simply be there with your body, your breath, and your open, quiet mind.

Keep your eyes open. Cast your gaze downward, at a spot on the floor three or four feet in front of you. Don’t try to force your focus into a steady, small spot, but don’t let it wander around either.

When thoughts do arise, acknowledge them and return to your breath. Your thoughts are not mistakes or even distractions; they are simply thoughts, and as much a part of your meditation as your stomach moving out and in. But do not follow your thoughts. When they arise, acknowledge them (mentally picturing your hands together and your body bowing is a way to “acknowledge them”) and return to your clear mind (inbreath), don’t know (outbreath).

Practice this for fifteen minutes. Warning: be patient with yourself! You’re reversing a lifetime of using your mind to think thoughts!

If you grasp the sense of this practice, you are like the dragon gaining the water or the tiger taking to the mountains. (Dogen)

Day 2: Just Doing It!

Dogen continues:

Once you have settled your posture, regulate your breathing. Whenever a thought occurs, be aware of it; as soon as you are aware of it, it will dissipate. If you remain a while without considering objects, you will naturally feel unified. This is the essential art of sitting zen. Zen is the dharma gate of great ease and joy.

Yesterday you practiced zen for the first time. Today, you’re returning to something already a little familiar, like the dragon in the mountains and the tiger in the forest.. Simply go ahead and sit zen for fifteen minutes. Be in touch with your own body (Dogen says, “Your ears should be in line with your shoulders and your nose in line with your navel. Hold your tongue against the front of your palate and close your lips and teeth. The eyes should remain open. Breathe gently through the nose.”)

Dogen says: Sit steady and think not-thinking. How do you think not-thinking? Don’t think. Contemporary Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn says to
attain your “don’t know mind, attain mind before thinking.” But what can
not-thinking or don’t-know-mind possibly be? This is the whole point of zen:
the only way to attain it is to do it.

Remember: your form can be correct or incorrect. Your experience in meditation, however, is yours. You have a right to your own experience!

Zen is the dharma gate of ease and joy!

Day 3: Zen is sitting, zen is walking

Contemporary Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh has written:

Walking meditation is practicing meditation while walking. It can bring you joy and peace while you practice it. Take [relatively] short steps in complete relaxation; go slowly with a smile on your lips, with your heart open to the experience of peace. You can feel truly at ease with yourself. Your steps can be those of the healthiest, most secure person on earth. All sorrows and worries can drop away while you are walking. To have peace of mind, to attain self-liberation, learn to walk in this way. It is not difficult. You can do it. Anyone can do it who has some degree of mindfulness and a true intention to be happy.

There are different forms of walking meditation; today we will explore an informal one, tomorrow a more formal practice. Today, walk outside, yes even in Chicago on February 10! Dress warmly, of course, and choose as peaceful an itinerary as you can. At the beginning, before the first step, be aware quietly of your body, your breath, your mind. Then walk slowly, mindfully, for fifteen minutes. Be aware of the snow, if there is any, the mud, the bushes and trees, the detritus of humans and animals without judging, without thinking about any of it. Just experience what is there. Before you come in again, if this seems appropriate to where you are, put your hands together and bow simply to the universe.

Please note that although Thich Nhat Hanh is using a different set of words to describe mind before thinking, this is what he’s talking about—not arousing thoughts and feelings of peace, tranquility, etc., as though our ability to do this constitutes the ideal of meditation.

He goes on to say:

Walking meditation is learning to walk again—with ease. . . . Walk so that your footprints bear only the marks of peaceful joy and complete freedom. To do this, you have to learn to let go. . . . Place your foot on the surface of the earth the way an emperor would place his seal on a royal decree. Take each step as an artist in ancient China would sign his work by carefully placing a vermillion seal on the silk. . . . Learn to walk as a Buddha walks; to smile as a Buddha smiles. You can do it! Why wait until you become a Buddha? Be a Buddha right now, at this very moment!

Day 4: Putting it all together

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Today try to marshal a little more time. Sit for 10 or 15 minutes, walk for 5, sit for another 10. Bow to your cushion before you sit down. This time walk indoors if you have some uncluttered space in which to do it. Hold your hands with your fingers interlaced at the lower abdomen. Try to maintain the same focus and tranquility of mind as you have learned to do in sitting zen. If your walking space is small, walk very slowly (e.g., one half-step as your breathe in, another as you breathe out) ; walk slowly but more naturally if your space is larger. Sit again. Then place your hands together and bow to the universe before you get up.

Suzuki Roshi, a Japanese master who taught in California in the 1960s writes:

When we practice sitting zen our mind follows our breathing. When we inhale the air comes into our inner world. When we exhale the air goes to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say “inner world” or “outer world,” but actually there isn’t just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think “I breathe,” the “O” is extra. There is no you to say “I.” What we call “I” is just a swinging door. . . When your mind is pure and clear enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no “O,” no world, no mind nor body, just a swinging door.

Day 5: Sangha

Buddhists honor three “treasures” or three “jewels”—the Buddha (the enlightened one), the dharma (his teaching), and the sangha, his community. Our practice is incomplete without a sangha. So for Day Five, arrange to practice with a local zen community.

Here are some ways to do this:

1. Join the Ancient Dragon Zen Gate community for zen practice on Irving Park Road.

2. Two locations in Evanston: join the Zen Buddhist Temple of Chicago, 608 Dempster, Evanston

3. Join the Lakeside Buddha Sangha in the basement of the Congregational Church in Evanston at 1445 Hinman