So what exactly is zazen?

"Cease from the practice of intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inward to illuminate yourself. Body and mind of themselves will drop away and your original face will be manifested. If you want to attain suchness, you should practice suchness without delay. Cease all movements of the conscious mind, the gauging of all thoughts and views. Have no designs on becoming a Buddha. Zazen has nothing whatsoever to do with sitting or lying down. The zazen  I speak of is not learning meditation. It is simply the Dharma Gate of repose and bliss, the practice-realization of total accumulated enlightenment. It is the manifestation of ultimate reality. In addition, the bringing about of enlightenment by the opportunity provided by a finger, a banner, a needle, or a mallet, and the affecting of realization with the aid of a hossu, a fist, a staff, or a shout cannot be fully understood by our human discriminative thinking. Indeed, it cannot be fully known by practicing or realizing supernatural powers either. It must be deportment beyond human hearing and seeing. It is not a principle that is prior to our knowledge and perception. Thus, intelligence or lack of it does not matter. Between the dull and the sharp-witted there are no distinctions. If you concentrate your efforts single-mindedly, that in itself is negotiating the Way. Practice/realization is naturally undefiled. Going forward in practice becomes a matter of everyday affairs."...Dogen, in The Eight Gates of Zen by John Daido Loori, pg. 86

Also check out these Chan sites of interest:
 
1. http://chancommunity.ca/home.php

2. How to chan meditate: http://chancenter.org/cmc/chan-practice/how-to-meditate/

3. How to chan meditate: Master Sheng Yen in Facebook

4. The Western Chan Fellowship at http://www.westernchanfellowship.org/

Call Adrian at 250 898 8201, email adrian2@shaw.ca 
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