Why do you practice?

[Stephanie]

I am very interested in people's responses to two questions:

1) What was it that first brought you to Zen practice?

And

2) What is it that keeps you practicing?

I want to hold off on answering these questions myself right away, as I don't want to "lead" the answers with the tone and content of my own response. And to further that, I think this thread would be more interesting and valuable if folks answered these questions for themselves before reading others' responses, to prevent "groupthink" from taking over.

My intention with this post is to explore what it is that unites us in our endeavor of the Way, and what may vary from person to person. This is related to my own self-exploration and discovery of an undying spark of faith and what it means to "trust yourself" in making your way down this road of life and death, and the question that arises in the space between the two.

[kosen]

Alexandre David Néel said: I did not become Buddhist, I became again buddhist. Personally, since the age of twelve years (I had read a book of Alexandra David Néel), I knew that I shall be Buddhist, or that I was Buddhist. When I was 26 years old, I saw in Paris a poster announcing an initiation in zazen, I went there. Now I cannot ask any more the question: why do you practise? I cannot live differently, if I have not a practice, something misses me, it is as the water and the food.
Kosen

[Dosho]

1) What was it that first brought you to Zen practice?

Trying to be calm.

2) What is it that keeps you practicing?

Figuring out how to stop trying to be calm.

Gassho,
Dosho

[Taigu]

I was maybe 8 or 9 , got a glimpse of a Buddha sitting in a book, felt this was right for me.
When 13, sat for the first time under the guidance of a Zen monk, the father of a friend. Felt home instantly ( and knees and back in pain)and all search had ceased. Some 40 years later, feels the same.

Gassho


Taigu

[Jundo]

Especially for folks new around here ...

I think it important to know who is tending the sails and ropes to keep this ship afloat, so if you wish further biographical information on the priests and trainee-priests of this place ... including how we came to Zazen ... we have a thread with some information ...

http://www.treeleaf.org/forums/showthread.php?4921-Treeleaf-s-Teachers-and-Novice-Priests

Gassho, J

[pinoybuddhist]

For most of my twenties I was a "spiritual seeker" of sorts. I wanted to find something - what it was I didn't know. Brahma Kumaris, paganism, Tarot, New Age, getting stoned while listening to Miles Davis and the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - whatever was available. I'd heard and read about Zen, but it was just another "thing" like the above-mentioned things I listed. Then I read Ezra Bayda's Being Zen and Joko Beck's Everyday Zen. And it dawned on me that what I was trying to do was to escape. And what they were talking about in their books was precisely the opposite of that. Not escaping, not trying to run away, or meditate it away, or smoke it away, or drink it away, or whatever. No escape.

As for what keeps me going, hmmm... I don't know... life? I'm not saying everything's all rosy and great now that I'm practicing. It's just that, of the many ways I could be living my life, living this practice seems to make the most sense to me.



Rafael

[threethirty]

Kung-Fu brought me to Buddhism, Brad Warner's books brought me to Zen

Realizing there is no me to be brought keeps me here.

gassho,

Justin

[Nengyo]

What was it that first brought you to Zen practice?

A Sam Harris article followed by a book on zen

What is it that keeps you practicing?

Once you get a taste, everything you do is practice. How can you not practice? If you walk away away from the path, you walk towards the path... or is it, if you walk towards the path, you walk away from it. Either way I'm walking somewhere.

[Kyonin]

What was it that first brought you to Zen practice?

Being a Buddhist already, I started reading books, blogs and articles about minimalism and Zen. When I found Treeleaf, I decided to stay.

What is it that keeps you practicing?

I feel home in Zen.

[Stephanie]

Thank you all for your responses to this thread. It is rich and heartening to see the human tapestry of what brings people to Dharma. I could go into one of my godforsaken (buddhaforsaken?) walls of text on this topic, but I can just say simply, that I have long been possessed of a ruthlessly curious and questioning nature, found a home for my wandering mind in the inquiry encouraged on this path, and have not been able to fully give it up ever since, even in times of spiritual desolation, as I can still sense there is delusion to be gotten through.

[Risho]

I am very interested in people's responses to two questions:

1) What was it that first brought you to Zen practice?

And

2) What is it that keeps you practicing?

I want to hold off on answering these questions myself right away, as I don't want to "lead" the answers with the tone and content of my own response. And to further that, I think this thread would be more interesting and valuable if folks answered these questions for themselves before reading others' responses, to prevent "groupthink" from taking over.

My intention with this post is to explore what it is that unites us in our endeavor of the Way, and what may vary from person to person. This is related to my own self-exploration and discovery of an undying spark of faith and what it means to "trust yourself" in making your way down this road of life and death, and the question that arises in the space between the two.

It's funny that you wrote "groupthink"; I haven't thought of as good a word for it, but I'm stealing it I try to post without reading others posts with the koan study. It's so easy to take thoughts without first answering for myself.

In any case.

1. What first brought me zen way back in the early 90's was martial arts.. but that was zen philosophy. What actually really brought me to finally sit down was Daido Roshi. I read a book of his Mountain Record of Zen Talks. I love that book. I read that thing so many times. It led me to another book, finding the still point, which actually explained the practice. I was avoiding sitting, but I finally did it; that was about 3 years ago. Then I found this zendo, actually from one of your posts on Brad's old blog. And I really took to Shikantaza and the teachings here.

2. My vows. sometimes I wonder why I practice and have no answers. Sometimes I'm high on life and it's great to practice, so easy. I honestly practice for equanimity in hard and good times. And I practice for others too. A lot of times I forget this practice is for others, so I recite the 4 Bodhisattva views to remind myself that it isn't about me.

Gassho,

Risho

[Myoshin]

1. I always wanted a system to guide my life, I began at 14 with te intellectual libertinage from dangerous liaisons to understand how people work, then at 17 with youg anf freud, at the university with the emperalist Lock and so on, and after reading a biography of Dalida who went out with arnaud desjardin:I read in french "les chemins de la sagesse", he knew deshimaru, I went to deshimaru lineage in brussels an finally here :-).
Moreover I tokk it seriously when someone broke up with me, in the train I was wandering "Whey do I suffer? Is it useful?" who are the questions in buddhism.

2.Because of faith in my practice thanks to Jinyu who told me that Treeleaf exists, and Taigu's teachings, because the rigidity of AZI had made like a disgust. Now I feel good here, and with more respect and less hypocrisy in this Sangha. Thank you Jundo for this opportunity.

Gassho to all

Yang Hsin

[Myoshin]

Ps Sorry a lot of typo mistake in english in number 1. I didn't reread before posting

[Mp]

1) What was it that first brought you to Zen practice?

I got divorced at a very young age and life was spinning in too many directions ... it was my Aikido sensei who introduced me to Zen and zazen.


2) What is it that keeps you practicing?

It grounds me ... I once said to Jundo, "when I sit on the zafu, I know that is where I am supposed to be".

Gassho
Michael

[Saijun]

1) What was it that first brought you to Zen practice?
2) What is it that keeps you practicing?.

Hello Stephanie, everyone,

1.) Theravada Buddhism. Specifically, after practicing in the Kammathana tradition for a few years, I felt a strong, strong, strong pull to the Bodhisattva path. I'm a simple practitioner, not cut out for Varjayana or Tendai or Kegon. So I sit Shikantaza. I sew. I eat, sleep, read, play. The true esoteric practice of Zen is everyday life; enough for a simpleton like me to practice for lifetimes.

2.) Gratitude. This practice has helped me through some dark periods in my life, yes. Equally (or more) important though is that it has helped me through the not-so-dark times, and the downright bright times too. As Shikantaza soaks down into the bones, it becomes easier to be a participant-witness, letting events land on the palm of your hand now, fly away then, soak you and dry you off. All that there is is an expression of gratitude for it. The only way to show this gratitude is to practice wholeheartedly and consistently, to keep the practice alive and new every day.

Metta and Gassho,

Saijun