“These forms are not the means of obtaining the right state of mind. To take this posture [of Zazen] is itself to have the right state of mind. There is no need to obtain some special state of mind.”
—Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
Zen Fields is a 501c3 non-profit organization located in central Iowa. Our aim is to provide opportunities for people to practice meditation and to study the Buddhadharma. We strive to address the suffering that exists in multiple layers:
Zen practice works like concentric circles, beginning with the self at the center, and spreading outward to family, community, society and ecology.
from Zen Fields
All day long, we are either fishing for the self, or we are being caught by the thoughts.
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Topics include Buddhist philosophy, mindfulness meditation, parenting, interfaith, ecological and social justice, and science. Readers are welcome to post comments, to ask questions, and to reflect on these posts to see if they ring true or not. The heart of Zen is verification of truth not by an authority, but through one’s direct experience.
The African American Buddhist author Jarvis Jay Masters is one of those inmates. He’s been on death row for more than three decades for a crime that he and his team of supporters and lawyers say he did not commit: the prison murder of a corrections guard.
“The buddhas of all times right now share the same eyes and hands with you, and practice and affirm this for the whole three hundred
Prison is not just a place in our minds. In Buddhism we talk about how the mind is our worst prison, but that the mind can also liberate us. However, there are real prisons all around us…
If Enlightenment is possible here and now and in this lifetime regardless of prior knowledge or practice, the question remains whether Enlightenment happens by grasping it or by letting it go. Zen Master Dogen, in speaking to his assembly during the celebration of the Enlightenment of the Buddha tells us that there are two causes and conditions for accomplishing the Buddha Way.
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