Harvard professor’s 6-step guide to Zen Buddhism | Robert Waldinger

Listening to this feels like entering a space of stillness and light.

This content brings such a deep sense of peace and clarity.

Such a beautiful reminder to slow down and be present.

The teaching on impermanence (anicca) is so simple yet so profound. Everything changes — clinging to anything causes suffering. Pure wisdom

Waldiniger is a fraud.

Simple, clear, and powerful.

Timeless wisdom from the Buddha.

Zen does not "emphasize community". And the fact that Zen Buddhists use term "Sangha" to describe something is irrelevant. I use the term "quantum physics". That does mean I have any type of special interest in it. The internet is full of Buddhism-grifters who are only popular because they tell Western audiences what they want to hear.

Yah, unless that person you’re trying to have a relationship with has deep seated unresolved trauma and profound attachment issues which are not visible and obscured by gaslighting. This ^ world view is kinda childish and assumes healthy people.

IF Zen has removed nirvana/enlightenment, THEN Zen isn't AwakeSoulism/Buddhism:

the whole point of the ocean-of-meaning that Gautama & Padmasambhava gave us, is to earn, to engineer one's continuum's release-from-self, into primordially-pure original-awareness.

As Hindu Ramana Maharshi spelled out ( in a student's book of his stuff, named "Maharshi's Gospel" ), there is a meditation sooo deep, that there's simply no self left in it: that's G-D, which we AwakeSoulists/Buddhists call OceanOfAllAwakeSouls or Dzogchen.

( I hadn't realized Zen, the Venn-diagram intersection of Daoism & Buddhism, had discarded the root of Buddhism: its direct conciseness had always been beloved, but I'm a reincarnation of a Himalayan Buddhist monk, & I'm not ditching the stuff my continuum remembers, for sake of any "tradition", and NONE of the traditions hold to what I remember Buddhism to mean )

The .. alien-to-me definition of Sangha, that traditional Buddhism holds to be right .. True Sangha is the set-of-minds who are committing earning-realization.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with any ritual anybody went through.

_ /\ _

Still brilliant advice

I hate my mother.
Not Disney for everyone.

Impermanence is one part of Buddhism teachings is not just Zen.

it is so it not... more often real master has beginers mind becouse he knows lots of ways as can it bee and can understand other.

I’ve started sitting at home and engaging in sangha and it has improved my life immensely in many different ways. I’ve always been a creative person and focused all over the place. Practicing Zazen and engaging in sangha has helped me see what it real, what is important and how each action or non action can affect everything around us. It’s helped me gain meaning in my life. I hope to cultivate more peace through this practice and am grateful for it.

Nice one

Brilliant. Thank you.

Tak!

Ah yes, the road less travelled indeed. Peace to all.

There is no such thing as a "Buudhist" language. Both Sanskrit and Pali are Indian languages

Somehow I'm in the mood for a fortune cookie now...

As a Christian, I am learning deeply from Buddhism.
And I do not experience this as a contradiction, but as a confirmation of Christ’s invitation.

Jesus calls us to examine everything and hold on to what is good,
to not fear truth, wherever it comes from,
because all authentic truth leads to the same center.

The teachings of Christ harmonize in a surprising way
with Buddhism, with Hinduism,
and with many ancestral spiritual practices
that converge in the same reality:
the inner being, the conscious heart, the living temple.

“The Kingdom of Heaven is within you,” Jesus teaches.
Not as an external place,
but as an embodied, present, awakened experience.

Buddhism speaks of mindfulness, compassion, and letting go of the ego.
Christ speaks of watchfulness, loving one’s neighbor, and dying to the false self.
Different languages,
yet the same direction:
the liberation from suffering and the awakening of the true self.

Jesus does not only teach the path:
He is the path.
The highest expression of human evolution made flesh.
The head of a living body that is all of humanity.

When I meditate, when I observe my breath,
when I cultivate compassion and inner silence,
I do not move away from Christ:
I draw closer to Him.

Because truth does not compete with itself.
Light does not contradict light.
And love—when it is real—always unifies.

This dialogue between traditions does not dilute faith;
it purifies it,
making it more humble, more embodied, more conscious.

To seek sincerely
is also a form of prayer.

Not this. Not this.

This reminds me sufi idea

Thank you professor for this great short video explaining Zen. I have read several Zen books over the years. I really connect with the mindfulness part of Zen. You are a talented, polished teacher.

sadhu

None of the loving kindness meditations ever stuck with me. They make me feel anxious and weird like I'm being hypnotised or brainwashed into thinking in a way that's unnatural. Buddhism has great parts but the biggest proponents have just hit on something that works for them personally, there's nothing universal about it. You need to find that works for your brain

✡️ + ✝️ + ☪️ + 🕉️ + 🪯 + = Universal Unity

4:20
yup.. when someone is mentally not well, and they do not want to change. when you have extended every grace, every option, and they reject it all.... we need to sometimes just let them be. show up in the world mentally unwell.

not sure how that jives with other cultural believes that we should help people who are a harm to themselves or others. it causes an ethical conundrum for me. :shrug:

...felt like therapies and growing up not in a vacuum taught me all these already :/

Thank you for sharing this!

Thoughts in Harvard:

" If a man is good, let him pray for us.
If he is also learned, let him teach us."

-- Scholastic Wisdom

I need new ways to relate to my husband of 36 yrs ❤

this vid hitting harder than any doctor's prescription. what a great perspective to see life. wish all the "important" people in this world, would understand it now, too.

Like a circle, the mind must be empty yet complete ❤ to live a simple life - is to live ❤

Origin of "zen" , short version: shakyamuni, ie buddha was about to give speach to assembly of monks
Before he started, he picked a flower. One monk, Mahakashiyapa, smiled
Buddha said: Here i have teaching beyond scriptures, and i hand it down to mahakashiyapa, who understands
That teaching has been handed down through various monks and laymen to this present day. This knowing beyond knowing is known as a sudden enlightenment. That is what makes zen different from other branches of buddhism.
It is rather ironic that so many books etc were and are written about a teaching that is outside and beyond words

Dr. Robert Waldinger seems and sounds so pure to me

Trying to learn anything of a spiritual nature from anyone who has "Harvard" in their personal description is just ridiculous.

Pity Harvard is antisemetic now. That's stupid.

Gasho 🙏🏼

So Im guessing Zen Buddhism and social media dont work well together