Temptation

[will]

Re: Temptation

You play Oblivion?

LOL

My project:

http://www.createforum.com/middleearthr ... eearthrole

[Jundo]

Re: Temptation

Maybe you shouldn't consider that writing in a journal or doing a lot of traditional zen sitting are somehow more worthy than anything else. For me, getting that 'worthy vibe' from things really helps to divorce them from reality and puts them on another plane

I would phrase this a bit differently. Every gesture, breath, step, journal entry or point on the video game is SACRED, WORTHY, A MIRACLE, A PERFECT JUST THAT MOMENT. Yet, we often forget this, take it all for granted ... push away the parts of life we find not up to our personal snuff.

So, to help remind us, to the marrow, of this SACRED, WORTHY, A MIRACLE, A PERFECT JUST THAT MOMENT encompassing all of life ... (even the profane, mundane, ugly and downright unpleasant & painful) ... we sit 'traditional Zen sittings' each day, for each instant thereof is SACRED, WORTHY, A MIRACLE, A PERFECT JUST THAT MOMENT. In fact, if you run away from the 'traditional sitting', or do not know how to taste its SACRED, WORTHY, A MIRACLE, A PERFECT JUST THAT MOMENT in each moment of Zazen ... well, good chance you do not know how to do so in the rest of your life either!

That is one reason Zazen cannot be neglected. There is plenty of time for video games (mindful or not, just to have fun and not to deem it a 'Buddhist Practice' ... nothing wrong with just having fun just for fun's sake) ... SO LONG AS one sits 'traditional Zen sittings' each day.

However, between all the fun and games, every once and awhile realize that playing a video game is no less SACRED, WORTHY, A MIRACLE, A PERFECT JUST THAT MOMENT than the rest of life (which, by the way, is kind of a big video game itself ... sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, we do get better at it but it comes to an end nonetheless ... until the next game anyway ... and there is a reset button called 'Zazen').

Gassho, J

PS - Zazen sitting is SACRED, WORTHY, A MIRACLE, A PERFECT JUST THAT MOMENT ... even on those days when it does not feel so. That is how SACRED, WORTHY, A MIRACLE, A PERFECT JUST THAT MOMENT it is, that it need not even show off! 8)

[monkton]

Re: Temptation

Hi Stephanie,

I was just wondering, can you be very aware of the fact that you are playing Oblivion (I have no idea what that is... )? The Buddha taught that any action when performed with minfulness could be considered practice. I think there is a story of him instructing an old woman who was too busy to sit or study, to just draw the water from her well every day, and really be mindful of every move she was making, and this resulted in her enlightenment. Playing Oblivion might be a bit more complicated than drawing water - or sitting on a zafu or walking really slowly - and it's not such a poetic image, but why not? It's still what you are doing at the moment that you are playing it, presumably it's making you feel something as you are doing it ("OMG I really need to get to the next level"etc. if there are levels of Oblivion) so just be aware of that.

Maybe you shouldn't consider that writing in a journal or doing a lot of traditional zen sitting are somehow more worthy than anything else. For me, getting that 'worthy vibe' from things really helps to divorce them from reality and puts them on another plane - it's like listening to someone putting on their special 'poetry reading voice' when they are reading poetry, instead of just reading it... If your reality right now is mixing video games with work outs, then just get on with that. The 'sitting' part of practice is like the pilot's flight simulator, (according to Jundo), and I might put writing a journal or mindfully playing a game in the same bracket. All of them are useful, but none of them are the same as being out there flying.

There was a quote I remember on the trains round here a few years back, which I use whenever I feel myself beginning to feel a bit guilty about the 4th hour spent noodling on my guitar - "The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time". I hope that makes you feel better! Enjoy your practice, enjoy your life, enjoy your oblivion! (btw. I really enjoy your postings )

gassho,
Michael

[Rich]

Re: Temptation

There are certain habits of the mind that run so deep. For me, even if my life is perfect I have a tendency to worry about something. I vow to master Wii Hockey

Re: Temptation

I appreciate your response, Dday. I also appreciated your response to my post in the "Brad's Post" thread, and meant to respond to you directly but got distracted and never did. I identify with you; we seem to have many things in common.

I understand what you mean about "depression with a smile." I have depressive tendencies and they play out even when my mood is good. I didn't get depressed mood this winter but I did get the "depressed energy" and I think that is part of what I have been experiencing.

But it also is more than that... there seems to be some part of me that resists the discipline of practice and drifts away from awareness, even when my energy level isn't low. I don't really understand it, it truly does feel like a devil / Mara "leading me astray" sometimes. Like every time I start to open up in my practice, some demon drags me away from awareness and into idle entertainments. I wish I could break this cycle!!

[Hogo]

Re: Temptation

Hi Stephanie,
I can say nothing of this from a Buddhist standpoint, but as just another person with a similar slug like situation, I would suggest using health as a focus point (you may be perfectly healty now, but more activity is always good.)
My situation:
I too am coming out of my "Winter slump" which I have every year though this year has been especially brutal. I lost my job in Sept. and have been on a slide ever since, very inactive, and though I did not sit around every day thinking "Oh woe is me, life sucks" even with a smile on my face I think there was some deppression involved. It has been very hard for me to turn myself back on.
The consequences: last year I weighed a healty 155 (I am a short dude, only 5' 8") to 170 and I have a new friend in the form of a gut. I just had my yearly physical and now have high blood pressure! avereaging 145-150 over 95-110!! I'm only 34 oh and high cholesterol to top it off.......

anyhow my point that the weather here is now turned nice, and along with the health motivation it has been like somebody hit a switch on me this last week. I have been busting my ass around the outside of my house, doing yard work, going for daily bike rides, and walking the dog.
watching closely what I eat, and now I am sore as hell, exhasuted, and I feel GREAT!
Just gotta keep it up.... so far so good, but I am sure the Temptation for Slugginess will arise in me again, one of these years I hope to break the pattern, Hope you get some new motivation as well.
Best wishes ~ Dave.

Lately, I feel I've come to understand, in my own personal way, what is meant by the Christian notion of "temptation."

As a Buddhist, I find "temptation" lurks in that which pulls me away from practice, away from awareness, away from the path.

Personally, my "temptation" is less along the lines of "lust" and more along the lines of "sloth."

Over and over again, I find this pattern in my practice: as soon as I have a small realization and am ready to "go deeper" in my practice--finally learning what it is to sit without a goal; getting a hint of what emptiness is; understanding where freedom truly lies--I get pulled away from the path, distracted by idle entertainments.

Most recently, this has taken the form of video games. Other than work, my activities consist primarily of working out and playing Oblivion. Neither of which are "bad," but both of which have taken my energy and attention away from awareness. In the past three months or so, I have hardly read anything, have only written in my journal a few times, and have stopped sitting again except for the rarest occasions, after starting the year with a vow to sit daily again! I feel like I've completely lost touch with myself and that I am living in a very mindless, animalistic way, just drifting from one pleasurable activity or sensation to another.

And it's been a battle with myself to try to change this trend. With spring here, and the warm weather and greater amount of sunlight, my energy has returned but I still find myself drifting into my usual tired old sensual indulgences. I find that these behaviors go against the discipline and awareness required by practice. And so it is I am "tempted" away from the path by sensual pleasures, as in old Christian stories of the Devil tempting a person away from righteousness with visions of sensual pleasures and forgetfulness. The Buddha was similarly tempted by Mara while sitting under the Bodhi tree, but ultimately resisted that temptation.

It's interesting, because the Zen ideal of no-mind seems to make some people think that living a life of minimal self-awareness is a good thing, but I can say that all it does for me when I stop reflecting on my life, thinking about things and writing in my journal, is that I become the human equivalent of a slug. Yes, a slug is perfect in its slug-ness, but a slug cannot be aware of that perfection.

But at the same time, I don't know how to instill discipline now and have it stick as I no longer believe in cosmic rewards for "doing good." I want to wake up, but the sleepy part of me that just likes to "veg out" seems to be winning lately.

How then to overcome temptation without buying into a false story about holiness?