Zazen in the bath [Jundo: Or Reclining]

[Gustaf Källvik]

Gassho!

These days, i am a bit ill and in some pain, which makes it difficult and very uncomfortable to sit zazen as I usually do - on a seiza bench.
Today, tried meditating in the bath, lying flat on my back with the legs somewhat folded, and with just about enough water to make it comfortable, and without getting cold. I have quite a large bathtub. The only thing was that the neck had to be bent a bit. This really eased the pain and made it a lot easier to focus.
Thoughts on this?

Sorry for exceeding the three sentences recommendation.



~ I sat today ~

[Kokuu]

Hi Gustaf

Sometimes I think it is a case of whatever works but I am not sure I would recommend bath Zazen for a daily practice!

For those of us who struggle with pain, practicing laying down is fine, or sitting in a chair or on a cushion with supports.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[Gustaf Källvik]

I will try lying down Zazen next time.

Gassho
Gustaf
~ I sat today ~

[Jundo]

When the body needs, then whatever works is good Zazen when we just let it be.

By the way, a recent Tricycle has a good article by a Yoga teacher on the "Corpse Pose" (oh, what a name ... but these old Indians pull no punches ) as the hardest Yoga pose ...

... and it is just our "reclining Zazen"

It is behind a paywall, but I can give a little taste ...

... The teacher called this pose Savasana. He said it translated to “Corpse Pose.” A place where we die, we end, a place that promised rebirth and a new beginning. He also said it was the most important pose, or asana, in all of yoga. I was completely perplexed. I don’t remember much of what he said after that point because I couldn’t stop thinking about how it was possible to twist, turn, bend, and contort my body, to fight with my muscles and bones to make the “just right shape,” only to be told by my teacher that “lying on the ground and being still” is the most important thing you can do. ...

... I still would have been confused by the “non-doing” postures, as I’d come to associate yoga with movement and doing. Despite making the connection that it is, in fact, the one pose included in every class, it took years for me to become curious enough to return to my first teacher’s words about Savasana: “It’s the most important. . . . It’s challenging.” It was then that I actually became a student of this posture and journeyed into the heart of this way of ending. ...

... I lie down and breathe. Savasana. I knew I couldn’t physically practice, and I also knew I needed to be in a room with other people. I didn’t want to be alone. I didn’t move one muscle, yet the first moments in Savasana were a mental and emotional fight. I wanted to move. I wanted to do something. I needed to fix it. Fix me. Fix my body. Fix the part I perceived was so broken that I couldn’t even hold a pregnancy, a hope, a dream.

... And then it happened—my body stopped gripping. I cried. I surrendered to the earth beneath me. I allowed myself to feel the end, the end of that excitement, the end of that expectation ...

... Ultimately, I have come to understand Savasana as the practice of death, and every ending, big or small, is some kind of death. In Savasana, we practice the death of the ego, death of grasping, and death of all aversion to reality as it is. ...

Sure sounds very Shikantaza-ish to me!

tsuku.jpg

Gassho, J

stlah

[Tai Shi]

First with trouble up and down stairs after brain surgery, told never go up and down stairs again, walking up and down stairs to basement though my wife made me an office in our old bedroom. 4 wk.s ago I fell down 8 ft to bottom of stairs. More Drs. I use only the office now. I sit in the straight back chair she bought me for $70. I never forget my cane. I'm in violation of 3 sentence rule. Don't fall down stairs?
Gassho
lah/sat

[Gustaf Källvik]

That sounds tough and painful, Tai Shi! It might be good to have the rule about not falling down stairs before handing stairs, In think.

Take care!

Gassho!

/Gustaf

[Kokuu]

Just to mention that my friend Sarah Kokai Thwaites, wrote an article about alternatives to the conventional sitting posture during her period of practice with Long Covid:

https://www.stonewaterzen.org/2021/02/zazen-without-the-sitting-sarah-kokai-thwaites/

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday-

[Shonin Risa Bear]

For what it's worth, fish meditate in the bath.

The water is clear right down to the bottom,
fish lazily swim on.
The sky is vast without end, birds fly far into the distance.

--Hongzhi

gassho
ds sat(didn't sit) lah(no lah)

[Jundo]

For what it's worth, fish meditate in the bath.

--Hongzhi

gassho
ds sat(didn't sit) lah(no lah)