Priests and Priests: Walking the Buddhist and Christian Path

[Tai Shi]

I am a Zen Buddhist by choice, and I came to Treeleaf Zendo thinking I knew about meditation, not knowing. For about four years before coming to Treeleaf, I sat counting my breath scanning my body and sitting quietly with my breath to alleviate my arthritic pain. Now I just sit. And sometimes I return to these meditations. I observe the things I have learned in reading through the small amount I have done, and by observing and doing. For me I sit, and I am learning to sit often. I am learning not to announce on Facebook that I am a Zen Buddhist, but I've had to make that mistake a lot before that began to happen.

I've had to make many mistakes in my Shikantaza before even getting started, and I feel like I'm just getting started. I want longer sitting to be in my future. Like many I left fundamentalist Christianity at the age of puberty, and I toyed with main-stream Christianity until I found Unitarian Universalism and I'm still a part of this, and I sit with the help of folks at Treeleaf. AND Jundo says there is no bad sitting, and length of sitting time does not matter. I'm not a real Christian.

I know who Thomas Merton is, and I've read St. John of the Cross. I've memorized parts of poetry, but really, Shikantaza is my first formal introduction to actual meditation. I guess all this is unimportant. I sit Shikantaza, and I will continue to sit alone or with others. I'm not sure where my sitting will take me, and some people, Jr. Priests, and practitioners with much more sitting time, tell me that I have a lot to learn, that sitting in and of itself will lead me to more.

I'm a Christian, but only in that I look at some of the practices of Jesus as truth. I am at this time in my life a Soto Zen Buddhist, and Jundo and the other priests of Treeleaf are offering much. I'm told that I have much to learn. I'm 65.

Tai Shi
sat today
Gassho

[Kyousui]

Hi Tom,

Is there a link?

No link, Saw it in the reading rack at Cedar Rapids (IA) Zen Center Did look for it though.

[Amelia]

Tai Shi, I have read before that sitting for longer than twenty-five minutes at a time is not necessarily beneficial, but sometimes harmful. Don't push yourself too much! Tackle longer sittings with intervals.

Gassho, sat today

[Diarmuid1]

What a lot of labels in this thread!

Doogie asks how one can be a Catholic priest and a zen priest.

I ask how I can be fat and on a diet.

It seems in both cases the answer is, "Like this."

Isn't the rest just the mind doing its gymnastics? "Gotta keep busy."