Mario Fatibene Nanmon

The Zen of This Room Mario Fatibene Nanmon

A Junkei is a short speech a few minutes long that the Zen master gives during intensive meditation, where the practicants sit quietly for twelve hours. It is an improvised speech, not prepared beforehand, that arises from the context of that single sesshin, of that specific intensive meditation, with those participants, in that place and in that moment. They are speeches that arise in the meditation and silence of the sesshin. A junkei is intended to support the practice of the zazen (sitting meditation) and the koans. Junkei, zazen and koans in the Zen Rinzai school are integrated into a single process. The junkei is an innovation introduced by master Engaku Taino who founded the Zenshinji Buddhist temple of the Lynci school of Chan (Rinzai Zen) in Orvieto, in the district of Scaramuccia. The junkei, two during all the practice intensive, are spoken by the master while the pupils sit in zazen quietly. The nature of the junkei is the oral form. Here we present them in the form of writing, in the hope that even in this form some words might resonate in the heart of some readers, or even just one. That would be enough. With Joined HandsNanmon