The Zen Master's Dance - 7 - Fukan Zazengi (p. 32 to middle of p. 37)

[Risho]

When my parents moved here a couple months back, my Dads terminalcancer diagnosis, scrambling to find my parents a place to live…

The older I get, the more I realize that I cannot set the parameters of my life but I can embrace and accept them and only when I do am I free; I think the aim of being an adult and Bodhisattva is accepting and taking responsibility and taking care of ouselves and others: not one, not two. It is a daily practice, and only by getting out of our own way, dropping the small self and acting will we ever live a complete life.

True joy, not happiness but fulfilling joy is the path of this practice, and it requires us to drop the separation of sone imagined expectation with what is; we are truly healed and heal others by dropping our expectations and taking up our true mantle of bodhisattvas

gassho

Risho
-stlah

[Jundo]

When my parents moved here a couple months back, my Dads terminalcancer diagnosis, scrambling to find my parents a place to live…

The older I get, the more I realize that I cannot set the parameters of my life but I can embrace and accept them and only when I do am I free; I think the aim of being an adult and Bodhisattva is accepting and taking responsibility and taking care of ouselves and others: not one, not two. It is a daily practice, and only by getting out of our own way, dropping the small self and acting will we ever live a complete life.

True joy, not happiness but fulfilling joy is the path of this practice, and it requires us to drop the separation of sone imagined expectation with what is; we are truly healed and heal others by dropping our expectations and taking up our true mantle of bodhisattvas

gassho

Risho
-stlah

Lovely.

Sitting for your dad.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Risho]

Thank you

Risho
-stlah

[Seishin]

Bit late on this one but like Stewart I have found it hard to recall. And I would also say I'm finding it difficult to recall anything that I absolutely despised in my own personal life but there again I don't tend to dwell on the past, as there is nothing I can do about it. Now politicians and politics, well that is a different matter and not for here.

As to sitting in a hectic noisy environment, is another difficult one for me, given our rural location and lack of agricultural activity this time of year. With covid I rarely venture out, bar in and out shopping, as my wife was classed a high risk with her underlying heart condition and that was before last year's 2 attacks. And she has recently had another "cardiac event" and will finally see her specialist once she gets her 3rd jab now Omicron is muddying the waters. I supposed I could despise all of that and the pandemic stopping her getting an immediate follow up, with the hospitals being a petri-dish environment but what would be the point, so I sit with it or without it.

The wheat harvest in the field 20m from the study was an early morning one this year and the double glazing doesn't blank out the sound of a Claas combine at full revs at 0730 in the morning ! I could have despised that, as I sat knowing my wife's much needed rest would have been disturbed but we chose the location. So ? You guessed it, I just sat with. Seems to be the answer to many things. Funny that isn't it.

Sat (quietly)

[Onkai]

Metta to you and your wife, Seishin.

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat/lah

[Gregor]

Interesting assignments. Well timed in I had a few Zazen experiences in less than ideal circumstances this last week. 1) catching a nasty cold from my kids and sitting with that not feeling well or being able to breath through my nose. 2) Earlier in the week I had gotten out of work early and had house to myself. Felt it would be the perfect opportunity for peaceful Zazen. When I got home a bunch of work trucks and excavators pulled in front of my house and began digging up my sidewalk and yard to install new underground cables. The machines and men made a racket. But i just sat with it and accepted it. Was a very "good" Zazen session despite all of it.

[Tomás ESP]

Recently I took an exam that I had been preparing for over 2 years. The day I woke up to take the exam there was a deep sense of "it is okay, regardless of the result". The anxiety was just the anxiety, time was just time ticking away, the exam was just a sheet of paper with questions on it. And even though I felt very nervous and shaky, there was a deeper sense of equanimity and trust. Almost as if I was playing my assigned role without losing myself in the play.

Gassho, Tomás
Sat&LaH

[Chikyou]

As I'm new to this practice, I haven't gone through much life difficulty while practicing.

However I'm immediately reminded of Shunryu Suzuki's wise words on "weeds of the mind", which I often consider when I'm struggling in practice.

"So we should not be bothered by the weeds you have in your mind. We should be grateful to the weeds you have in your mind, because eventually they will enrich your practice."

Gassho,
SatLah
Kelly