Zazen questions

[Jundo]

Re: Zazen questions

Hi Janne,

But, then again, should there be any contemplation involved, I mean, like looking deeply into matters that are there, that we might be facing in our lives perhaps? Acknowledging the tension, holding it, embrasing it? Or are we already doing that, in an sense, when letting everything just be in our field of our attention, not redjecting nor holding on to it? Are we already contemplating it all, the big questions, life, death, suffering, emptiness, wholeness, whatsoeverness..., just by sitting?

Do not think about or focus on particular matters and engage in contemplation of life problems during Zazen. In that way, some of those matters and problems may actually resolve themselves (or certainly come to be experienced in very different ways even if still there later).

Just let thoughts and emotions pass, go. Let relaxation be relaxation, tension be tension ... and you may discover something beyond either of those.

Yes, by "Just Sitting" we are very much dealing with the "big questions" of "life, death, suffering, emptiness, wholeness, whatsoeverness". Sometimes, the "way to deal" is not by a frontal attack!

For a beginner like me, it sometimes seems a little unhelpful to "notice" my thoughts while sitting. After all, I am already having the thought, so I must already be aware that I am having it. Stopping to notice it seems to add an extra step. Maybe this works better once you've practiced longer, but I find it more distracting than the thoughts themselves.

I am more comfortable with Jundo's example of thoughts being like clouds. We don't stop to notice each cloud in the sky; they are just there.

Yes, I would not use the word "notice" ... It is more just letting the clouds of thought and emotions go, letting them drift from mind. Try not to get tangled in trains of thought, stir up the thoughts (which means you may from time to time "notice" that you are daydreaming, lost in a train of thought or the like ... and then let that go). However, do not intentionally try to notice, seek out, label or the like. Just let go, "open the hand of thought" (as Uchiyama Roshi says) and let them naturally fall away.

I am currently reading Charlotte Joko Beck's book Everyday Zen and in it she recommends actually describing each thought in detail (not just, "I am having a thought" and letting it go, but "I am having a thought about how great my dinner was yesterday"). I think her point is that you will get to know yourself and your thoughts better this way. That may be true, but I gave it a try and it made for a very busy sitting.

This suggestion from Beck Roshi has come up as a subject from time to time. The best explanation I heard from someone in her lineage was that she has mixed a little Vipassana practice into here Shikantaza. It is not "standard Shikantaza", but something she came up with. NO LABELING PLEASE!

Actually, when off the cushion ... in daily activities ... labeling IS a good practice. It brings insight into the theatre going on in our heads (now, I am momentarily feeling angry ... now, I am feeling jealousy ... etc.) BUT NOT DURING SHIKANTAZA PLEASE! Trying to do something like that "defeats" the purposeless purpose of Shikantaza Zazen.

(The rest of that book is SUPERB, by the way, other than those one or two unusual points.)

I need to accept that I will likely have thoughts during zazen and that that's ok, but at least I am not engaging with them and worrying about what kind of thoughts they are

You got it, baby! Nothing "wrong" with the thoughts and emotions ... but let them go. Let the clouds of thought and emotion go, find the clear, open, spacious, boundless, illuminated blue sky behind them ... 10,000 times and 10,000 times again. No bad Zazen, whether blue clear skies or cloudy days.

Gassho, Jundo

[jgreerw]

Re: Zazen questions

Thank you, Jundo. That suggestion from Everyday Zen seemed like it did not quite fit with what I have learned about shikantaza so far. Good to have it cleared up.

Also, "open the hand of thought," that is a wonderful expression!

Gassho,

Jamie