Zen requires that we learn to integrate spiritual awareness into ever aspect of our daily life, not just when we’re in the temple, practicing meditation, or feel like it.
Turning work and private life into personal Dharma practice is at the heart of a meaningful Zen life. Conscious breathing, awareness as well as mindfulness serve as the foundation for maintaining inner stability and peace. A students will work on bringing spiritual consciousness to daily activities, starting out with small things, and expanding until the entire day is integrated into a mindful life.
(II) Student Meetings (Dokusan)
Dharma students, who cannot attend Dokusan in person, email their practice journals and hold Dharma student meetings by phone with their teacher.
(III) Home Shrine
Dharma students are asked to set up a home shrine with a seated or standing statue of Buddha Shakyamuni in any of the traditional postures. Furnishings should include a cloth, a candle, an incense burner, flowers. A small sutra desk placed before the shrine is ideal for studies. Your mat and cushion can be placed in front of the desk for prostrations and meditation. Keep your shrine neat and tidy.
(IV) Ethical Standards for Dharma Students
1. Always remember that you are a direct descendent from Gautama Siddhartha Shakyamuni, the Buddha, and the inheritor of his right Dharma. Do not fail to honor your teacher and serve your Dharma friends free from worldly thoughts.
2. Our original body-mind is a great liberated being untainted by defilements and the cycle of birth and death. Therefore, cultivate yourself, trusting that your original face is no other than the pure and perfect mind. It is a true Dharma student with an awakened heart who trusts in his/her original self and develops big mind. Shake off conditioned behaviors, feelings and thoughts pattern that arise from conceit or self-pity with the awareness that your own original mind is Buddha.
3. Always cherish your beginner's mind. The purity and strong feeling of your first mind have the Dharma power to convert your difficulties and troubles into a valuable gift and joy.
4. Nothing fails to inspire and enlighten the true Dharma student. Please keep in mind that the harder the work and the more daunting the task you face, the better it is for your Dharma strength.
5. The three karmic deeds (body, thought and speech) are the guiding light of your life. Always speak the truth and be truthful like a mirror.
6. As you strive for enlightenment you follow the Zen Buddhist Precepts**, so that you are able to offer comfort and hope to those, who are distressed and troubled. Give love and joy to those who are sick and tired.
7. The key towards an enlightened life lies in the practice of compassion. It is easy to make mistakes and difficult to remain completely free from faults in a life that is full of conflicts. Therefore, Dharma students should be willing to learn from their mistakes and misdeeds through moral discipline and practice. True and sincere spiritual practice helps develop a compassionate heart towards the wrongs of others. One learns to understand and forgive other fellow beings through one's own awakening to mistakes and misdeeds.
(V) Daily practice
1. Perform your formal meditation faithfully every day. Your meditation practice is the place of your awakening that you are the living embodiment of the Buddha through your response to Gautama Siddhartha Shakyamuni, the Buddha, and spiritual communion with his tradition of wisdom and compassion.
2. Read the assigned literature, chapter by chapter, every day. Do not read it like a novel, but one or two pages at a time according to the layout of the book.
3. Sense of duty: Follow your weekly Dharma schedule; be fully accountable of your duties in the best way possible.
4. Life of no delusion: Enlightenment and truth are always before your eyes and within your reach. Enlightenment is the pure and sincere heart of practice itself, and the truth is the spirit of practice that all sentient beings are Buddha. Accordingly, there is no enlightenment or truth apart from the common ordinary person and the everyday task. It is illusionary to seek or anticipate truth and enlightenment from the outside. The mind of the Dharma student will let go of this delusion.
5. Repentance: Seek forgiveness and restore yourself right away if you had caused trouble to others, committed wrongdoings or made blunders through carelessness and inattention. Keep your mind free from guilt, remorse and avoid retribution, such as hatred and enmity. Remain in a constant awakening state.
6. Hidden Virtue: The body-mind of the Dharma student should be sober and clear. Care for goods and articles mindfully. They are the properties of the Three Jewels. Use them responsibly and sparingly, so that they will last. Recycle what is no longer useful. Try to manage with less; but be generous and helpful to others as much as possible.
7. Environment: To take good care of your home environment is to take good care of the body-mind of your training. Cleaning and keeping our environment free from pollution and disorder is Zen practice.
8. Renewal: It is unbecoming for a Dharma student to criticize others or to be judgmental, in order to build a self-defense or to reinforce one's own position. It would be the downfall of a Dharma student to become jealous of other people's prosperity or gloat over others' misfortunes. If such a feeling or thought arises, you should surrender your weakness right away, as well as renew your Bodhisattva vows. Pray for the happiness of all beings (Metta Prayer) and/or make prostrations (full bows).
