Taisen Deshimaru
Taisen Deshimaru
Taisen Deshimaruwas a Japanese Sōtō Zen Buddhist teacher, who founded the Association Zen Internationale...
hands desert grit
Keep your hands open, and all the sands of the desert can pass through them. Close them, and all you can feel is a bit of grit.
helping-others hands giving
To receive everything, one must open one's hands and give.
thinking fingers should
We should learn to think with our fingers.
school cutting firsts
From your first day at school you are cut off from life to make theories.
noses achieve satori
If we achieve satori and the satori shows, like a bit of dogshit stuck to the top of our nose, that is not so good.
art roots competition
Train the body and develop stamina and endurance. But the spirit of competition and power that presides over them is not good, it reflects a distorted vision of life. The root of the martial arts is not there.
wall mind wicked
What is called zazen is sitting on a zafu [pillow] in a quiet room, absolutely still, in the exact and proper position and without uttering a word, the mind empty of any thought, good or wicked. It is continuing to sit peacefully, facing a wall, and nothing more. Every day.
glasses water brain
During zazen, brain and consciousness become pure. It's exactly like muddy water left to stand in a glass. Little by little, the sediment sinks to the bottom and the water becomes pure.
life thinking body
Think with the whole body.
beautiful climbing bird
The silence of the mountain is even more beautiful once the birds are quiet.
thinking said
Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." I say, "I do not think, that is why I exist."
crush light shells
We feel our shell keeps us safe, but it crushes us and others, and keeps out light and sun.
opposites imagination hypocrisy
Zen is not a particular state but the normal state: silent, peaceful, unagitated. In Zazen neither intention, analysis, specific effort nor imagination take place. It's enough just to be without hypocrisy, dogmatism, arrogance - embracing all opposites.
strong fighting mind
In a fight between a strong technique and a strong body, technique will prevail. In a fight between a strong mind and a strong technique, mind will prevail, because it will find the weak point.