True Zen Is Useless

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True Zen is useless. It does not serve any purpose. It is not useful for business, for health, for success. In our civilization, people want everything to be useful—they cannot understand something that has no utility. But the highest things in life are useless: love, art, poetry, contemplation. Zazen is the most useless thing, and therefore the most precious.

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
• The Posture Is the Teaching
• Here, Now, Nothing Else
• Shikantaza: Only Sit
• Kontin and Sanran: The Two Sicknesses of Zazen

Sources

• contentWikisource — English-language free library

  Attributed to Taisen Deshimaru, informal teaching

  Teachings of Taisen Deshimaru: True Zen Is Useless