Iron Bell Zen

10/29/2023

Iron Bell Zen is on hiatus--enjoy the old posts, but we are currently not meeting to sit together. Perhaps in the future we'll return.

03/30/2021

I'm spending less time on Facebook (and I know some of you are barely on), but I still want to stay in touch to let everyone know when I have to change the weekly schedule. I have many of your cell numbers, but not all. If you think I do not have yours, please dm or email me your number, then I will create a groupme for Iron Bell. It will make sending you all info much easier. Thanks and see you all Friday & Sunday. Gassho.

03/22/2021

From our Tibetan tradition friends. —Lama Thubten Yeshe

03/15/2021

この動画では、１分間で禅語をご紹介いたします。 今回、ご紹介する言葉は「 道具（どうぐ）」。 心をニュートラルにするための１つのきっかけとなれば幸いです。 Follow Japanese Zen Music - 薬師寺寛邦 キッサコ (Kanho Yakushiji ...

03/14/2021

I’m sorry, I’m woke with a migraine. Have to cancel today. See next week.

03/11/2021

Come sit meditation like homemade veggie sushi--Friday and Sunday 10 am.

FRIDAY SIT:
Matthew Bourbon is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Iron Bell Zen Friday Meditation Zoom Meeting (recurring weekly code)
Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime
Join Zoom Meeting
https://unt.zoom.us/j/96639240023…
Meeting ID: 966 3924 0023
Passcode: 569346

AND SUNDAY SIT:
Matthew Bourbon is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Iron Bell Zen Sunday Meditation Zoom Meeting (recurring weekly code)
Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime
Join Zoom Meeting
https://unt.zoom.us/j/98639732731…
Meeting ID: 986 3973 2731
Passcode: 322552

03/05/2021

https://fb.watch/41V_mrSd1Q/

Come sit zen and score a goal--um...you know...without goal.
Today at 10 central time.

FRIDAY SIT:
Matthew Bourbon is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Iron Bell Zen Friday Meditation Zoom Meeting (recurring weekly code)
Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime
Join Zoom Meeting
https://unt.zoom.us/j/96639240023…
Meeting ID: 966 3924 0023
Passcode: 569346
AND SUNDAY SIT:
Matthew Bourbon is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Iron Bell Zen Sunday Meditation Zoom Meeting (recurring weekly code)
Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime
Join Zoom Meeting
https://unt.zoom.us/j/98639732731…
Meeting ID: 986 3973 2731
Passcode: 322552

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03/03/2021

Sokei-an Sasaki from Holding the Lotus to the Rocks.

03/01/2021

SHIKANTAZA
a talk by Yasutani Roshi

Shikan means "nothing but" or "just," while ta means "to hit" and za "to s1.t." Hence shikantaza is a practice in which the mind is intensely involved in just sitting. In this type of zazen, it is all too easy for the mind, which is not sup­ ported by such aids as counting the breath or by a koan, to become distracted. The correct temper of mind therefore becomes doubly important.

Now, in shikan-taza the mind must be unhurried yet at the same time firmly planted or massively composed, like Mount Fuji let us say. But it must also be alert, stretched, like a taut bowstring. So shikan-taza is a heightened state of concentrated awareness wherein one is neither tense nor hurried, and certainly never slack. It is the mind of somebody facing death.

Let us imagine that you are engaged in a duel of swordsmanship of the kind that used to take place in ancient Japan. As you face your opponent you are unceasingly watch­ful, set, ready. Were you to relax your vigilance even momentarily, you would be cut down instantly. A crowd gathers to see the fight. Since you are not blind you see them from the comer of your eye, and since you are not deaf you hear them. But not for an instant is your mind captured by these sense impressions.

This state cannot be maintained for long-in fact, you ought not to do shikan-taza for more than half an hour at a sitting. After thirty minutes get up and walk around in kinhin and then resume your sitting. If you are truly doing shikan-taza, in half an hour you will be sweating, even in winter in an unheated room, because of the heat generated by this intense concentration. When you sit for too long your mind loses its vigor, your body tires, and your efforts are less rewarding than if you had restricted your sitting to thirty-minute periods.

Compared with an unskilled swordsman a master uses his sword effortlessly. But this was not always the case, for there was a time when he had to strain himself to the utmost, owing to his imperfect technique, to preserve his life. It is no different with shikan-taza. In the beginning tension is unavoidable, but with experience this tense zazen ripens into relaxed yet fully attentive sitting. And just as a master swordsman in an emergency unsheathes his sword effortlessly and attacks single-rnindedly, just so the shikan-taza adept sits without strain, alert and mindful. But do not for one minute imagine that such sitting can be achieved without long and dedicated practice.

This concludes the talk on shikan-taza.

- The Three Pillars of Zen