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Meditation quiets the waves (distractions) of the heart-mind and enables us to see clearly the real form of all things. This serene reflection meditation is also termed shikan in Japanese, literally, "to stop and see."
"Stop" refers to the cessation of all afflictions and distractions and therefore refers to Zen meditation in a narrow sense, while "see" means the ability to grasp the real nature of all things in their correct form and corresponds to wisdom in a narrow sense...

Great Master Dogen declared that wholehearted meditation is neither a practice in which one waits for enlightenment,…nor is it a means to become Buddha.

Enlightenment is an inherent part of meditation practice from the outset. Just-sitting meditation is free from all obstacles and is synonymous with enlightenment. We call this meditation in enlightenment and enlightenment in meditation….

Formal seated meditation is not considered an unpleasant, compulsory religious exercise, but an act of the Buddhas which is in perfect harmony with nature and in accord with the spirit of the Buddha.

Zazen, always surrounded by the twin ideas of training and enlightenment, is in itself complete enlightenment and the bodily posture which reveals the fullest manifestation of this Original Enlightenment. It is a religious exercise, and yet at the same time it is the state of Great Enlightenment.

From Soto Zen,
The Very Reverend Keido Chisan Koho Zenji
(Founder of Shasta Abbey)

Serene Reflection Meditation

The practice of meditation, (shikantaza, 'just simply doing one's sitting'), neither deliberately thinking about anything nor deliberately not thinking about anything, is the foundation of this religious practice: discovering the Truth directly for ourselves.  This tradition embodies understanding of the fundamental Buddhist teachings of karma, rebirth, impermanence, no-self, and Nirvana; the actualization of Buddha Nature in everyday life.

Now a lot of people know that meditation is an important part of Zen Buddhist practice, and they ask, “Why do you do meditation?”
"Why does Soto Zen (which is the form of Zen that I teach) meditate by sitting and looking at a wall?”

Well, it is one of the main ways that we have of looking inside us, of facing life and death squarely. Have you ever looked inside your own mind? In meditation, you sit and look at a physical wall, and after a bit you realize that you’re looking at it with “bricked-up spectacles”; because when you meditate, you’re really looking at what’s going on inside you, and there’s a lovely big “wall” in there which you’ve got to tear down, which you’ve got to do something about.

Because it is that wall, which you have created to protect yourself from life and death, that is actually the problem. It’s a problem because enlightenment is one and indivisible, so when you try to protect yourself from anything (and thus you separate yourself from it), you also separate yourself from enlightenment. And it is that separation from enlightenment which both perpetuates the fear of life and death and also causes you to sense that something is very wrong….So, that which brings a person to religion is fear of life when they are young and fear of death when they are older, and you need to know that both are really the same thing: both are the result of that inner wall that separates you from enlightenment.

From Roar of the Tigress, Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett

Daily cultivation of meditation, the Precepts, and wise discernment bring us face to face with ourselves. As training develops, faith kindles and begins to illuminate ‘the great darkness;’ compassion, sometimes frozen and halting at first, begins to thaw and flow more easily.

The more willing we are to see the koan of everyday life arise, the easier it becomes to recognize the natural arising of Truth in our daily experience, for the arising of the koan and the appearance of Truth are not separate from each other.

Seeing the koan and welcoming its arising is to turn the stream of compassion within, to wholeheartedly sit still in the midst of conditions, allowing those conditions to come and go, as we neither hold on to those conditions nor push them away.

With the Precepts as our guide for expression, intention, and purpose, we can simply look, acknowledge that which arises, and relinquish our grasping it as it passes away.

This is the activity of trusting oneself, trusting one’s capability for training and for Buddhahood. For, in the very middle of the self, right in the place where thoughts and feelings arise, the great expanse of Buddha Nature waits and beckons to us. When we are willing to trust It, It will eagerly embrace us and suffuse us with Life.

From “Trust in Buddha Nature” Journal of the Order of Buddhist Comtemplatives, Winter 1997, Rev. Master Eko Little


History of Serene Reflection or Soto Zen Tradition

This tradition, known as Ts'ao-Tung Ch'an in China and Soto Zen in Japan, traces its history back to the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni. The master-disciple lineage was carried by the Indian monk Bodhidharma to China in the 6th century C.E. (Common Era) and spread widely under the influence of the Sixth Chinese Ancestor, Hui Neng. The lineage was continued on to Japan through the efforts of the young Japanese monk Eihei Dogen in the 13th century and further developed by Keizan Jokin a century later.

Although certain external forms were adapted to each culture as this branch of Mahayana Buddhism moved from India to China to Japan and now to the West, the essence of the Buddhist teaching remains unchanged. The Buddhist training at Shasta Abbey preserves both the teachings and the spirit of this enduring tradition while presenting them in a contemporary Western context.

To read about this in more detail, including instructions for meditation, see our online publications:

Central to this tradition is the life of faith based on the principles outlined in Great Master Dogen's Shushogi: the precious opportunity to receive human birth and encounter the
Buddha's Way, the recognition and transformation of our karmic inclinations of greed, hate, and delusion into compassion, love, and wisdom; the wholehearted acceptance of the Buddhist Precepts as a guide for living a moral life, the actualization of the Bodhisattva vow through the cultivation of the Four Wisdoms -- charity, tenderness, benevolence, and sympathy; and the expression of gratitude through selfless action in daily life.

Our tradition also emphasizes a form of mindfulness training developed particularly by Great Master Keizan, in which Buddhist teaching and our gratitude for it are given verbal, visual, and physical expression through the careful practice of religious ceremonial. Underlying all these elements and running through them is an emphasis on the identity of training and enlightenment.

 
 
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A monastery in the Serene Reflection (Soto Zen) Meditation Tradition, and a temple in the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives, Shasta Abbey offers opportunities for Zen Buddhist meditation, spiritual training, and mindfulness practice for monastic and lay retreats, residencies, meditation instruction, Dharma talks, Zen Buddhist religious services.