Practice Videos from Tesshin Roshi

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Home Mediation Practice

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach Tesshin via the email form on the contact tab

Step 1 – Create a dedicated space for meditation and practice

LOCATION
Choose a place in your home that you know to be somewhat isolated and private. It can be outdoors if  screened to protect from insects, clean, and in a quiet part of the grounds. Fresh air and moderate light and temperature are of utmost importance.

FURNISHINGS
In addition to the quietness and cleanliness of your place for sitting you may want to have certain items on hand to support your practice. Many people replicate the environment and atmosphere of the Zen enter to the degree reasonable and feasible. For a few examples, you may want to include:

• Sitting mat (zabuton) and cushion (zafu)
• Kneeling bench (seiza)
• Timer (if not using stick incense)
• Altar with or without Buddha or other image, and:

• Incense and holder
• Candle(s)
• Water bowl
• Flower vase

Step 2 – Meditation Hints

It is best to get Zen meditation (zazen) instructions in person, from a qualified teacher. However, as a brief reminder for home practice, please remember the basics:

SPACE

Sit in a clean and quiet place and at a time you are not likely to be distracted by telephone, visitors, et cetera.

TIME

There is no one-size-fits-all formula, but most people seem to arrive at an average of sitting once or twice a day (e.g. morning and evening) for a half-hour to an hour or so each time. If you wonder if you are sitting enough, you are probably not.

POSTURE

Sit upright as comfortably as you can without slumping. Sit on a cushion cross-legged or kneeling, on a bench, or on a chair. The most important thing is that the head neck and back be straight.  Let the gaze become fixed on a point in space some 3-9 feet in front of you, eyes about half open, teeth touching but not clinched.

BREATH

Breathe deeply without forcing it; find the natural breath. Count the cycles in a simple way and follow the breath into the lower abdomen and back out the nostrils.

Click HERE for a link on a talk Tesshin gave on breathing.

ATTENTION

Let the attention open up to all sensation, perception, et cetera.  Let thoughts come, but also let them go. Return the attention to the posture and breath until all three come together in a unified way. 

Step 3:  Chants and Sutras  (optional after meditation session)

Heart Sutra

Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva,
when deeply practicing prajna paramita,
clearly saw that all five aggregates are empty
and thus relieved all suffering.
Shariputra,
form does not differ from emptiness,
emptiness does not differ from form.
Form itself is emptiness,
emptiness itself form.
Sensations, perceptions, formations, and
consciousness
are also like this.
Shariputra,
all dharmas are marked by emptiness;
they neither arise nor cease,
are neither defiled nor pure,
neither increase nor decrease.
Therefore, given emptiness,
there is no form, no sensation, no perception,
no formation, no consciousness;
no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue,
no body, no mind, no sight, no sound,
no smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind;
no realm of sight, no realm of mind consciousness.
There is neither ignorance nor extinction of ignorance,neither old age and death, nor extinction of old age
and death,
no suffering, no cause, no cessation, no path;
no knowledge and no attainment. With nothing to
attain,
a bodhisattva
relies on prajna paramita
and thus the mind is without hindrance.
Without hindrance, there is no fear.
Far beyond all inverted views,
one realizes nirvana.
All buddhas of past, present, and future
rely on prajna paramita and thereby
attain unsurpassed, complete, perfect
enlightenment.
Therefore, know the prajna paramita
as the great miraculous mantra,
the great bright mantra,
the supreme mantra,
the incomparable mantra,
which removes all suffering
and is true, not false.
Therefore we proclaim the prajna paramita mantra,
the mantra that says:
Gate Gate Paragate
Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha.

Four Bodhisattva Vows

Beings are numberless;  I vow to free them
Delusions are inexhaustible;  I vow to end them
Dharma gates are boundless;  I vow to enter them
The buddha way is unsurpassable;  I vow to realize it