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Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: THEORY 20

The Story of Buddha 20

The Four Noble Truths 24
The First Noble Truth - Life is suffering 24
The Second Noble Truth - the origin of suffering 26
The Third Noble Truth - the cessation of suffering 28
The Fourth Noble Truth - the path to the cessation of suffering 29

The human mind 37
The state of the mind before satori 37
The ego 41
Karma and rebirth 45
Satori, enlightenment and nirvana 52

The three poisons and three treasures 53
The three poisons 53
The three treasures 55

The history of Zen 57
Theravada and Mahayana schools 57
Buddhism in China 61
The way to the West 62
The special feature of Zen 63

First contact with Zen 66
No-mind, Buddha nature, Emptiness 66
Samadhi 67
The levels of consciousness - the nine jhânas 72
Koans 76
Schools of Zen 79
The Zen community 82


CHAPTER 2: PRACTICAL ASPECTS 93

The individual phases of the Zen practice 94
Preparations 95
Rituals 97

The Zazen posture 105
The correct sitting posture 106
The correct head position 112
The correct position for your gaze 113
The correct hand position 113
The correct way of breathing 114

The 1st Phase 117
The breath-counting exercise 117
Everyday exercises 120
Summary 121
Solutions 124
Characteristics of the 1st Phase 127

The 2nd Phase 130
Working with the koan MU 131
The standpoint of acknowledging and accepting 141
The attitude of not-judging 147
Everyday practices 149
Summary 152
Characteristics of the 2nd Phase 157

The 3rd Phase 158
Zen begins only after satori 158
Working with the inner concepts 161
Working with karma 188
The liberated Buddha-nature 231
Everyday practices 233
Summary 233
Characteristics of the 3rd Phase 233

The 4th Phase 235
Features of the 4th Phase 237

ANNEX 240