emotions

• There is no special thing called anger, separate from everything else. It's just a label we give to a state

  The Heart Sutra: Labels and Reality September 2013 — Banský Studenec

The most important texts

1. Sadness Is a Change in Balance ●●● August 2011 — Dibbavana

   all feelings of happy, sad, good, bad are like this: just a slight difference in our sense of balance

   bowing to a person we dislike · family as training · feelings as a change in balance · lift in a coal mine · not getting rid of unhappiness
2. When the Mud Buffalo Dissolve ●●● August 2011 — Dibbavana

   And we don't need to judge it: Oh, I should be still. So, in training ourselves, we can sit when we can sit.

   difficulties in zazen · go and live your life · training a small dog to sit · image of someone else inside ourselves

Other texts

3. Recognising the Marrow in Ourselves ●●● May 2012 — Nová Dedinka

   Push, push. Then we use zazen as a kind of prison. And I think many people who practice zazen do this.

   difficulties in zazen · suppressed feelings turning into anger
4. Making Dogen's Words Our Own ●●● August 2012 — Dibbavana

   I think freedom is quite scary. Because freedom is only one person alone.

   zazen with hair on fire · fear of freedom
5. Why We Practice Zazen ●●● August 1987 — Gudo Wafu Nishijima

   The peaceful state is a balance between love and hate.

   accepting contradiction without emotional disturbance · balance between love and hate
6. Escape and Refuge in Zazen ●●● May 2014 — Banský Studenec

   You can decide whether to continue sitting with your sleepiness or to get up and have a sleep

   difficulties in zazen · sitting in zazen angrily · straining to sit straight
7. Life Itself Is Intelligent ●●● July 2021 — Skalní fara

   So there's some kind of human tendency to exaggerate our emotion, and then we call that compassion. I think it's just a human invention

   compassion as a human invention · people starving in Ethiopia
8. Kuge 2: Coolness in the Centre of Fire ●●● Winter 2007 — Kuge

   this state in which there’s coolness in the centre of heat, or no pain in the middle of pain

   coolness in the centre of heat
9. Kuge 3: The Whole World in Each Flower ●●● Winter 2007 — Kuge

   the cyclic way that human beings go through a kind of cycle of mental states

   cycle of the six realms · grumpy human being on the zafu · falling flower as vanishing imagination
10. The Relation Between the Autonomic Nervous System and Buddhism ●●●

    if we want to be healthy in body and mind, it is necessary for us to maintain love and hate equally

    balance between love and hate · suicide as aggression turned inward
11. The One Bright Pearl ●●● Shobogenzo · Ikka-no-myoju

    our emotions and our thoughts, just like turning our head or changing our facial expression, are momentary actions to take things in

    emotions and thoughts as the universe
12. Zazen from Four Viewpoints ●●● June 2005 — Lotus Centre

    But although it's true, our worry doesn't do anything.

    my legs are on fire · worrying about the world
13. Bussho 4: The Cut Earthworm ●●● Summer 2005 — Bussho

    Just the act of making ourselves sit when we’re in pain does actually develop some kind of ability to put up with things.

    difficulties in zazen
14. Right and Wrong in Action ●●● June 2006 — Padmafarma

    At that moment, whether you act according to your emotion or not depends on your state at that moment.

    emotion affecting the decision
15. Dropping Off Heart, Mind and Body ●●● June 2007 — Padmafarma

    In Japanese culture, there is no division between thinking mind and emotional heart

    Japanese schoolchildren's fear of zazen · heart-mind
16. MMK 2: Non-Separation ●●● Summer 2008 — Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika

    Nagarjuna says that the emotion we feel and the ‘we’ that is feeling it are inseparable

    emotion and the one feeling it
17. Dogen and Modern Life ●●● August 2012 — Dibbavana

    Dogen never talked in simple human terms about desires, emotions, sex, loving, all these things which, for most modern people, are very important

    talking in simple human terms
18. One Moon, Two Moons ●●●

    In Japanese, the character translated as mind is SHIN. But SHIN doesn't mean exactly the same as the English term mind.

    heart-mind
19. Preface ●●● Shobogenzo

    the noun 無漏 (MURO), “no leakage,” appears to describe the state without emotional distress

    no leakage
20. Shoaku Makusa 4: Doing Right Without a Doer ●●● Winter 2006 — Shoaku Makusa

    shin doesn’t mean ‘mind’, it means ‘heart-mind’

    heart-mind
21. Uji 5: Life Moment by Moment ●●● Summer 2007 — Uji

    anger is a label for a fluctuating flow of something in our bloodstream

    anger as a label
22. Zazen Without an Intentional Aim ●●● February 2009 — Cholín

    from our deep subconscious, we feel that we miss the disturbance

    missing the disturbance
23. Precepts as Guidelines ●●● July 2009 — Dibbavana

    Our life is full of wobbles. Sometimes we are overexcited, sometimes we are depressed, even though we practise zazen

    life full of wobbles
24. Opposites and Being Upright ●●● July 2009 — Brno

    I think what he says is a kind of hope. So if we can catch ourselves, we can stop sometimes

    stopping anger as a hope
25. Intuition Covered by Thinking ●●● August 2012 — Dibbavana

    Why do you want to be free from fear and desire? Are you afraid of fear?

    fear of fear
26. Three Teachings from Japan ●●● September 2013 — Banský Studenec

    most Japanese people don't like to do zazen, because when they were at school, they had to do zazen

    Japanese dislike of zazen
27. The Heart Sutra: Labels and Reality ●●● September 2013 — Banský Studenec

    There is no special thing called anger, separate from everything else. It's just a label we give to a state

    anger as a label
28. Civilisation as a Shared Trance ●●● July 2021 — Skalní fara

    When you fall in love, you can't even see the person you fell in love with properly.

    falling in love as a trance
29. The Meaning of the Precepts ●●●

    in fact anger is not our natural state – it is not our natural condition. In Buddhism we seek to maintain our composure.

    calm as our natural state

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