The Posture Is the Teaching

Text

Concentrate on the posture. Push the earth with the knees, push the sky with the top of the head. The chin is pulled in, the nape of the neck stretched, the nose vertical above the navel. The hands are in the cosmic mudra, left hand on right, thumbs touching horizontally. Do not lean to the left or the right, forward or backward. The posture of zazen is not the means to awakening—it is awakening itself. The body and mind are not two. When the body takes the posture of Buddha, the mind becomes the mind of Buddha.

license: fair_use

Attribution

• Attributed To
  Taisen Deshimaru

Lineage: Sōtō

By Taisen Deshimaru

• Just Sitproverb
• The Cosmos in the Postureproverb
• Automatic Thinkingproverb
• Observe Your Own Mindproverb
• Mushotoku: Without Seeking Gainsaying

From Teachings of Taisen Deshimaru

• Just Sit
• The Cosmos in the Posture
• Automatic Thinking
• Observe Your Own Mind
• Mushotoku: Without Seeking Gain
• Hishiryo: Beyond Thinking
• True Zen Is Useless
• Here, Now, Nothing Else
• Shikantaza: Only Sit
• Kontin and Sanran: The Two Sicknesses of Zazen

Sources

• contentWikisource — English-language free library

  Kusen of Taisen Deshimaru, instruction during zazen

  Teachings of Taisen Deshimaru: The Posture Is the Teaching