The Heart Of Zen Practice

teaching Jan 11, 2024

This sitting, being with ourselves, and wondering who we are is the heart of Zen practice. Teachers can guide us, but we have to sit there with ourselves, we have to sit and wonder. I say with ourselves, but who is it that we’re sitting with? Once you use this kind of language suddenly there’s more than one person. I’m sitting with myself. Who’s "myself" and who’s "I"?

So fundamentally the heart of this Zen practice is the question: What? Who? That’s a question that always comes up in Zen: what is truth? Is it my idea? Is it my opinion? Is it what I believe? It’s actually not my job to tell you what truth is. You have to find it. You experience it. The books, the talks, the teachings, are helpful, but they’re not it. Each one of us finds it.

By Zen Master Bon Soeng