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Or take the Richland County Transit
City Bus:
Take route number 2: Lexington Ave. bus and get off at the
Appleseed Center (Kroger's) and walk to Appleseed Village Apartments 1568 Lexington Ave. Apt. 4G in between Sandy Hill
Fruit Farm and Kroger's
First bus leaves the downtown transit center at 7AM
and
every hour on the hour Monday thru Friday.
No bus service on Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays.
Last bus leaves the downtown transit center at 5:05 PM, please don't get stranded out here! I don't
own a car and there may be no way to get you home.
PLEASE READ IF YOU ARE NEW TO ZEN or call ahead an schedule an appointment
for zazen instruction.
Click here to read THE HEART SUTRA
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| The tongue should be held against the upper palate but not tightly. |
When you do zazen, find
a quiet place where you can sit without disturbances. It should be neither too dark nor too bright, warm in the winter and
cool in the summer. The sitting place should be neat and clean. If possible, a statue of Manjushri Bodhisattva should be enshrined
in the room. If there is none available, any statue or painting of a Buddha or a Bodhisattva is fine. Also, when possible,
place an offering of flowers on the altar and burn incense. Avoid sitting
when you haven't had sufficient sleep or when you are physically exhausted. Before sitting, eat moderately and avoid alcohol.
Wash your face so that you feel refreshed.
 Place your right hand, palm-up, and your left hand palm-up on your right palm. The tips of
your thumbs should be lightly touching each other. This is called hokkaijoin (Cosmic
Mudra). Place the tips of your thumbs in fron t of your navel, and your arms slightly apart from your body.
Keep
your eyes slightly open. Cast them downward at about a 45-degree angle. Without focusing on any particular thing,
let everything have its place in your field of vision. If your eyes are closed, you will easily drift into drowsiness or daydreaming.
Quietly make a deep exhalation and inhalation. Slightly open your mouth and exhale smoothly and slowly. In order to
expel all the air from your lungs, exhale from the abdomen. Then close your mouth and continue to breathe through your nose
naturally. This is called kankiissoku.Place your
hands palms-up on your knees and sway the upper half of your body from left to right a few times. Without moving your hips,
move the trunk as if it were a pole leaning to one side then the other, so that the waist and hip muscles are stretched. You
may also sway forward and backward. At first this movement should be large, gradually becoming smaller and smaller, and ceasing
with your body centered in an upright position. Once again forming the hokkaijoin with your hands, assume an unmoving
upright posture. | During zazen, breathe quietly through your nose. Do not try to control your breathing. Let
it come and go so naturally that you forget you are breathing. Let long breaths be long, and short breaths be short. Do not
make noise by breathing heavily. |
Do not concentrate on any particular object or control
your thought. When you maintain a proper posture and your breathing settles down, your mind will naturally become tranquil.
When various thought arise in your mind, do not become caught up by them or struggle with them; neither
pursue nor try to escape from them. Just leave thoughts alone, allowing them to come up and go away freely. The essential
thing in doing zazen is to awaken (kakusoku) from distraction and dullness, and return to the right posture
moment by moment. When you finish zazen, bow in gassho, place your hands palms-up on your thighs, sway your
body a few times, first a little, and then more extensively. Take a deep breath. Unfold your legs. Move slowly, especially
when your legs are asleep. Do not stand up abruptly. |
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When doing kinhin, walk clockwise around the room, holding your hand in  shashu position. From the waist up, your posture should be the same as that in zazen. Take the first step with your
right foot. Advance by taking only half step for each full breath (one exhalation and inhalation). Walk slowly and smoothly
as if you were standing in one place. Do not drag your feet or make noise.
Walk
straight ahead, and when turning, always turn to right. The word kinhin means to go straight. When
you finish kinhin, stop and bow. Then walk at a normal pace around the room
until you return to your seat.
OTHER POSTURES:
CHAIR: Sit upright in a chair
as you would on a zafu. Do not lean backwards. Use a square support cushion on the seat and/or under your
feet as needed to find a comfortable upright posture. Hold your hands in your lap in the Cosmic Mudra (hokkaijoin).
SEIZA:  This is a variation on the traditional Asian way of sitting. It allows you
to form a seated triangle with knees and the base of your spine, but the center of gravity is a bit higher than sitting in
full or half-lotus. Sit on a seiza bench, a low platform, with your legs folded under the bench, knees firmly on the zabuton.
You can also support yourself by sitting on a firm zafu instead of a bench. | | BURMESE:The
Burmese position for sitting crosslegged provides good stability for zazen if you are not able to sit in full or half-lotus.
In this posture, seat yourself on a zafu in the usual way. Cross your legs with the left leg and foot on the floor, tucked
against your right inner thigh. The left leg is then folded outside the right, also supported by the  floor. The order of crossing the legs may be reversed. About breathing during zazen, Dogen Zenji said in Eihei-koroku
(The collection of gen Zenji's formal speeches and poems), vol. 5: In our zazen, it is of primary importance to sit in
the correct posture. Then, regulate the breathing and calm down. In Hinayana, there are two
elementary ways (of beginner's practice): one is to count the breaths, and the other is to contemplate the impurity (of
the body). In other words, a practitioner of Hinayana regulates his breathing by counting the breaths. The
practice of the buddha-ancestors, however, is completely different from the way of Hinayana. An ancestral teacher has said,
“It is better to have the mind of a wily fox than to follow the way of Hinayana self-control.” Two of the Hinayna
schools (studied) in Japan today are the Shibunritsu (the precept school) and the Kusha (the school based on Abhidharma-kosa).  There is also the Mahayana way of regulating breathing. That is, knowing that a long breath is long and that a short one is
short. The breath reaches the tanden and leaves from there. Although the exhalation and inhalation are different, they both
pass through the tanden. When you breathe abdominally, it is easy to become aware of the transciency (of life), and to harmonize
the mind.
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