While on vacation in Osaka, my family and I visited the Tenshoji Temple to practice zazen with Resident Priest Jōdō Sasaki. Tenshoji Temple is a small Temple in central Osaka maintained by Priest Sasaki and his wife that offers regular morning and evening zazen, lectures and overnight sesshin.

Priest Sasaki has a very interesting background as a Zen priest, having studied philosophy of science at the University of Tokyo and clinical psychology in graduate school at Kyoto University. As a Zen priest, he emphasizes “Always zazen!” as a main practice.

As for our personal experience, after being greeted by Priest Sasaki at the temple gates, he led us into the meditation hall. There, he talked mainly about the distortion in our lives, especially during zazen. Distortion being both physical and mental. Our mental distortion is our attitude during sitting, and this quote from Willian James (a 19th-century American philosopher and psychologist), which Priest Sasaki shared, sums it up pretty well: “Our ungraceful and distorted attitudes when sitting are our habit. It’s very painful. We throw away our grace. This is a grave harm.” Don’t worry if you don’t fully understand at first, neither do I fully, but I find the more time I am able to sit without this ‘distortion’, the more it makes sense.

I find physical distortion much easier to understand and navigate, but that may just be because of what a good teacher Priest Sasaki is. To first demonstrate this topic, Priest Sasaki showed us a video of a 36-week-term baby in its crib, kicking its legs and thrashing about. After this introduction, he explained that the baby had “the perfect zazen”, illustrating how the baby was “always ready to kick”. I think what he meant was the baby was fully natural in the present moment, and putting its full attention on the kicking without any distorted ideas about what kicking is. Priest Sasaki then stood up, leaned his body back a bit, and did a little hop forward, using his head to guide the rest of his body. He explained this movement as “breaking a veil in front of your head”. I noticed, after doing this strange little hop a few times, that this was in fact ‘undistorting’ my posture. He explained that having no power in your movements and having bad posture, as well as being too stiff, is very painful. Doing this movement helps bring a bit of awareness back to the body and engages you in what you’re actually doing, as well as getting your posture back into a more natural position. Try doing this a few times a day, even if just to clear your head!

Priest Sasaki offers a unique, clear view of Zen that I believe we can all benefit from in our daily lives. If you have the chance to visit Osaka, I would strongly encourage you to visit Tenshoji Temple and practice “Always zazen!” with Priest Sasaki. You can find the temple address and contact details here with details in English, and you can also see a picture of me practicing in the temple with my family at the bottom of the page!

Other quotes shared by Priest Sasaki I found helpful to understand “Always Zazen!”

Zen Master Dogen said the following about zazen:

“The most urgent task is zazen. Zazen is a graceful and undistorted attitude when sitting. Zazen is a very comfortable way of sitting, stopping painful and harmful sitting postures. Zazen is the realization of one’s true self.”.

Standing Firmly on One’s Own Feet:

Sitting upright on two legs is the essence of what it means to be human. “Sitting” means “standing” on two femurs (thighs). It’s simply a matter of practicing the fundamental principle of being human. Sitting upright on two feet (graceful and undistorted attitude when sitting) is the practice of the very basis of being human, and that is the Buddhist path and zazen.

Kodo Sawaki (1880–1965), a Zen Master said the following:

Sit up straight full of grace and without distortion, and you have nothing to worry about.
Buddhist practice is simply to sit full of grace and without distortion. Simply sitting full of grace and without distortion is the whole of Buddhism.
No matter how long or how hard you practice zazen, the fact that you are a mass of worldly desires will not change. There is absolutely no need to try to do anything about the monkey mind. Simply sit without distortion with your monkey mind as it is. Even if you practice zazen, your confusion, distractions, and delusions will never disappear. You should “practice in the midst of your confusion and delusions.”
I became unable to pretend to be someone I wasn’t. I came to believe that I shouldn’t create my own ideas or methods. This lively life, where you keep moving forward without creating anything artificial, is the truth, and this is the Buddhist path.
Buddhism is a religion that does not make things up, a religion that eliminates fabrications. Living the Buddhist path means making an effort to live a true life. The Buddhist path is about returning to your original self, before you engaged in various activities.