A Few Words You May Hear — Greenville Zen Center

Zen carries some words from Japanese and from its long history. None of them are barriers, and you will pick them up naturally. Here are the ones you are most likely to meet.

Zazen: Seated meditation, the heart of the practice. The word means simply sitting Zen.
Zendo: The room or hall where we sit together.
Zafu and zabuton: The zafu is the firm round cushion you sit on, and the zabuton is the flat padded mat beneath it that cushions the knees and ankles.
Han: The wooden board, or block, struck with a mallet to call everyone to the zendo before sitting. It is sounded in measured rounds that quicken into a rolldown as the hour to begin draws near, and is often inscribed with a verse reminding us how swiftly life passes.
Kinhin: Slow, formal walking meditation, practiced between periods of sitting, carrying the same attention from the cushion into gentle movement.
Shikantaza: The Soto practice of just sitting, taught by Dogen. Sitting with no goal beyond the sitting itself, which is understood to be complete as it is.
Sangha: The community of people who practice together. One of the three treasures of Buddhism, alongside the Buddha and the teaching, and the reason we sit in one another’s company rather than alone.
Dana: Generosity, the ancient practice by which Zen is supported. Teaching and community are offered freely and sustained freely, each holding the other up.
Sesshin: An extended silent retreat, often several days long, given over almost entirely to zazen. The word suggests gathering or touching the heart-mind.
Zazenkai: A shorter day or half-day of intensive sitting, a gentler cousin of sesshin.
Gassho: The simple bow made with the palms together, an everyday gesture of respect and gratitude in the zendo.
Cosmic mudra: The resting position of the hands in zazen, one palm cradled in the other with the thumb tips lightly meeting to form an oval.
Dokusan, or practice discussion: A private meeting between a student and a teacher to talk over one’s practice. It belongs to a center with a teacher, and is part of what we hope to grow toward.
Soto: One of the two great schools of Japanese Zen, founded by Dogen and known for its emphasis on just sitting. The tradition we practice in.
Dogen: Eihei Dogen, the thirteenth-century Japanese master who founded the Soto school and whose writings remain among the deepest in all of Zen.
Suzuki Roshi: Shunryu Suzuki, the priest who brought this Soto lineage to America in 1959 and founded the San Francisco Zen Center. Roshi is a title of respect for a senior teacher.
Lineage: The unbroken line of teachers through which the practice is handed down, person to person, back to the Buddha.
Sutra: A traditional teaching or scripture, sometimes chanted together as part of practice.