INSTITUTE OF ZEN STUDIES
Honolulu, Hawai'i
a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization
The next generations around the world will inherit a world of accelerated change and intensity. Through Zen training, a person can build capacity to focus, harness energy and achieve clarity. By articulating essential human values of wisdom, compassion and sincerity, and identifying generally valid principles of consciousness, the Institute contributes to a vision of humanity that transcends differences.
Through its educational programs in Zen studies, health, medicine, martial arts, fine arts, stress management and trans-cultural communication, IZS seeks to make Zen more accessible to modern society. Zen is a method of self-development which offers principles of concentration, breathing and posture basic to the development of deeper awareness. Through the practice of Zen and fine and martial arts, one can enter the state of Samadhi, a state of complete concentration and relaxation.
What is Zen?
Though many scholars have attempted to describe Zen, few, if any, have succeeded in doing so. Most agree that it is easier to say what it is not, rather than what it is.
According to Tanouye Tenshin Rotaishi, late Archbishop of Daihonzan Chozen-ji, a Rinzai Zen temple in Hawai'i --
“Zen training and the Ways aim at the maturity of the human being. Maturity means being in the state of mind which can see harmony in disharmony and unity in opposition. Human life is full of activity which becomes automatic through habit and can only be performed perfectly with practice, but where do we find training aimed at developing the inner life and not particular accomplishments. Because a person has more or can do more does not mean that he is more. But in any pursuit, besides the prospect of developing skills, apart from any specific achievement there is a chance to broaden one’s outlook and attain a greater degree of maturity. Then a person’s effectiveness comes out of his essential being. This is not due to the possession of certain abilities but to the releasing and cultivating of his personal nature.”