Zen and Affirmations

[Suuko]

Of course, the success rate of Zazen is 0.00, which is simply because we are not looking for anything like success. I guess that makes it 100% too, and 10,000%.

That's our "Secret." [emoji14]

Gassho, J

STLah

Hi Jundo,

There's such a firm belief in the practice without practitioners wanting anything. I was studying the following text yesterday: By virtue of zazen, many have transcended the common and the sacred. Some died while sitting, while others died standing, relying fully on the power of Zazen.

Gassho,
Guish.

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[Ekai]

I don't believe in the Law of Attraction either and feel its way to make money off others. A lot of those teachers you find charge lots for their workshops, retreats, etc. I do think it's beneficial to have a positive mindset but not in a pollyanna way. On some days, you just have no good bad day and all you see is negativity. It happens. It also good to have goals but using SMART goals. Those are realistic and require action to achieve them versus wishful woo-woo wishful thinking.

"Affirmations" like the Gatha, Verse of Atonement, the Four Vows, Metta, Precepts, Heart Sutra, and Nurturing Seeds are more grounded. Repeating them helps to understand the meaning and helps to change.

Gassho,
Ekai

SAT

[Kaishin]

I don't believe in the Law of Attraction either and feel its way to make money off others. A lot of those teachers you find charge lots for their workshops, retreats, etc. I do think it's beneficial to have a positive mindset but not in a pollyanna way. On some days, you just have no good bad day and all you see is negativity. It happens. It also good to have goals but using SMART goals. Those are realistic and require action to achieve them versus wishful woo-woo wishful thinking.

"Affirmations" like the Gatha, Verse of Atonement, the Four Vows, Metta, Precepts, Heart Sutra, and Nurturing Seeds are more grounded. Repeating them helps to understand the meaning and helps to change.

Gassho,
Ekai

SAT

Well said, Ekai!

PS - By the way, here is the kind of "affirmation" based on the "law of attraction" that I am skeptical about ...

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/b...law-attraction

A moment of appreciation for the author of that article, who went so far as to become a certified Advanced Level LOA practitioner to enable him to more thoroughly debunk it! :O

-stlah

[Tobiishi]

Affirmations can be helpful in addiction recovery. At the same time, zazen informs my acceptance that affirming good intentions will not keep me sober. So, both sides of the coin. Pun intended.

KTstlah

[Ippo]

Yes, Zen and Buddhism are filled with many affirmations. I felt this very strongly this week, as we recited Metta during our Zazenkai.

Zazen, of course, remains the Affirmation of All Affirmations, the Affirmation of sitting itself which is an Affirmation of the whole world!

Gassho, J

STLah

Jundo, I think in this way we can begin to really understand the saying:

NICHI NICHI KORE KONICHI

Every Day Is A Good Day

In that sense, is there anything left to affirm??

Gassho,

Ippo

SatToday

[Tai Shi]

I feel good about Dharma Recovery as alternative to 12 steps, And I go online. There is more to recovery than repentance and the Buddhism approach is another way. This program is meditation study and speaking. I have been going. Jundo, please don’t remove good . I’m behaving at home now-impossible. lol
Gassho
sat/ lah


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[Gregor]

Of course I remember Stuart Smalley. . . The funniest thing about watching that clip after not seeing the character in many years is how true a lot of it was!

Gassho,

Gregor
ST

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[Wabo]

I think they are derived from different forms of yoga. We all know perfectly well about the connection between Indian Dhyana (observation), Chinese Chan, Vietnamese Thien, Japanese Zen.

But there was also the practice of dharana (concentration) as the previous stage of raja yoga. From it, the derivative word "dharani" means a long mantra. I think there is a huge range of tantric practices in there. Mantras, mudras, yantras, etc., on which the practitioner focuses attention. Also here I include the practice of Nembutsu, or Hari Krishna, as concentration on one, when the mantra is chanted thousand times.

I think the affirmation is also a kind of practice of mental concentration, originating from similar yoga technics. Therefore, if you ask what the Zen take is on the use of affirmations, then I think it does not apply to them. It is just another kind of yogic practice that has evolved along a different way. And the attitude to affirmations is the same as to mantras or something similar.

Gassho
Yan
ST

[Shoki]

A lot of this reminds me of Sokka Gakkai Nichiren which I had heard of but didn't know much about so I watched a few videos and read a couple of articles. A lot of millionaire Hollywood celebrities saying if you just chant, you will be able to get things that you want. Really? Is this even Buddhism or a Buddhist version of the highly questionable Christian "Prosperity Theology?" No thank you.

Gasssho
STlah
Shoki

[Meian]

A lot of this reminds me of Sokka Gakkai Nichiren which I had heard of but didn't know much about so I watched a few videos and read a couple of articles. A lot of millionaire Hollywood celebrities saying if you just chant, you will be able to get things that you want. Really? Is this even Buddhism or a Buddhist version of the highly questionable Christian "Prosperity Theology?" No thank you.

Gasssho
STlah
Shoki

I've spoken with a few Nichiren Buddhists over the years and, ironically it was a Nichiren Buddhist who first introduced me to Buddhism in my World Religions class (at my Roman Catholic college!) eons ago.

She demonstrated her chant to our class with her beads. She was a kind, calm, ordinary person, wearing regular clothing. I liked her. I could understand her chanting clearly, and I wrote it down. After I got home, I tried the chant and practiced it often. It was calming and helped me to focus.

It didn't give me answers, but I liked the chant and I still use it sometimes because it helps me to focus and calm my mind in a certain way. But I don't stay there, I move on.

Nichiren led me to seek deeper answers, and ultimately I found Zen and Treeleaf.

Gassho2, meian stlh

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[Kaisui]

Of course I remember Stuart Smalley. . . The funniest thing about watching that clip after not seeing the character in many years is how true a lot of it was!

Oh my, that Stuart Smalley video was wonderful, thank you Jundo, I'll be looking up more of them. I agree with Gregor, it is very funny but there's also a lot of realness to it.

I read a book by the Dalai Lama, don't recall which one right now, where he said his morning chants were not prayers but reminders. That's kind of like affirmations, I think, to maintain our connection with the dharma.

Gassho,
Charity
stlh

[Shoki]

I've spoken with a few Nichiren Buddhists over the years and, ironically it was a Nichiren Buddhist who first introduced me to Buddhism in my World Religions class (at my Roman Catholic college!) eons ago.

She demonstrated her chant to our class with her beads. She was a kind, calm, ordinary person, wearing regular clothing. I liked her. I could understand her chanting clearly, and I wrote it down. After I got home, I tried the chant and practiced it often. It was calming and helped me to focus.

It didn't give me answers, but I liked the chant and I still use it sometimes because it helps me to focus and calm my mind in a certain way. But I don't stay there, I move on.

Nichiren led me to seek deeper answers, and ultimately I found Zen and Treeleaf.

Gassho2, meian stlh

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Meian,
I'm sorry if I came off as sounding judgmental and critical. I was reading specifically about SGI but still, I'm in no position to judge.

I had a similar path as I sat with a previous sangha that had a lot about it that was really helpful and a lot that was really not good so it was ultimately not for me. But whatever it was, it got me here to Treeleaf.

Gassho
STlah
Shoki

[Meian]

Meian,
I'm sorry if I came off as sounding judgmental and critical. I was reading specifically about SGI but still, I'm in no position to judge.

I had a similar path as I sat with a previous sangha that had a lot about it that was really helpful and a lot that was really not good so it was ultimately not for me. But whatever it was, it got me here to Treeleaf.

Gassho
STlah
Shoki

Not at all, your post led me back to a beautiful memory. Be at ease. [emoji120][emoji271]

Gassho2, meian stlh

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[Jundo]

A lot of this reminds me of Sokka Gakkai Nichiren which I had heard of but didn't know much about so I watched a few videos and read a couple of articles. A lot of millionaire Hollywood celebrities saying if you just chant, you will be able to get things that you want. Really? Is this even Buddhism or a Buddhist version of the highly questionable Christian "Prosperity Theology?" No thank you.

Just a footnote to drop in ...

Not all Nichiren Buddhists are Sokka Gakkai (SGI), which is a new religion which sprung out of Nichiren Buddhism in the 1930s, then later cut ties with (or, more precisely, had ties cut by) the mainstream Nichiren Sect. I would agree that SGI shares much in common with many evangelical churches in America, with an emphasis on proselytizing, faith, "pie in the sky when we die" and "prosperity gospel" whereby their chanting is supposed to have this worldly benefits of health, success and more money in the bank. There is also something of a pyramid structure like multi-level marketing, which means the people at the top get great benefit. They are powerful in Japan, including politically with their own major political party, and most of their millions of members were gathered when people left the countryside to move into the cities during the 20th century, but thus left the social structure and temples of their small villages and needed something to fill their isolation and lack of ties in the big cities. They are not alone, and there are literally hundreds of such "new religions" in Japan based on Nichiren teachings in some way (or Shinto, or some combination thereof), but Sokka Gakkai is one of the largest.

That said, not all Nichiren Buddhists are Sokka Gakkai, and my wife's family are mainstream Nichiren Buddhists. Nichiren was quite an interesting fellow from around Dogen's time in the 13th century who might be compared to Joseph Smith (the founder of the Mormon Church) or maybe Martin Luther. He declared his own revelations in which faith in the Lotus Sutra, and simply reciting one's faith in the title of the book (Namu Myōhō Renge Kyo: Devotion to the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra, a chant called the "Daimoku"), was enough to bring salvation and rewards in this life and the next. It is not even so necessary to read the book itself, just have faith in it and chant the Daimoku. In fact, Nichiren taught that that is the ONLY way to salvation in these fallen times! It also started as very evangelical back in the day, but soon evolved into a sect of Buddhism virtually indistinguishable from any other in Japan (also comparable to the modern Mormons in that way). In fact, as I often say, the average parishioner of any Nichiren or Soto Zen temple in Japan would probably be hard pressed to tell you the doctrinal differences, or much about the deeper doctrines at all.

But in any event, all these groups and churches, whether Sokka or Mormon, Soto Zen or Nichiren, are filled with many nice people.

Gassho, Jundo

STLah

Sorry to run long

[Meian]

Just a footnote to drop in ...

Not all Nichiren Buddhists are Sokka Gakkai (SGI), which is a new religion which sprung out of Nichiren Buddhism in the 1930s, then later cut ties with (or, more precisely, had ties cut by) the mainstream Nichiren Sect. I would agree that SGI shares much in common with many evangelical churches in America, with an emphasis on proselytizing, faith, "pie in the sky when we die" and "prosperity gospel" whereby their chanting is supposed to have this worldly benefits of health, success and more money in the bank. There is also something of a pyramid structure like multi-level marketing, which means the people at the top get great benefit. They are powerful in Japan, including politically with their own major political party, and most of their millions of members were gathered when people left the countryside to move into the cities during the 20th century, but thus left the social structure and temples of their small villages and needed something to fill their isolation and lack of ties in the big cities. They are not alone, and there are literally hundreds of such "new religions" in Japan based on Nichiren teachings in some way (or Shinto, or some combination thereof), but Sokka Gakkai is one of the largest.

That said, not all Nichiren Buddhists are Sokka Gakkai, and my wife's family are mainstream Nichiren Buddhists. Nichiren was quite an interesting fellow from around Dogen's time in the 13th century who might be compared to Joseph Smith (the founder of the Mormon Church) or maybe Martin Luther. He declared his own revelations in which faith in the Lotus Sutra, and simply reciting one's faith in the title of the book (Namu Myōhō Renge Kyo: Devotion to the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra, a chant called the "Daimoku"), was enough to bring salvation and rewards in this life and the next. It is not even so necessary to read the book itself, just have faith in it and chant the Daimoku. In fact, Nichiren taught that that is the ONLY way to salvation in these fallen times! It also started as very evangelical back in the day, but soon evolved into a sect of Buddhism virtually indistinguishable from any other in Japan (also comparable to the modern Mormons in that way). In fact, as I often say, the average parishioner of any Nichiren or Soto Zen temple in Japan would probably be hard pressed to tell you the doctrinal differences, or much about the deeper doctrines at all.

But in any event, all these groups and churches, whether Sokka or Mormon, Soto Zen or Nichiren, are filled with many nice people.

Gassho, Jundo

STLah

Sorry to run long

Thank you, Jundo! Over the years, it seems I met Nichiren from various sects, including SGI, traditional (very strict), and probably mainstream.

Appreciate very much your explanation. They are not right for me, but I understand them better now. [emoji4]

Gassho, meian stlh

[Sorry for running long earlier]

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