Dogen Sangha Czechia & Slovakia
Zen practice and study
Welcome
Dogen Sangha Czechia & Slovakia is a community of people who practise zazen and study Master Dogen’s teaching in the lineage of Gudo Wafu Nishijima and Michael Eido Luetchford. Here you will find Master Dogen’s Shobogenzo, Mike’s modern interpretations, talks from retreats with transcripts and translations, and the places where you can sit. More on the About us page.
When fish move through water, however they move, there is no end to the water. When birds fly through the sky, however they fly, there is no end to the sky. At the same time, fish and birds have never, since antiquity, left the water or the sky.
And though it is like this, it is only that flowers, while loved, fall; and weeds while hated, flourish.
The truth that the Buddha taught is finding who “I” am. To find who “I” really am is to forget about “I.” To forget about “I” is to be whole with everything in experience.
Firewood becomes ash; it can never go back to being firewood.
When a man is sailing along in a boat and he moves his eyes to the shore, he misapprehends that the shore is moving. If he keeps his eyes fixed on the boat, he knows that it is the boat which is moving forward.
Life is an instantaneous situation, and death is also an instantaneous situation. It is the same, for example, with winter and spring. We do not think that winter becomes spring, and we do not say that spring becomes summer.
Though the light [of the moon] is wide and great, it is reflected in a foot or an inch of water.
The whole moon and the whole sky are reflected in a dew-drop on a blade of grass and are reflected in a single drop of water.
Nevertheless, this great ocean is not round, and it is not square. Other qualities of the ocean are inexhaustibly many: [to fishes] it is like a palace and [to gods] it is like a string of pearls. But as far as our eyes can see, it just seems to be round.
When fish move through water, however they move, there is no end to the water. When birds fly through the sky, however they fly, there is no end to the sky. At the same time, fish and birds have never, since antiquity, left the water or the sky.
Zen Master Hotetsu is fanning himself. A passing monk asks, The air is all around us and reaches everywhere, so why do you need to fan yourself? … The Master carries on fanning himself.
Although we each have the natural state, if we do not return to it in this practice, it does not show itself, and if we do not experience it, we do not realise what it is.
I met Myozen of Kennin [temple]. Nine seasons of frosts and of flowers swiftly passed while I followed him, learning a little of the customs of the Rinzai lineage.
The practice is not confined to the sitting itself; it strikes space and resonates, [like] ringing that continues before and after a bell.
Some have entered into the stream of the Buddha’s truth at the invitation of grass, flowers, mountains, and rivers. Some have received and maintained the stamp of Buddha by grasping soil, stones, sand, and pebbles.
In reality, practicing Zazen IS being enlightened. When we practice now, the state we sit in is the enlightened state. Someone practicing Zazen for the first time is also sitting in the enlightened state.
Those who are practicing can naturally know whether they have got the state of real experience or not, just as people who are using water can tell by themselves whether it is cold or warm.
When we hear of India and China in the past and present, there are those who realized the state of truth on hearing the voice of a bamboo, or who clarified the mind on seeing the colors of the flowers.
While still a layman he loved fishing, and he would float down the Nantai river on his boat, following the other fishermen. It may have been that he was not waiting even for the fish with golden scales that lands itself without being fished.
[Gensa] used vegetable cloth for his one robe, which he never replaced, but patched hundreds of times.
There are always good friends who will give us a pearl of the truth when we are drunk on our delusions. We should do the same for them.
Remember, the face of the sun and the face of the moon have never changed places since the eternal past.
How could we not love the bright pearl? Its colors and light, as they are, are endless.
At the time when we are crossing the mountain pass, or crossing the river, we are present there, and so time is present there. Time cannot elude the present.
Seeing time simply as flowing away is not enough. Thinking that the only property time has is the ability to flow is not enough.
When I studied with Master Sekito, I was just a mosquito sitting on the back of an iron ox!
If you want to realize the Buddha-nature, you must first get rid of selfish pride.
When we have the state like this, unconcerned about status, achievement, or whether we are better or worse than others, then although we are no different to ants running over the surface of the earth, this world that we inhabit becomes unimaginably splendid and pure.
Remember, there are words in desisting, as there are swords in laughter.
If a person looks for buddha outside of life-and-death, that is like pointing a cart north and making for [the south country of] Etsu, or like facing south and hoping to see the North Star.
In the time called life, there is nothing besides life. In the time called death, there is nothing besides death.
When we are without dislike and without longing, then for the first time we enter the mind of buddha.
There is a very easy way to become buddha. … the mind being without thought and without grief: this is called buddha. Look for nothing else.
In pursuing the Buddha’s truth, we should see the will to the truth as foremost.
Cast aside all involvements. Give the myriad things a rest. Do not think of good and bad. Do not consider right and wrong.
“Think about this concrete state beyond thinking.” “How can the state beyond thinking be thought about?” “It is different from thinking.” This is just the pivot of zazen.
To grasp this meaning is to be like a dragon that has found water, or like a tiger in its mountain stronghold.
Why should we abandon our own seat on the floor, to come and go without purpose through the dusty borders of foreign lands?
What is more, the body is like a dew-drop on a blade of grass. Life passes like a flash of lightning. Suddenly it is gone. In an instant it is lost.
The treasure-house will open naturally, and you will be free to receive and to use [its contents] as you like.
Buddhist philosophy
Shobogenzo
Master Dogen's main work, chapter by chapter, in the authorised translation by Gudo Nishijima and Chodo Cross, with one-minute overviews and related talks.
Talks
Mike Luetchford's talks from retreats: 31 series with transcripts (116 talks) and recordings from 13 events.
Zazen
How to sit, an introduction to Buddhism and the practice of zazen and further texts. Where you can sit: groups, days of zazen and retreats, each with its own organiser.
Events
The newest notices, in Slovak:
- Meditačné ústranie november 2026 v Banskom Studenci konalo sa 6.–8. 11. 2026PripravujemePráve prebieha 6.–8. 11. 2026
- Meditačné ústranie jún 2026 v Banskom Studenci konalo sa 18.–21. 6. 2026
- Meditačné ústranie jún 2025 v Banskom Studenci konalo sa 5.–8. 6. 2025
Chronicle: 62 events since 2002 with photos, recordings and transcripts.
Another video: Zen retreat in Banský Studenec (1:43, with music).
A person getting realization is like the moon being reflected in water: the moon does not get wet, and the water is not broken.
From the retreats
Chronicle
Public talk
Video chapters
Video: Tomáš David- 0:00 Introduction: societies and their truths
- 9:30 What Buddhism offers: cause and effect
- 14:40 Reality is just now
- 21:47 The present in sport
- 28:00 Zazen
- 33:20 Sitting posture demonstration
- 43:24 Questions and discussion
- 44:02 Life is not fair
- 46:40 Why tomorrow will never come
- 50:14 Is Buddhism changing?
- 55:00 Karate and Buddhist customs in Japan
- 58:17 Merging religions and the middle way
- 1:07:42 What is the present?
Actions always have results and we live only in the present: two truths Buddhism teaches, realised through zazen
Mike argues that Buddhism has long taught two simple truths which belong to everybody: what we do always has a result, and we live only in the present. Zazen, a simple sitting practice, is how these can be realised and not only understood, although he says that living in the present is very difficult.
From the public talkPhotosTranscripts1Chronicle
More videos on our YouTube channel.
Years ago in November
- 2017
- 2015
- 2014
Winter Sesshin with Glasgow Zen Group, Loch Lomond, Scotland
Rowardennan, Loch Lomond, Scotland
Winter Sesshin with Glasgow Zen Group, Loch Lomond, Scotland
Rowardennan, Loch Lomond, Scotland
Retreat at Dibbavana Meditation Centre
Mariánské Lázně, Czech Republic
Winter Sesshin with Glasgow Zen Group, Loch Lomond, Scotland
Rowardennan, Loch Lomond, Scotland
Winter Sesshin with Glasgow Zen Group, Loch Lomond, Scotland
Rowardennan, Loch Lomond, Scotland
Teaching lineage
The lineage runs from Gautama Buddha through Nagarjuna and Eihei Dogen to Gudo Wafu Nishijima and his Dharma heir Michael Eido Luetchford.
Middle way in the keywords
experimentThe middle way is what Gautama Buddha found between two extremes: material pleasure and extreme spiritual enthusiasm. In these texts finding it is the centre of Buddhism; we find it through balance, not by choosing one side, and in zazen we are always passing through the middle.
The keywords right under it✦ Show in the night sky