Zazen for Beginners Series: THREAD for QUESTIONS, COMMENTS

[Steve Rossiter]

Thank you Jundo, for the help. Gassho.

[Steve Rossiter]

Micheal, thank you. This was very helpful. Gassho.

[Jundo]

Gassho Jundo, I have a question for yourself, or anyone else that may have a solution. I have trouble keeping my eyes 3/4 shut, due to dry-eye. This poses a distraction.
Does anyone have experience with this, and what was your solution?

Sat Today
Gassho, Steve

Hi Steve,

Well, blink normally, and just keep your eyes ordinary, just about half open. No need to stay fixed on one spot either.

I sometimes compare it to driving a country road ...

Drivin' Dogen - Understanding "Open Spacious Awareness"

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?16743-Drivin-Dogen-Understanding-Open-Spacious-Awareness

We are not doing anything particularly strained with the eyes. Let me know if that helps.

Gassho, Jundo

stlah

[Houzan]

Gassho Jundo, I have a question for yourself, or anyone else that may have a solution. I have trouble keeping my eyes 3/4 shut, due to dry-eye. This poses a distraction.
Does anyone have experience with this, and what was your solution?

Sat Today
Gassho, Steve

I am sure Jundo or someone else will come along and give some proper guidance.
Meanwhile, maybe this is a helpful thread:

Zazen with closed eyes?

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?share_fid=15740&share_tid=18152&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Etreeleaf%2Eorg%2Fforums%2Fshowthread%2Ephp%3Ft%3D18152&share_type=t&link_source=app

Gassho, Michael
Satlah

[Steve Rossiter]

Gassho Jundo, I have a question for yourself, or anyone else that may have a solution. I have trouble keeping my eyes 3/4 shut, due to dry-eye. This poses a distraction.
Does anyone have experience with this, and what was your solution?

Sat Today
Gassho, Steve

[Jundo]

Thank you Jundo, this makes sense to me. Placing awareness on the hara has been a useful "training wheels" process for me in my very beginning stages (and has felt natural from my singing and woodwind training). I really appreciate how much Treeleaf is focused on open awareness and that is definitely a "goalless goal" for me.

Gassho,
Gooey

sat/LAH

Hi Gooey,

Oh, my mother was a professional Jazz singer with opera training, so I also believe in the value of nice, deep breathing "from the diaphragm." In Zazen, we just breathe naturally, nothing forced, breathing at our own natural pace, but do appreciate breaths which open the diaphragm.

The Hara is near the body's center of gravity, in my understanding from martial artists, so is important to have in mind in movement.

But that is very different from saying that the Hara is actually the center of some mysterious "ki" energy, or that we actually breathe from down there (a condition which, if actually happening, would be grounds to call an ambulance!) My wife, a 5th Dan in Aikido, seems to agree with me on the above.

Gassho, J

stlah

[Gooey]

Thank you Jundo, this makes sense to me. Placing awareness on the hara has been a useful "training wheels" process for me in my very beginning stages (and has felt natural from my singing and woodwind training). I really appreciate how much Treeleaf is focused on open awareness and that is definitely a "goalless goal" for me.

Gassho,
Gooey

sat/LAH

[Jundo]

I finished watching this series a little while ago and am still finding things to reflect on. Thank you Jundo for such clear and thoughtful instructions. I especially found the "not grabbing the thoughts" (number 7) and "drifting clouds" (number 9) very helpful, as well as the idea of different "channels" (that are still all part of the same whole). I've also been thinking about the idea of awareness from the hara. I wrote this as a somewhat clumsy way to try to capture a bit of where my understanding is at so far:

Tune into hara
This channel plays clear blue sky
24/7

Sorry for running long!

Gassho,
Gooey

sat/LAH

Hi Gooey,

Some folks place the attention on the Hara during Zazen, or just follow the breath, or just feel the whole body sitting. I am more of an "open awareness" fellow, who just places the attention kind of into open space, no particular place at all. All are fine. I think that, based on old ideas of Chinese medicine, some folks emphasize the Hara too much, as an energy center of the body. I don't know about that, and we tend not to emphasize the Hara too much around our Sangha.

Gassho, Jundo

stlah

[Gooey]

I finished watching this series a little while ago and am still finding things to reflect on. Thank you Jundo for such clear and thoughtful instructions. I especially found the "not grabbing the thoughts" (number 7) and "drifting clouds" (number 9) very helpful, as well as the idea of different "channels" (that are still all part of the same whole). I've also been thinking about the idea of awareness from the hara. I wrote this as a somewhat clumsy way to try to capture a bit of where my understanding is at so far:

Tune into hara
This channel plays clear blue sky
24/7

Sorry for running long!

Gassho,
Gooey

sat/LAH

[k1982]

Beginner's series finished...wanted to take my time with these lessons, get a flavor for the teachings here, make sure to sit at the end of each video.

My experience is probably best conveyed through a paraphrasing of a conversation I had with my wife yesterday while doing the dishes.

Me: "Just finished up the beginner's series Jundo made."
Wife: "Any more blender videos?"
Me: "No but he made a short one from downtown, lots of people walking around him! And one from his car."
Wife: "Does he like making loud videos?"
Me: "Not necessarily. The one from his bathtub was pretty quiet."
Wife: "Oh that's ni....I'm sorry the one from his what?"

Definitely looking forward to getting involved with more of the practice here!

Gassho,
Kyle
stlah

[Do Mi]

Dear Jundo,

I finished watching these videos a while ago and they continue to inform my zazen practice every day. The combination of supportiveness and acceptance of conditions, your steadfast teaching of shikantaza, and the metaphors, helps me so much. Especially the blender and the floating poster, which when recalled seem to click me right into a state of relaxed alertness in which some space between elephants can arise... But lots of elephants are okay too, I just keep climbing off and waving goodbye... and am so grateful to understand that this is also "good zazen."

Believing in my bones in the completeness of zazen as the embodiment of Buddha is a little more elusive. I read your teachings often enough to be reminded!

I am doing zazen every day, usually before bed although I'm trying to do more in the afternoon, and to jump in with the Treeleaf group more. I also sit with my local sangha twice a week, and am figuring out how deeply to be involved there.

So I just wanted to express my gratitude for your teachings and to Dogen and all the teachers for this incredible practice.

In gassho,

Do Mi
satlah

[Jundo]

Hi Lannan!

[Tokan]

I registered a while ago, and life, as it does, has gotten busy. (We're buying our first house this year.) I've been thinking more and more about what my practice will look like without in-person sangha once we move, and remembered I'd joined Treeleaf. It was definitely the time to start watching Jundo's videos, and I'm really enjoying them. I'm 4 videos in and the straightforwardness is really speaking to me!

I've been doing zazen with a local sangha and while I very much enjoy that too, there's something about the way Jundo teaches and has Treeleaf organized that really makes me think that my current sangha isn't quite reaching the neurodiverse as well as it might otherwise. There's much to the way relationships develop in a sangha, the way we're assumed to interact with the teachers, that has me baffled in a way that keeps me quiet and watchful, as if there's something I'm missing and need to pay closer attention to. But it could very well be less my neurodivergence and more my inhospitable working schedule that means I only see everyone for Sunday zazenkai.

Either way, I'm looking forward to delving further into this series of talks.

Good to have you around Lannan

Gassho, Tokan (satlah)

[Lannan]

I registered a while ago, and life, as it does, has gotten busy. (We're buying our first house this year.) I've been thinking more and more about what my practice will look like without in-person sangha once we move, and remembered I'd joined Treeleaf. It was definitely the time to start watching Jundo's videos, and I'm really enjoying them. I'm 4 videos in and the straightforwardness is really speaking to me!

I've been doing zazen with a local sangha and while I very much enjoy that too, there's something about the way Jundo teaches and has Treeleaf organized that really makes me think that my current sangha isn't quite reaching the neurodiverse as well as it might otherwise. There's much to the way relationships develop in a sangha, the way we're assumed to interact with the teachers, that has me baffled in a way that keeps me quiet and watchful, as if there's something I'm missing and need to pay closer attention to. But it could very well be less my neurodivergence and more my inhospitable working schedule that means I only see everyone for Sunday zazenkai.

Either way, I'm looking forward to delving further into this series of talks.

[Tai Shi]

As I rise in the morning, I use saline solution with lubricant specifically made for eyes. It's best to check with your doctor. This is a solution strongly recommended by doctor.
Gassho
sat lah