‘The mind of the ancient Buddhas should not be understood as something irrelevant to your experience, as some mind which exists from the beginningless past, for it is the mind which eats rice gruel or tastes other food in your ordinary everyday life, it is the mind which is grass, the mind which is water. Within this life just as it is, is the act of sitting like a Buddha which is called “arousing the thought of enlightenment.”
‘The conditions for arousing the thought of enlightenment do not come from anywhere else. It is the enlightened mind which arouses the thought of enlightenment…One honors the Buddha with a grain of sand, one honors the Buddha with the water in which rice has been soaked. One offers a handful of food to living creatures.’
– 13th Century Zen master Ehei Dogen: Fukan Zazengi – Universal Recommendation for Zazen (Zen Meditation)
Smiling Buddha Zen Center (SBZC) – Nikoyaka Butsu-in – is a Soto Zen temple located in the greater Denver Metro area, in beautiful Colorado. Our two resident teachers are Rev. Genryu Sensei and Rev. Maria Shinzai Sensei, whom Genryu Sensei is fortunate to be married to, as he is reminded every day. The cats run the place in reality. We are just here to serve them.