• General Overview
  • The Two Suzukis and the Ordinary Way
    • Shunryu Suzuki: unlike Daisetz, he presented Zen as ordinary life, never once using the word satori
    • Soto Zen in America: twelve years planted Tassajara, the San Francisco Zen Center, and this book
    • Beginner's mind: the book's thesis — the goal of practice is always to keep beginner's mind
    • Many possibilities: in the beginner's mind there are many; in the expert's, few
    • Original mind: open, rich, self-sufficient; the demanding or greedy mind loses its richness
    • No attainment: in beginner's mind there is no thought "I have attained something"
  • Right Practice: Body and Breath
    • Posture is purpose: taking the correct posture is itself the goal; right posture already is right mind
    • Not two, not one: body and mind are neither two nor one, but both together
    • Strength from the hara: pressing the diaphragm down sustains physical and mental balance
    • Cosmic mudra: hands form a beautiful oval, held against the body as something precious
    • Breathing as swinging door: air passes like a door; saying "I breathe" adds something extra
    • Let thoughts pass: do not stop thinking; let it come and go and it settles by itself
  • Effort, Rules, and Freedom
    • Weeds nourish the plant: bury the pulled weeds and your practice makes remarkable progress
    • Watch, do not control: give the sheep a wide meadow; ignoring is worst, controlling second
    • Rules make freedom possible: only with rules is there a chance of perfect freedom
    • Four horses: the best runs before the whip's shadow; Buddha is most sympathetic to the worst
    • Shoshaku jushaku: one continuous mistake can be Zen — years of single-minded effort
    • No gaining idea: practice without expectations, even of enlightenment, yet never purposeless sitting
  • Right Attitude: Practice as Expression
    • Zazen expresses original nature: we do not sit to acquire something; practice expresses true nature
    • One railway track: the way is one track, beginningless and endless, never wider or narrower
    • Do not inspect the track: looking at the track brings dizziness; appreciate the scenery from the train
    • All activity is practice: cooking, bowing, walking — each whole-bodied act is the practice itself
    • Burn yourself completely: be a bonfire, not a smoky fire; leave no traces behind
    • Nothing special: after attainment it is just you yourself; a mother's children are nothing special
  • Right Understanding: Transiency and Emptiness
    • Transiency: everything changes — this one truth condenses all Buddhist teaching
    • Selflessness and Nirvana: no abiding self; composure found within change is Nirvana
    • Suffering from non-acceptance: suffering arises when we refuse transiency and imperfection
    • Form is emptiness: true existence appears from emptiness and returns into emptiness
    • Soft, flexible mind: when all you do comes out of nothingness, then you have everything
    • Oneness and variety are the same: appreciate oneness in each existence; love and hate are one
  • Enlightenment Before Practice
    • Attain enlightenment before attaining it: enlightenment is not the result of practice — it is already there
    • The glasses are enlightenment: practice is not glasses you put on to see; the glasses themselves are enlightenment
    • Trying is true nature: the attempt itself expresses Buddha nature, not its result
    • Frog and tile: polishing a tile cannot make a jewel; zazen cannot manufacture a Buddha
    • Effort from a pure origin: if the source is pure, effort moment by moment is satisfying
  • Study, Communication, and Demeanor
    • Studying Buddhism is studying ourselves: to study the self is to forget the self
    • No perfect word exists: subjective intention always distorts; some distortion is inevitable
    • Two dangers in listening: hearing an echo of your own opinion, or being caught by the words
    • Demeanor is expression: say "I am angry" and nothing more; do not pretend or blame
    • Clear the mind: practice empties the mind of habits, intentions, and preconceptions
  • Community, Death, and Continuity
    • Group practice: sitting together is Buddhism's original way of life; the zendo is plain
    • Not a school: Dogen refused the name Soto — we are just Buddhists
    • Water is a living thing: born from oneness with the river, we fear death only by forgetting it
    • Returning to the river: resuming original nature, the water finds composure — that is Nirvana
    • An American way: rules strict enough to obey yet possible to keep, built little by little
  • Beginner's Mind Endures
    • Eyes cannot see themselves: the mind always with you can never be objectified
    • Firm conviction: believe in the original emptiness of your mind — no form, no color, not voidness
    • Zen mind is big mind: not private but the same as another's, always on your side
    • No vivisection: reality cannot be caught by the thinking mind; watch breathing and posture
    • Snowdrops under snow: free of possessing anything, knowing all flows — beginner's mind endures
• Deep Dive
  • Two Suzukis
    • Two Suzuki Approaches
      • Daisetz Suzuki: brought Zen to the West single-handed, with satori as his dramatic focal point
      • Shunryu Suzuki: his Zen is ordinary; the words satori and kensho never appear in this book
      • Satori de-emphasized: not unimportant, but not the part of Zen that needs stressing
      • The Soto Way embodied: man and Way merged; he made no waves and left no traces
    • A Life That Secured the Transmission
      • Twelve years in America: enough to plant a thriving Soto Zen organization on the continent
      • Monuments: Tassajara, the first Western Soto monastery; the San Francisco Zen Center; this book
      • Facing death: "if I suffer, that is suffering Buddha"—grateful for a limited body
      • Dharma heir installed: at the 1971 Mountain Seat ceremony, Baker-roshi received the mantle
    • Beginner's Mind
      • Shoshin: the goal of practice is always to keep beginner's mind
      • Real difficulty: not cross-legged sitting or enlightenment, but keeping mind and practice pure
      • Repetition dulls: recite the sutra once well; by the fourth time the original attitude is lost
      • Empty and ready: beginner's mind is not closed but open to everything
      • Many possibilities: in the beginner's mind there are many; in the expert's, few
    • Original Mind and Non-Duality
      • Original mind: includes everything, always rich and self-sufficient within itself
      • Discrimination limits: the demanding or greedy mind loses its richness and self-sufficiency
      • Precepts keep themselves: keep original mind and you will not violate the precepts
      • No attainment: in beginner's mind there is no thought "I have attained something"
      • Compassion: beginner's mind is boundless, in sympathy with all beings
    • Practicing Like a Beginner
      • Fresh reading: take each sentence of Zen literature with a fresh mind
      • No "I know": never claim to know Zen or to have attained enlightenment
      • Secret of the arts: always be a beginner
      • Dogen's emphasis: continually resume your boundless original mind
  • Right Practice
    • Posture, Breathing, and Big Mind (Right Practice · I)
      • The Oneness of Duality in Posture
        • Crossed legs: left foot on right thigh, right on left — two legs become one.
        • Not two, not one: body and mind are neither two nor one, but both together.
        • Dependent and independent: each of us is at once dependent on everything and completely free.
        • Die and not die: body and mind both end and exist eternally; that is right understanding.
      • Posture: Form as Purpose
        • Spine straight: ears and shoulders aligned, chin tucked, shoulders relaxed, back of head pushed up.
        • Strength from the hara: pressing the diaphragm down sustains physical and mental balance.
        • Cosmic mudra: hands form a beautiful oval, held against the body as something precious.
        • Not a means: taking the posture is itself the purpose; right posture already is right mind.
        • Kill the Buddha: if Buddha is somewhere else, kill him and resume your own Buddha nature.
      • Standing and Owning Your Body
        • Rules free, not conform: standing is measured by each body's own proportions, not uniformity.
        • Pillar in the grasp: hands held as if around a temple pillar, so you cannot slump or tilt.
        • Own your body: if you slump you lose yourself, and your mind wanders elsewhere.
        • Here and now: we must exist right here, right now — that is the key point.
        • You are the boss: put yourself in order first; then everything else falls into place.
      • Breathing: The Swinging Door
        • Limitless in, limitless out: air passes through the throat like a door, between one whole world.
        • No "I": what we call "I" only swings; saying "I breathe" adds something extra.
        • Awareness without a self: be aware of the movement as universal nature, not your small self.
        • Dualism as awakening: you and I, good and bad, are the universe knowing itself in form.
        • No time or space: sitting is just being aware of universal activity, moment after moment.
        • Eating lunch is one o'clock: time and place cannot be separated from what is done.
      • Big Mind, Small Mind
        • Let thoughts pass: do not stop thinking; let it come and go, and it will settle by itself.
        • Waves of your mind: nothing comes from outside; you yourself make the waves.
        • Big mind includes everything: small mind relates to something else, big mind to nothing outside.
        • Water and waves are one: waves are the practice of the water; big and small mind are one.
        • Amplified, not disturbed: experience unfolds big mind, giving imperturbable composure.
      • Control, Rules, and Freedom
        • Watch, do not control: give the sheep a wide meadow; ignoring is worst, controlling second.
        • Let images come and go: then they come under control; this effort is the secret of practice.
        • Time runs present to past: in actual experience, as in the poem, the past becomes present.
        • Rules make freedom possible: only with rules is there a chance of perfect freedom.
        • Weeds nourish the plant: bury the pulled weeds and your practice makes remarkable progress.
    • Effort, Emptiness, and True Nature (Right Practice · II)
      • Effort Purifies Itself
        • Weeds into nourishment: actual practice, not interpretation, turns difficulty into sustenance.
        • Effort creates waves: any effort disturbs calm, yet absolute calm cannot be attained without effort.
        • Forget yourself in effort: make effort to the last moment, when all effort vanishes.
        • Breath until unaware: keep mind on breathing until unaware of breathing; continue without expecting a final stage.
        • Purity of effort: rough effort becomes purer; when effort is pure, body and mind are pure.
        • Unawareness: in perfect calm there is no subjectivity or objectivity; effort and thought vanish.
      • The Four Horses and Continuous Mistake
        • Four horses: the best runs before the whip's shadow; the worst only after pain reaches the marrow.
        • No ranking: right practice does not depend on being the best or worst horse.
        • Buddha's mercy: Buddha has more sympathy for the worst horse; imperfection grounds the way-seeking mind.
        • Shoshaku jushaku: one continuous mistake can be Zen—years of single-minded effort.
        • Good father paradox: one who thinks he is good is not; single-hearted effort is what matters.
      • Form, Emptiness, and No Gaining Idea
        • No gaining idea: practice without expectations, even of enlightenment, yet not purposeless sitting.
        • Form is emptiness: the Prajna Paramita Sutra warns this insight can still become dualistic.
        • Form is form: when practice becomes effortless, emptiness is emptiness—no dualism.
        • Stop mind: not stopping activity; mind pervades body and follows breathing.
        • Restriction as practice: when restrictions do not limit you, you find your own way.
        • Whatever you do: is zazen, but saying so as excuse reveals attachment; just sit, eat.
      • Bowing, Big Mind, and the Vows
        • Bowing gives up self: zazen and bowing both drop dualistic ideas.
        • Become one with Buddha: bow without idea of Buddha; you are already Buddha.
        • Big mind: everything has same value; master may bow to disciple, we may bow to cats and dogs.
        • Sen no Rikyu: with the sword of big mind there is no dualistic world; ready to die each moment.
        • Four vows: impossible vows are undertaken because true nature wants it; effort appeases inmost desire.
      • Calmness in Activity and Nothing Special
        • Calmness in activity: true calmness is found in activity, not inactivity.
        • Fog-like progress: Soto practice advances little by little; you get wet without knowing, no rapid progress.
        • Practice as expression: no Nirvana outside practice; practice expresses true nature, making realization possible.
        • Nothing special: after attainment it is just you yourself; a mother's children are nothing special.
        • Everything is Buddha nature: Dogen reads "everything is Buddha nature," not merely "has."
        • Just sit: forget gaining and dualistic ideas; remain on your cushion expecting nothing.
  • Right Attitude
    • Expressing True Nature Without Gain (Right Attitude · I)
      • Practice as Expression
        • Zazen expresses original nature: we do not sit to acquire something; practice expresses true nature.
        • Every movement is practice: swaying right or left when sitting down or getting up is not preparation.
        • Cooking is practice: according to Dogen, cooking is not just preparation; it expresses sincerity.
        • Cook with nothing in mind: allow plenty of time, expect nothing, and just cook.
        • All activity: whatever you do should express the same deep activity, without preparation for something else.
      • The Single-Minded Way
        • One railway track: the Bodhisattva’s way is one track thousands of miles long, always the same.
        • No widening or narrowing: if the track became wider or narrower, it would be disastrous.
        • Beginningless and endless: there is no starting point, goal, or attainment; just run on the track.
        • Do not inspect the track: curiosity about the track brings dizziness; appreciate the scenery from the train.
        • No secret: Buddha takes care of the track; everyone has the same nature as the railway track.
        • Tea after discussion: Chokei and Hofuku show that verbal interpretation ends in ordinary action.
      • Repetition, Calm, and No Excitement
        • Buddha rejected asceticism: war with the body has no limit; it cannot free the spirit permanently.
        • This moment matters: Buddha asked how he existed now, not about metaphysical elements or theories.
        • Dough becomes bread: enlightenment is made over and over, like learning how dough becomes bread.
        • Zen is not excitement: it is concentration on usual routine, not something to get excited about.
        • Quiet amid noise: a calm, constant mind stays stable even in the busy, changing world.
        • Build character gradually: like bread or a dam, mix little by little and bank carefully; do not overload.
      • Right Effort and Non-Achievement
        • Right direction: effort must be headed rightly; unaware wrong effort is deluded effort.
        • From achievement to non-achievement: rid practice of unnecessary results and excessive qualities.
        • Pride is extra: good practice can add pride; remove whatever is added.
        • Dharma-ridden: being caught in ideas of practice or attainment makes practice impure.
        • Purity is things as they are: adding or dualizing makes impure; just practice zazen.
        • One hand clapping: sound is everywhere before you listen; do not try to hear it.
      • No Trace, No Fear
        • Simple mind: zazen mind is calm and simple; thinking leaves traces and shadows on activity.
        • Double or triple notion: trying to catch two birds with one stone scatters concentration.
        • Right thinking leaves no shadow: necessary preparation is fine if not from relative confused mind.
        • Relative mind limits: small mind sets itself against others, creating gaining ideas.
        • No fear: if you already have everything in pure quality, there is nothing to lose.
        • World is its own magic: what is existent cannot become nonexistent; do not watch for disappearance.
    • No Traces, Pure Practice (Right Attitude · II)
      • Doing Without Traces
        • Traces of attachment: Attachment is the trace of thought and activity left behind.
        • Remember without clinging: We should remember what we did, but without an extra trace.
        • One-sided recollection: Pride twists memory and personality into stubbornness.
        • Whole-body action: Do each act concentrated, with whole body and mind.
        • Bonfire practice: Burn yourself completely; do not be a smoky fire.
      • Ashes, One Activity, Transmission
        • Ashes do not return: Dogen: ash is ash; firewood is firewood.
        • One activity covers everything: Complete activity contains the whole of practice.
        • Zazen in this moment: Wholehearted zazen, even for a moment, is zazen.
        • One complete bowing: No Buddha, no you; just the bowing takes place.
        • Transmitted secret: Buddha's flower to Maha Kashyapa shows true activity beyond rules.
      • Giving as Non-Attachment
        • Dana prajna paramita: Giving, wisdom, and crossing to the other shore are one way.
        • Six ways as one: Giving, precepts, endurance, effort, Zen, and wisdom are one life.
        • Other shore each step: True wisdom reaches Nirvana in every step of the crossing.
        • To give is non-attachment: Dogen: not attaching to anything is itself giving.
        • Equal offerings: A penny, leaf, line, or word given in non-attachment has equal value.
        • Big I creates: True creation is giving from the big I, not the small I.
      • Three Kinds of Creation
        • First creation: Rising from zazen, you are there; everything appears fresh and new.
        • Second creation: Preparing food, tea, or other useful acts.
        • Third creation: Education, culture, art, and social systems created within yourself.
        • Forgotten source: Without the first creation, the other two are like parentless children.
        • Daily renewal: Reflect on the past, then forget it and work on something new.
      • Poor Ways of Practice
        • Idealism: A gaining idea breeds endless ideals and sacrifices present practice.
        • Competition: Practicing against others is shabby, inadequate practice.
        • Shikan taza: Just sitting; practice whether or not you find joy.
        • Warning signal: Tiredness or disgust reveals a gaining idea; realize it and continue.
        • Teacher: A teacher corrects practice and keeps it safe from wrong practice.
      • Joy, Conflict, and No Goal
        • Four stages: Highest is no joy; then physical joy; then both; then no thinking.
        • Fixed ideas cause conflict: One-sided views make us claim only our way is true.
        • No fixed object: A clay, bronze, or wooden Buddha cannot always help.
        • Limit activity: With no goal, concentrate fully on what you do now.
    • Studying the Self, Forgetting the Self (Right Attitude · III)
      • One-Act Samadhi
        • Ichi-gyo-zammai: one-act samadhi — concentrate on the single activity of this moment
        • Right posture: concentrated sitting is how we express the universal nature
        • Just bow, just sit: no object of worship — the act itself makes you Buddha
        • Practice for everyone: our way belongs to no religion; it points the sharp angle inward
      • Studying Buddhism, Studying Ourselves
        • The real purpose: not to study Buddhism but to study ourselves
        • Teaching is needed but insufficient: like knowing water's elements yet not water itself
        • Leave the teacher: you need a teacher only to become independent
        • Rinzai's four ways: the disciple, the teaching, an interpretation, or no instruction
        • Teaching without teaching: just sitting in silence — the student is already Buddha
      • No Special Feeling
        • Eiheiji: everyone just doing what he should do — that is all
        • Insiders feel nothing special: monastic life was simply the usual life
        • Wind and pine: they just blow and stand; listeners write the poems
        • Medicine, not food: encouragement is sometimes necessary, never the true purpose
      • The Big Activity
        • Body and clothing: teaching may be our clothing; neither is actually ourselves
        • Smallest particle: we express only a fragment of the big activity
        • Talk to forget: to talk about ourselves is actually to forget ourselves
        • Dogen's turn: to study ourselves is to forget ourselves, and then to be reality
      • True Zazen: The Frog and the Tile
        • The frog: sits like us with no idea of zazen — that is our zazen
        • Baso's tile: polishing a tile cannot make a jewel; zazen cannot manufacture a Buddha
        • Ordinary mind: there is no Buddhahood apart from it
        • Cart and horse: they are not different — strike the horse and the cart goes
        • When you become you: zazen becomes true zazen, and everything else practices too
      • Cultivate Your Own Spirit
        • No problem: when you are a part of the problem, there is no problem
        • Cultivate your own spirit: do not go seeking something outside yourself
        • Clear the mind: not gathering knowledge but clearing it — true knowledge is already yours
        • Emptiness: like a dark sky always prepared for lightning to flash
        • Rozan's mist: accept things as old friends, appreciated with new feeling
    • Constancy, Communication, and Big Mind (Right Attitude · IV)
      • Appreciating Without Accumulating
        • Not our way: gathering pieces of knowledge into a collection may be good, but it is not our way.
        • Forget yourself: only by forgetting yourself can you appreciate something fully, like lightning in the dark sky.
        • Nothing is unfamiliar: living in emptiness, understanding is always possible, even across cultures.
      • Constancy Over Patience
        • Nin is constancy, not patience: forced patience involves effort; constancy is the unchanging ability to accept things as they are.
        • Patience can be non-acceptance: those who know emptiness accept things as they are, and this only appears to be patience.
        • Live in the dark empty sky: clouds and lightning come, but the sky is never disturbed.
        • Enlightenment before and after: when enlightenment comes, practice forgets it and is ready for the next moment's enlightenment.
      • Communicating Beyond Words
        • No perfect word exists: subjective intention always distorts a statement; some distortion is inevitable.
        • Ultimate fact: through the master's words, understand things as they are in each moment.
        • Two dangers in listening: hearing only an echo of your own opinion, or being caught by the words themselves.
        • Just listen: give up preconceived ideas and observe the other's way rather than judging right and wrong.
      • Straightforwardness and Demeanor
        • Behavior is expression: Zen emphasizes demeanor — the natural expression of yourself, not a prescribed manner.
        • Say what you feel: "I am angry" is enough; no need to pretend otherwise or blame another.
        • Parents and masters distort: good intentions don't guarantee free expression; Nishiari's "Go away!" was only his way.
        • Clear the mind: practice zazen to empty the mind of habits, intentions, and preconceptions.
      • Big Mind and the Precepts
        • Hinayana practice, Mahayana spirit: rigid form with an informal mind; whatever you do is practice.
        • Form is a matter of discrimination: within the practice itself there is no formal or informal.
        • Formal observance violates precepts: clinging to Hinayana form loses the Mahayana spirit.
        • Don't argue to win: following Dogen, listen to objections and think with the other person.
      • Waterfall, Emptiness, and Death
        • Half-dipper bridge: Dogen returned half his dipperful to the river; such practice is respect, beyond economy.
        • Water is a living thing: feeling one with the water, we cannot use it merely materially.
        • Separation creates feeling: born from oneness with the universe, we are like drops separated from the whole river.
        • Fear comes from attachment: not realizing our oneness with the river, we fear death.
        • Returning to the river: resuming original nature, the water finds perfect composure — that is Nirvana.
  • Right Understanding
    • Practice, Transiency, and Naturalness (Right Understanding · I)
      • Understanding Through Practice
        • Buddhist understanding: not intellectual; true understanding is actual practice itself.
        • Posture and breathing: central to practice, more than philosophical grasp of Buddhism.
        • Original Buddha nature: practice rests on strong confidence in it, not mere doctrine.
        • Sincerity and right effort: matter more than any stage attained.
      • No Gaining Idea and Karma
        • Bodhidharma’s teaching: enlightenment is present when you start zazen, without preparation.
        • Gaining idea: practice based on it merely repeats karma, not true Zen.
        • Means-to-goal error: if zazen is only a means, there is no way to attain it.
        • This moment: not a future goal, is where effort must be made.
        • Ego and karma: egoistic ideas create karmic life; practice cuts the spinning mind.
        • Buddha’s example: after enlightenment he still suffered karma and continued the same effort.
      • Transiency, Selflessness, Suffering
        • Transiency: everything changes; this basic truth condenses all Buddhist teaching.
        • Selflessness: because each existence changes constantly, there is no abiding self.
        • Nirvana: realizing change and finding composure in it is Nirvana.
        • Suffering: it comes from non-acceptance of transiency.
        • Acceptance: accept difficulty as pleasure; find perfection through imperfection.
      • Calmness, Activity, and Being
        • Calmness and activity: two interpretations of one fact; harmony is their quality.
        • Serene sitting: zazen is itself activity, not a rest from activity.
        • Flashing existence: each being flashes into the vast phenomenal world, independent and complete.
        • Charcoal and ashes: charcoal does not become ashes; moments have no fixed connection.
        • Same yet different: when I sit, everything sits with me; beings are independent yet one.
      • Dogen’s Enlightenment
        • Dogen’s sorrow: he felt life’s evanescence watching incense smoke at his dead mother’s side.
        • Loneliness blossoms: that feeling deepened and flowered into enlightenment at twenty-eight.
        • No body and mind: he exclaimed this, dropping off body and mind.
        • Immense quality: his being became a flashing that included all phenomena, giving strength.
      • Naturalness from Nothingness
        • Heretical naturalness: jinen ken gedo is sloppiness or a let-alone policy.
        • True naturalness: activity based on nothingness, like a seed in harmony with the ground.
        • Human effort: naturalness must be worked on; it is not mere freedom or laziness.
        • True emptiness: shin ku myo u—from true emptiness, wondrous being appears moment after moment.
        • Listening: forget your own ideas; complete involvement leaves nothing.
    • Naturalness, Emptiness, and Enlightenment (Right Understanding · II)
      • Soft Mind and Naturalness
        • Nyu nan shin: a soft, flexible, unhardened mind — the natural mind in which the joy of life lives
        • Losing it: lose this mind and you lose everything; you have nothing even when you think you have something
        • True possession: when all you do comes out of nothingness, then you have everything
        • Naturalness: whatever you do, this attitude is necessary
      • True Existence Comes from Emptiness
        • Forget preconceptions: to understand Buddhism, abandon the idea of substantiality or existence
        • The bird both exists and does not exist: a view of life based on existence alone is heretical
        • Gate of emptiness: true existence appears from emptiness and goes back again into emptiness
        • No permanent way: no path is set up for us; moment after moment we must find our own way
        • Your way is the universal way: understanding one thing through and through, you understand everything
      • Emptying the Mind, Gaining Freedom
        • House cleaning: take everything out of your room and clean it; bring things back only if necessary
        • Stop the brook: "Step by step I stop the sound of the murmuring brook" — this is freedom and renunciation
        • East and west: to go one mile west means to go one mile east; being bound by direction is duality
        • Concentration is freedom: not straining to watch one spot — your effort should be directed at nothing
      • Enlightenment Before Practice
        • Tentative existence: realizing everything is emptiness, we have no attachment and no suffering
        • Realization is near at hand: enlightenment is not the result of practice — it is already there
        • The glasses: practice is not glasses you put on to see enlightenment; the glasses themselves are enlightenment
        • The frog's zazen: splitting "you" from zazen makes two things; a frog sitting is zazen, hopping is not
        • Believe in nothing: believe in something with no form or color, existing before all forms — not voidness
        • Headache and rain: if you know why you suffer, you feel better; appreciate the sound of the rain now
      • Mindfulness as Wisdom
        • Imperturbable thinking: soft, smooth observation without stagnation, accepting things as they are
        • Mindfulness: thinking undivided and stable, whether or not there is an object — this is zazen
        • Wisdom is readiness: not a faculty or a philosophy to learn; it comes out of your mindfulness
        • Emptiness of mind: do not become attached to any particular wisdom, even that taught by Buddha
      • Oneness, Variety, and Acceptance
        • Midnight is dawn: Dogen's night and day are one thing; zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing
        • Calmness in activity: each existence depends on something else; there are no separate individual existences
        • Do not emphasize oneness: oneness and variety are the same; appreciate oneness in each existence
        • Flowers and weeds: we love flowers and ignore weeds — that attachment is itself Buddha's activity
        • Love and hate are one: in love there should be hate; accept the weeds, whether or not you care for them
        • Foolish and wise: there is no gap between the ignorant and the wise — know things just as they are
    • Calmness, Effort, and Original Nature (Right Understanding · III)
      • Calmness Revealed by Disturbance
        • Moon and cloud: we feel the moon's roundness only when something covers it
        • Calmness: it is found only when something happens within it
        • Weed as treasure: what most call worthless, the Zen student holds precious
        • Life as art: with this attitude, whatever you do becomes art
        • Zazen's fruit: sitting's calmness encourages you in everyday life, not during sitting
      • Effort Is Already Enlightenment
        • No gaining idea: in zazen just sit in complete calmness, relying on nothing
        • Body straight: keeping upright means not leaning on anything, physically or mentally
        • Trying is true nature: the attempt itself expresses Buddha nature, not its result
        • Difficulty: in distress and defilement, there we have enlightenment and composure
        • Dogen's paradox: attain enlightenment before you attain enlightenment
        • Evanescence: only within fleeting life do we find the joy of eternal life
      • The Pure Origin of Effort
        • Origin before result: if the source is impure, the result will never satisfy
        • Moment by moment: effort arising from a pure origin is good and satisfying
        • Group practice: sitting together is Buddhism's original way of life
        • Zendo simplicity: nothing fancy — we just come, sit, and resume daily activity
      • Not a School, Not a Posture
        • Four postures: walking, standing, sitting, lying — zazen contains all of them
        • Dogen's refusal: no reason to call ourselves Soto; we are just Buddhists
        • No fixed understanding: a teacher must not attach to any particular doctrine
        • Buddhism is Truth: not a particular teaching; even today's rain is Buddha's teaching
        • Buddha's activity: our many names and deeds are all one Buddha's doing
      • Emptiness and Delusion
        • Forget everything: the best route to composure is retaining no idea of things
        • Don't stop the mind: trying to halt thinking is only another burden
        • Firm conviction: believe firmly in the original emptiness of your mind
        • Essence of mind: original mind, original face, Buddha nature — all mean absolute calmness
        • Practice in delusion: saying "this is delusion" is itself enlightenment
      • Buddha Nature Beyond Consciousness
        • Beyond consciousness: true nature exists though it is never consciously experienced
        • Just sitting: asking what Buddha nature is makes it vanish; sitting reveals it
        • No self-built wall: pride in attainment or discouragement walls in your practice
        • Be the master: wherever you go, do not lose your way
        • Without trying: without trying to be Buddha, you are Buddha
  • Epilogue
    • Neither Priests Nor Laymen
      • Special people: American students are not priests, yet not exactly laymen—they need a practice of their own.
      • Undivided original way: discovering a new life still rests on Dogen's practice and the original way.
      • Same practice, different fruit: Dogen said some attain enlightenment and some do not, though all sit identically.
      • Confidence in big mind: sit seriously with right attitude and understanding; that itself is Zen.
    • Big Mind Is Always on Your Side
      • Beyond distinctions: enlightenment is not experience in terms of good or bad, time or space, past or future.
      • The unaskable question: asking "what is enlightenment experience?" already shows you do not know it.
      • Eyes cannot see themselves: the mind always with you can never be objectified or reflected on.
      • Universal mind: this mind is not private but the same as another's—Zen mind, big mind.
      • True nature is watching: before you see Buddha nature you watch your mind; seeing the water is the true fish.
    • Practice Expresses True Nature
      • No bright star: taking enlightenment as a shining object found by good practice is heresy.
      • Not mind-only: Zen holds neither mind-only nor matter-only; mind and body are always one.
      • Zazen as expression: we practice to express true nature, not to attain enlightenment.
      • Bodhidharma's Buddhism: to be practice, to be enlightenment—at first belief, later something already had.
      • No vivisection: reality cannot be caught by thinking mind; watch breathing and posture moment after moment.
    • An American Way of Zen
      • Freedom's cost: Americans fix on freedom of physical activity, which brings its own mental suffering.
      • Hyakujo's rules: he established monastic rules in China to transmit the freedom of true mind.
      • Patience, not games: too serious or too playful both lose the way; build an American Zen life little by little.
      • Rules with authority: strict enough to command obedience, possible to keep, then obeyed without discrimination.
      • Beginner's mind: free of possessing anything, knowing all flows; even under heavy snow there are snowdrops.
• Core Conclusion and Practical Takeaways
  • The Heart of the Teaching
    • Beginner's mind: the goal of practice is to keep it — open, empty, and full of possibilities
    • No attainment: in beginner's mind there is no thought "I have attained something"
    • Practice expresses true nature: we do not sit to gain enlightenment; the sitting itself is the expression
    • Form is not a means: taking the right posture is the purpose — right posture already is right mind
    • Nothing special: after attainment it is just you yourself, doing what you should do
  • Mindset Shifts
    • From gaining to non-gaining: rid practice of results, pride, and every unnecessary quality
    • From controlling to watching: give the sheep a wide meadow; let thoughts come, go, and settle
    • From patience to constancy: nin is the unchanging ability to accept things as they are, not forced endurance
    • From excitement to routine: Zen is concentration on usual activity, not something to get excited about
    • From accumulating to emptying: do not gather knowledge; clear the mind so true knowledge appears
  • Practicing With the Body
    • Sit: cross-legged, spine straight, ears over shoulders, chin tucked, back of the head pushed up
    • Press the hara: lowering the diaphragm sustains both physical and mental balance
    • Cosmic mudra: hands form a beautiful oval, held against the body as something precious
    • Breathe like a swinging door: air passes in and out limitlessly, between one whole world
    • One-act samadhi: concentrate on this single activity of this moment, expecting nothing
  • Practice in Daily Activity
    • Cooking is practice: cook with nothing in mind, allow plenty of time, expect nothing
    • Every movement is practice: sitting down, getting up, and bowing are not preparation for something else
    • Bowing gives up self: bow with no idea of Buddha; you are already Buddha
    • Repetition, kept fresh: recite the sutra once, well; by the fourth time the original attitude is lost
    • Weeds nourish the plant: bury what you pull; difficulty becomes sustenance for practice
    • Build gradually: like dough becoming bread, mix little by little and bank carefully; never overload
  • Working With Thoughts and Difficulty
    • Do not stop thinking: let it come and go; your mind will settle by itself
    • You make the waves: nothing comes from outside; big mind and small mind are one water
    • Watch for gaining ideas: tiredness or disgust signals one — recognize it and continue
    • Simple mind leaves no trace: act with whole body and mind; do not be a smoky fire
    • Live in the dark empty sky: clouds and lightning come, but the sky is never disturbed
  • Living, Dying, and Beginner's Mind
    • Nothing to lose: having everything in pure quality, there is nothing left to fear
    • Fear comes from attachment: not realizing our oneness with the river, we fear death
    • Returning to the river: resuming original nature, the water finds perfect composure — that is Nirvana
    • Same practice, different fruit: all sit identically; some attain enlightenment and some do not — keep sitting
    • Snowdrops under heavy snow: free of possessing anything, beginner's mind renews itself daily