Take a stable seat
Use a cushion, bench, or chair. Let knees or feet meet the floor securely. Tilt the pelvis slightly forward and sit upright without stiffening. Adjust any posture that causes sharp pain or numbness.
Practice
Ring the bell. Take your seat.
Choose a sitting period and begin. The bell sounds once at the start and three times at the end.
Zazen timer
20:00
Choose a period. One bell begins; three bells close.
Zazen instructions
How to sit.
A cushion, meditation bench, or ordinary chair will all work. Wear loose clothing and give the body a few minutes to settle.
Let the hands and eyes rest
Place hands together in the lap or rest them on the thighs. Keep the eyes softly open, gaze lowered, receiving the room without searching it.
Let breathing stay natural
Take two or three easy breaths, then stop managing them. Feel the movement at the belly or nostrils without making the breath deeper, slower, or more spiritual.
When thought carries you away
Notice that thinking happened and return to posture, breath, and the sounds in the room. There is no need to suppress the thought or continue its story.
Close the period carefully
Let the last bell fade completely. Move the fingers and toes, loosen the legs, and stand slowly. If you became dizzy or uncomfortable, take the next period in a chair.
Daily practice · Today
One voice. One insight. One return.
Bankei holds the central place in this rotation. Voices from the Buddha through modern Zen keep the Unborn in living conversation with the wider tradition.
“Trying to suppress delusion is delusion too.”
01
Zen insight · Mujo · Impermanence
Change is not an interruption.
Everything conditioned is moving: sensations, moods, bodies, seasons, relationships, and the thought called “me.” Zen asks us to meet that movement without demanding a frozen world.
Explore this concept02
The Unborn connection
Before the second thought.
What changes is already known as changing. The Unborn is not another permanent object; it is the unmanufactured awareness in which arrival and departure are evident.
Notice one ending today without adding a second ending in thought.
A twenty-second experiment00:20
Let the world arrive.
Press start, then notice what is already being heard before you decide to listen.
Thirty days · one gate
Stop trying to manufacture what hears you trying.
A form can steady the body. A bell can gather attention. A teacher can point. But no method gives the Unborn to you. The steps below are a way of returning to what is already functioning before the next self-improvement project begins.
01
Days 1–7
Hear what arrives
Three times a day, stop for one minute. Do not concentrate. Notice that sound is already arriving, already distinguished, before you intervene.
02
Days 8–14
Catch the trade
Notice the instant a passing thought becomes a position you must defend. Name the movement quietly: “trading.” Do not punish it or solve it.
03
Days 15–21
Leave spent thoughts spent
When a conversation or mistake begins replaying, ask whether the event is happening now. Let memory be memory rather than a room you have to re-enter.
04
Days 22–30
Carry no special state
Drop the idea that quiet is more spiritual than noise. Practice while emailing, washing a cup, disagreeing, walking, and waiting. Nothing is outside the Unborn.
The Unborn view
The cushion has no privileged access.
Formal sitting is a complete human activity: body, breath, sound, discomfort, ease, and thought sharing one seat. Its form deserves care without being mistaken for a spiritual rank.
When sounds arrive, notice they are heard without effort. When thoughts arise, do not chase or suppress them. When the period ends, stand up without imagining that awareness has changed address.
This Temple offers no riddle curriculum and no achievement system. The direct matter is simpler and more demanding: do not abandon the mind already functioning for a secondhand idea of awakening.
Temple caretaker
Tesshin helps keep this Temple open.
Tesshin is the founder and caretaker of the Temple of the Unborn Mind, an independent online temple devoted to Bankei Yotaku’s direct Zen teaching of the Unborn. He does not claim ownership of Bankei’s teaching, exclusive lineage authority, or institutional succession. The Unborn belongs to no person, school, or temple.
Practice can include direct conversation, Bankei’s record, zazen, the wider Zen teachings, and the exact condition of ordinary life. Come with what is actually happening.
Read about the Temple- Approach
- Direct, fierce, conversational, grounded in the Unborn
- Setting
- Individual conversation and small-group inquiry, generally available Saturdays by arrangement
- Ground
- The Unborn within the wider Zen tradition
Contact the Temple
Ask about teaching or practice.
Messages go directly to Tesshin. Mention Saturday if you want to sit, speak about Bankei, or ask for a direct conversation.
Direct email
templeofallmankind@gmail.com
A short note is enough. Speak plainly.