Community Glossary

Glossary of Terms and Ideas

Buddhism, like many traditions, comes with many terms and forms.  The list below, while not exhaustive, attempts to put some language around what commonly used terms or phrases might mean in the context of this community and the significance of common forms & practices.

Awakening -  “In Zen practice, simply allowing yourself to be yourself, just as you are, is considered the mark of awakening. (1)” And yet we are easily mistaken. When “caught in the self-centered dream” or “holding to self-centered thoughts” we can mistake illusions for who we really are and miss “life as it is”. This then ultimately brings only dissatisfaction and suffering. Thus a central practice of Zen is to thoroughly investigate the question, “Who am I?” or “What is this?” It is possible to wake up to the truth of this and recognize what Zen sometimes calls one’s “Original Nature” or “True Face”. In our tradition, this awakening entails individual liberation, liberation for the sake of others, and the lifelong practice of compassion and wisdom as we more fully embody and express complete wakeful awareness and responsiveness. All life awakens together. The aspiration to awaken in this way is the first step of the bodhisattva path.

Bodhisattva - “Bodhisattvas are beings dedicated to helping relieve suffering for all, realizing universal awakening, and leading all beings to that same awakening. Such practice cannot be merely about self-help or personal salvation. Bodhisattva practitioners are those who realize their deep interconnectedness with all beings. Such realization might start from hearing teachings but then becomes viscerally affirmed through meditative or devotional practices. Bodhisattva practitioners do not see all the suffering beings as “other” or separate. We are all in this together. (2)” A person who is led by vow in pursuing the embodied realization of unsurpassed, complete awakening to life for the love and liberation of the world.

Bowing - “By bowing we are acknowledging a friendliness and respect, but also a distance. A bow expresses our love and respect, but the space between us when we bow also expresses that we understand our aloneness, and that we can never assume we understand one another. We meet in the empty space between us. A space charged with openness, silence, and mystery. (3)” See also Gassho.

Buddha - Not a personal name but rather a descriptive phrase for speaking about awakened true nature or to refer to those who realize and actualize this completely. ‘Buddha’ comes from the Sanskrit root ‘budh’, meaning ‘to awaken’ (4). May also refer to the ‘historical Buddha’, Siddartha Gautama (c. 6th to 5th century BCE) or (c. 5th to 4th century BCE). Part of what is known as The Three Jewels or The Three Treasures along with Dharma and Sangha.

Chant - “As long as Buddhism has existed, chanting has been one of its core practices. Originally, both recitation and chanting were used as ways to help memorize teachings, as well as expressions of commitment. Many schools of Buddhism today still chant in Pali, the language of the historical Buddha.  In some schools, such as Zen and Theravada, silent seated meditation is regarded as the most central practice, with chanting seen as preparation for meditation. (5)” In our community, the “chants” we use are fundamental kernels of teaching which point to important aspects of practice in our life. So we speak them together for the shared possibility of further realizing their true meaning for us and deepening our embodiment of these ways of being.

Dana - Dana is an ancient Pali word, meaning generosity, giving or gift.  This practice of generous responsiveness to the generosity offered through the teaching supports both the teacher and the continuation of the teaching.  Dana, or generosity, is also one of the central qualities of character (or paramita) of the Dharma practitioner.

Dharma - The truth and teachings of the Buddha; the wisdom teachings of the awakened teachers—men and women— who have followed in this path; the teachings we are offered in every moment of experience in our daily lives. Part of what is known as The Three Jewels or The Three Treasures along with Buddha and Sangha.

Dharma Activity - In our community, any period in which we engage in a shared experiential practice to integrate and deepen the teaching we’re receiving through zen practice together. May also refer to a period in which a teacher provides further demonstration or training.

Dharma Reflection - In this community, Dharma reflection simply refers to a period of time following a teaching in which we reflect together on what the teaching brought forward in us.  

Gassho - A gesture of the hands and body in action, exemplifying and embodying unitive awareness. This is an expression of respect, trust, devotion, intimate participation, and appreciation. Because the two hands (duality) are joined together, it expresses relationship within “One Mind.” “To practice gassho is to flow like water. When you gassho, just gassho. In the midst of ‘just gassho’ there is no subject and no object. (6)” Place your palms together with fingers touching, thumbs touching the palms and not floating outward, tips of fingers at approximate level of nose, forearms slightly away from your chest and roughly parallel to the floor but not so as to feel or appear rigid or militaristically stiff.  When doing gassho and bowing, bend from the waist but not too far, about a 45 degree angle.  Typical opportunities to engage this practice are in greeting, as thanks or in appreciation, during recitation of chants with the bow at completion, and upon completion of a zazen period. See also Bowing.

Guiding Teacher - For Zen practitioners, relationship with a trusted authentic teacher within the tradition, including regular meetings for inquiry and practice discussion, is a fundamental part of practice. Our guiding teacher, Flint Sparks, is part of the Soto Zen lineage through Zen Teachers Shunryu Suzuki, Zenkei Blanche Hartman and Charlotte Joko Beck. “Flint Sparks is a Zen teacher and former psychologist dedicated to assisting people in the unending path of growing up and waking up. He is an experienced therapist and a master teacher who assists people in the skillful removal of blocks to love, both inside and outside. He is a clear and caring resource on the path of freedom from unnecessary suffering. Flint has nearly four decades of experience in the practice and teaching of psychotherapy. He also leads Zen retreats throughout North America and Europe. Flint currently lives on Molokai in Hawaii. (7)” See also Zen and https://opendoorzencommunity.org/our-teacher/

Inquiry - Inquiry is an aspect of our community’s Zen practice which takes place between teacher and student in which the student and teacher encounter one another and may encounter the Dharma together. A student may present an aspect of their life or their practice or ask the teacher a question at this time.  As our teacher Flint often says, inquiry is not so much an opportunity to get answers to our questions, but to question the answers by which we are living our lives.  What is brought forward during inquiry can include questions about practice, the places of stuckness that we encounter in trying to meet life as it is, or simply our presence and expression of life as it is.

Intensive retreat - Practice intensive retreats are intentional experiences for exploration and for deepening our practice. We come together to support each other in a simplified way of living so that we can open our awareness fully to our life and our path. Part of that experience includes giving ourselves permission to experience and work with whatever arises in the context of our practice. The schedule for intensives can be rigorous, but manageable. It is designed to challenge our notions about our own preferences and limitations, and to allow us to settle into deep silence and stillness as a form of inquiry and discovery.

Kinhin -  Walking meditation, most often between periods of zazen (sitting meditation). In kinhin, the left hand is folded into a fist with the thumb inside, pressed close to the solar plexus, and the right hand rests on top of it.

Kokyo - Chant leader, the person who announces and leads the chants during services.

Mudra -  Generally, any one of a number of special positions of the hands, held still. In zazen, the right hand is cradled in the lap with the left hand resting in it. The two thumbs are lightly touching, so that the hands form an oval. This position provides an alive, steady, and calm resting posture for the hands.

Practice - “For spiritual practitioners, life is the field of practice. Spiritual practitioners try to master the art of living. They pay attention to how they live, which means how they think, speak, and act. They pay attention to states of mind and body, relationships to self and others, perceptions, feelings.  Above all, practice is a transformative activity. Over time, practicing shapes character and point of view. (9)”

Practice Discussion - A period often paired with Q & A following a dharma talk. This allows for a brief meeting with the teacher in the group context. Its focus is instructional and informational, clarifying and pointing to the teachings. It is distinct from an Inquiry period with the teacher (which is more intimately focused on meeting together what's presently alive in the heart and in life—within the in-between space of relationality and intimacy among us). Practice Discussion/Q&A is practical. 

Precepts - “The precepts are ultimately not simply rules of ethical conduct, a list of dos and don'ts. They are possibilities for us to understand life's profundity through our conduct in the ordinary world. Practice of the precepts takes us to the root of what it means to be alive, to the center of the human problem of meaning. We are always faced with the question whose depths we will never be able to fathom: what do I do with this life now? This is precepts practice. (10)”

Relational Practices:  Relational practices are an opportunity to practice bringing our wholehearted present moment awareness into the space of connection and shared experience.  Simple practices or simple prompts (a phrase or a poem or a story or questions) provide an opportunity to turn inwards, notice our reactions or where our attention is drawn while in connection with our community.  The sharing of our internal experience, speaking our truth as it presents in that moment, is an invitation to take the risk of simply being ourselves with one another.  The act of receiving one another’s sharing, simply listening without our habitual patterns of responding, is as much of a gift as the act of sharing.  In this way of sharing and receiving, we embody a flow of relational mutuality.  

Sangha - The Community of Practice, our fellow practitioners of the way. Part of what is known as The Three Jewels or The Three Treasures along with Buddha and Dharma.

Sitting Meditation - See Zazen

Vow - A vow can mean many things.  In our Zen tradition, what is typically being referenced is the Bodhisattva Vow. “Taking the bodhisattva vow implies that instead of holding our own individual territory and defending it tooth and nail, we become open to the world that we are living in. It means we are willing to take on greater responsibility, immense responsibility. In fact it means taking a big chance. But taking such a chance is not false heroism or personal eccentricity. It is a chance that has been taken in the past by millions of bodhisattvas, enlightened ones, and great teachers. So a tradition of responsibility and openness has been handed down from generation to generation, and now we too are participating in the sanity and dignity of this tradition. (11)” One might say that this vow is how we View Our Way, this vow is how we Vitalize Our Waking.

Zabuton and Zafu -  the zabuton is the large rectangular mat used for zazen, sitting meditation. The small round zafu cushion is placed on top of the zabuton.

Zazen - Our fundamental practice of sitting meditation. The bell will sound three times for the start of the sitting period and will sound again to signal the end of a sitting period. “Zen practice emphasizes wholehearted engagement in upright sitting without a particular goal or “gaining idea.” This view reflects the understanding that everyone is, by their nature, an expression of Buddha Nature, so we do not sit in order to attempt to cultivate personal enlightenment. Instead, we practice for the benefit of all beings. Silent seated meditation (zazen) is an expression of our awakened nature and our commitment to the freedom of all beings. In zazen, we endeavor to appreciate our lives rather than change them. (12)”

It is being oneself, with nothing extra, in harmony with the way things are. It is the simple practice of looking directly at life as it is. It is being aware of what is true in each moment (13). It is being just this moment, compassion’s way.

As our shared practice of just sitting, zazen provides a foundation for showing up in our relationships with wakefulness—with awareness, curiosity, and responsiveness.  Zazen is a practice of meeting life as it is, which includes meeting ourselves as we are, noticing the habitual places to which our attention drifts, thoughts, feelings, planning, worrying, etc.  As we engage in the practice sitting silent and still, we notice when our attention drifts and gently bring it back to a present moment anchor, such as the breath.  Each moment, breathing in, breathing out, we meet the moment as it is and practice letting go of our habitual ways of avoiding our experience, softening barriers to love. It is allowing ourselves to be fully alive, with heartful and bodyful presence.

Special Note: “Probably the most difficult part of early practice is simply giving ourselves permission to do it. We are all very busy people, with many distractions, responsibilities, and commitments to others around us. However, if we are not grounded in real life, we diminish our ability to provide for ourselves and for others. Our efforts to “help” may cause more damage than good. Without true awareness, we are caught in our self-centered fantasies about ourselves and our relationships, and we miss our real opportunity to intimately experience life exactly as it is—true liberation. This practice is not easy, but it is consistent and it is sane. As Joko says, it has been around for over two thousand years, and the kinks have been worked out of it. The changes in our lives are not always obvious; but with intelligent practice, day by day we are being transformed from the cellular level. If we are patient with ourselves, we will see the rewards in our everyday lives. Joko Beck calls this an empirical practice: All we can do is try the experiment, and observe the results.(14)”

Zen - The spiritual tradition in which our community practices. Though the word Zen is now in common usage in the English language, it is the Japanese abbreviation for zenna, which is the Japanese pronunciation for the Chinese word ch’anna. Both are the standard transliterations for the Sanskrit term dhyana, meaning “meditation.” It can refer specifically to zazen, the style of seated meditation practiced within the Zen school of Buddhism and is also used to designate the Zen school, or Zen teachings and Zen practice in general (15). “Zen evolved from the teachings of the historical Buddha who lived in India, some 2500 years ago. In the 7th Century, Zen (Ch’an in Chinese) developed in Buddhist monasteries in China. Inspired in part by the practice of the Tao, Zen was characterized by a spontaneity and naturalness. In the 12th Century a monk by the name of Eihei Dogen, brought Buddhism from China to Japan (where it was pronounced “Zen”), transmitting the lineage of the Soto Zen school of Buddhism (the largest of the three traditional sects of Zen in Japanese Buddhism).

In the mid-20th Century, Soto Zen Priest Shunryu Suzuki moved from Japan to San Francisco, and would go on to create the San Francisco Zen Center and its eventual network of Zen centers across the country, including the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the first Buddhist monastery in the Western world. Today, Soto Zen centers and sitting groups (or sanghas) are active in most major cities in the United States. (16)” See also Guiding Teacher.

Zen Living/Practice - Zen Buddhism is distinguished by its emphasis on the down-to-earth practice of everyday zen. It encourages us to live mindfully in all areas of daily life – at home, at work and in the community – by becoming aware of the workings of our own hearts and minds. By intimately facing our own life in all its many aspects, we have the opportunity to know ourselves more fully, to find our true relationship to others, and to realize our place among all things. Through this practice, we learn to “wake up and grow up. (17)” The foundation of Zen practice is daily sitting meditation,  zazen. But that is not all of Zen practice. Study, regular meetings with a teacher, intensive retreats, participating in the life of the sangha—the community of practice—and deep inquiry into our everyday lives are essential complements to zazen. Zen living is abundant living, not austere ascetic detachment: it is the very fabric of your everyday life, and the lives of those you touch. We teach Zen practice as relationality: we are in intimate relationship with ourselves, with other beings, with everything we experience, in this very moment.(18)

Zendo - The meditation hall, or more generally, the space within which Zen practice occurs.  In the pandemic era, this is often virtual meeting spaces, such as Zoom, so we sometimes call this the “cloud zendo.” 

Prepared by:

Chris Johnson Liz Johnson Ryan Van Wyk 

Footnotes:

1. Norman Fischer, When You Greet Me I Bow 

2. Lion’s Roar - Awakening the Bodhisattva - June 1, 2018 - https://www.lionsroar.com/awakening-the-bodhisattva/ 

3. Norman Fischer, When You Greet Me I Bow 

4. Damien Keown, Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism 

5. Lion’s Roar - How to Practice Chanting - June 2, 2021 - https://www.lionsroar.com/how-to-practice-chanting/ 

6. Dosho Port, Keep Me in Your Heart A While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri 

7. https://appamada.org/contact-flint-sparks and https://www.flintsparks.org/about 

8.  https://appamada.org/intensives 

9. Norman Fischer, The World Could be Otherwise 

10. Norman Fischer, When You Greet Me I Bow 

11. Lion’s Roar - The Bodhisattva - January 1, 2017 - https://www.lionsroar.com/the-bodhisattva/ 

12. opendoorzencommunity.org/about-zen/ 

13. Soto Zen Buddhist Association (SZBA): http://szba.org/soto-zen/how-to-meditate) 

14. Appamada Practice Guidelines (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c03ced75ffd204418037b7a/t/5c5859768165f5406773bf2b/1549293943980/Newcomer+Combined+Handout.pdf) 

15. Helen J. Baroni, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Zen Buddhism 

16. www.opendoorzencommunity.org/about-zen/ 

17. opendoorzencommunity.org/about-zen/ 

18. https://appamada.org/study