— zen in Norwegian
Practice
Zen is not a belief nor a philosophy, but a practice — something you do with body, soul, and mind, together with others, over time.
The core of the method is both old and simple — sitting still and being with what is here.
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Lost Coin Zen is Doen Roshi's method for training our whole being, not just the head, and not just for a peace that is limited to the meditation cushion.
We sit, we study koans, we move, we make things, we read, and we live our lives.
Everything is practice when we face it with our whole being.
Lost Coin Zen
The coin we think we've lost is the most precious thing we own, the thing we miss the most. We look everywhere to find it again, but it turns out it's already in our pocket.
Lost Coin Zen is an international group with members in the US and Europe, led by Daniel Doen Silberberg Roshi, and represented in Norway by Vegar Svanemyr. At Tradisjongen you can read about the teachers and how the lineage has developed.
The method is rooted in the Zen tradition — the koan tradition of Rinzai, the silent sitting of Sōtō, and the White Plum family of Maezumi Roshi — but also draws on elements from other wisdom traditions and modern psychology.
Gateways into the practice
The Lost Coin training goes through several gates — ways of approaching the same thing. None of them is all the way alone. Together they form a training for our entire being.
To sit
Sitting meditation — zazen in Japanese — is the cornerstone of Zen. Za means “to sit,” and Zen comes from the Pali word jhāna, which can be translated as absorption. Sitting is both the easiest and the most challenging part of the practice.
At first it is about concentration: following the breath, letting the mind calm down, and becoming present in the body. Gradually we can see deeper into the essence of reality, and our kinship with all that exists.
“The next thing is not going to make you happy. This thing makes you happy. There is no next thing. The next thing is this thing.” - Doen Roshi
To sit is to be with this thing .
⟨ZAZEN⟩ (A separate introduction to sitting practice — with sitting positions, breathing, and what you do with your mind — is coming.)
Koan study
The koans are stories, dialogues, questions, and statements from Zen history. Each koan reflects a principle or aspect of the path. A koan is not a puzzle you solve with your head, but a way to shift your perspective.
Koan study is a process between teacher and student over time, where each koan is studied in a specific order and presented to the teacher one by one. It is an effective method for breaking down habitual ways of thinking and for expanding and deepening our perception and self-understanding.
Body practices
The body is our vessel. In a spiritual quest, it is easy to get stuck in your head; body practice opens up a deeper experience of reality. The body is also where we build will, direction, and power.
At Lost Coin, we practice tai chi, qigong, walking meditation (kinhin), and the daily rhythms of standing, bowing, making tea, sweeping the floor — these are not accessories to Zen, they are Zen. Doen says, “The practice happens in the body. Art, calligraphy, martial arts, tea — these are gates. The form is not an obstacle; the form is the way in.”
Chi or qi — the life force — is not mystical, but breath and mindfulness with intention. You feel it in a garden, in a conversation that really lands, in the brief moment before something new begins. Body practice is about becoming familiar with it.
Creative practice
Throughout history, Zen has been intertwined with art and creative expression. We use both traditional Zen forms — calligraphy, flower arranging, tea — and contemporary expressions. The approach is not theoretical, but a living exploration of the relationship between artist, tool, work, and audience.
At Lost Coin, artistic practice is cultivated as part of the legacy. John Daido Loori — Doen's fellow teacher and one of the founders of Zen Mountain Monastery — wrote the book The Zen of Creativity, which is still close to how we work: beauty in imperfection, attention to what is already there, the courage to create something without knowing what it will look like. Wabi-sabi.
The practice is not about becoming a better artist. The practice is about letting what you create be a conversation with what is.
Studies
Thoughts and intellect are an indispensable part of being human. When they are allowed to take their rightful place, they become a gateway to insight—not an obstacle.
We read together. Key texts in Lost Coin: The Diamond Sutra, the Heart Sutra, Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō, Tao Te Ching, classical koan collections, Gurdjieff's Fourth Way. Not to become a scholar, but to let the voices of tradition shape your ear — and to have a conversation to return to when life demands it.
Bibliomanti — opening an old text at random and reading what comes to mind — is one of Doen's methods. Not as magic, but as a reminder that the texts are alive, and that they can speak to the exact situation you are in.
(Book recommendations come on their own page.)
Aries
Zen is not about accumulating more knowledge, but about maturing our being — the way we are present, in everything we do.
This is the sixth gate, and the one that permeates all the others: the quality of presence, of attention, of the way you sit in your chair, walk down the stairs, greet your neighbor, endure something difficult. Aries is not measured in insights or experiences. Aries is measured in how you are on a Friday afternoon in November.
“The moment you think you understand, you stop learning,” says Doen. Aries matures by becoming less certain, not by becoming more certain.