How do you sit at home?

[Dainin]

Re: How do you sit at home?

How is that for being full of shit?

We're all full of our share of it. It's good to realize it, though. :wink:

Gassho,
Keith

[Dojin]

Re: How do you sit at home?

i just sit in front of the wall.
i listen to one of Jundo's sit along talks.
pull out my zabuton position a couple of sitting cushions on it for the right height ( couldn't find a zafu in Israel ). turn on the tree life timer i downloaded ( mp3 )
and sit for 20 minutes.
then i get up, place the zabuton in its place and go on with my day.

[lora]

Re: How do you sit at home?

Hi,

The real buddha (my son) moved back out so now I'm left with my rottie?
Does a rottie have Buddha nature?

MU.

Many blessings,
lora

[AlanLa]

Re: How do you sit at home?

No cushion, except the one in my wheelchair.
I developed a mantra of sorts a while back that goes:
"Faith/trust
Courage/love
Awareness/action"
Each line is an in/out breath that I use to get my breathing under control. I repeat the last line three times. I do the whole thing while making one long, deep bow/prostration (becasue doing three bows is too hard for me).
Then I light a candle on my little altar and recite the following:
"Abandon evildoing;
Practice virtue well;
Subdue your mind;
This is the Buddha’s teaching

Like a star, an optical illusion, or a flame,
A magical illusion, a dewdrop, or a bubble,
Like a dream, a flash of lightning, or a cloud –
So should one consider all compounded things.

Heart Sutra
Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form;
Form does not differ from Emptiness,
Emptiness does not differ from Form;
- whatever is Empty, that is Form,
- whatever is Form, that is Empty!

Bodhisattva Vow
However innumerable sentient beings are,
I vow to save them.
However inexhaustible the defilements are,
I vow to extinguish them.
However immeasurable the dharmas are,
I vow to master them.
However incomparable enlightenment is,
I vow to attain it.

Gaté,
Gaté,
Paragaté,
Parasamgaté
Bodhi!
Svaha!"

Then I sit for 30 minutes using my new enso timer. When that goes off I repeat the Gate, gate, etc. with another long bow and put out the candle before going on about my day, as zazen is the first thing I do every morning.

I used to also do some reading of a Buddhist book from my library, but I gave that up for daily Jundo instead.

[Dainin]

Re: How do you sit at home?

Wow! Sounds almost exactly like my practice right now, but the digital watch is a cell-phone, and 30min. is 10-20 in the morning and 5-10 at night, usually. Also refuges instead of vows. Just like you though, the rakusu comes and goes. Lately I've decided to try the Heart Sutra once a week, as well. Twice if I make it to the local zendo.

Very cool! It's funny, after I wrote that, I find myself chanting the Heart Sutra daily. Along with Jundo's talks, I just finished rereading TNH's commentary (The Heart Of Understanding), and I guess the sutra is really resonating with me.

By the way, regarding your rakusu, where did you take the Precepts?

Gassho,
Keith