Retuning to the ZZ' line: try vs just do

[Ankai]

I'm another one who, when I first began to sit, had to have silence. Everything had to be exactly right... It had to be quiet, the position of my cushion, the light of the candle, the type of incense...
Over the years I've become content to simply sit in the correct posture and let the world go on around me while I just breathe and be.

Sat today
Karl

[Jundo]

It is time to post the perennial reminder that the difference between sweet "sounds" and "noise" is largely (not only) in one's judgement between one's two ears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHNyCAJXUXE

I also remind folk of my recommendation to intentionally sit quite frequently in particularly noise, smell, sight disturbing places ... for the disturbance is likewise largely between the ears ...

Zazen for Beginners (21) — A Quiet Room.

Most days, we’d best sit Zazen in a quiet room, with little noise and few distractions. The reason is simply that a peaceful, still, quiet environment helps us allow the mind to become peaceful, still and quiet, with thoughts and emotions drifting away as the mind settles down.

But once in awhile, maybe every couple of weeks or so, I recommend that you sit Zazen in a truly disturbing place.

Today, I am sitting Zazen in one of the busiest, brightest, noisiest parts of downtown Tokyo — to make the point that the true quiet room is within us as much as out. In fact, if we always need a calm and tranquil environment in order to reach the balance, stillness, ease, and freedom of this practice, then I believe Zazen loses much of its power. It is right at the eye of the storm that one can know stillness, and in the middle of chaos that we can taste peace.

So, for that reason, I hope everyone will sit, from time to time, in a truly disturbing, disagreeable, ugly, noisy, smelly, busy, or distracting place. In a stinking garbage dump, next to a construction site with jackhammers pounding, at an Ozzy Osbourne concert, in a game room, while packed in a crowded city bus or parked in a parking lot off a busy highway.

We can drop all thoughts of beautiful or ugly, moving vs. still, noisy vs. silent, chaotic or peaceful .. and just sit as what remains
.
Following is our sitting today, in downtown Tokyo. Please join me sitting with some of the disturbance-non-disturbance in your own life.

https://youtu.be/uly65HxwMe0

https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?14875-Sit-a-Long-with-Jundo-Zazen-for-Beginners-%2821%29

Gassho, J

stlah

[Chikyou]

I also remind folk of my recommendation to intentionally sit quite frequently in particularly noise, smell, sight disturbing places ... for the disturbance is likewise largely between the ears ...

I have a German Shepherd mix, I don't need to go far to find auditory disturbance. Her barking is like getting smacked in the side of the head repeatedly. (And she loves to bark.)

I did have an amazing experience with this past week's Zazenkai; I had often heard it said that thoughts are scenery of the mind, but I hadn't really felt that before. But while I sat this time, I experienced exactly that. The thoughts were scenery, of equal weight as the birds chirping, the wind chimes, the traffic and everything else. It was easy to shift my attention between thoughts, the birds, my breathing etc. Even as the hours wore on and fatigue set in and thoughts became more numerous, I maintained the feeling that they're just scenery and shifting my attention away from them was easy. Even the innermost observational thoughts on the experience of Zazen began to fade into stillness.

My kinhin was also much more meditative; kinhin usually sets the monkey mind jumping but not this time.

Sorry for running long
Gassho
SatLah
Kelly

[Jundo]

I did have an amazing experience with this past week's Zazenkai; I had often heard it said that thoughts are scenery of the mind, but I hadn't really felt that before. But while I sat this time, I experienced exactly that. The thoughts were scenery, of equal weight as the birds chirping, the wind chimes, the traffic and everything else. It was easy to shift my attention between thoughts, the birds, my breathing etc. Even as the hours wore on and fatigue set in and thoughts became more numerous, I maintained the feeling that they're just scenery and shifting my attention away from them was easy. Even the innermost observational thoughts on the experience of Zazen began to fade into stillness.

My kinhin was also much more meditative; kinhin usually sets the monkey mind jumping but not this time.

Lovely. Just also welcome the cloudier, less clear, days when the dog starts barking and monkeys start jumping again ...

Gassho, J

stlah

[Chikyou]

Lovely. Just also welcome the cloudier, less clear, days when the dog starts barking and monkeys start jumping again ...

Gassho, J

stlah

Gassho,
SatLah
Kelly

[Shinshi]

I have a German Shepherd mix, I don't need to go far to find auditory disturbance. Her barking is like getting smacked in the side of the head repeatedly. (And she loves to bark.)

I did have an amazing experience with this past week's Zazenkai; I had often heard it said that thoughts are scenery of the mind, but I hadn't really felt that before. But while I sat this time, I experienced exactly that. The thoughts were scenery, of equal weight as the birds chirping, the wind chimes, the traffic and everything else. It was easy to shift my attention between thoughts, the birds, my breathing etc. Even as the hours wore on and fatigue set in and thoughts became more numerous, I maintained the feeling that they're just scenery and shifting my attention away from them was easy. Even the innermost observational thoughts on the experience of Zazen began to fade into stillness.

My kinhin was also much more meditative; kinhin usually sets the monkey mind jumping but not this time.

Sorry for running long
Gassho
SatLah
Kelly

Thanks for sharing that Kelly. It was lovely.

Gassho, Shinshi

SaT-LaH