A fellow posted ...

[Jundo]

A fellow posted on a Facebook group that he wish the secret, on and off the Zazen cushion, for reaching "the Zen state" that is "contentment" and a mind that is grounded firmly in "the present reality, not drifting into the future or the past; free from thirst." He said that he has been having meditation sessions that have been "unproductive" lately and has been wanting to have what he calls "good meditation."

I wrote ...

Don't try anything, do not try to be "contented" and thus be content with how one is ... contented with feeling "contented" when content, and contented with sometimes not feeling "contented" if the brain is not content in that particular moment. Believe it or not, counter-intuitive as it may sound, that is the greatest "contentment," like some overriding subtle "Joy" to be joyous sometimes but also Joyous sometimes to be broken hearted and not joyous at all. Just don't wallow and wail in your discontent, nor hunger and chase after contentment ... but be equanimious to all. (Yes, if very tangled in thoughts or emotions, return to the breath, posture or open awareness, but do not look for any other payoff or effect).

Let all things be as they are without need and "thirst" to change, and thus is the greatest Contentment and end of thirst. Do not thirst to end thirst nor pursue thirst.

Frankly, when are you not in "present reality" except those times that you are searching for "present reality," like the man standing right in Times Square looking for "New York City." When you are thinking of the "past" you are actually smack dab in this present moment of "thinking about the past." If you think that your Zazen is "unproductive" that is your human judgment of "unproductive" and your human measure. A mountain does not think itself "productive" or "unproductive," but just sits as a mountain. :

Shikantaza Zazen is not meditation to be "content" "joyous" "end thirst" or find "present reality" while being "productive" ... and thus is the ultimate joyous contentment embodying present reality of just to sit with a thirst for sitting itself as the mountain sitting productively as a mountain in this present reality as it is. Believe it or nor, Zazen is the radical sitting which drops all "good vs. bad," and is thus "good" just by the very act of sitting itself. Zazen is always good, even when it is cloudy or sunny. The mountain still sits as a mountain whether the weather is cloudy or sunny, through clear skies or the greatest storm.

Very counter-intuitive!

Another fellow added to that thread ...

Dogen teaches that Buddhas don't necessarily know they're Buddhas. So don't make the mistake of judging your sitting sessions. Then your practice will be undefiled.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Horin]

Thank you roshi, for that teaching.
I remember the times i was longing for certain states of mind during zazen and was judging them as good/bad also..not being aware that this discrimination is samsara/delusion.
By and by i realized that its not about the content at all, that zazen embraces everything, all states - all apprearances are (bodhi) mind itself..no need to cling to this or getting rid of that. We just sit with what is..
i love dogen in zazenshin:
"[…] Having been authentically transmitted like this, “thinking the concrete state of not thinking” is present already. In recent years, however, stupid unreliable people have said, “In the effort of zazen, to attain peace of mind is everything. Just this is the state of tranquility.” This opinion is beneath even scholars of the Small Vehicle."

Gassho, Ben


st/lah

[Tairin]

Timely discussion. I understand the teaching but still on a day like today where i am pretty sure I was lost in thought for the entire sit it is hard to not judge what one is doing.

Today’s clouds were a little thicker but I trust that the clear blue sky was still up there too.


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Horin]

Hello Tairin,
the mirror analogy helped me a lot. The mirror is not affected by the reflections. It just reflects whatever arises... beautiful and ugly images, thoughts, sensations, sometimes its entirely empty. No matter what perceptions arise..just return again and again and sit as the mirror (dont make it a concept, otherwise its still a reflection u may cling to)
Gassho,
Ben

Stlah

[Jundo]

Hishiryo, lovely descriptions (seems you earn your "Hishiryo" name)

Tairin ... we don't judge being lost in thought, yet we do not wish to be lost in thought (Zen folks always play both sides of the no-sided street at once). So, drowning in thoughts or clear, both good, yet release the thoughts, return to the breath or posture or open awareness, and untangle from thoughts.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Koki]

Hmmmm...I think all the universe seeks balance..seeks homeostasis.
Fire/water. Good/bad. Up/down. Sick/healthy. Light/dark.
Like yin &a yang...black/white, yet there is always a little good, in the bad, and a little bad, in the good...yet always turning, always in balance.
The tide rolls in, the tide rolls out.

Today, I might feel that my sitting is good, but later I might think, it was not so good....but yet..I sit.

I think that through consistency in our practice, those times of light come more often, or closer together. It's during those times, I just put it down.

Don't overthink. Don't reach out. Don't desire.
Just be. Smile and know that the answer is already there.

Gassho
Koki
Satoday


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[Shoki]

Thank you Jundo. We always hear we should just sit. Sometimes I get into rating each breath. That was good. That one wasn't. Sometimes I fall into techniques and methods. Even when I drop mind and body I still feel like I am a guy sitting here doing this. But when I let all that go and just sit.....

Gassho
Sat Today/LAH
James

[Shujin]

Living near at the foothills of the Appalachians, I will always have a soft spot for mountain analogies. Sometimes I feel that our practice has aspects of a tree: silent, non-grasping, and providing shelter for other beings.

Gassho,
Shujin

Sat today/LAH

[Hensho]

I find it very interesting that we cannot keep ourselves from parsing this even though we don't wish to parse.

Last year, my boss asked me to make up some slides for a presentation. He said, "write it this way." I decided that he could not possibly mean that, so I added to what he wrote. When I showed him my work, he said, "that's very good, but write it this way." "Really?" I asked. He said, "yes." I went back to my desk to do exactly that, but when I started working, I decided that it could not possibly be as easy as he said, so I changed it again. When I brought it back to him, I could see he was frustrated, but again he said, "please, just write it this way." Can you believe that yet a third time I didn't do it? I kept thinking that what he wanted was so simple that it couldn't possibly be that simple. Well, on the third review, my boss exploded. Everything I needed, my boss had given me from the very beginning. It was indeed that simple and had always been that simple. It was me who got in the way.

It was this event that sparked me to join Treeleaf, btw.

Gassho,

Kate
Sitting in 40 minutes / Lah

[Nengei]

Thank you Jundoshi, et al., for these teachings.
Just sit as the mountain.
Just sit as the mirror.
Be homeostatic.
Just be, you are enough.

Gassho,
然芸 Nengei
Sat today. LAH.
You deserve to be happy.
You deserve to be loved.

[Shinshi]

To me this is kind of Zen in a nutshell. We sit, and what we get is perfect just as it is. But it isn't what we think we should be getting. We think we should be getting "contentment" or "insight" or "a better person" or "enlightenment", and so we decide there is something wrong with our meditation. It isn't the meditation that is broken, it is what we think we should be getting that is broken! Our meditation is just exactly perfect. We get just exactly what we need. it is our delusion about what it "should" be that causes the problem.

Or, at least that is how I see it today.

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

[Jundo]

To me this is kind of Zen in a nutshell. We sit, and what we get is perfect just as it is. But it isn't what we think we should be getting. We think we should be getting "contentment" or "insight" or "a better person" or "enlightenment", and so we decide there is something wrong with our meditation. It isn't the meditation that is broken, it is what we think we should be getting that is broken! Our meditation is just exactly perfect. We get just exactly what we need. it is our delusion about what it "should" be that causes the problem.

Or, at least that is how I see it today.

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH

Weird, huh?

And then, when we drop the friction and demands that it be "perfect," what "we demand," what we think we "should be getting," the expectation that there be "contentment" and "insight" and "better" and "enlightenment ... ... ...

... the very dropping of the friction and demands shows this moment as open, "perfect" in its imperfection, a shining jewel of life. One is content, there is insight. More at ease, and no longer as tangled in our thoughts of excess desire, anger, jealousy, competition and dissatisfaction and all the other symptoms of divided thinking in ignorance, we become better people too.

Kinda ass backwards perhaps, but there it is. Sometimes one has been standing in Times Square all along, looking for New York City.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Junkyo]

Weird, huh?

And then, when we drop the friction and demands that it be "perfect," what "we demand," what we think we "should be getting," the expectation that there be "contentment" and "insight" and "better" and "enlightenment ... ... ...

... the very dropping of the friction and demands shows this moment as open, "perfect" in its imperfection, a shining jewel of life. One is content, there is insight. More at ease, and no longer as tangled in our thoughts of excess desire, anger, jealousy, competition and dissatisfaction and all the other symptoms of divided thinking in ignorance, we become better people too.

Kinda ass backwards perhaps, but there it is. Sometimes one has been standing in Times Square all along, looking for New York City.

Gassho, J

STLah

Thank you for the teaching Jundo, and everyone else!

It reminds me of something my Dad always said to me when I was a little kid (he still repeats it now when I need to hear it), he says "you can't see the forest for the trees".

Gassho,

Junkyo
SAT



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[Shinshi]

Weird, huh?

And then, when we drop the friction and demands that it be "perfect," what "we demand," what we think we "should be getting," the expectation that there be "contentment" and "insight" and "better" and "enlightenment ... ... ...

... the very dropping of the friction and demands shows this moment as open, "perfect" in its imperfection, a shining jewel of life. One is content, there is insight. More at ease, and no longer as tangled in our thoughts of excess desire, anger, jealousy, competition and dissatisfaction and all the other symptoms of divided thinking in ignorance, we become better people too.

Kinda ass backwards perhaps, but there it is. Sometimes one has been standing in Times Square all along, looking for New York City.

Gassho, J

STLah

The right kind of weird.

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH