Re: commitment
Just read a section from Being Upright: Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts by Reb Anderson (Prep for Jukai, perhaps?
) that spoke about commitment. Rather long passage but it went something along the lines of this. When we set up a rigid schedule, something like what is done in monasteries, where we are responsible not only to ourselves but to our fellow sangha members and must go so far as to ask permission to miss a sitting, we learn something about ourselves. We see what gets in our way of practice; the doubts, the frustration, the greed we have for our "precious time". And then once it is out in the open, we can work with it.
Sometimes I feel it is even harder here at Treeleaf because no one will REALLY know if you miss a sitting, aren't wearing your robe, or not chanting. It may open the way for sneaking about, excusing this, excusing that, as to why we don't and won't sit. We must be our own disciplinarians, one of the hardest things to do! But if we can do it, if we can commit to a sitting time and truly and wholeheartedly observe it, we come out farther ahead because we need no encouragement from a group who will notice if we are not there. Zazen becomes our ever watchful disciplinarian.
When the alarm rings, awake without a second thought. When the bell rings, don the robe and sit. No matter if it is an hour early, on time, or an hour late. When the bell rings, sit.
Gassho
Taylor
Just read a section from Being Upright: Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts by Reb Anderson (Prep for Jukai, perhaps?
) that spoke about commitment. Rather long passage but it went something along the lines of this. When we set up a rigid schedule, something like what is done in monasteries, where we are responsible not only to ourselves but to our fellow sangha members and must go so far as to ask permission to miss a sitting, we learn something about ourselves. We see what gets in our way of practice; the doubts, the frustration, the greed we have for our "precious time". And then once it is out in the open, we can work with it.Sometimes I feel it is even harder here at Treeleaf because no one will REALLY know if you miss a sitting, aren't wearing your robe, or not chanting. It may open the way for sneaking about, excusing this, excusing that, as to why we don't and won't sit. We must be our own disciplinarians, one of the hardest things to do! But if we can do it, if we can commit to a sitting time and truly and wholeheartedly observe it, we come out farther ahead because we need no encouragement from a group who will notice if we are not there. Zazen becomes our ever watchful disciplinarian.
When the alarm rings, awake without a second thought. When the bell rings, don the robe and sit. No matter if it is an hour early, on time, or an hour late. When the bell rings, sit.
Gassho
Taylor
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