Zen is thus an ancient way, handed down to us from teacher to student over many centuries, of cultivating awareness of reality, of grappling with the question of life and death, and of actualizing the harmony between ultimate reality and the world of daily life. Meditation is the cornerstone on which Zen is built. The word Zen is a transliteration of the Sanskrit word dhyana, meaning concentration or meditation. Zen meditation or zazen offers a way of experiencing the fundamental nature of the universe directly for oneself. In fact, the practice of zazen itself is direct expression of one's own true nature. Zen is also a school of Buddhism, but rather than adopting some special attitude toward the Buddha, Zen students seek what the Buddha sought, and take his quest for enlightenment as an example to follow.
From Taking the Path of Zen:
"Zazen is a matter of just doing it. However, even for the advanced student,
work on the meditation cushion is always being refined. It is like learning
to drive a car, you become better and better with experience....But even with
just a month of practice, a few minutes each day, you will be able to focus
more clearly on your work or study and to give yourself more freely to
conversation and recreation....In zazen periods we devote ourselves wholly.
In this place of rest, we are not caught up in the kaleidoscope of thoughts,
colors, and forms as they appear; we do not react out of a self-centered
position. We are free to apply our humanity appropriately in the context of
the moment according to the needs of people, animals, and things about us.
Thus you may see that enlightenment and love are not two things." --Robert
Aitken Roshi
From Total Liberation:
"The ultimate goal of Zen is nothing more, and nothing less, than becoming
truly what one is: truly human, whole, at peace, at one with everything, yet
emptied of everything. Such an ultimate goal is not outside the reach of
anyone; the kingdom of God is at hand, in our midst. He who hath eyes to see,
let him see....But to be able to see requires that total change of heart,
metanoia, that total emptying of self that makes for its true fullness. Zen
Master Dogen's famous line on the Way of the Enlightened points to this very
experience: 'To attain the Way of the Enlightened is to attain one's
True Self. To attain one's True self is to forget oneself. To forget oneself
is to realize one's unity with the whole universe.'"
--Ruben L. F. Habito Roshi