When starting out 'just sitting'

[Jundo]

Hello Tai Shi,

We are all human and we all make mistakes ... some small, some big. Regardless of what mistake(s) we make, what shows the most character, the most growth is when we can recognize our mistakes, be humble in our apology, to learn from those actions, and grow from them. When we can also come back together with the people we have hurt and they to us ... this is a wonderful thing. This to me shows one of the beauties of our practices in seeing and accepting life just as it is, but also doing our very best to make it a better place.

So I am happy that you and your Dad were able to see past the hurt and come back together. =)

Gassho
Shingen

SatToday/LAH

[Jay_cg14]

Thanks Sangha! All a great help

Gassho, Jay.

[Joyo]

Hi Jay,

I would say yes, but a funny thing happens.

One sits with what is, allowing what is. If there is a table in the room, one sits with the table without thinking "good table, bad table, ugly table, beautiful table" ... and perhaps without even thinking "table" at all. Likewise, if one is momentarily feeling "confused, restless, depressed" in that instant as the passing theatre of the mind, constantly changing, one treats such like the table. It just is what is in that moment.

In doing so, as counter-intuitive as it may sound, the "confused, restless, depressed" loses much of its extra fuel of our resistance to being so, which is like gasoline on a fire. The flames grow smaller in our non-resistance. As well, a certain light and peace comes to shine through the confusion , restlessness and depression. It is hard to explain, but one might find a certain Clarity that shines through even being confused and as confusion, a Stability and Wholeness which is the foundation of even being restless, a certain Joy which holds both passing moments and happiness and passing sadness. Sometimes I have felt sadness and Joy at once! Clarity amid and as Confusion as one!

Give er a shot. I hope you have been looking at our "Always Beginners" videos too.

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?121-A-SERIES-OF-TALKS-FOR-NEW-FOLKS-%28NEW%29

Gassho, Jundo

SatTodayLAH

Thank you, Jundo. I too have felt that sadness and joy at once. It's like it is all being held together (in Indra's net), and one is just present with what is.

Gassho,
Joyo
sat today

[Kyonin]

Sadness, joy, anger and at peace. All at the same time. I have experience this just this week with all of nature's events and how people react.

Letting go of opinions and judgment helps a lot.

Gassho,

Kyonin
Saty/LAH

[Jay_cg14]

Waves are no longer a problem within the vastness of the ocean itself. No matter how turbulent the surface, the depth and spaciousness holds it all, the rough sees, the smooth, the icy, the choppy, the oil spill - the ocean holds it all.

There's no good or bad zazen just as there's no good or bad or SEPERATE sees within the vast context and depth of the ocean itself . ����

Sat/Lah

[Jundo]

Waves are no longer a problem within the vastness of the ocean itself. No matter how turbulent the surface, the depth and spaciousness holds it all, the rough sees, the smooth, the icy, the choppy, the oil spill - the ocean holds it all.

There's no good or bad zazen just as there's no good or bad or SEPERATE sees within the vast context and depth of the ocean itself . ����

Sat/Lah

Saying such things can be easy. Actually Sitting and Living such way rather trickier. It is not merely a matter of describing the sea, seeing the sea and realizing that we are the sea, but living and sailing our sea-ness. It is the difference between saying "boat on the sea" and actually sailing the sea.

I wish you good sailing.

By the way, the ocean holds it all ... but we still try to avoid the hurricanes, tsunami and oil spills, and we try not to sink our boat. Our ugly human made oil spills can kill the coral and hide the sea.

From from Master Dogen's Shobogenzo-Zenki (The Whole Works) ... one of my favorite image of Zen Practice and all of life ...

Life can be likened to a time when a person is sailing in a boat.
On this boat, I am operating the sail, I have taken the rudder, I am pushing
the pole; at the same time, the boat is carrying me, and there is no “I” beyond
the boat. Through my sailing of the boat, this boat is being caused to be a
boat—let us consider, and learn in practice, just this moment of the present.
At this very moment, there is nothing other than the world of the boat: the
sky, the water, the shore have all become the moment of the boat, which is
utterly different from moments not on the boat. So life is what I am making
it, and I am what life is making me. While I am sailing in the boat, my body
and mind and circumstances and self are all essential parts of the boat; and
the whole earth and the whole of space are all essential parts of the boat.
What has been described like this is that life is the self, and the self is life.

http://www.bdk.or.jp/pdf/bdk/digital...enzo2_2008.pdf

Gassho, J

SAILEDtodayLah

[Jay_cg14]

Yes that's awesome I wish you good sailing too Jundo.

Gassho, Jay.

SAT