Teachings

Plain-spoken introductions to Zen practice, and reader’s guides to the classic texts it rests on.

THE PRACTICE

• What Is Zen? A Plain IntroductionZen is the school of Buddhism that stakes everything on direct experience — sitting, seeing, and meeting a teacher — rather than doctrine. Where it came from, what it claims, and how a beginner actually starts.7 min read
• How to Sit Zazen: A Beginner's Guide to Zen MeditationZazen — 'seated meditation' — is the heart of Zen practice. Posture, breath, eyes, what to do with your thoughts, how long to sit, and the role of the bells, explained simply.8 min read
• What Is a Teisho? The Zen Talk That Is Not a LectureA teisho is a Zen master's direct presentation of the dharma — not a lecture about Zen, but a demonstration of it. What teisho means, how it differs from a dharma talk, and how to listen to one.6 min read
• What Is Dokusan? The Private Interview With the TeacherDokusan is the face-to-face meeting where Zen actually changes hands: the student brings their practice, the teacher answers it directly. What happens in the room, and why the tradition treats it as indispensable.5 min read
• What Is a Kōan? Riddles That Are Not RiddlesKōans — like Zhaozhou's 'Mu' from the Gateless Gate — are not puzzles to solve but invitations to see directly. Where kōans come from, famous examples, and how students actually work with them.7 min read
• A Daily Zen Practice at Home: Sit, Ask, ListenYou don't need a monastery to practice seriously. A realistic daily rhythm — sitting, bringing one true question, and studying the classics — that fits inside twenty minutes a morning.6 min read
• A Short Glossary of Zen TermsZazen, teisho, dokusan, kenshō, mu, sesshin, roshi — the vocabulary you meet in Zen books and zendos, defined plainly and without mystification.8 min read

THE CLASSICS

• The Gateless Gate (Mumonkan): A Reader's GuideForty-eight kōans compiled by Wumen in 1228, opening with Zhaozhou's Mu. What the collection is, how it is built, and how to read a case without explaining it away.6 min read
• The Platform Sutra of the Sixth PatriarchThe only Chinese work honored as a sutra: Huineng's story of the poetry contest, sudden awakening, and the teaching that meditation and wisdom are one thing, not two.6 min read
• The Diamond Sutra, PlainlyThe sutra that cuts: a dialogue in which every category — beings, merit, even 'Buddha' — is raised and released. Why Zen loves it, and the line that woke Huineng.6 min read
• The Heart Sutra: Form Is EmptinessChanted daily in every Zen hall on earth, the Heart Sutra compresses the whole of Mahayana wisdom into a page. A line-by-line walk through what 'form is emptiness' does and does not mean.6 min read
• The Faith-Mind Inscription (Xinxin Ming)'The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.' The early Chan poem on picking and choosing — and why the mind's constant voting is the whole problem.5 min read
• The Song of Enlightenment (Zhengdao Ge)Yongjia's seventh-century song of the 'leisurely one of the Way' — the freest, most exuberant poem in the Zen canon, sung from the far side of seeking.5 min read
• The Ten Oxherding Pictures: A Map of the PathTen drawings — from searching for the ox to returning to the marketplace — that chart the whole arc of Zen practice, including what comes after awakening.6 min read
• 101 Zen Stories: The Little Anecdotes That TeachA cup of tea overfilled, a muddy road, a moon that cannot be stolen — why Zen teaches through tiny stories, and four of the best from the classic collection, retold.6 min read
• The Blue Cliff Record: Zen's Most Literary Kōan CollectionOne hundred cases with poems and commentaries, so beautiful a later master burned the printing blocks. What makes the Blue Cliff Record demanding — and worth it.5 min read