what we call I is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale (Shunryu Suzuki)
Hello everybody,
next Sunday, 3rd of November 2109, will be a half day of ZAZEN. from 9:00h until 13:00h. This time, I would like to ask you for bringing some vegetarian food to share for lunch.
feel welcome
gassho
Annette
dear friends, on Sunday, the 6 th of October, we will do a day of ZAZEN , just sitting in silence, in the Dojo Tai Ku An near Barão de São João. As usual we will start at 9 am and will finish at 6 pm. A vegetarian lunch will be served. Beginners are welcome, everybody is welcome. Donation based.
Gassho Carl
About 550 BC a man of northern India called Gautama achieved liberation or enlightenment after 7 days of intensive meditation. It was through this achievement that he was called a Buddha, an enlightened one. Born and brought up in a royal family the prince Siddhartha Gautama had left his palace including wife and son to look for the real thing. He followed ascetics and lived with hermits, studied various yogic practices but was not able to overcome his inner duality; every answer he found brought more questions.
Finally he engaged in a very severe fasting. It is said that he was only eating about 1 grain of rice a day. About to die he was rescued by a young woman, called Sunyata, who offered him a bowl of milk. After this experience Gautama knew that it was neither through protection and wealth nor through mortification and physical neglect that the truth could be realized.
Seeing this paradox clearly Gautama placed himself under a tree and sat in deep meditation. He vowed not to rise from his seat until having fully resolved the deep quest he had about his existence. On the morning of the seventh day, seeing the morning star rising above the horizon he had an experience of profound oneness and understanding. Being free from the perpeteous rising and vanishing of thoughts and emotions, being free from the circle of birth and death a Buddha was born into this world.
2500 years after the Buddha his teachings are still flourishing in the east and also in the west. One of the different schools still existing into our time is Zen. The Zen what we practice today is exactly the same practice what the Buddha went through long time ago. The key points are: