Time falling away and Dissociation

[Tokan]

Hi Tomas

I work in the field of mental health and I often find that people with dissociative experiences tend not to be philosophical about what is happening to them, quite the contrary, they often seem unable to describe much at all because of the dissociation. In my Buddhist practice I have had times of feeling dissociated from the tight grip on my sense of self which, after many years of 'dedicated' practice to being an ego, felt naturally weird, dissociated and unreal. However, the consequence was one of realising the vast interconnected nature of things, of seeing the interdependence. The people I see with mental illness derived dissociation seem unable to have this experience either, so appear rather tragically disconnected from life. I am not an expert on matters of mental health or insight experiences, this is simply my own take on it. Thanks for sharing this though, some people are afraid to share their deeper experiences but they can be so rich for many others to learn about.

Gassho, Tokan

(satlah)

[vanbui]

The Soto way is crazy. It is crazy to drop everything and do something so radical as the goal to just sit, achieving that goal, dropping everything, having a perfectly whole and untangled mind with no problems and nothing to gain for a while then getting up and taking that sanity into the world.

The “normal” way to look at things is to tangle up the mind with problems, viewing everything as a problem to be solved which then in turn creates more problems (running on the treadmill of problem solving like a mouse in a cage) until they are torn by feelings, tortured by thoughts, and needlessly suffering, vacillating wildly between pleasure and pain, lacking and discontented because they are fighting reality with unrealistic desires and expectations and want everything under the sun, or everything to be different and can’t have it. The “normal” person is sometimes so worked up by personal problems and needless suffering that they cannot be effective or helpful in the world (believe me, I was “normal” for a long time and still tend to be too much of the time.) No thanks. I’d rather be crazy.

(Sorry for all the words)

Gassho,

Tom

Sat


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

An excellent description of the craziness of Soto Zen, Tom. I completely agree that I'm too "normal" and practising to become a bit crazy each day.

On a serious note, I think Jundo's rule of thumb answers your question succinctly, Tomas.

Gassho,
Van
SAT+LAH

[Tom A.]

I’m no expert, I just regurgitated Jundo’s teaching. I don’t practice or have faith nearly enough and I fail over and over again. But believe me when I say that Jundo’s take on Soto Shikantaza Zazen is sanity when you cannot find sanity and that it must be very close to when Dogen mentions the “true dragon.” Jundo’s a good guy, I can say because I gave him many chances to be mean to me. Take him for his word and practice the practice and you can go very deep into Soto zen.

Gassho,
Tom

Sat