Complacency or dukka

[Rich]

Re: Complacency or dukka

Craig, if your point is we do what we need to do, then I agree. I've been working my way through How To Cook Your Life and chapter 8, Direction and Goal, basically says, as I interpret it, that planning and preparation for the future are as much a part of Zen as the whole being in the now moment. The Middle Way is neither living for now nor living for the future, but reconciling the two by preparing and working now for a future that may or may not come. This is how, I now realize, that Dogen and others were able to make temples. This, I am now finding, is the recipe for a non-complacent zen that I was struggling with in my first post.

It's funny how my planning and preparation was so fixed and rigid it couldn't help but bring more disappointment. Now while it's still a little obsessive my plans seem more open to change and a little complacency is not so bad either.

Craig, if your point is we do what we need to do, then I agree.

Yes, that is partially my point. But more important (to me anyway) is that the difference between work and play is just something we've made up in our mind (something Mark Twain commented on when he had Tom Sawyer say "work is what we are obliged to do, play is what we choose to do" - regardless of the actual activity). When I have to work a lot, my mind (used to, sometimes still does) bombard me with thoughts like "this isn't what I planned to do tonight", or "why do I have to work when everybody else has already gone home?" Blah, blah, blah. It's really all the same -working, reading, watching tv. Only (small) mind finds differences.

IMHO.

Craig

I have felt like that 'the difference between work and play is just something we've made up in our mind' but at any given time I still have likes and dislikes and hopefully they align with what I am obliged to do much of the time. Another balancing act :?:

[AlanLa]

Re: Complacency or dukka

Woke up early and came up with a theory. Here goes....
Consider a graph where on the X axis we have Great Meaning at the top and Little Meaning on the bottom. On the Y axis we have Little Enjoyment on the left and Great Enjoyment on the right (I tried to draw such a graph here but it wont' work, so you have to use your imagination a bit or draw your own). Now, think of the graph as being divided into four quadrants.

For me, an example of an activity in the upper right quadrant of Great Meaning & Great Enjoyment would be teaching. An example in the upper left quadrant of Great Meaning & Little Enjoyment would be writing research articles. An example in the lower right quadrant of Great Enjoyment & Little Meaning would be watching TV. And an example of Little Enjoyment & Little Meaning would be cleaning house. I am sure you can come up with your own examples for each quadrant.

For me, anything with significant levels of meaning AND enjoyment are things I am most likely to do, and conversely, things with low levels of enjoyment OR meaning I am least likely to do. In other words, as long as the activity has some meaning and I get some joy out of it, then I tend to do it; but as soon as the activity loses meaning or joy, then I become less likely to do it. And if the activity has neither meaning nor joy it probably does not get done much at all. My guess is this is the same for you.

So where do complacency and dukka come in? We need to add a third dimension to this two dimensional graph and label it Pressure -- be it time pressure or external pressure from others or internal pressure from your "self," or whatever. This gives us the following combinations:
* When Pressure, Meaning, and Enjoyment are all high, we almost certainly act.
* When Pressure and Meaning are high but Enjoyment is low, we become less likely to act and thus complacency can set in.
* When Pressure is high but Meaning and Enjoyment are low, that's complacency and dukka.
* When Pressure is low, then we act according to Meaning and Enjoyment levels as described above.

Yeah, I know. I need to go sit. But I am feeling some internal pressure from external sources to get some work done that is professionally meaningful and my brain is in such a place that I might actually enjoy doing it today, so I will sit later for sure. But for right now I think I need to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak, or else I'll suffer :mrgreen:

[AlanLa]

Re: Complacency or dukka

OK, after a day filled with a lot of work followed by a lot of zazenkai sitting, I have one thing to add to my theory. Dropping meaning and enjoyment and pressure equals samu, and that's the jewel in the lotus. So take those three dimensions down to the one point where all the axes (axis plural) join. That's zazen, that's samu. In the world of delusion, however, I think the above also gives some insight; but in the end, ultimately, it's about dropping resistance. I think it's fair to say that the theory in my first post and my additions in this post are not one, not two.