[HealthDharma] Turning Suffering Inside Out, chapter ten, part four

[Kokuu]

Dear all

This week’s reading consists of pages 193-200 (from REGULARITY OF PRACTICE to the end of chapter).

In this section Darlene talks about having a regular sitting practice, and noting that she finds it best when she sits five or six days of the week. She also points out that sometimes we think that we do not have time to sit but can watch our breath when in an elevator or taxi, or do walking meditation while waiting for the coffee to brew or pasta to cook.

Darlene goes on to speak about experiencing physical pain during practice, and two ways of working with this – using your breath to expand the spaces in your body and adjusting your position to ease the pain. She notes that discomfort is different to pain in that discomfort passes, whereas pain often becomes more insistent.

This section next talks about the balance between stability and vulnerability in sitting practice, working with sufficient stability to be able to maintain a stable posture and consistent awareness, and enough vulnerability to become open and receptive. Becoming either too solid and stable or too vulnerable takes us to undesirable extremes. As the Buddha took the lute player Sona – sitting is like tuning a lute string, not too tight, not too loose. Darlene characterises stability like being a mountain, whereas vulnerability is like the surface of a lake.

My last Tibetan Buddhist teacher used to say:

Body like a mountain
Breath like the sea
Mind like the sky

Darlene talks about meditation being a place where we can allow the tender places of our body and mind to unfurl and be seen, a time of the day when we can let our vulnerabilities show themselves. The breath can be an anchor through this process.

She urges patience with our practice. It changes us, and allows us to be changed, but forcing change is not helpful.


Question prompts


1. What is your experience with pain and discomfort during sitting practice? Can you differentiate between the two and do you respond differently?

2. Do you resonate with the notion that sitting practice gives us a space to be vulnerable and look ‘under the skin’ of what is going on with our bodies and minds? Is that something you welcome or can it be a little scary at times to face what is there?


Wishing you all a healthful week.

Gassho
Kokuu

[Kaisho]

1. My experience with pain and discomfort is two fold. I, as I get older and have more aches and persistent pains, have come to realize that in zazen not all pain has to be addressed. I am used to the lower back aches and my back side too. On the other hand sometimes I'll have discomfort in my upper back too. This goes away usually but sometimes persists. Often I'll adjust my chair or cushion and get back to sitting. With my upper back I cannot adjust so easily but do try to release tension when I can.

2. Yes. The more I sit the more I find myself inspecting under the hood. Because of it I've started to add pt exercises off the cushion to address upper back keyboard posture issues. I usually don't like to look at what's wrong with me as I feel very limited when I do and am trying to adjust my attitude to accept what is and focus on what I can do to live easier with the pain.

Thanks for putting this up Kokuu

Gassho
Kaisho
Stlah

[Alina]

1. What is your experience with pain and discomfort during sitting practice? Can you differentiate between the two and do you respond differently?
When there is pain or discomfort in my body, I try to breathe into it, similar to what Darlene suggests, and if I can't find relief I simply shift my attention to other parts of the body, and that is what ends up bringing relief, though not always. But for me the pain/discomfort are mostly a mental thing.

2. Do you resonate with the notion that sitting practice gives us a space to be vulnerable and look ‘under the skin’ of what is going on with our bodies and minds? Is that something you welcome or can it be a little scary at times to face what is there?
Yes, a lot. I try to embrace it, our just allow it. When I find sadness in me at the beginning of a sit, I just say to myself "today I'm sad" and I just leave it there, as if it was sitting beside me. The breath is a good anchor, even if the sadness or any other not pleasant feeling remain when the bell rings.

[Tairin]

Thank you Kokuu

i will skip question number 1 as it really doesn’t apply to me

2. Do you resonate with the notion that sitting practice gives us a space to be vulnerable and look ‘under the skin’ of what is going on with our bodies and minds? Is that something you welcome or can it be a little scary at times to face what is there?

I think this is one of the great values of our sitting practice. We sit with what is, which may be aches and pains that can not be ignored, a crazy and stressed out mind, worries, arguments etc. Zazen really doesn’t offer an escape so much as it offers us a quiet place to work with these things. It is something I welcome


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Kaitan]

1. What is your experience with pain and discomfort during sitting practice? Can you differentiate between the two and do you respond differently?
With time I've learned to discern which is which. My approach to get a stable posture is to avoid any variant of half lotus/full lotus because it's very painful and I can't get my spine straight.

2. Do you resonate with the notion that sitting practice gives us a space to be vulnerable and look ‘under the skin’ of what is going on with our bodies and minds? Is that something you welcome or can it be a little scary at times to face what is there?

I heard somewhere that the most friending thing to do is to sit with our thoughts, I can't feel/recognize that, but perhaps the avoidance is an sign from that. And that may be the reason why not many people want to stay still and sit quietly.

It was interesting to know from her that the source of courage to keep sitting is the stability that comes from the posture and the recognition that the practice of shikantaza is actually a nice thing to experience.

Could it be that the avoidance of sitting with our thoughts is a misunderstanding in the whole society? And that exciting and intense states are not what we really want?
I'm reading a very interesting book from Byung Chul Han 'Vita contemplativa' and he talks somewhere that tediousness (I wouldn't include dullness here) is the pinnacle of spiritual relaxation and that true happiness is found in the vain, useless and unproductive (good for nothing?). He mentions a lot the value of goalesness as something deeply healing.

Gasshō

stlah, Kaitan