Re: You have working posture, what about stillness?
We had this discussion before, didn't we? :mrgreen:
Some are very disciplined about their sitting. I'm not. I refuse to be. Just an idea, for sure, but I have to trust my intuition in this. If I force myself to the cushion, that creates division and negative conditioning in my mind. If raiding the fridge was my heart's true desire, then going to the fridge instead of the cushion would make a lot of sense. But I normally go to the fridge A) because I'm really hungry, or B) I feel something is lacking and I'm trying to compensate that by eating. A) is fine and more important than Zazen B) is dukkha and delusion.
I don't believe one bit in "there is nothing to do" either. In an absolute sense, there is nothing to do and no one to do it, because nothing has permanent, unchanging existance, and emptiness may be skillful means helping us to find calm and acceptance, but we live in the world perceived by our senses. It is all we've got and it's wonderful. The trick is to not let the small self, the ego, full of greed, anger and delusion, run the show, turning life into an out-of-control living nightmare. The method/non-method is following the noble eight-fold path, the middle way, to see things as they are, thus, as such, in this moment. Realizing the interconnectedness and wholeness of everything, realizing dependant co-arising. When we do, there there is less judging, less expectations, less delusion. I believe that ideally, there should be no separation between sitting on the cushion and my ordinary life off the cushion. This is part of why I love the Shikantaza as taught here at Treeleaf. Teachers like Thich Nhat Hanh advocate mindfulness of breathing during all aspects of ordinary life. If I was a believer in that, I would probably be less hesitant to follow breath single mindedly in Zazen. But I prefer to be with everything as is, not just breath. Both on and off the cushion, my practice is suchness, things as they are in this moment. When I try too much, I separate myself from suchness. Jundo sometimes says that Zazen is the flight simulator and that life is true flying. In many ways, I have found this to be true.
In Zazen, there is nowhere for the ego to escape, it is there, exposed and in the open, and it doesn't like that. When we are truly aware of the moment as is, the ego has to go. I guess that is what you mean by running the I up the wall, but I could be wrong. But for me, the wording "run it up the wall", implies that it's something unwanted that we want to get rid of, that we are trying to chase away. In a sense, we do want to be rid of ego, to find true peace and harmony in our heart, to realize Buddha, but at the same time we have to completely and utterly accept our ego, greed, anger, delusion and wandering mind as is. So my aimless aim of this non-practice of just being is to embrace everything and not exclude anything, both on and off the cushion.
I'm not sure this makes sense at all.... :roll:
ops:
/Pontus
Originally posted by Kojip
Some are very disciplined about their sitting. I'm not. I refuse to be. Just an idea, for sure, but I have to trust my intuition in this. If I force myself to the cushion, that creates division and negative conditioning in my mind. If raiding the fridge was my heart's true desire, then going to the fridge instead of the cushion would make a lot of sense. But I normally go to the fridge A) because I'm really hungry, or B) I feel something is lacking and I'm trying to compensate that by eating. A) is fine and more important than Zazen B) is dukkha and delusion.
I don't believe one bit in "there is nothing to do" either. In an absolute sense, there is nothing to do and no one to do it, because nothing has permanent, unchanging existance, and emptiness may be skillful means helping us to find calm and acceptance, but we live in the world perceived by our senses. It is all we've got and it's wonderful. The trick is to not let the small self, the ego, full of greed, anger and delusion, run the show, turning life into an out-of-control living nightmare. The method/non-method is following the noble eight-fold path, the middle way, to see things as they are, thus, as such, in this moment. Realizing the interconnectedness and wholeness of everything, realizing dependant co-arising. When we do, there there is less judging, less expectations, less delusion. I believe that ideally, there should be no separation between sitting on the cushion and my ordinary life off the cushion. This is part of why I love the Shikantaza as taught here at Treeleaf. Teachers like Thich Nhat Hanh advocate mindfulness of breathing during all aspects of ordinary life. If I was a believer in that, I would probably be less hesitant to follow breath single mindedly in Zazen. But I prefer to be with everything as is, not just breath. Both on and off the cushion, my practice is suchness, things as they are in this moment. When I try too much, I separate myself from suchness. Jundo sometimes says that Zazen is the flight simulator and that life is true flying. In many ways, I have found this to be true.
In Zazen, there is nowhere for the ego to escape, it is there, exposed and in the open, and it doesn't like that. When we are truly aware of the moment as is, the ego has to go. I guess that is what you mean by running the I up the wall, but I could be wrong. But for me, the wording "run it up the wall", implies that it's something unwanted that we want to get rid of, that we are trying to chase away. In a sense, we do want to be rid of ego, to find true peace and harmony in our heart, to realize Buddha, but at the same time we have to completely and utterly accept our ego, greed, anger, delusion and wandering mind as is. So my aimless aim of this non-practice of just being is to embrace everything and not exclude anything, both on and off the cushion.
I'm not sure this makes sense at all.... :roll:
ops:/Pontus
. It has to be.
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