How little of the present do we know

[Ryumon]

Re: How little of the present do we know

I came across this book today:


http://www.amazon.com/Minding-Closely-F ... 1559393696

It seems to me that this sort of practice (you can look at the table of contents to get a good idea) is obsessive mindfulness. While this is very useful for relaxation - I've done MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction) exercises of this type - I don't see it as a really useful meditative technique, because of the expectation that this kind of mindfulness is the goal. Anyone have any other thoughts on this?

[Taylor]

Re: How little of the present do we know

Just a small addition/anecdote to my previous post:

The kitchen in the house I just moved into is (well, was) filthy. So, I decided today was cleaning day. So I popped in my headphones, grabbed a rag, and scrubbed the ever-loving s***t out of the floor (pardon the adjective, but really, it was intense).

So what's wrong with this picture?

Well, nothing actually. I realized that I used to push away listening to music while cleaning or working because I didn't think it was "Zen" enough. You don't see monk's with their iPod's running while scrubbing the monastery, do you? But that's not the point. The point, I feel, is that what I feel like listening to music, I'll listen to music! If I'm running away from the experience, i.e. trying to somehow make it "more complete" by adding background noise, well that may be a different story. I feel as though the intention we come with to an experience, whatever it may be, defines whether we are attaching to or avoiding a situation. I can clean just fine without music, but today I wanted to experience it. And experience it I did.

Nothing Holy, nothing to gain. Everything Holy, everything to gain. Or something along those lines.

Gassho,
Taylor

[Jundo]

Re: How little of the present do we know

Just a small addition/anecdote to my previous post:

The kitchen in the house I just moved into is (well, was) filthy. So, I decided today was cleaning day. So I popped in my headphones, grabbed a rag, and scrubbed the ever-loving s***t out of the floor (pardon the adjective, but really, it was intense).

So what's wrong with this picture?

Well, nothing actually. I realized that I used to push away listening to music while cleaning or working because I didn't think it was "Zen" enough.

Hi Taylor,

Yes. Please sometimes clean while listening to music.

Please also sometimes clean while not listening to music, and just being present with the cleaning.

Both fine ways to clean ... try each from time to time.

In all cases, however, clean to attain making the room clean, while simultaneously dropping all thought of "clean vs. dirty" and anything to attain.

Also, even though part of your heart may wish to be on a sunny beach instead of cleaning a dirty kitchen, simultaneously drop any thought of somewhere else to be or where you need/can be.

Gassho, J

[Hoyu]

Re: How little of the present do we know

Just a small addition/anecdote to my previous post:

The kitchen in the house I just moved into is (well, was) filthy. So, I decided today was cleaning day. So I popped in my headphones, grabbed a rag, and scrubbed the ever-loving s***t out of the floor (pardon the adjective, but really, it was intense).

So what's wrong with this picture?

Well, nothing actually. I realized that I used to push away listening to music while cleaning or working because I didn't think it was "Zen" enough.

Hi Taylor,

Yes. Please sometimes clean while listening to music.

Please also sometimes clean while not listening to music, and just being present with the cleaning.

Both fine ways to clean ... try each from time to time.

In all cases, however, clean to attain making the room clean, while simultaneously dropping all thought of "clean vs. dirty" and anything to attain.

Also, even though part of your heart may wish to be on a sunny beach instead of cleaning a dirty kitchen, simultaneously drop any thought of somewhere else to be or where you need/can be.

Gassho, J

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[Jundo]

Re: How little of the present do we know

Hi,

I picked up some of the themes of this thread for the 'present' sit-a-long ...

SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: HOW TO CLEAN THE KITCHEN
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4062&p=58358#p58358

Gassho, J

[Heisoku]

Re: How little of the present do we know

Just an anecdote to Taylor's post.
My wife sometimes works (as a theatre nurse) with a cardio specialist who performs heart surgery with the Chilli Peppers on full wacK..such that shew thinks it to check that the anaesthetist doesn't fall asleep! Pretty mindful of something!

[JohnsonCM]

Re: How little of the present do we know

So, basically, one cannot live one's whole life in zazen, even though all of life is zazen, and besides, what life and what zazen?

[Jundo]

Re: How little of the present do we know

So, basically, one cannot live one's whole life in zazen, even though all of life is zazen, and besides, what life and what zazen?

BINGO!

Someone else wrote me this week about wanting to feel "more Buddha more of the time" when sitting Zazen (and, I suppose, in all of life). Feeling no gaps, no frictions with life, whole and complete. I responded (adding some things here) ...

So, you want to "feel" Buddha? Well, for me, "Buddha" ... when he is doing his job ... is very much like breathing. Breathing just happens, balanced and naturally. Yes, sometimes we can draw our attention to breathing and think "Oh, I am breathing, I can feel the air moving in and out" (that is good to do sometimes, as it reminds us how precious life and breathing is even though we pay it no attention most times). Sometimes we become aware of breathing when something is wrong ... such as an aesthma attack or when visiting the high Himalayas (that also reminds us how precious life and breathing are, and how we rely on Buddhas and breathing to sustain us). But usually, the most "just breathing" breathing is just there, happening on its own.

In fact, panting in fear is breathing ... holding one's breath is breathing ... being out of breath with illness is breathing ... sobbing in great bursts at a funeral is breathing ... all breathing, all LIFE even though we prefer and like the kind of short, clear easy breaths on peaceful, healthy days.

What's more, from a Buddhist perspective ... True Breath does not come in or go out, sweeps from the farthest stars to the small atoms. Dogen quoted his teacher: "My late teacher Tendo said, “The inhaled breath reaches the tanden; however, it is not that this breath comes from somewhere. For that reason, it is neither short nor long. The exhaled breath leaves from the tanden; however, it is not possible to say where this breath goes. For that reason, it is neither long nor short”

viewtopic.php?p=35376#p35376

In Shikantaza practice, when the mind starts demanding "I need more, I need to feel like Buddha" ... well, then it may be looking in the wrong way for some "Buddha". Then "Buddha" becomes another drug if we demand to feel "All Buddha All The Time".

Maybe only Buddhas feel like Buddha all the time. I cannot promise you that (nor do I consider that a particularly healthy way to live ... like being conscious of breathing all the time). The most I can guaranty you is to feel Buddha sometimes ... when you want to, sometimes at surprising times (I can promise that). Other times, Buddha may be no where around (even when you look sometimes). But Buddha is always breathing nonetheless. Something like that.

In fact, in this crazy-brilliant Shikantaza way ... the less one looks for Buddha, the easier to find Buddha. The less one "tries to breath", the easier one breathes. We are like the man riding the donkey needing to look real hard for the donkey by riding here and there on the donkey in search of the donkey. Our Shikantaza way is just to ride, knowing that the donkey is there all along ... sometimes noticed, sometimes not. Like the breath.

Gassho, J

[Patrick]

Re: How little of the present do we know

So many folks try to be "in the present" so much they miss the present.

That sentence is a quote to remember. I put it as a signature quote in my emails :!: Thanks

[Taylor]

Re: How little of the present do we know

So, basically, one cannot live one's whole life in zazen, even though all of life is zazen, and besides, what life and what zazen?

I like to say:

Your life is zazen, but zazen is not your life. But same words really

Gassho,
Taylor

[Jundo]

Re: How little of the present do we know

Hi,

A very lovely little essay on this same theme ... finding Buddha in the kitchen ... is in Katagiri Roshi's book "Each Moment is the Universe" (essays on Dogen's Being-Time).

Now, before you run out to buy this book, please read my little "mini-review" here (where I describe the book generally as "a lovely, sacred mess"):

viewtopic.php?p=56127#p56127

However, the following essay is very clear and complete, I feel, teaching through carrots and cabbages. Please read the essay "Living In Real Time" from pages 117 to 123 here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=vJH8a0 ... &q&f=false

The missing pages 121 and 122 are here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=mBP3_U ... &q&f=false

Gassho, J